Issue - meetings

The Annual Report of the Devon. Safeguarding Childrens Board, charting progress within Devon of national expectations and safeguarding activity, is attached.

Chairman of the Devon Safeguarding Childrens Board, will attend to present the Annual Report and respond to any questions.

[NB: The Safeguarding Board Annual Report will also be available, in due course, at: http://www.devonsafeguardingchildren.org/].

(Councillors Connett and Dewhirst attended in accordance with Standing Order 25(2) and spoke to this item).

Mark Gurrey, Chair of the Devon Safeguarding Children Board, attended and spoke at the invitation of the Cabinet.

The Cabinet received the Annual Report of the Devon Safeguarding Children Board which charted progress within Devon against national expectations of safeguarding activity and provided a rigorous and transparent assessment of the performance and effectiveness of safeguarding activity over the preceding year, commenting upon the effectiveness of safeguarding arrangements in place across Devon.

This included the development of a challenge log in October 2016 with 26 challenges formally recorded during the period October 2016 to March 2017.

In addition, the Cabinet noted that the Board had been judged ‘inadequate‘ by Ofsted, and there had been a recognition that change was needed, so the Board was redeveloped with a new Executive and some additional sub groups.

The Board also sought to engage with and understand the broad safeguarding system across the County, became an early adopter’ of the core findings from the Wood Review, promotion of innovative ways of partnership working leading to a new unified model that changed the partnership culture and separated out commissioning and challenge functions and, finally, the integration of the statutory LSCB functions into the new partnership arrangements.

For the future, the Cabinet noted the new partnership arrangements with the Children, Young People and Families Alliance would be formalised, the delivery of the new Quality Assurance Framework, ensure all LSCB duties continued to be met across and respond to emerging Government legislation issued in the light of the Children and Social Work Act 2017.

It was MOVED by Councillor Hart, SECONDED by Councillor McInnes, and

RESOLVED that the Devon Safeguarding Children Board’s Annual report be welcomed, noting in particular the good work undertaken and the aspirations for the future.

[NB: The Safeguarding Board Annual Report would also be available, in due course, at:

http://www.devonsafeguardingchildren.org/].

The Annual Report of the Devon Safeguarding Children Board, charting progress within Devon of national expectations and safeguarding activity, will be circulated separately for information and discussion at this meeting.  The Report will also be presented to the People’s Scrutiny Committee on 17 November 2016.

Mr Mark Gurrey, Chairman of the Devon Safeguarding Children Board, will attend to present the Annual Report and respond to any questions.

[NB: The Safeguarding Board Annual Report will also be available, in due course, at: http://www.devonsafeguardingchildren.org/].

(Councillors Connett, Julian, Owen and Westlake attended in accordance with Standing Order 25(2) and spoke to this item).

The Cabinet received the Annual Report of the Devon Safeguarding Children Board which charted progress within Devon against national expectations of safeguarding activity and provided a rigorous and transparent assessment of the performance and effectiveness of safeguarding activity over the preceding year, commenting upon the effectiveness of safeguarding arrangements in place across Devon. That assessment had been informed by the Board’s Quality Assurance Framework and the 2015 Ofsted Inspection and recognised the involvement and contribution of all those agencies helping in improving safeguarding children practice in Devon.

The Annual Report’s content would also be examined by the People’s Scrutiny Committee in due course.

Mr Gurrey, Chairman of the Devon Safeguarding Children Board, attended and spoke at the invitation of the Cabinet, presenting the Board’s Annual Report and responding to specific questions on, inter alia, the recently published, innovative, Domestic Violence Strategic and on historic attendance at strategy and child protection conferences and information sharing generally. He also commented further on steps taken and being  taken to revise and enhance the Board's governance arrangements, to ensure a more pro-active, streamline and focussed approach have a more positive impact upon work to protect children and young people.

It was MOVED by Councillor Hart, SECONDED by Councillor McInnes that the Devon Safeguarding Children Board’s Annual report be welcomed, noting in particular the importance of all relevant agencies and partners participating fully in all relevant processes, attending meetings as required.

[NB: The Safeguarding Board Annual Report will also be available, in due course, at: http://www.devonsafeguardingchildren.org/

or at

http://www.devonsafeguardingchildren.org/documents/2016/11/dscb-annual-report-2015-16.pdf