Agenda and minutes

There were no Declarations of Interest made by Members at this point in the meeting.

The minutes of the previous meeting of the Children and Young People’s Social Care and Services Scrutiny Panel held on 27 September 2022 were submitted and approved as a correct record.

The Partnership Manager will be in attendance to present the STSCP’s Annual Report 2021/22.

G Watson, Partnership Manager – South Tees Safeguarding Children Partnership, was in attendance at the meeting, accompanied by S Butcher, Executive Director of Children’s Services, to provide the Panel with an overview of the local partnership arrangements for safeguarding children, the work undertaken by the Partnership and to highlight areas of significance within the 2021/22 Annual Report.

The Panel was informed that the South Tees Safeguarding Children Partnership (STSCP) was established in 2019 in response to changes to the multi-agency safeguarding arrangements introduced in the Children and Social Work Act 2017.  It succeeded the Middlesbrough Local Safeguarding Children Board and the Redcar & Cleveland Safeguarding Children Board (LSCBs). The STSCP was a formal partnership between the two South Tees Local Authorities of Middlesbrough and Redcar and Cleveland, Cleveland Police and North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board.  The Partners had a shared ambition to improve the lives of the most vulnerable children in their area, many of whom faced multiple disadvantage.

Middlesbrough Council was the host for the STSCP, as outlined in the legal agreement establishing the Partnership.  The STSCP Executive was the key decision-making body and consisted of the Executive Leads of the four statutory partners.  During the period covered by the annual report (1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022), the arrangements included:-

·        Meetings with Key Partners Chief Officers, chaired by the Chief Executive of Middlesbrough Council.

·        Meetings at Executive level to set the strategic direction for the Partnership.

·        Partnership meetings attended by the executive leads of the four statutory partners and the broader partnership, chaired by an Independent Chair.

·        Sub groups and task and finish groups.

The Panel was advised that representation on the STSCP’s Executive had been extended to include the Directors of Education from Middlesbrough and Redcar and Cleveland and work was ongoing to extend this further to include the Director of Public Health for South Tees.

The Working Together (to Safeguard Children) 2018 guidance described the features of effective multi-agency safeguarding partnerships.  Local arrangements must support and enable local organisations and agencies to work together in a system placing the child at the heart of the process and aimed to ensure:-

·        Children were safeguarded and their welfare promoted.

·        Partner organisations and agencies collaborated, shared and co-owned the vision for how to achieve improved outcomes for vulnerable children.

·        Organisations and agencies challenge appropriately and held one another to account effectively.

·        Early identification and analysis of new safeguarding issues and emerging threats.

·        Learning was promoted and embedded in a way that local services for children and families could become more reflective and implement changes to practice, informing the local approach to prevention.

·        Information was shared effectively to facilitate more accurate and timely decision making for children and families.

The Panel was informed that the STSCP had four key priorities:-

·        VEMT (Vulnerable, Exploited, Missing, Trafficked) - The aim was for children and young people to be free from the risk and harm of exploitation, going missing or being trafficked.

·        Neglect - The aim was to reduce  ...  view the full minutes text for item 22/21

The next meeting of the Children and Young People’s Social Care and Services Scrutiny Panel was scheduled to take place on Monday, 14 November 2022 at 10.30am, Mandela Room, Town Hall.

Overview and Scrutiny Board Updates

The Chair referred to an issue raised recently in another Scrutiny Panel regarding the Overview and Scrutiny Board updates provided to individual Scrutiny Panels and confirmed that consideration was being given as to how this could be improved in terms of providing Members with more detailed information arising from the Overview and Scrutiny Board meetings.

Audio Equipment

In addition, a Member of the Panel wished to formally minute a request for a suitable audio system to be introduced in all Committee Rooms to ensure that all guests were able to hear and participate fully in meetings.