Presentation of the Head of Locality and Claire McNicholls (Named Nurse – Safeguarding)

This presentation provides Members with an annual report on the Complex Safeguarding Hub for 2020/2021.

The Committee received a presentation of the Head of Locality and Claire McNicholls, Named Nurse (Safeguarding), which provided Members with an annual report on the Complex Safeguarding Hub for 2020/2021.

The main points and themes within the presentation included:

• Overview of the Complex Safeguarding Hub;
• Partnership arrangements;
• Governance, accountability and assurance arrangements;
• Response to COVID-19; 
• Achieving Change Together model (ACT);
• Performance and outcomes;
• Impact; and
• Priorities 2021/2022.

The Chair welcomed the improvement in agencies working together and that a representative from GMP was in attendance.

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

• How well informed were neighbourhood police teams on the criminal exploitation of children and young people and was there sufficient capacity to address this when it was happening in neighbourhoods;
• The early signs of exploitation and how agencies could work together to identify and address issues at an early stage; and
• How Ward Councillors could support this work.

Superintendent Rebecca Boyce from GMP reported that neighbourhood police teams were informed about the Complex Safeguarding Hub and criminal exploitation through briefings and district tasking and co-ordination groups.  She advised that it was important to increase the ability of neighbourhood teams to respond to exploitation as the Complex Safeguarding Hub did not have the capacity to be open to every young person were there was a suggestion of exploitation, reporting that there had been some good examples of neighbourhood police teams responding to adult exploitation, such as cuckooing.  She advised that there had also been some good joint work between district police teams and the Complex Safeguarding Hub, where the district police team had identified exploitation as part of a police operation.  She outlined some of the ways in which early indications of exploitation were identified through intelligence teams, police district safeguarding teams and engagement officers in schools.  The Chair noted that the Committee would be receiving a report on the role of police in schools at a future meeting.

The Head of Locality informed Members that training was provided to schools on child criminal and sexual exploitation.  She also advised that Missing From Home Panels provided opportunities to identify signs that a child or young person was being exploited.  Claire McNicholls, Named Nurse (Safeguarding), advised that MFT had a robust training programme which included child sexual exploitation (CSE) and that the Trust’s Complex Safeguarding Subgroup communicated across the Trust on indicators and themes relating to exploitation.  She highlighted that the Trust had recently developed a Complex Safeguarding Policy and the resources it provided.  She advised that a short briefing on CSE and Child Criminal Exploitation had also been sent out to staff and that risk indicator checklists had been introduced for CSE and knife crime.

In response to a Member’s question, Superintendent Boyce advised that the term child criminal exploitation included county lines but encompassed a broader range of issues.

In response to a Member’s question about the data in the presentation on the young people involved in ACT, the Head of Locality advised that this was quite a small cohort so not representative of all young people that the service was working with.  Noting that many of the young people involved in ACT were from Hulme, Moss Side, and Rusholme, the Chair advised that she would discuss this with one of the Hulme Ward Councillors.

The Executive Member for Children’s Services advised that Ward Councillors and the public had a role in recognising criminal exploitation and that in recent years a number of Councillors had approached him with information on issues within their ward which had been referred to the service and led to concrete outcomes.

In response to a question from the Chair about the impact of lockdown on referrals, the Head of Locality advised that there had been a reduction in referrals at the start of the pandemic as some services were not seeing young people but that this had gradually increased, with more referrals coming from different sources such as British Transport Police and that the service had continued to review young people who were regularly going missing from home.  In response to a further question from the Chair about 16 and 17-year-olds who were looked after going missing from home, she informed the Committee that work was taking place with the Children’s Society on this and that she could provide further information at a later date.

Decision

To note the presentation.