Report of Paul Marshall, Chair of the Children Executive Board

The report provides an overview of what the MSP has done as a result of the safeguarding arrangements, and how effective these arrangements have been in practice.

The Committee received a report of Paul Marshall, in his role as the Chair of the Children Executive Board, which provided an overview of what the MSP had done as a result of the safeguarding arrangements, and how effective these arrangements had been in practice.

The main points and themes within the report included:

• Partnership arrangements;
• Communications and engagement;
• Quality assurance and scrutiny;
• Case reviews and learning;
• Workforce development;
• The Independent Chair’s assurance statement;
• Review of MSP Joint Strategic Plan 2020/2021; and
• Strategic priorities 2021/2022.

Some of the key points and themes that arose from the Committee’s discussions were:

• To welcome the positive achievements outlined in the report, recognising the challenges of the pandemic;
• To request more information on the changes to the quality assurance arrangements;
• Serious Case Reviews and learning from high profile national cases such as the death of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes; and
• Complex safeguarding work relating to young people at risk from serious youth violence, including work with local communities to address this.

The Strategic Lead (Safeguarding and Practice Development) reported that the Partnership had been focused on identifying, understanding and meeting the needs of children and families during the pandemic and making sure that no child fell through the net during that period; however, it was recognised that the focus of the quality assurance function now needed to re-adjust and should extend to looking at the impact and effectiveness of its work.  She outlined how learning from high profile national cases was used, checking if the findings from that investigation was true of Manchester, and reported that, when undertaking a review in Manchester, national research would be taken into account. 

The Chair highlighted the important role of Health Visitors in identifying and monitoring the welfare of pre-school-age children who were in need of help and protection and suggested that Health Visitors be added to the agenda for a future meeting.  Andrea Patel, Director of Safeguarding, MHCC, reported that reviews in Manchester had been positive about the Health Visiting Service but that if any gaps were identified they would be addressed.

The Chair informed the Committee about a project which was taking place in Gorton on complex safeguarding, which involved the local community.  The Strategic Director of Children and Education Services informed Members about the multi-agency Complex Safeguarding Subgroup and the links with neighbourhoods teams, GMP and schools.  Detective Superintendent Chris Downey from GMP reported that it was a constant challenge to keep young people safe and manage tensions and that he and his colleagues wanted to be able to shift towards understanding the causes of youth violence and focusing on early intervention.  He informed Members that he had recently recruited an additional three police officers to work on early intervention regarding serious youth violence and that this work would be supported by Youth Justice and social workers in the Complex Safeguarding Hub.  He advised that this work was different from their traditional work on Child Criminal Exploitation and needed a different approach. 

In response to a Member’s question, Detective Superintendent Chris Downey advised that GMP did look at what similar cities were doing to address youth violence, although still more could be done to learn from good practice elsewhere. In response to another question, he acknowledged that more work needed to be done to engage with local communities, including families affected by serious youth violence and recognised that work with communities had been important in addressing other issues, such as firearm offences.  He reported that GMP did communicate with families who had lost loved ones due to youth violence.  He advised that, although GMP had a central Independent Advisory Group that covered the whole central area, he felt that a more local approach was needed, including asking local people how they could help with addressing this issue.  The Chair highlighted the new Chief Constable’s commitment to neighbourhood policing.  She advised that she had already spoken to the Chair of the Communities and Equalities Scrutiny Committee, who would be having an item on Youth Justice at a future meeting, to which she and Members of the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee would be invited.

A Member who was a Teacher Representative informed the Committee how her school was engaging with local partners, including mosques, to address challenging behaviour.  The Strategic Director of Children and Education Services suggested that officers provide a report on youth participation and engagement to a future meeting. 

Members discussed youth provision, including funding cuts, activities over the summer holidays and the challenge of young people not wanting to cross boundaries into other areas to access youth provision.  A Member informed the Committee about a boxing club for young people set up by Moss Side firefighters and suggested that Members could visit this.  The Executive Member for Early Years, Children and Young People suggested that the Committee receive a report on youth provision at a future meeting and highlighted the additional £500,000 which the Council was investing in youth provision.  He also informed the Committee how local Neighbourhood Teams were putting on events as part of Our Year.  He said that he could provide further information on this and encouraged Members to speak to the Neighbourhood Teams in their wards about doing this.  In response to a Member’s comments about issues in his ward, the Executive Member offered to discuss the specific issues outside of the meeting.

In a response to a Member’s question about the impact of the pandemic on children and young people’s mental health, the Strategic Director of Children and Education Services outlined the mental health support that had been put in place through schools and through both universal and specialist services.  He recognised the challenge of responding to traumatised children and suggested that the Committee might want to consider this at a future meeting.

Decision

To consider Health Visiting at a future meeting.