Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received as follows:

• Councillor Colwill, substituted by Councillor Kansagra
• Councillor Shahzad
• Councillor Lloyd
• Councillor Hector

Members are invited to declare at this stage of the meeting, the nature and existence of any relevant disclosable pecuniary or personal interests in the items on this agenda and to specify the item(s) to which they relate.

Personal interests were declared as follows:

• Councillor Sheth – Lead Governor of Central and NWL NHS Foundation Trust
• Councillor Ethapemi – spouse employed by the NHS
• Councillor Sangani – employed by the NHS

To hear any deputations received from members of the public in accordance with Standing Order 67.

There were no deputations received.

To approve the minutes of the previous meeting as a correct record.

The minutes of the meeting on 15 November 2021 were approved as an accurate record of the meeting, subject to ratification at the next in-person quorate meeting.

There were no matters arising.

To receive a report on the current partnership oversight arrangements for safeguarding Brent’s children and young people.

The Chair invited the three Statutory Safeguarding Partners; Carolyn Downs (Chief Executive, Brent Council), Barry Loader (Det Sup, Met Police – NWL BCU), and Jennifer Roye (Director of Nursing, NWL CCG) to the meeting and asked them to introduce the report.

Carolyn Downs opened the report, detailing the membership of the Multi-agency Safeguarding Partners Executive Group for children, which included the three statutory partners, the Leader of the Council, the Lead Member for Children’s Services, the Strategic Director for Children’s Services, and Mike Howard (Independent Convenor of the Safeguarding Children Forum). She felt the new arrangements were working well, with collaboration between the police, health and local authority improving all the time. She reassured the Committee that the partners took a very proactive role to safeguarding and provided challenge where necessary. All 3 statutory partners were required to sign off rapid reviews into any incidences of child death or injury, and the partners read those reports in depth, commented on them and where not satisfied ensured actions were put in place. For example, most recently the partners had written to the Director of Public Prosecution where they felt insufficient action was taking place. Carolyn Downs finished her introduction by advising the Committee that the rapid reviews, written by Mike Howard and Wendy Proctor, were extremely helpful and informative in her role as a statutory partner.

Barry Loader agreed the partnership had a good healthy relationship which was constructive, with healthy challenge. Repeatedly, the partners saw good practice reports coming through the rapid reviews. He advised that the nature of rapid reviews was upsetting, as they arose when a child was seriously injured or had died, but from the feedback of partners locally and the National Review Panel it had been positive to show there were good systems of working and professional practice across all partners involved in children’s safeguarding in Brent. The good relationship had helped with the response to ‘everyone’s invited’ as evidenced in the report to Committee. He finished by assuring members there was a continuous cycle of training for those officers new in post, including specialist child protection training.

Jennifer Roye echoed the previous introductions and felt Brent had exceptional safeguarding processes. She had been in post for 6 months and had been welcomed at the Exec Group meetings she had attended with the statutory partners. She informed the Committee that the ethos for supporting and safeguarding children was very high on the agenda and the learning she had seen over the last 6 months in relation to training had been shared at the Health Quality Performance Committee.

In concluding the introduction to the report, Mike Howard (Independent Convenor of Brent Safeguarding Children Forum) agreed that rapid reviews offered extremely valuable learning opportunities looking at real life practice. The learning from rapid reviews was taken by health partners and developed into GP training. He pointed out that the tragic incidents that led to rapid reviews could be traumatic for the staff involved including the first responders, police,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

To receive a report on the transfer of community services from LNWHT to CLCH.

Steve Vo (Assistant Director Integration and Delivery – Brent, NWL CCG) introduced the report, which detailed the transfer of Community Services from Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust (CNWL) to Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust (CLCH). The transfer was completed in August 2021 and the paper provided an update on the mobilisation and transformation programmes within community services. He detailed the selection and award process, as outlined in the report, with a selection panel involving Brent CCG’s Accountable Officer, the Local Authority Chief Executive, and NWL CCG Chief Financial Officer. Contract award notice had been published to ensure transparency and compliance with the lawful process. There were 2 phases to mobilisation of services – phase 1 being the shifting of existing services, which was complete, and phase 2 being transforming services, which CLCH were now working on. CLCH had identified 3 main priorities for transformation, which were heart failure, respiratory services and diabetes. He finished by highlighted the new Ageing Well Fund, which was an additional fund allocated by the government for 2021-22, and recurring for 2 years with incremental increases. Within those bids, proposals had been submitted to put that additional funding into diabetes, care homes and anticipatory care, all services supported by CLCH.

The Chair thanked Steve Vo for the introduction and invited comments and questions from those present, with the following issues raised:

Regarding the mobilisation of services, the Committee queried how the feedback from patients, service users and carers had been sought and used by the Joint Mobilisation Groups and what learning had been taken from that feedback. Fana Hussain (Borough Lead Director, Brent – NWL CCG) advised that the model was lift and shift, therefore services had not changed for patient facing services and patients should not have seen a difference in the way they were provided. Janet Lewis (Director of Operations, CLCH) advised that the feedback from staff had been very positive, and that it had been a very amicable move of services between partners who had a good working relationship. The Joint Mobilisation Groups had been important to ensure everything went well for the transfer of staff, and that the patients and carers being looked after did not experience any challenges. She highlighted that staff were very happy and settled, and CLCH were working and engaging on how CLCH could work with staff to improve service delivery for the future. Overall the transfer had been seamless but there had been some IT issues due to a move in networks, which had since been resolved.

In relation to what was learned during the mobilisation period, Janet Lewis highlighted that the transfer had been done very quickly. The plan had been to move services in April 2021, but when the Mobilisation Group had convened they had realised that was not safe or feasible, so the transfer was delayed until 1 August 2021 which was felt safe once all the different workstreams had been reviewed. She advised there was a large amount of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

Please note: this item has been rescheduled to a future meeting.

The Chair advised the Committee that this paper had been deferred and the final version would be coming to the next Committee meeting. He was grateful for the work done by the task group and Chair of the task group, Councillor Daly, and looked forward to receiving the final report at the following meeting.

To receive an interim report to update the Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee on the progress of the Transitional Safeguarding Scrutiny Task Group.

The Chair of the Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee advised the Committee that there had been a number of good sessions looking at the area of transitional safeguarding. He highlighted that it was a very complex area and it had been helpful to have an expert, Dez Holmes, give context and background into the area so that the task group had a fuller understanding. Evidence had been taken from a variety of stakeholders, both internal and external, listening to how transitional safeguarding work was being developed in Brent. The report detailed the draft recommendations emerging from those evidence sessions, and the task group were working to finalise them. The task group hoped to bring the final report to the February 2022 meeting.

In considering the report and draft recommendations, the Lead Member for Children’s Safeguarding, Early Help and Social Care confirmed that she was happy to take those forward with the Lead Member for Adult Social Care and health and social care partners and discuss further outside of the meeting.

The Chair thanked colleagues for their input, and drew the item to a close. The Committee RESOLVED:

i)              To note the contents of the report and the progress made by the Transitional Safeguarding Scrutiny Task Group.

Notice of items to be raised under this heading must be given in writing to the Head of Executive and Member Services or her representative before the meeting in accordance with Standing Order 60.

None.