Agenda item

4.1       The Committee considered a report outlining the learning from a Serious Case Review (SCR) undertaken during 2017/18 and a wider Learning and Impact Review undertaken by the Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB). The report was introduced by the Independent Chair of the LSCB, Reg Hooke, and the Head of Children’s Safeguards, Douglas Sinclair. They highlighted the associated learning (i.e. points not directly arising from the case but learning which arises from the additional scrutiny provided by a SCR). For example, the issue of non-attendance at school and whose responsibility it is to follow this up or undertake a welfare visit, particularly the circumstances in which the Police or Children’s Services should be involved.

4.2       The following points were made in response to the Committee’s questions:

·         The role of the child’s father was looked at as part of the SCR. The father had some substance misuse issues but was regularly seen at school. The child had indicated that the father was involved regularly but was not in a relationship with the mother and was not part of the household.

·         In relation to the role of the school, action was taken with regard to the child’s non-attendance. The child’s limp was presented as something she had always had and wasn’t a significant issue with regard to the child’s participation in school activities. The Committee was assured that the SCR did robustly investigate the school’s action and processes, and the LSCB was satisfied that the child did not stand out in a safeguarding sense.

·         The Committee received assurance that improvements have been made to communication between different agencies. There is now an integrated service for 0-5 year olds across Children’s Centres and Health Visiting and processes are significantly better with regard to the automatic transfer of records from the midwifery team and birth records to health visitors. The Assistant Director, Early Help and Social Care expressed confidence that the system would not have ‘lost’ the child in the same way had these improved processes been in place at the time.

·         The Learning and Impact Review looked at 147 recommendations across a series of reviews and identified a range of learning around key areas such as domestic abuse, ‘hidden’ children, safeguarding practice in schools and the complexity of working with large families (with three or more children). It was not always clear to see why a recommendation was made and the desired outcome - the SCR process has now been adapted to ensure this is clear. The Review has been discussed by the LSCB in order to identify changes to process and the SCR Action Plan has been signed off by the Board. A recommendations review process has now been built in after 1 or 2 years on to check their impact.

4.3       The Committee concluded that a key issue is having the ability to track a child across the system to ensure they don’t go off the radar. From a County Council point of view this is particularly relevant to health visiting.

4.4       RESOLVED to request that future reports on SCRs provide an update on the subsequent progress of the child and family where possible.