Agenda item

Report of the Corporate Director for People

David Mellen, Leader of the Council, and former Portfolio Holder with responsibility for Children’s Services introduced the update on the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse to the committee. He reiterated the significance of the report to Nottingham City and assured the Committee that there was no sense of compliancy around the recommendations set out by the Inquiry. Catherine Underwood, Corporate Directors for People gave a presentation to the Committee updating them on the work around the Action Plan. The following points were highlighted:

(a)  Nottingham City Council continues to work with victims and survivors of sexual abuse ensuring that they are able to access the support and services that they need to. Work has taken place to ensure that there is no wrong “front door” to victims and survivors will be signposted to the right services however they make initial contact with the City Council.  

(b)  The Council has been working closely with Health partners and the Clinical Commissioning Groups to ensure that challenges to accessing therapeutic services are recognised and strategies are in place to respond to this;

(c)  The access to records has also continued to be facilitated. NCC recognise that is it a difficult and emotional thing to do and will provide support to survivors accessing their records. A specific post within the Information Compliance team has been created to support and facilitate access to records for survivors. People who have used this resource have reported back that it is helpful

(d)  The Council continues to offer both written and face to face verbal apologies to survivors of sexual abuse. Each survivor is offered a written apology and if they also wish to have a face to face meeting they can do so and will receive a verbal apology. There is also an empathetic approach to handling claims recognising that trauma has incurred. The Council has close links with the County Council and regularly reviews the progress of claims, to ensure there is a coordinated response;

(e)  A needs assessment was undertaken to identify the best way to offer support to survivors. This needs assessment has been used to inform commissioning of services funded by both the City and County Councils and the Police and Crime Commissioners Office. There is strong partnership working in place between a number or organisations;

(f)  A review of current and previous foster carers is underway. The City Council is working with the County Council to progress similar work with Independent Fostering Agencies that we have had children placed with.

(g)  A presentation regarding the findings from the  independent external evaluation of the Council’s practices around harmful sexual behaviour of other children in care was due to take place at the end of March but had to be delayed due to COVID -19. The Council is working the with NSPCC, who undertook this evaluation, to deliver a virtual conference to share the findings and is a positive next step in ensuring a consistent message is spread;

(h)  The Council will continue to work with survivors to improve services and to ensure a robust response to the issues highlighted by the Inquiry is delivered. The committee can be assured that an action plan is in place to address outstanding issues and that regular monitoring is taking place to assess progress;

During discussion and questions from the Committee members the following information was highlighted:

(i)  It is essential to maintain focus on delivering the actions that Nottingham City Council committed to. The Inquiry is expected to produce a wider report looking at the role of local authorities and the Council will need to respond to any actions that may be necessary in response to that;

(j)  Assurance and Governance is critical to good practice. It is essential that oversight and governance be in place to ensure the work is completed properly and in a timely way. These elements are a crucial part of the system that helps young people to stay safe and require resources;

(k)  There is no current financial work costing of the additional costs that responding to the recommendations made by the inquiry has incurred.;

(l)  There is an ongoing need for lessons learned to be shared, both internally within the Council but also externally to other agencies who deal with young children, e.g. the Police, Health, Education;

(m)There has been no noticeable impact on the number of people expressing an interest in becoming foster carers. The first Foster Care information event following the publication of the Inquiry’s report was the best attended in recent time. There is active involvement with Foster Carers by Council staff, regular meetings and forums take place. The insights from the learning following the Inquiry have fed into the training that all new foster carers receive and into the refresher training that existing carers receive.

After discussion, the Committee agreed that the Chair and the Head of Audit and Risk would investigate the scope of work needed to establish costs associated with the response to IICSA as a result of the recommendations from the Inquiry and that they would report back to the July Committee.

Resolved to note the progress made with the IICSA Action Plan