Agenda item

Report of the Head of Legal and Governance

Chris Cook, Independent Chair of the Nottingham City Safeguarding Children Board (NCSCB), John Matravers, Service Manager for Safeguarding Partnerships (NCC), and Alison Michalska, Corporate Director for Children and Adults, were in attendance to inform the Committee of the proposals for replacing the safeguarding children board arrangements.

The following points were highlighted and questions from members responded to;

(a)  following a national review it was found that some safeguarding boards were inadequate and so a structure is proposed for their replacement by June 2019. This will consist of safeguarding partners including the local authority, Clinical Commissioning Group for the local authority area and the Chief Police Officer for the area which falls within the local authority area, all of which will be tasked to ensure that there are appropriate safeguarding practices embedded and awareness of risks;

(b)  it is proposed that the new organisation will have the title of Nottingham City Safeguarding Children Partnership. A short presentation, attached to the initial publication of the minutes, provides further information on the structure of the partnership. It is noted that whilst Nottingham’s current safeguarding model is considered to be functioning appropriately, the new legislation does require a few minor changes to be made to ensure the requirements of the Act are met;

(c)  in addition a National Panel will investigate the most serious and complex safeguarding failure cases and issue revised practices and procedures if necessary, and ensure that national learning from incidents takes place to prevent re-occurrence. Local learning reviews will also take place where gaps or failures have resulted in risk. It is proposed that learning and sharing of good practices and successful approaches will also be shared;

(d)  the revised structure is considered robust places a new emphasis on establishing stronger connections with third sector organisations; 

(e)  the approach of other local authorities varies and while some have refreshed their safeguarding board structures, others have decided that there is no need for an independent chair, particularly as the OFSTED inspection requirement has been removed;

(f)  OFSTED will still have responsibilities in that if the local partnership notifies OFSTED of a significant incident where a child has been subject to significant harm or death, all parties within that partnership will have 15 days to undertake a review, and in an open report determine what the right responses should be at a local and if necessary national level;

(g)  this approach will only work when there is partnership buy-in, and a commitment to meet the required timescales. Proportionate reviews such as this are proposed to be speedier, more efficient, and make better use of resources;

(h)  the criteria by which the partnership can be structured are open to different interpretations, but the structure can be altered if required. An initial review will take place within the next 12 weeks, and will be undertaken by a multiagency inspectorate.

Members of the committee welcomed the continuing involvement of the Children and Young People’s Scrutiny Committee with the Nottingham City Safeguarding Children Partnership.

RESOLVED to note that the committee is satisfied with the continued progress in Nottingham to safeguard children.