Issue - meetings

·         Report by the Director of Children’s Services.

22.1     The Board considered a report on the East Sussex Local Safeguarding Children Board Annual Report for 2017/18.

22.2     In response to questions from the Board the following key points were raised:

• There will be future workshops held on the Impact of Parental Health on Children and Young People. The issue of the impact of a parent’s mental health on children has been a focus of the Local Safeguarding Children Board for a while given the severe impact it can have.
• The Core Offer still commits East Sussex County Council to fund safeguarding activities. The 19/20 budget identifies some potential savings for the Children’s Services Department but they will not affect the safeguarding activity identified in the Annual Report.
• It is difficult to provide any link between poverty and the likelihood of safeguarding issues in children, due to there being so many other variables that contribute to safeguarding issues, for example, the quality of housing – which can lead to ill health through the presence of damp – and the amount of the household income spent on food for the child, e.g., the parents may choose to prioritise their child’s diet over their own.
• The prevention of criminal exploitation of children, such as through drug trafficking, is being addressed in part by East Sussex County Council, the police, and NHS organisations conducting monthly panels where concerns are raised about particular children at risk of any form of exploitation and plans are put in place to protect them. There have also been a number of successful actions to break up child exploitation gangs, although this often leads to the children being placed in secure accommodation for their own protection due to their often close relationship with their exploiters.

22.3     It was RESOLVED to note the report.

Report by the Director of Children’s Services.

13.1     Reg Hooke, Independent Chair of the LSCB, introduced the annual report and highlighted the LSCB’s priorities for the past three year period (as set out in paragraph 2.4 of the covering report and in more detail in Section 3 of the Annual Report).  Mr Hooke also drew the Committee’s attention to the revised version of the Department for Education’s guidance document, ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’.  The revised guidance was published in July 2018 and sets out new arrangements which require three safeguarding partners (the local authority, police and clinical commissioning groups) to publish new arrangements by the end of June 2019.  

13.2     A summary of the key points discussed by the Committee are set out below:

·       Home education.  The Committee asked for the LSCB’s views on the potential safeguarding risks for children who are home educated.   In response, the Committee were informed it is the LSCB’s view that there is a lack of regulation relating to this area.   As a result, this is a group of children which the LSCB and relevant stakeholders cannot be complacent about.   Given the lack of regulation, the Board’s focus has been on those children who are at most risk (for example, children who have been placed on a Protection Plan).

·       Impact of new arrangements for scrutiny.   In response to a query regarding the impact of the new arrangements, the Committee were informed that in terms of reporting to scrutiny, and for the time being at least, the process would remain unchanged.

·         Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE). The Committee asked for clarification as to how the LSCB measures the impact of its efforts regarding the multi-agency response to CSE.   In response, the Committee were informed that a number of different methods are used in this respect. One key tool is the examination of trends.  In this example, trends relating to the number of cases being moved from the ‘High Risk’ to ‘Low Risk’ category are used to help identify the impact of the LSCB’s measures.

·         Sexual offences against children data.  In response to a query regarding the figure of ‘500 sexual offences against children’ statement which appeared in an infographic in paragraph 2.4 of the Annual Report (page 55 of the agenda), the Committee were informed that the data relates to sexual offences reported to and recorded by the Police (not convictions).   Whilst the data does not reflect the total number of offences committed against children, it does provide an important picture of abuse committed against children. Trends in data may reflect increased public awareness and changes in policing, rather than an increase in incidence (Data also reflects the year in which an offence was reported, not the year it was committed, so a proportion of offences will be historic). 

·         Exploitation by organised crime groups.   The Committee asked for clarification regarding the steps being taken to combat the exploitation of children and young people by criminal gangs for the purposes of supplying drugs.   In response, Mr Hooke informed the Committee that this  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13