Report of the Strategic Director of Children and Education Services

This reports informs Members of the work that has been undertaken within the Council following the issues being raised that led to the Mayor’s Independent Assurance Review and provides reassurance that our response to the exploitation and abuse of children has strengthened significantly in Manchester.

The Committee received a report of the Strategic Director of Children and Education Services which informed Members of the work that had been undertaken within the Council following the issues being raised that led to the Mayor’s Independent Assurance Review and provided reassurance that the response to the exploitation and abuse of children had strengthened significantly in Manchester.

The Chair began by stating that this was an issue of great concern to the Committee and that their thoughts were with the people affected.  He advised that the Committee had scrutinised the work on complex safeguarding over the past few years, through report and visits, but still had questions and concerns that they wanted to raise through this meeting.

The Deputy Director of Children’s Services introduced the report, highlighting that the Council had been pro-actively working with GMP to make improvements in response to the emerging findings from the review, without waiting for the report to be published.  He also advised that, where appropriate, employees from the time period that the report covered had been referred to the relevant regulatory body.

The Executive Member for Children and Schools drew Members’ attention to the statements that the Council had issued following the publication of the report.  He advised the Committee that there had been significant changes made since the time period which the report covered but that the Council could not be complacent on this issue.

The Leader outlined his role in safeguarding, following the introduction of the Children Act 2004, which had been implemented in 2006.  He informed Members that he was responsible for ensuring the adequacy of the Council’s safeguarding responsibilities and outlined how he did this.  This included monthly meetings with the Executive Member for Children and Schools and quarterly meetings with the Chief Executive and Executive Members and members of the Senior Leadership Team with responsibility for safeguarding adults and children, where performance indicators were reviewed and issues discussed.

The Chair highlighted that at the meeting of the Council on 29 January 2020 Members had agreed a pledge on safeguarding children. 

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

• The issue of Manchester children being placed in homes outside of the city and non-Manchester children being placed in homes within the city and how to ensure safeguarding in these cases;
• How patriarchal attitudes at the time contributed to an environment where the sexual abuse of girls was not effectively challenged;
• Problems with GMP’s new computer system iOPS;
• What was being done to engage with shopkeepers and others in busy retail districts who might spot issues of concern in their area;
• Working effectively with other Council services, such as taxi licensing, to address child sexual exploitation;
• Concerns that the team undertaking the review had not been able to obtain all the relevant information and, that, in addition to the ongoing criminal investigation, further investigation should take place of the failings of the Council;
• Changes in the methods being used to groom children, including via social media; and
• That all Councillors would receive training on issues such as their corporate parenting responsibilities and the exploitation of children and that, as the perpetrators in these cases had come from particular communities, Ward Councillors from these communities could play an important role.

The Deputy Director of Children’s Services informed Members of the safeguards in place for children living in residential children’s homes, regardless of where the home was.  These included visits from Social Workers, reviews of the care plans for individual children by an Independent Reviewing Officer, oversight of homes from commissioning services, inspection and monitoring visits from independent professionals under Regulation 44 of the Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and regulation by Ofsted.  A Member expressed concern about the regulations relating to children from outside Manchester being placed in commissioned homes in Manchester, advising that Members should campaign for the legislation to be changed to require the child’s Social Worker to report to the authorities in Manchester.  The Leader supported this comment, adding that at present small children’s homes did not require planning permission and often the Council and GMP did not know they were there until there was a problem.

In response to a Member’s comments, the Deputy Director of Children’s Services informed Members that it was clear that children in the city remained vulnerable to exploitation and were experiencing exploitation and, while recognising that improvements had been made, he assured Members that neither the Council nor GMP were complacent on this issue. 

The Strategic Head of Early Help outlined the work taking place through the Community Safety Partnership to reduce and prevent harm, through engaging with a wide network of organisations such as hotels and licensing and trading services.  She also assured Members that the Council and GMP were committed to acting on the lessons learnt from past failings.  She advised Members that it was recognised that young adults were also vulnerable to exploitation and a co-ordinated approach was being adopted to prevent and address the exploitation of both children and vulnerable adults.

Detective Superintendent Jamie Daniels offered GMP’s apologies for the failings and mistakes of the past in responding to child sexual exploitation.  He addressed the Member’s comments regarding the iOPS system, acknowledging the challenges it had presented; however, he reported that the key problem with how the force had dealt with child sexual exploitation in the past had not been record-keeping but that it had not been a high enough priority.  He assured Members of the high priority that this was now being given, outlining how GMP’s safeguarding teams worked in partnership with the Council and shared information, and he updated them on the recent successes which had resulted in offenders being charged.  He informed the Committee that he hoped that this would enable them to rebuild the trust of victims who had been failed in the past.  The Chair welcomed that officers from GMP had attended recent scrutiny committee meetings, where relevant, and stated that he hoped this would continue. 

The Executive Member for Children and Schools advised the Committee that many Ward Councillors had a good knowledge of what was happening in their area and that they and other people in their local areas and retail centres needed to know where to report safeguarding concerns.  He informed Members that meetings would be set up in localities so that people knew who to contact and that he would circulate details of these meetings to Ward Councillors.

The Leader outlined the weaknesses in information-sharing between GMP and the Council in the time period covered by the report and the challenges in obtaining and sharing information from that time period now.  He reported that, although no minutes were available of the gold group meeting which had taken place at the Town Hall in April 2005, the decision to end Operation Augusta had already been taken earlier in the day by GMP and he highlighted that, while this was the wrong decision, GMP had been prioritising based on the measures of police effectiveness set down by the Home Office and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary.  He advised the Committee that the Coroner’s report into the death of Victoria Agoglia was a sealed file which the Council did not have access to and that the Coroner was accountable to the Chief Coroner, not to either Manchester City Council or Rochdale Borough Council, of which he was an employee.  In response to a Member’s request, the Leader agreed to write to the Coroner to ask that the file on the death of Victoria Agoglia be released.

The Leader highlighted that Victoria Agoglia’s mother had been in the care system herself, under the care of Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council, and had later died of a drug overdose and that there had been a systemic failure which had allowed this to be repeated.  He reported that, through the use of early intervention and early help, Manchester City Council aimed to break these cycles, although he acknowledged that there was still more work to do to improve the outcomes for Our Children (Looked After Children). 

The Leader expressed concern that, where offenders were prosecuted through Operation Augusta, the offences they were prosecuted for and the sentences received did not reflect the severity of the abuse.  He advised Members that, unfortunately, there was a propensity, both then and now, for juries to disbelieve the principal witness because they were a child who the prosecution could describe as a drug-taker and a child prostitute.  He informed Members about ongoing work to identify and pursue perpetrators and advised that this prevented complete transparency, as sharing information could risk alerting perpetrators that they were being investigated.

The Chair commented that sentencing from more recent cases indicated that this issue was being treated more seriously now.

The Deputy Director of Children’s Services advised the Committee that discussions had taken place with social services staff from this time period who were still employed by the Council, that it had not been judged that their conduct met the threshold for referral to the regulator and that they had been made aware of the Council’s whistleblowing policy, in case there were any issues they wished to raise.

A Member requested an update on the phase of the review referred to in section 1.4 of the assurance review of Operation Augusta.  Detective Superintendent Jamie Daniels advised that he would provide a written response to this query.

Detective Superintendent Jamie Daniels reported that, while for crimes such as burglaries and robberies the police were dealing predominately with adults who they were easily able to engage with and obtain evidence and statements from, the victims of some types of crimes, including child sexual exploitation, had complex needs and additional vulnerability.  He advised that in the past, the response had often been to disregard these victims because of these challenges, rather than recognising that they should be provided with additional support.  He confirmed that there were still offenders who had not been brought to justice and advised that part of the approach to addressing this was for GMP to try to re-build trust with victims so that they felt confident to go through the criminal justice system.  He provided information about the GMP teams currently working to bring these offenders to justice.  The Leader reported that many of the victims had chosen to get on with their lives and did not welcome being contacted by the police and that it was important to be sensitive to their privacy and needs and the risk of re-traumatising them.

Detective Superintendent Jamie Daniels acknowledged that the methods being used to groom children were evolving.  He reported that detailed examination of the cases referred to the Complex Safeguarding Hub, along with information from national sources, were being used to identify and address new methods being used.

Decisions

1.            To emphasise the role that departments across the Council and external organisations, including the voluntary and community sector, have in addressing child sexual exploitation. 

2.            That the Committee will continue to monitor complex safeguarding at future meetings.

3.            That this work will also be monitored through the Corporate Parenting Panel, which all Members are encouraged to attend.

4.            To thank Detective Superintendent Jamie Daniels and his colleagues at GMP and to look forward to continuing to build the relationship with GMP.