Agenda and minutes

The following apologies for absence were received:

·           Councillor Colwill

·           Councillor Shahzad

·           Lesley Gouldbourne (Appointed observer)

·           Ms Sotira Michael (Appointed observer)

Members are invited to declare at this stage of the meeting, any relevant disclosable pecuniary or personal interests in the items on this agenda.

Councillor Ketan Sheth declared that he was a lead governor at Central and North West London (CNWL) National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust.

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

There were no deputations received.

To approve, as a correct record, the minutes of the previous meeting held on Tuesday 10 July 2017.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the previous meeting, held on 10 July 2018, be approved as an accurate record.

None.

To receive and consider the 2017/18 Annual Report from the Brent Local Safeguarding Children’s Board (LSCB).

Mike Howard (Independent Chair, Brent Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) presented the report which outlined the activities of the Brent LSCB in the period from 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018. He reminded Members that the LSCB’s role was to coordinate and monitor the effectiveness of the services which were provided to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people in the Borough. Mr Howard emphasised that the LSCB did not commission or deliver frontline services and each partner agency maintained their individual accountability as per Section 11 of The Children Act 2004.

Members heard that the LSCB had four priorities for 2017-18 – domestic abuse; neglect; child sexual abuse; and child and parental mental ill health. Throughout the year, the LSCB had carried out a range of activities to address these priorities which had been outlined in Section five of the annual report (pages 26-46 of the Agenda pack). The Board had been successful in involving new partners – four new lay members had been recruited which had improved the LSCB’s links with the local community. With various backgrounds, all of them were Brent residents who had an interest in working with children. In addition, the Board’s involvement with many of the Borough’s schools had been improved. Mr Howard said that he had spoken to 60 senior heads at a development day at Stonebridge Primary School and had addressed a schools’ conference earlier in the year. He reported that many schools had participated in a recent Section 11 audit which had enabled them to identify the strengths and weaknesses of their safeguarding arrangements.   

Mr Howard expressed concern that the Board had not made sufficient progress in performance management which had been one of the areas identified as requiring improvement during the 2015 Ofsted review of the effectiveness of Brent LSCB. One of the reasons for this was the fact that many agencies had decided not to collect and analyse data due to a lack of resources. Gail Tolley (the Council’s Strategic Director of Children and Young People) clarified that this did not mean that data would no longer be available - statutory partners would continue to collect data; however, the challenge would be to combine it together. Overcoming this would require distinct resources to fund a Data Analyst post which had not been found in the budget for the year ahead. This view was supported by Duncan Ambrose (Brent CCG’s Assistant Director) who confirmed that while all health providers commissioned by the CCG supplied data, analysing it to understand what the numbers meant in the context of Brent remained challenging.  

As far as training was concerned, the LSCB was reviewing its training offer in order to maximise its efficiency. The Board remained keen to deliver multiagency training as it allowed staff from various organisations to understand safeguarding from a collective point of view. Despite the negative effect of staff shortages and budgetary pressures, the LSCB had been able to deliver a very successful training event in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

To receive and consider the 2017/18 Annual Report from Brent’s Safeguarding Adults Board (SAB).

Michael Preston-Shoot (Independent Chair, Brent Safeguarding Adults Board (SAB)) introduced the report which provided a summary of safeguarding activity carried out by Brent SAB partners across social care, health and criminal justice in response to the priorities of the Board as out in paragraph 3.4 of the cover report (page 54 of the Agenda pack). Mr Preston-Shoot commented on four sections of The Care Act 2014 which were closely related to the functioning of the SAB:

·         Section 42 – Enquiry by local authority – Members heard that the Board had continued to receive data relating to number of notifications made to the Local Authority and it had scrutinised this information against the information available on National Health Service (NHS) Digital. Findings had indicated that performance in the Borough was better than in other areas, but the Board recognised that there were outstanding challenges related to understanding modern slavery, self-neglect and human trafficking. Furthermore, there were ongoing issues raised by family members and partners relating to feedback they had received following a notification. These were often linked to the standards of adult safeguarding in care homes and the Board continued to monitor the situation.

·         Section 43 – Safeguarding Adults Boards – Mr Preston-Shoot reminded Members that it was a duty for the Local Authority to have a Safeguarding Adults Board with three statutory partners being members – the Local Authority, the Police and the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). He said that while he did not have concerns about the membership of the Council and the CCG, there had been ongoing issues related to the engagement of the Police. Mr Preston-Shoot informed Members that he had raised these with a number of senior police officers and he had participated in a three-way discussion with Mike Howard (Independent Chair, Brent Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB)) and Carolyn Downs (the Council’s Chief Executive). Mr Preston-Shoot said that he was hopeful that the situation would improve once the tri-borough policing arrangements came into force. However, while the Board’s the engagement of the National Probation Service had been intermittent, the SAB was working well with Trading Standards and the Department for Work Pensions.  

·         Section 44 – Safeguarding Adult Reviews – In 2017-2018 the Board had conducted four reviews which examined different cases. A key concern that had been identified related to care settings that had been classified as housing rather than residential or nursing care as there were gaps in the system for protecting adults from risk. Mr Preston-Shoot added that he was also concerned about some local authority and CCG placements, in cases where the host authority had not been notified that it would receive a placement from outside its boundaries.

·         Section 45 – Supply of information – Mr Preston-Shoot noted that the Board had not had to use its powers under Section 45 to demand information from stakeholders. The SAB had been successful in establishing a performance management framework and analysing heath performance data from the two NHS Trusts operating the Borough. One of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

This report seeks approval to the establishment and scope of a Scrutiny Task Group to review contextual safeguarding.

The Chair introduced the report which recommended Members of the Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee to set up a Task Group to review contextual safeguarding. He referred Members to the Scoping Paper (page 87 of the Agenda pack) which outlined the model of contextual safeguarding as developed by academics.

The Committee noted that the Task Group would be chaired by Councillor Hylton, with Councillors Patterson and Donnelly-Jackson being confirmed as Members.

RESOLVED:

(i)    The contents of the Children, Young People and Contextual Safeguarding Task Group report, be noted;

(ii)  The contents of the Children, Young People and Contextual Safeguarding Task Group report and scoping paper be agreed; and

(iii)A Task Group with the terms of reference and membership outlined in Appendix A be set up.

Councillor Farah left the meeting at 8:02 pm

This report updates Members on the Committee’s Work Programme for 2018/19 and captures scrutiny activity which has taken place outside of its formal meetings.

The Chair informed Members that the communication he had had with Public Health England in relation to cases of measles had been included as an appendix to the report for information (page 105 of the Agenda pack).

He also sought the Committee’s agreement to schedule to additional meetings to consider the inspection report published by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) on the London North West Hospitals Trust (LNWHT) and the authority’s preparation for being the London Borough of Culture in 2020.

RESOLVED:

(i)    The contents of the Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny Work Programme 2018/2019 Update report, be noted; and

(ii)  The Scrutiny Officer and the Governance Officer, supporting the Committee, be authorised to schedule two additional meetings to discuss the matters raised by the Chair.

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

None.