Issue - meetings

27.1     The Board considered a report on the East Sussex Safeguarding Children Partnership (ESSCP) Annual Report for 2022/23. Chris Robson, Independent Chair, East Sussex Safeguarding Children Partnership introduced the report outlining the key learning and achievements together with the future priorities for the ESSCP. He commented that East Sussex has a very mature and highly functioning partnership, with the local authority providing a good culture of challenge and support.

27.2     Alison Jeffery, Director of Children’s Services commented that she would like to record her appreciation of the support given by Chris Robson in his role as Independent Chair.

27.3     Members of the Board discussed the report and noted their support and thanks for all the work set out in the report. The Board commented that the number of sexual abuse offences outlined in the report was high and asked if there was anything that could be done to reduce or mitigate against the number of offences occurring. Councillor Maya Evans observed that some people who are abusers have been abused themselves and that therapy and other interventions can help to tackle this.

27.4     Alison Jeffery responded that sexual offences against children occur in a variety of forms. Some are within the family and there is work taking place on adult substance abuse which is linked to this, as well as the opportunity for therapy. Where there is abuse between children and young people, schools are doing a good job to help them understand the expectations of respect and consent where there is peer on peer sexually harmful behaviour.

27.5     The Chair recorded the thanks of the Board for the work of the ESSCP and the Annual Report.

27.6     The Board RESOLVED to receive and note the East Sussex Safeguarding Children Partnership Annual Report for 2022/23.

14.1     The Independent Chair of the East Sussex Safeguarding Children’s Parentship presented the Annual Report to the Committee. The Chair outlined that the report showed the partnership work between East Sussex County Council, Sussex Police and the NHS, in East Sussex to safeguard children and stated that the report provided assurance about the good work taking place. The Chair noted the strong culture of support, learning and challenge across the Partnership, as well as the exceptional senior leadership team in Children’s Services.

14.2     The Chair outlined key findings from the report and highlighted the key priorities of the Board, including safeguarding in education, child exploitation, embedding a learning culture and safeguarding under-fives.

14.3     The Chair informed the Board about upcoming legislation changes, with the possibility that Education could become a fourth strategic partner.

14.4     The Sussex Police Exploitation Manager provided an update to the Committee on the recruitment of an exploitation team as requested by the Committee last year. The Committee heard that this new team was responding to all forms of exploitation, including child exploitation, and noted the good engagement at a partnership level, including with the new restructured Safer Panel.

14.5     The Committee asked questions and made comments on the following areas:

·         Whole family support and wider information sharing - The Committee asked about wider support offered to families when a child is identified as a victim of crimes such as domestic abuse and sought assurance that adults involved were referred to other agencies. In response the Chair noted that there was a good system in place to work with the whole family and share information between professionals and although the police would deal with certain investigations, they were aware of the wider impact of crimes on families and the community. He also noted the preventative measures in place, including Early Help and social workers to prevent incidents; current work included working with ‘invisible’ or ‘unseen’ men to engage fathers with safeguarding issues to reduce incidents with very young children. The Committee asked about the number of fathers who had harmed their child (compared with other men in the family); the Head of Children's Safeguards & Quality Assurance replied that in a sample study conducted by the National Safeguarding Children Panel, the perpetrator was the biological father of the child in most cases.

·         Young People in custody – The Committee asked for more information on young people in the youth justice system, including those held in overnight police custody. The Chair of the East Sussex Safeguarding Children’s Parentship told the Board that there was a Youth Justice Report which explored these figures in more detail.

·         Mental Health – The Committee were concerned about the number of children needing mental health support. The Director of Children’s Services said that information published by the provider trust SPFT showed an increase in the number of children being seen, but also a steep increase in referrals. She noted, too, that there was also a high non-attendance rate for appointments which CAMHS were working  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14