Report of Independent Person Dr Henri Giller

This report details the strategic priorities and what MSP has achieved, reports on its annual assurance activity and what has been learnt from practice reviews undertaken where there was a serious incident.

The Committee received a report of Dr Henri Giller, Independent Chair of the MSP, which detailed the strategic priorities and what MSP had achieved, reported on its annual assurance activity and what had been learnt from practice reviews undertaken where there was a serious incident.

Dr Henri Giller referred to the main points and themes within the report, which included:

• The Partnership Strategic Priorities and the action taken in relation to these;
• The Assurance Function;
• Learning from Practice Review and Improvement exercises; and
• Scrutinising the new MSP arrangements.

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

• Mental health and suicide prevention;
• Training for Members, including on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and on understanding exploitation;
• The importance of a joined-up approach between adult and children’s services, where vulnerable adults were parents; and
• How the experiences of minoritorised communities was embedded into the work of MSP.

Dr Giller advised that mental health was a priority area for MSP and that significant improvements had been put in place over the past 12 months to better meet the mental health needs of children and young people, citing the M Thrive and i-Thrive initiatives.  He reported that one of the potential strengths of the new safeguarding arrangements was that they brought children’s and adults’ safeguarding under the same partnership and he advised that representatives of the Children’s Executive Group and the Adult Executive Group were meeting together and discussing joint strategies and areas of common interest, such as the transition from children’s to adult services and complex safeguarding.  He outlined some of the challenges, such as the different legislative basis for children’s and adults’ safeguarding, the capacity of services to meet needs into adulthood and the level of continuity of support over time but he advised that there was an awareness of these issues and a commitment to working to improve them.

Dr Giller reported that there was an operational infrastructure behind the strategic groups referred to in the report and that this engaged with communities to understand the likely impact of proposals and changes.  In response to a Member’s question, he assured the Committee that work had taken place to look at the impact of the pandemic on working practices and that this learning would be taken forward.

In response to a question from the Chair, Dr Giller reported that the initial self-evaluation exercise had been intended to raise awareness of changes needed and for work with the organisations on how they could make and embed those changes.  He advised that the next self-assessment would be followed by an audit of the changes that organisations had committed themselves to.  In response to a further question, he reported that different organisations were subject to different regulatory mechanisms, further assurance structures would be available through the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and that MSP was keen to explore additional options such as peer reviews.

The Executive Member for Children and Schools advised that he and the Strategic Director of Children and Education Services arranged training for all Councillors each municipal year, covering topics such as corporate parenting responsibilities and safeguarding.  He reported that dates would be sent round shortly for this and that, if Members then wanted further training on specific areas, this could be arranged.

Decision

That the Committee will receive regular reports on the work of the Manchester Safeguarding Partnership.