Copyright 2009 Northumberland County Council Northumberland Safeguarding Children Board An overview Presentation to FACT conference

Copyright 2009 Northumberland County Council Today’s presentation Introduction to Local Safeguarding Children Boards Northumberland Safeguarding Children Board Relationship with FACT Key issues Q & A

Copyright 2009 Northumberland County Council Starting points …….

Copyright 2009 Northumberland County Council Significant steps……… Children’s Charter – enabled British law to intervene in relations between parents and their children, prior to this children were dealt with under the “Dangerous Animals Act” 1908 Children’s Act – juvenile courts – foster parents registration – sexual abuse subject to the courts rather than the church 1933 Children and Young Persons Act – consolidated child protection legislation 1948 Children Act – Children’s Committee and Children’s Officer in each LA – Parliamentary Committee enquiry in to death of 13 yr old Dennis O’Neil 1970 Local Authority Social Services Act – unification of social work and social care provision 1989 Children Act – gives children the right to protection & exploitation + right to have enquiries made to safeguard their welfare 1999 Protection of Children Act – broadens requirement for protection of children 2003 – Green Paper ‘Every Child Matters” – 2004 Children Act – Local Safeguarding Boards replace Area Child Protection Committees – establishment of Children’s Trusts

Copyright 2009 Northumberland County Council Learning from tragedy? 1948 Report into death of Dennis O’Neil – led to 1948 Children Act (Children’s Departments and Children’s Officers) 1974 Report into death of Maria Cowell – led to development of Area Child Protection Committees to better coordinate child protection services 1991 – Working Together (1989 Children Act) implemented = ACPC duty to consider investigation when abuse is/suspected to be related to child death or serious injury (Ch8 Enquiries) 2003 Publication of Lord Laming’s report into death of Victoria Climbie 2003 Every Child Matters – formation of Local Safeguarding Children Boards + Independent Children’s Commissioner 2009 Apprentices, Skills, Children and Learning Act (intro 2010) establishes LCSB regs 2007 – 2011 Peter Connelly case – Laming report re Child Protection – Social Work reform – Munro report

Copyright 2009 Northumberland County Council Safeguarding – Child Protection

Copyright 2009 Northumberland County Council So its all about

Copyright 2009 Northumberland County Council So what does this mean for the Safeguarding Children Board? The primary functions of LSCBs are set out in S14(1) of the Children Act 2004:“To coordinate what is done by each person or body represented on the Board for the purposes of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children in the area of the authority by which it is established. To ensure the effectiveness of what is done by each such person or body for those purposes.” safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children = ●protecting children from maltreatment; ●preventing impairment of children’s health or development; ●ensuring that children are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care

Copyright 2009 Northumberland County Council Who is involved?

Copyright 2009 Northumberland County Council Or looked at in another way

Copyright 2009 Northumberland County Council To summarise; LCSB’s where they fit and why they exist

Copyright 2009 Northumberland County Council

Copyright 2009 Northumberland County Council NSCB priorities Pilot new approach children/families just below the Child Protection threshold to strengthen CAF strategy 2.Amend procedures and future objectives in light of Munro recommendations 3.Establish Board funding arrangements to match capacity with ambition 4.Continue to support Member involvement and develop overall scrutiny arrangements 5.To establish lay membership on the Board 6.To improve arrangements for safeguarding of disabled children 7.To improve collaboration and cooperation between Board and Safeguarding Board 8.To promote safeguarding leadership capacity across agencies and agendas 9.To improve Boards arrangements for monitoring and learning from performance across all agencies 10.Maintain and improve progress and performance in all areas

Copyright 2009 Northumberland County Council Sub groups are working on (highlights) 1.Child safety Sub committee – joint child safety strategy for Northumberland – better ways of improving learning from Child Death Overview Panel 2.E-Safety and Young Runaways – further develop and implement Northumberland E –Safety strategy 3.Procedures – respond to Munro/Working Together changes – Incorporate revised procedures/guidance re disabled children – develop support and capacity for single agency review of procedures 4.Quality of Practice – multi agency audit programe to be delivered – respond to SCR/IMR as directed by the Board – collate and communicate good practice to front line staff – respond to complaints as required 5.Think Family – Incorporate and integrate developments at Board, procedural and agency levels ref “hidden harm” 6.Disabled Children – Identify needs, develop strategy, obtain Board support & implement 7.Child Death Overview Panel – scrutinise and review providing Northumberland context on basis of data and analysis inform and make recommendations to Board 8.Serious Case Review – Develop Panel capacity – increase agency IMR capacity – undertake practice impact audit

Copyright 2009 Northumberland County Council Fitting things together – FACT & NSCB

Copyright 2009 Northumberland County Council Fit Both Boards share a responsibility and accountability for keeping children and young people safe The roles are complimentary but distinct FACT is responsible for the improvement of outcomes across all aspects of children and young people’s lives, whilst the work of the NSCB contributes to this wider goal by providing a safeguarding focus. The NSCB plays a specific role to ensure the FACT pays due regard to promoting and safeguarding the welfare of children. It follows that an aspect of the NSCB’s role is to challenge and scrutinise individual agencies of the Children’s Trust. The Children’s Trust Board will, in turn, scrutinise the work and effectiveness of the NSCB. Therefore important that there are distinct and separate identies, robust arrangements and relationships to ensure effective levels of coordination, communication and challenge.

Copyright 2009 Northumberland County Council Where next?

Copyright 2009 Northumberland County Council All is not yet clear Munro report makes wide ranging recommendations for all aspects of safeguarding – final policy position not yet clear Coalition Government agenda for public service reform and fiscal measures will also be significant Requirement for Children’s Trusts being repealed & emergence of Health and Wellbeing Boards will create local choices Munro states; LSCBs play an extremely valuable role and will remain uniquely positioned within the local accountability architecture to monitor how professionals and services are working together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. Accountability structures will change so LSCB’s will need to share annual reports with new key role such as Police and Crime Commissioners (subject to passage of legislation) Possible that LSCB’s will have an increased monitoring of “early help” services (Ch1)which are intended to reduce incidence of maltreatment Recommends continuation of LSCB multi agency training function Supports designated roles and cautions re impact of changes to organisational structures and contexts particulary in the health arena

Copyright 2009 Northumberland County Council NSCB – looking into the crystal ball from my perspective as independent chair Healthy partnerships, high levels of commitment, significant achievements Change at policy, governance, structural, financial and therefore front line, poses challenges to maintain progress and may increase risk for children NSCB has therefore in the next 12 months to pay particular attention to communicating about and understanding the impact of these changes on partners capacity to maintain present standards and commitment to improvement. As FACT and H&WB’s develop + government decision re Munro recommendations become clearer NSCB will need to review and respond to implications whilst maintaining strong partnerships and its distinct role The detail of the Munro report in terms of the models, values, ways of working alongside the re stating of the safeguarding – protection continuum will require considered and detailed examination for its impact on practice, training and development and longer term planning The focus on systems based learning and of relationship focused practice means a re balancing of “essential rules, principles and professional expertise”

Copyright 2009 Northumberland County Council The last word for now In moving to a system that promotes the exercise of professional judgment, local multi-agency systems will need to be better at monitoring, learning and adapting their practice. This review recommends regular review of cases becomes the norm and that the ‘systems approach’ used in the health sector is adopted and applied, in particular, to Serious Case Reviews. This will enable deeper learning to overcome obstacles to good practice. 18.p12 The recommendations in this review are geared towards creating a better balance between essential rules, principles, and professional expertise. Helping children is a human process. When the bureaucratic aspects of work become too dominant, the heart of the work is lost. The recommendations are to be considered together, and the review cautions strongly against cherry picking some of the reforms to implement. Reducing prescription without creating a learning system will not secure the desired improvements in the system. On the other hand, delaying the reduction of prescription until services show they can take responsibility prevents them from demonstrating it. The review also cautions against taking a short-term approach to reform – the depth of change recommended in this report means it will take time for the necessary knowledge and skills to be developed and for experiences of new ways of working to accumulate to the point where they can be fully effective. Taken together, these reforms will redress the balance between prescription and the exercise of judgment so that those working in child protection are able to stay child-centred.21p13

Copyright 2009 Northumberland County Council Questions and Discussion