Agenda and minutes

• Councillor Chohan
• Councillor Aden
• Archdeacon Catherine Pickford
• Nigel Chapman
• Rachel Crossley

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 Ketan Sheth – Lead Governor of Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust and governor at a number of educational settings.
• Councillor Ethapemi – governor for Brentfield Primary School
• Alloysius Frederick – Chair of governors for All Saints Trust, consisting of a number of Brent schools

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 held on 28 April 2025 were approved as an accurate record of the meeting.

There were no matters arising.

To enable members of the Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee to consider the Brent Safeguarding Adults Board (SAB) Multi-agency safeguarding arrangements annual report covering the period from April 2024 to March 2025.

Nicola Brownjohn (Independent Chair of the Brent Safeguarding Adults Board) introduced the Safeguarding Adults Board Annual Report which covered the reporting period from April 2024 to March 2025. She advised the Committee that this had been her first full year as Independent Chair, and her role was to support the Safeguarding Adults Board (SAB) in gaining assurance about the effectiveness of safeguarding arrangements for adults in Brent. She added this was done through various subgroups, focused on 3 strategic priorities agreed by the SAB in January 2024 which would continue until 2026. These priorities were; self-neglect; substance misuse and housing; and learning from Safeguarding Adult Reviews (SARs).

In outlining the activity for 2024-25, Nicola Brownjohn advised that the report demonstrated the work done to strengthen the governance of the Board through the development of additional subgroups such as a Performance and Audit Subgroup to look at data focusing on specific areas to inform the work of the Board. Outstanding SARs had now been completed, where there had been a backlog before she had joined, and partner agencies had come together to complete a self-assessment, as detailed in the report.

The Committee was advised that Nicola Brownjohn used appreciative enquiry to assure herself of arrangements, working with the three strategic partners – Integrated Care Board, Police and Adult Social Care – to look at what was working well and what needed improvement. Her reflections over the past year, as detailed in the report, were that the Board was working well together with good attendance at meetings, stronger governance, and more impactful learning from SARs with a better quality of reports coming through. For example, learning from Adult G’s SAR identified the need to utilise the High-Risk Panel more, which featured in some other SARs, and now there was evidence that the High-Risk Panel was being used well from a multi-agency perspective.

The last year, the SAB had begun development of a Community Engagement Project, looking at how to improve community voice on the Board, and Nicola Brownjohn expressed appreciation to Healthwatch for the work they had done to help that project progress. The past year, the SAB had also improved its focus on transitional safeguarding and identified 3 cohorts to focus on; those with additional needs, care leavers, and those at risk of exploitation. There was an aim to establish and embed transitional safeguarding into the work of the SAB the following year.

Claudia Brown (Director of Adult Social Care, Brent Council) agreed that the SAB was working well, with an increased number of subgroups, which was resulting in an improvement in learning from SARs. She assured the Committee that there were structures in place to deliver learning and feedback from various stakeholders outlining what they had done as a result of learning from SARs. Both Sue Sheldon (Assistant Director for Safeguarding, NWL ICB) and Will Lexton-Jones (Detective Superintendent – NW BCU Met Police) agreed and emphasised the improved learning from SARs.

In concluding the introduction, Councillor Neil Nerva (as Cabinet  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

To enable members of the Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee to consider the Brent Safeguarding Children Partnership multi-agency safeguarding arrangements annual report covering the period from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025.

Keith Makin (Brent Safeguarding Children Partnership Independent Scrutineer) introduced the Brent Safeguarding Children Partnership Annual Report which covered the reporting period from April 2024 to March 2025. He recognised from the discussion on the Safeguarding Adults Board Annual Report that the Committee would want more data and statistics included in future, which had been echoed by an LGA representative, and he would take that forward for future Annual Reports.

In introducing the report, Keith Makin advised that children’s safeguarding arrangements were made up of a 3-way partnership between health, the police, and the local authority, which was legislated in statutory guidance. The role of the partnership was to seek assurance on safeguarding, learning from local and national events through various means. To do that, a new data dashboard had been developed which was available to the various groups the partnership oversaw, aided by an audit software system called PHEW.

Over the past year as Independent Scrutineer, Keith Makin had been developing plans to work more closely with children and young people and bring their voices into the partnership. He hoped to develop a system of young scrutineers working alongside him to scrutinise the whole children’s partnership, and he had helped to introduce this arrangement in three other boroughs he worked with that Brent could learn from. The partnership was also working more closely with Community Safety, who were represented at the Safeguarding Children Forum and Case Review Group (CRG). The past year had also focused on ensuring Brent was compliant with Working Together 2023 guidance which partners were now assured of. This had resulted in some changes in governance to include Lead Safeguarding Partners who met twice yearly with high level representation from Brent Council’s Chief Executive, NWL Integrated Care Board’s Chief Executive, and the Borough Commander of NW BCU. Delegated Safeguarding Partners met more regularly as an Executive Group. The guidance had also recommended that partnerships treated education as a fourth partner, which the Delegated Safeguarding Partners were working to introduce, and education was well represented at the Safeguarding Children Forum. He advised members of the recent Online Safety Task and Finish Group that the Forum had established, which would be a priority for the next year, as well as developing data and analysis further, hearing the voice of children and young people, neurodiversity, particularly masking behaviours amongst young girls, and transitional safeguarding.

In concluding the introduction, Councillor Gwen Grahl (as Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Schools) highlighted the recent restructure of children’s social care in response to the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, which she felt evidenced how the Council and partners had responded to the recommendations of that. She felt there were strong professional relationships amongst the partnership with good professional curiosity, accountability and healthy challenge.

The Chair thanked the presenters for their introductions and invited the Committee to ask questions of the officers, with the following points raised:

The Committee asked how learning and behaviour change was embedded so that it led to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

To present the Scrutiny Recommendations Tracker to the Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee.

The Committee noted the recommendations tracker.

Notice of items to be raised under this heading must be given in writing to the Deputy Director – Democratic and Corporate Governance or their representative before the meeting in accordance with Standing Order 60.

None.