Agenda and minutes

Councillor AJ Matisko – personal reasons

Councillor Maria Watson – unwell

None.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 26 January 2023

The minutes of the meeting held on 26 January 2023 were confirmed as an accurate record and signed by the Chair.

Councillor Cheryl Barnard, Portfolio Holder for Children, Young People and Schools presented a verbal update on progress with the implementation of the Children’s Integrated Services Improvement Plan. She highlighted the following information:

a)  34 actions for improvements are complete;

b)  the social work capacity has increased through new internal recruitment and agency workers. A new triage system has been introduced to process the number of referrals made to the service;

c)  the Children’s Integrated Services consent training has been undertaken across the Council;

d)  bed capacity has increased to support homeless children and a new advocacy contract being agreed for April; 

e)  the Missing Children’s Team has created new posts, including a Missing Children’s Team Manager and two more Children’s Workers;

f)  the care service has recently appointed new senior advisors; 

g)  the Commissioning Team and D2N2 are working to increase the number of foster homes;

h)  the Council has received the letter following Ofsted’s first monitoring visit to check for factual inaccuracies. The findings are embargoed until the first week of April. Initial indications show that the visit’s findings are favourable;

In response to questions from the Committee and during subsequent discussion the following points were made.

i)  there were 10 posts created and recruited to with the Multi-Agency Safeguard Hub (MASH). Some of the posts are currently filled by agency workers to ensure sufficient resourcing within the Team. There are challenges in retaining social workers as there is a high turnover rate within the sector. The Council has links with universities in the area and use them to promote the Council’s social worker recruitment through graduate job fairs;

j)  care leavers have access to support when they transition into adults around the 21-25 age bracket;

k)  the Council also offers a social worker apprenticeship programme. Under this programme, an individual does their three year degree and is also employed by the Council to be trained as a social worker. These programmes have been taken up by the Children’s Integrated Services and Adult Social Care Services;

l)  a Committee member suggested that case studies from care leavers about how they have engaged with the service would be very beneficial in identifying opportunities for improving the service;

m)  the first monitoring visit following the Inspection took place between 28 February and 1 March 2023. The inspectors met with the Corporate Director for People (Children and Adults) and the Director for Children’s Integrated Services on 27 February and also spoke with social work practitioners. They also spoke to children and young people using the service, as well as their families;

n)  a 28 day embargo for Ofsted reports is standard practice. A letter containing the initial findings is sent to the organisation or service being inspected. That organisation or service then has 5 days to respond to any inaccuracies within the report/letter. Any agreed changes are then made by Ofsted and then the final report/ letter is sent and put under the 28 day embargo;

o)  the letter detailing outcomes from  ...  view the full minutes text for item 38.

Councillor Cheryl Barnard, Portfolio Holder for Children, Young People and Schools, John Matravers, Head of Service for Safeguarding and Quality Assurance, and Nicole Harris, Head of Service for Fieldwork Services presented the report on the actions taken by Nottingham City Council (NCC) and its partners in identifying, safeguarding and supporting children who have gone missing from home and are at risk of exploitation. They highlighted the following information:

a)  exploitation is a form of child abuse which involves coercion and deception to get children to do things that they do not want to do. Examples include sexual, criminal and financial exploitation. Children can be exploited to be involved in criminal activities such as modern slavery and county lines. Multiple types of exploitation can occur alongside one another or as part of other forms of abuse;

b)  one of the key tasks of Children’s Integrated Services Team is to train staff at the Council and partner organisations to identify and respond to child exploitation;

c)  the use of language is an effective tool in raising awareness of child exploitation, for example, the legal definition of ‘children’ is anyone under the age of 18, so even if a 15 or 16 year old consider themselves a young person, they are classed as ‘children’;

d)  the methods used by perpetrators to draw children into exploitation involve not just tangible things such as giving them money, alcohol or drugs, but appealing to a child’s emotions through giving them status, attention and love. They then use these to indebt the child and keep them under their control;

e)  perpetrator groups and individuals can be hard to track down as they tend to move around the country;

f)  children who are being exploited are more likely to be arrested and criminalised than the abusers;

g)  local protocols and national statutory guidance are used by Children’s Integrated Services when a child goes missing from home or care;

h)  officers examine the factors about what has kept them away from home and what has attracted them to leave home;

i)  the 2022 Ofsted inspection into the Council’s Children’s Integrated Services identified improvements needed to the timeliness and effectiveness of Return Home Interviews. The Missing Children’s Team has increased resources since January 2023 with the recruitment of a Team Manager in addition to the existing two Children’s Workers. Recruitment to two more Children’s Worker posts is underway to double the capacity of the team. These workers will be in place by April 2023;

j)  safety planning takes place for children after they have received their Return Home Interview;

k)  a multi-agency response is required when identifying and protecting children from exploitation. Partners include other Local Authority Children’s Services, education institutions, the police, community groups and the voluntary sector;

l)  once perpetrators have been identified, it is important to hold them to account;

m)  all referrals go through the MASH team. The staff within MASH gather information and evidence from the children, their families and partner agencies. The outcome  ...  view the full minutes text for item 39.