Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from:

• Councillor Mistry, substituted by Councillor Kansagra
• Councillor Moeen, substituted by Councillor Akram
• Co-opted member Mr Simon Goulden
• Co-opted member Mr Alloysius Frederick

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 and governor of a number of education settings detailed in the register of interest form
• Councillor Matin – employed by NHS
• Councillor Collymore – member of palliative care and end of life steering groups
• Councillor Ethapemi – spouse employed by NHS
• Councillor Smith – employed by 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 22 September 2022 were approved as an accurate record of the meeting..

There were no matters arising.

To present the Brent Safeguarding Adults Board (SAB) annual report, covering the period from April 2021 to March 2022.

Fran Pearson (Independent Chair, Safeguarding Adults Board) introduced the report, which presented the Brent Safeguarding Adults Board (SAB) annual report covering the period from April 2021 to March 2022. She highlighted that she started in the role of Independent Chair on 1 April 2022, following the departure of Michael Preston-Shoot, and therefore would be presenting a report for a year for which she was not present. She expressed thanks for the years of service the previous Chair had provided to Brent.

In introducing the report, Fran Pearson drew the Committee’s attention to the similarities between the Adult’s and Children’s safeguarding arrangements, which involved the role, commitment and accountability of the three statutory partners to the Board – Sue Sheldon on behalf of the Integrated Care Board (ICB), Barry Loader on behalf of the Metropolitan Police, and Claudia Brown (Director Adult Social Care, Brent Council) and Phil Porter (Corporate Director Adult Social Care and Health, Brent Council) on behalf of the local authority. The principle of those three statutory partners being central and equal to each other remained the same for both the children’s and adult’s arrangements. She concluded by noting that insights and thoughts from previous Scrutiny Committee’s had helped inform, shape and make richer the Board’s annual report.

Barry Loader (Acting Borough Commander, NWL BCU – Metropolitan Police) agreed with Fran’s initial oversight of the cohesiveness of the partnership, and felt the partnership was lucky to have benefited from longstanding membership of each of the statutory partners which was rare amongst safeguarding partnerships. This allowed the partners to have challenging conversations with each other and move forward strategy plans to improve outcomes for victims and vulnerable members of the community. He added that safeguarding adults covered a large age range from 18 until death, and the partnership now saw more cases of younger vulnerable adults. This was attributed to the impact of the cost of living and people living longer. He expressed a commitment to continue identify vulnerable individuals going forward, while highlighting the high demand on the service.

Sue Sheldon (Assistant Director for Safeguarding Adults and Children, NHS NWL) echoed the previous remarks in relation to partnership working. She advised that, following the transition from the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) into the Integrated Care Board (ICB), there had been a concern that safeguarding would be lost, but assured the Committee that the ICB were still very committed to safeguarding both adults and children.

In concluding the introduction, Councillor Nerva (Cabinet Member for Public Health and Adult Social Care) highlighted that the report was extensive in detailing the work that the SAB had achieved over the year, and there was now a need to look at the future, ensuring adult safeguarding was not lost amongst NHS re-organisations, which he would be maintaining focus on going forward.

The Chair thanked councillors and officers for their introduction and invited the Committee to raise comments and questions, with the following issues raised:

The Committee asked Fran Pearson, upon reflecting on her first  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

To present the Brent Safeguarding Children Partnership annual report, covering the period from 1 October 2021 to 30 September 2022.

Carolyn Downs (Chief Executive, Brent Council) introduced the report, which focused on the multi-agency safeguarding arrangements for children in Brent and partner activity over the past year. She explained that, following a review by Sir Alan Wood, all local authority areas were now required to have statutory partners responsible for safeguarding children. In Brent, an Executive Group brought together those statutory partners – Barry Loader as the NWL BCU Borough Commander for the Metropolitan Police, Jennifer Roye as the Chief Nurse for North West London Integrated Care System (ICS), and Carolyn Downs as the Chief Executive of the Local Authority. In attendance at those Exec meetings was also Nigel Chapman as the Director for Children’s Services, Councillor Gwen Grahl as the Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Schools, Mike Howard as the Independent Convener for the Safeguarding Children Forum, Councillor Muhammed Butt as the Leader of the Council, and Wendy Marchese as the Partnership Lead for Safeguarding Children. She advised the Committee that the Executive Group was well supported by Mike Howard and Wendy Marchese and had been in place for some time. The report showed that the group had focused on a large number of rapid reviews throughout the year which had put a large amount of resource pressure on colleagues, but that colleagues had responded well to the challenge.

Mike Howard (Independent Convener, Brent Safeguarding Children Forum) added to the introduction, explaining that the annual report presented to the Committee aimed to illustrate the breadth and complexities of the work the safeguarding partners and forum members undertake. Section 3 of the report was a new section added to show the areas of focus for the Executive Group, Safeguarding Children Forum, and the Case Review Group over the year. He highlighted that there had been a number of extraordinary Forum meetings in the reporting year, focussed on the high profile child deaths of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and Star Hobson, in order for Forum members to assure themselves of their own safeguarding practices in response to cases of neglect. This had included reviewing the National Panel review of the cases and the Joint Targeted Area Inspection (JTAI) in Solihull. He explained the need for the Forum to be flexible and aware that a safeguarding issue could arise on a national scale that may need to be responded to. In relation to the executive partnership, Mike Howard felt fortunate that, in Brent, there was very stable membership of the partnership, with each partner understanding each other’s roles and approaching cases with the right attitude and without defensiveness or judgement. He felt confident that policies and procedures had been put in place following rapid reviews to ensure partners learned lessons, and reassured that the partners worked hard to reduce the likelihood of child death or injury in Brent.

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

The Committee highlighted the recent media coverage of a child in Rochdale who had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

To provide an update on the work across the Council and with partner agencies on Transitional Safeguarding.

Councillor Gwen Grahl (Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Schools) introduced the report, which provided an update on the work across the council and with partner agencies on transitional safeguarding.

The Chair thanked Councillor Grahl for the introduction, and invited comments and questions from the Committee, with the following issues raised:

In response to a query, the Committee were advised that any child in care was classed as a child in care up to the age of 18, after which the council had leaving care responsibilities to care leavers up to the age of 25. The Corporate Parenting Committee oversaw those arrangements.

The Committee highlighted section 4.20 of the report, which detailed an overlap between the Exploitation, Violence and Vulnerability Panel (EVVP) and Community MARAC, and asked whether there were any proposals to stop that overlap. Kibibi Octave (Head of Community Safety and Prevent, Brent Council) advised that both panels currently sat within different directorates and had different focuses. With Community MARAC, there was a very heavy anti-social behaviour element, looking at cases where the person was a risk to both themselves and potentially others. These cases were not bound by age limits, with many cases involving those able to have their own tenancy, shared accommodation or who were owner occupiers. In comparison, the EVVP had a different focus on the younger cohort, looking at criminal and sexual exploitation. When looking at the 18+ year old cohort, officers often dealt with integrated offender management cohorts which included those who were persistent perpetrators as well as people who may be transitioning. Those people may not have a criminal record but were vulnerable and had the potential to be pulled into violent crime and exploitation. For those reasons, she felt the differences between the panels were quite nuanced and that they needed to remain separate.

The Committee asked what officers perceived to be the biggest barrier in transitional safeguarding and in the transition to adult life. Phil Porter (Corporate Director Adult Social Care and Health, Brent Council) felt the biggest barrier was a lack of definition of the cohort involved. Some work had started to address that, with Nigel Chapman and Sonya Kalyniak (Head of Safeguarding and Quality Assurance, Brent Council) analysing the people coming through to understand the risks prior to 18, which would help ensure the support offered met those needs. Sonya Kalyniak added that, from a children’s perspective, the more that could be done to support young people as they prepared for turning 18, the more knowledge they would have about the resources they could access post-18.

The Committee highlighted that children leaving care were seen as a vulnerable cohort and asked how they were assisted into adult life. Councillor Grahl explained that the Council had more statutory obligations that the Council had towards care leavers than some other vulnerable young people. There was a good package of support for care leavers including housing support, employment support and a personal advisers co-designed with children and young people through  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

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.