Issue - meetings

The Children & Young People Sub-Committee is asked to: -

1.         Note the Croydon Safeguarding Children Board Annual Report 2021-2022

2.         Consider whether there are any considerations or concerns it may wish to submit to the Cabinet during its consideration of the Annual Report.

3.         In particular, give consideration as to whether the Annual Report provides sufficient reassurance on the performance and effectiveness of the Croydon Safeguarding Children Board.

The Sub-Committee considered a report set out on pages 13 to 40 of the

agenda, which provided the Croydon Safeguarding Children Partnership Annual Report for 2021-22. The Corporate Director Children, Young People & Education introduced the item and the Independent Scrutineer, Eleanor Brazil, to the Sub-Committee. It was noted that the Independent Scrutineer would be leaving the role soon and had served Croydon in many roles over a number of years; officers and Members thanked her for her hard work.

The Independent Scrutineer explained their role in the Partnership as an external person to the key organisations delivering services to children and young people in the borough; the Independent Scrutineer’s role was to support and challenge key members of the Partnership organisations to help ensure safeguarding arrangements were effective. It was highlighted that safeguarding children was challenging as it was not always possible to ensure all children were safe from harm, although this was always the aim. Safeguarding Practice Reviews were undertaken by the Partnership when children died or were seriously hurt and thankfully these cases were not high in number.

The Independent Scrutineer went through the key points of the report and explained that the Partnership tried to capture the voice of children and young people in the borough. The work of the Partnership was guided by the Executive Group made up of key members from the statutory bodies – the Council, Croydon CCG and the Police. There were a number of multi-agency groups set up by the Partnership, with specific areas of focus, which reported to the Executive Group.

The Partnership had identified a number of themes throughout the year, and these were: the importance of Fathers/Male Carers; Professional Curiosity; Information Sharing; Safeguarding Supervision; Extra-Familial Harm. These themes had been used to influence the training offer for the following year. The Sub-Committee heard that an independent review of the Partnership had been commissioned to identify any areas of learning to inform the work and priorities of the Partnership in the coming year. The following had already been identified: Safeguarding Asylum Seekers; Early Help Transformation; Partnership Communication Strategy; Domestic Abuse; Sexual Abuse (inter and extra familial abuse).

The Chair noted the absence of a police representative and expressed the disappointment of the Sub-Committee. The Independent Scrutineer and Corporate DirectorChildren, Young People & Education explained the commitment of the Police to the work of the Partnership and suggested the necessary change of dates may have led to their non-attendance. The Sub-Committee queried the disparity of proactivity and funding from some partners and the Corporate Director Children, Young People & Education responded that there had been huge pressures for all partners and there had been significant work over the last 12 years to improve frontline availability and engagement on children’s’ safeguarding from the Police. The Police were also responsible for chairing the Priority Vulnerable Adolescents Group and Members heard that the independent review would help to gauge the effectiveness of the Partnership; feedback so far had suggested that engagement and the willingness to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5

The Children & Young People Sub-Committee is asked to: -

1.         Note the Croydon Safeguarding Children Board Annual Report 2021-2022

2.         Consider whether there are any considerations or concerns it may wish to submit to the Cabinet during its consideration of the Annual Report.

3.         In particular, give consideration as to whether the Annual Report provides sufficient reassurance on the performance and effectiveness of the Croydon Safeguarding Children Board.