Agenda item

Report of Interim Strategic Director, Care Wellbeing and Learning

The Committee received the second monitoring report following last year’s review of child protection in Gateshead.  A number of recommendations came out of the review, including improving the availability of GP reports at Child Protection Conferences. It was reported that performance has not improved in this area, from April 2015 – March 2016, GP reports were provided to 70.4% of Conferences. However, between April 2016 and December 2016 this figure dropped to 61.7%. The safeguarding unit regularly monitors this with the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and meets quarterly. It was noted that this is a concern raised by the Local Safeguarding Board (LSCB) and work is ongoing to press the GP’s responsibility.

Another recommendation of the review was to identify which schools referrals are made from. It was confirmed that from April 2016 to December 2016, 150 referrals were made from schools, each school is now documented. This allows hotspots to be identified and schools can be fully involved in the child protection process.

Ofsted raised that child protection plans needed to more focussed on outcomes, therefore new plans have been designed based on findings. All Social Workers have been trained in the use of the plans and rolled out to health colleague. Refresher training is also held twice a year. It was questioned what was meant by outcomes and this was confirmed as a breakdown of issues relating to the individual child, for example; ensuring school attendance, attendance at appointments, referral to other services, which all would come under the umbrella of keeping safe. It was noted that Ofsted felt that outcomes needed to be more robust and this is what officers stated as an intention in terms of development work.

It was queried whether the drop in GP reports to Conferences was due to GPs not agreeing that a child is at risk. It was stated that this is not necessarily the case but rather that GPs are not fully involved in the process.  It was suggested that forms should be simplified to help GPs respond to more requests. It was confirmed that each form is different depending on the surgery which is responding. The suggestion was made that, as there is a statutory duty for GPs to respond, sanctions or fines should be given to those not responding. In addition, it was proposed that the LSCB should look at the possibility of other ways of GPs responding, for example an online response. It was agreed that the points would be taken up with the CCG and LSCB.

Committee was advised that the ‘MOMO’ (Mind of My Own) app and software continues to be used for young people to send their views to conferences. It was also noted that development is underway on ‘MOMO Express’ which is for children with communication needs, this has been piloted by Grove House pupils.

RESOLVED    -           (i)         That the Committee noted the progress achieved in the

seven months since the last report in September 2016.

                                    (ii)        That the Committee noted the measures in place to

make or sustain improvements.

                                    (iii)       That the Committee was overall satisfied with the level

of progress to date, but that its comments around GP conference reports be taken up with the LSCB and CCG.