Annual Report 2014-5 - Meetings, agendas, and minutes - Stockport [PDF]

Stockport Safeguarding Children Board

Annual Report 2014-5

This Annual Report is a public document. It can be accessed on the website of Stockport Safeguarding Children Board: http://www.safeguardingchildreninstockport.org.uk/practitioners/aboutus/?view=Standard. Approved by SSCB on 23 November 2015 Independent chair: David Mellor Report written by: Una Hagan, David Mellor Date of Publication: 27 November 2015 Contact details: Una Hagan, Performance and Development Manager Stockport Safeguarding Children Board c/o Safeguarding Children Unit Sanderling Building Birdhall Lane Stockport SK3 0RF 016 474 5657 Sources and verification: Documentation from Stockport Local Authority and referenced where applicable Availability and Accessibility: If you would like to receive this report in any other format please contact Una Hagan - address above. Acronyms: A glossary is contained in Appendix 1

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Foreword by Independent Chair This annual report enables Stockport Safeguarding Children Board (SSCB) to be held to account for its work during the year 2014/15. The information in the report is also provided to enable a view to be taken on the effectiveness of arrangements for safeguarding children and young people in Stockport. For most children and young people, Stockport is a fine place for them to grow up and flourish. This is not the case for all children and young people and so it is vital that arrangements for safeguarding children in the borough are highly effective and very well coordinated – which is the reason for the Safeguarding Children Board’s existence. The effects of austerity have been mitigated in Stockport through the continuing commitment of partner agencies - including careful redesign and restructuring of services, vigilant risk management and a high level of personal commitment by colleagues from across the safeguarding children workforce. However it was very pleasing to note that Stockport Children’s Services secured the investment of over £3m from the Department of Education Social Work Innovation Fund which was established to encourage innovation and re-design of service delivery in order to achieve improved outcomes and better value for money. This money has been put to use in creating the Stockport Family model which is described in more detail later in the annual report. A key characteristic of the new model is that social workers are now operating in localities, working much more closely with colleagues in other spheres, particularly schools, in order to prevent concerns about children escalating. This has the potential to be a much more effective way of working and much more efficient in terms of reducing the need for the multitude of referrals which have hitherto been a feature of the system for safeguarding children. This model is underpinned by a “restorative approach” which is often defined as resolving conflict by repairing harm done to relationships. The Stockport Family model is intended to improve outcomes by intervening effectively and earlier and provide better value for money by reducing the number of children who need to be “looked after”, some of whom currently require very expensive placements. The SSCB entirely supports the philosophy and aims of the Stockport Family Model but will fulfil a “critical friend” role at important stages in the implementation of the model to obtain assurance that outcomes are being achieved and any risks are being well managed. This funding, and the imaginative use to which it is being put, has provided a real boost to the safeguarding children agenda in Stockport. However, austerity has not gone away and partner agencies and the “whole system” for safeguarding children continue to operate under strain. As partner agencies undergo significant redesign and some services are recommissioned, it will continue to be necessary for the SSCB to assure itself that none of these essential changes put children and young people at risk. For that reason the Board retains a standing agenda item which allows partner agencies to share information about the changes they are making in order to operate within diminished budgets. Last year the SSCB commissioned a highly experienced independent reviewer to help us reflect on the lessons emerging from Operation Windermere, the jointly-led Police and Children’s Social Care operation which resulted in men accused of grooming young women for sexual exploitation receiving substantial terms of imprisonment. During the year covered by this annual report we published the findings of the independent review which has been invaluable in helping us check that the wide range of measures we have put in place to tackle child sexual exploitation are as effective as possible. This report contains details of a Page | 3

series of challenges posed to the Safeguarding Children Board by the independent review and also sets out how we have responded to them. Finally it is worth noting a workshop held in November 2014 at which colleagues from both the safeguarding children and safeguarding adults workforces were brought together to explore common concerns and to identify areas in which we might collaborate more effectively together. A key area of mutual interest relates to the safe transition of young people into adulthood, which for some vulnerable young people is a very challenging period in their lives. Proposals from the workshop were turned into a bid to the Department for Education which decided to fund a project to help both the Safeguarding Children Board and the Safeguarding Adult Board gain assurance that the risks involved in transition to adulthood are clearly articulated and addressed as fully as possible. I would like to end by again paying tribute to the quite exceptional dedication and commitment of countless colleagues across the borough who work unstintingly and very caringly to safeguard our children and young people.

David Mellor Independent Chair

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Stockport Safeguarding Children Board (SSCB) Contents Foreword

Independent Chair’s Foreword

3

Section 1

Statutory and Legislative Context

6

Section 2

Local Context

14

Section 3

Quality and Effectiveness of Arrangements and Practice including Effectiveness of Early Help

17

Section 4

Progress on Priority Areas - What did SSCB achieve last year?

20

Section 5

Sub Group Activity

20

Section 6

Development of our Learning, Scrutiny and Challenge

27

Section 7

Priority Groups of Children

28

Section 8

Managing Allegations

33

Section 9

Engagement with and Participation of Children

33

Section 10

Equality and Diversity

34

Section 11

SSCB Effectiveness, Contribution and Challenge

34

Section 12

Statement of Effectiveness of Local Safeguarding Arrangements

36

Section 13

Conclusion & Recommendations for Future Priorities and Business Plan

38

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SECTION 1 - Stockport Safeguarding Children Board - Statutory and Legislative Context Introduction The purpose of this Annual Report is to review the work of Stockport Safeguarding Children Board (SSCB) and to provide an outline of the main activity and achievements of SSCB from 1st April 2014 to 31st March 2015. It seeks to make a transparent assessment of the performance and effectiveness of safeguarding activity in Stockport. The report seeks to identify gaps in services and any challenges ahead. The publication of this report also provides the means by which SSCB can be held to account. This Annual report will be made available to the Chief Executive, Leader of the Council, the Police and Crime Commissioner and the Chair of the Health and Wellbeing Board as required by government guidance. 1 It will also be available for public view through the SSCB website. The report considers priorities set within the SSCB business plan for 2014-15, progress made against these priorities and areas for further development. Working Together 20151 outlines the two primary statutory objectives of Local Safeguarding Children’s Boards which are: 

To co-ordinate what is done by each person or body represented on the Board for the purposes of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children in the area of the authority. To ensure the effectiveness of what is done by each such person or body for that purpose.



Every LSCB has a range of statutory functions: 1.

a. Developing local safeguarding policy and procedures in relation to:      

The actions to be taken where there are concerns about a child’s safety including thresholds for intervention. Training people who work with children or in services effecting the safety and welfare of those who work with children. Recruitment and supervision of those who work with children. Investigation of allegations concerning persons who work with children. Safety and welfare of those who are privately fostered. Cooperation with neighbouring children services authorities and their Board partners.

b. Communication to persons and bodies on the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, raising awareness of how this can be done. c. Monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of what is done by partner agencies. d. Participating in planning of services for local areas. e. Undertaking reviews of serious cases and advising the Authority and Partners of lessons to be learned. 2.

LSCB’s should:  Assess the effectiveness of the help being provided to children and families including early help. 1.

Working Together to Safeguard children HM Government March 2015 https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/419595/Working_Together_to_Safeguard_Children.pdf

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 Assess whether partners are fulfilling their statutory obligations set out in Working Together 2015.  Quality assure practice including through joint audit of case files and identifying lessons to be learned.  Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of training including multi-agency training to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. LSCB’s do not commission or deliver frontline services though they may provide training. LSCB’s do not have the power to direct other organisations but they do have a role in making clear where improvement is needed. Each Board Partner service has a management line of accountability for safeguarding.

Governance and Accountability Arrangements The Independent Chair, David Mellor, has been in post since July 2010 and his role is to provide oversight, accountability and challenge to the work of SSCB. SSCB agreed that the Chair should be in place for only one more term i.e. until July 2016 after which he can no longer be seen as ‘independent’. The role of the chair is governance and accountability; scrutiny function and public engagement. Chairs are required to have leadership skills, the ability to challenge others, establishing and maintaining good relationships across agencies and independence. There has been an exponential growth in the work of Chairs as a result of the changes to the Ofsted inspection programme, the desire for improvement through peer review, the expectations of Chief Executives and the need for reassurance on national issues such as Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE), Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) etc.2. SSCB members understand their roles which were restated last year through the Statement of Commitment. The Independent Chair aims to meet with all new SSCB members prior to their first meeting as part of the induction process. Information about SSCB is made available for all new members. SSCB has had a standing item for agencies to report areas of risk within their agency as a result of the impact of changes. Examples of discussions held under this item include the changes in service delivery by agencies such as the Probation service, the voluntary sector and the Integrated Children’s Service, SSCB introduced a risk log in the last year to monitor areas of risk to the safeguarding system which were highlighted. Items included this year were the low numbers of staff available to the Multi Agency Training pool, the low numbers of referrals into the Multi Agency Child Sexual Exploitation process, and the rise in domestic abuse referrals into the Multi-Agency Safeguarding and Support Hub (MASSH). The items remain on the log until they are resolved and provide a useful way for the Chair to challenge agencies on their arrangements.

Members and Attendance Statement of Commitment A new Statement of Commitment was approved in 2013-2014 which included member’s commitment to attend 80% of the SSCB meetings or send another representative. The target expectation for 80% attendance at Sub Groups was also agreed but members have struggled to achieve this – operational duties are cited most often as the reason for non-attendance. This impacts on the fair spread of the work, but also the contribution of partner agencies to making the work truly multi-agency. This was 2

Review of current arrangements for the operation of LSCB’s. Research in Practice and Local Government Association May 2015 http://www.local.gov.uk/documents/10180/6869714/RiP_Review+of+current+arrangements+for+the+operation+of+LSCBs__May_2015.pdf/5940 af9c-7ae5-4346-84b8-655c30b291c7

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subject to scrutiny at SSCB in January 2015 and added to the Risk Register for the Board. It will be reviewed in September 2015. Attendance Attendance at SSCB and sub groups is monitored. The chart in Appendix no 3 shows that overall attendance is good at Board level and that the services are generally well represented. The Independent Chair is committed to seeking explanations from members where attendance is not up to expectation. Attendance at sub groups is not so robust and, as previously stated, reasons for non-attendance are most often need to cover operational duties and capacity. The Chair expressed concern with this situation and urged partners to improve attendance. In the last year we have welcomed replacement members from Education, NHS England, Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust, Greater Manchester Police, National Probation Service and the Community Rehabilitation Company. SSCB has had one consistent lay member who re-joined after a period of illness. Her perspective has been valued and she has contributed to a Stockport Family event and has joined one of the planning groups. A second lay member remained with us for 6 months until her work schedule made attendance impossible. At the time of writing a new lay member has been recruited who brings a great deal of professional experience and her lay role will be developed over the year with particular reference to community engagement. Structure Chart The diagram below demonstrates the ‘fit ‘of Stockport Safeguarding Children Board into local arrangements but also the Sub Groups who act as the ‘engine’ of the Board where the actions of the Board take place or are overseen. SSCB Structure Chart Lead Member for Children's Services & Chief Executive

Stockport Safeguarding Adults Board

Health & Wellbeing Board

SMBC Scrutiny Committee

Children's Trust Chair - Corporate Director, Services to People

Learning & Improvement Panel Chair - Service Director

Safer Stockport Partnership Chair - Superintendent GMP & Chief Executive

Implementation subgroup Chair - Head of Safeguarding & Learning

Quality Assurance & Performance Management sub-group Chair - Senior Nurse

Audit & Monitoring sub-group Chair - Performance & Development Manager

On-line Safety subgroup Chair - SSCB Training Manager

Policy & Practice subgroup Chair - PVI Sector Rep

Training sub-group Chair: SSCB Training Manager

Child Sexual Exploitation Strategic sub-group Chair - Children's Social Care Service Manager

Children at Risk subgroup Chair - Youth Offending Head of Service

Child Death Overview Panel Independent Chair

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SSCB Team The following personnel are in place to support the work of SSCB:  Jane Connolly - Head of Service Safeguarding and Learning has strategic oversight of the work.  Una Hagan - Performance and Development Manager, responsible for coordinating the SSCB’s work.  Tina Cooper - Business Support to the various strands of SSCB work.  Helen Harrison - SSCB Training Manager, responsible for Multi-agency safeguarding training and development. The Head of Safeguarding and Learning has responsibility for the oversight of the Independent Reviewing Officer team, SSCB team, the Senior Safeguarding Advisor for Education, Workforce Development, the new Participation and Engagement team, and Children’s Rights Service. This has offered the opportunity to review the work of the SSCB team and already the benefits have been demonstrated in relation to quality assurance and integration of learning and training. A comprehensive Business plan to integrate all the functions of the Unit has been established and regular reports will be provided to the Quality Assurance & Performance Monitoring (QA&PM) sub group to support strategic oversight of safeguarding work. Resources – Finance To function effectively SSCB needs to be supported by member organisations with adequate and reliable resources. The budget for SSCB is made up of contributions by member organisations and the business plan has been formulated to ensure the work of SSCB can be achieved within budget. A financial report comes to SSCB bi-annually. The total budget to support SSCB activity in 2014/5 was made up as follows:

Contributions received CAFCASS Stockport NHS Foundation Trust GM Police Probation NHS CCG YOS Subtotal Income from training Local Authority Contribution

550 4,000 13,800 3,333 32,000 8,000 61,683 820 112,599

Total Income £175,102 Expenditure Staffing costs LSCB Business & Performance Manager (incl.on -cost) LSCB Training Manager (incl. on-cost) Staff training Independent Chair Subtotal Other costs LSCB training costs LSCB conference venues and refreshments Travel costs Printing

60,657 58,558 120 16,902 £136,237 6,113 3,532 33 409 Page | 9

Windermere Review Contribution to purchase of Kwango e-learning Tri X – GM Procedures Contribution to CDOP Contribution to MASE Administrator Conference Attendance Telephones Subtotal

5,670 1,000 860 13,795 5,706 1,262 485 38,865

TOTAL EXPENDITURE

£175,102

External Governance Arrangements The Chair attends the Safeguarding Accountabilities Group of the Council alongside senior Elected Members and Officers of the Council. Lines of accountability and reporting exist between the Independent Chair, the Director of Services to People, the Children’s Trust Board (SCTB) and the Service Director for Children’s Safeguarding & Prevention. Ofsted also scrutinise LSCB’s as part of the Inspection into Local Authority arrangements3. Stockport Local Authority had its last inspection in February 2012 when the grading received was Adequate. A comprehensive plan for improvement was put in place overseen by the Service Improvement Board chaired by the Service Director - Safeguarding and Prevention. Inspection and Review Reports Key external inspection reports are received at the main SSCB meetings but are part of the Quality Assurance function and external governance. They provide evidence from regulatory bodies about whether safeguarding is at a good standard. Inspection reports were received in relation to the following agencies: Stockport Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG): A review took place in December 2014 and involved CCG, Stockport NHS Foundation Trust and Pennine Care Foundation Trust. As this was a review not an inspection no formal grading was given. The inspectors noted some positive practice particularly in relation to multi agency working and links with Social Care colleagues. They also noted improvements in the LAC service in comparison to the previous inspection in 2012. The inspectors made a number of recommendations predominately linked to ensuring consistency and embedding processes in practice. Greater Manchester Police: The National Child Protection Inspection of Greater Manchester Police was carried out in July 2014. It noted that safeguarding practice was inconsistent across the Force but that it had a strong commitment to improving safeguarding practice. For Stockport the following areas for improvement were highlighted 

Considerable delays in assessing risks and planning with children’s social care services and other agencies to protect children and meet their needs. This was particularly so for cases involving domestic abuse incidents that occurred at weekends.



The Stockport CSE the team was wholly reactive, resulting in limited intelligence gathering and work to deter and arrest suspects.

3

Framework and evaluation schedule for inspections of services for children in need of help and protection, children looked after and care leavers. December 2014 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/inspecting-local-authority-childrens-services-framework

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Stockport Police representatives presented an action plan to SSCB to improve these areas which will report in the coming year. Stockport Police representation at the SSCB has been good. Representation at key sub groups has been much improved over the past year. Youth Offending Service: The rate of reoffending in Stockport is dropping at a faster rate than the national average. Substantial improvement was acknowledged in risk of harm work. Very good practice was acknowledged with looked after children, working relationships between YOS and care homes. Key strengths were noted as multi-agency work, case managers’ understanding of and work done with children and young people, and assessment of the reasons for offending. Areas for improvement included management oversight in ensuring the timely completion of good quality assessments and plans, the planning of work to reduce the vulnerability of children and young people and engagement with them to plan for support in the effective delivery of the sentence and their clear understanding of changes needed. Relationship with Children Trust Arrangements Stockport has maintained a strong Children’s Trust arrangement which is responsible for the delivery of Children’s Trust Strategic Plan. At the time of writing, this year’s plan was not published. The Chair of the Children’s Trust is the Corporate Director of Services to People, Andrew Webb, who is also a member on SSCB. The SSCB Independent Chair sits on the Children’s Trust and several other members sit on both Boards. This level of representation ensures that a safeguarding perspective is maintained throughout the whole strategic agenda for children and young people and the avenues for challenge are open. The SSCB Implementation Sub-Group is responsible for the ‘Staying Safe’ agenda of the Children’s Trust on a thematic partnership level and reports on identified areas. The Memorandum of Understanding between the Health and Wellbeing Board, the Children Trust, the Safeguarding Children Board and the Safeguarding Adults Board was introduced in order to ensure clarity of roles and accountability. The SSCB Annual Report is presented to each of these Boards and provides them the opportunity to make constructive challenge and develop common ground. Relationship to Other Partnerships Several members of SSCB sit on the key Partnership Boards in the Borough; the Safer Stockport Partnership, the Place Board and the Stockport Partnership Board. Some members of SSCB also sit on the Safeguarding Adults Board. David Mellor continues to sit as the Independent Chair of the Safeguarding Adults Board as well as SSCB. This ensures that an overview of the different agendas is in place. The Independent chair and other key members of the SSCB also sit on the Safer Stockport Partnership and members of the Partnership links to the SSCB though membership of the CSE Strategic Forum. There is a shared interest in Domestic Abuse, the Prevent Strategy and work related to organised criminal gangs. Child Poverty Strategy SSCB continues to be represented on the Child Poverty strategy group by the Performance and Development Manager. Concerns relating to child poverty are particularly pertinent for safeguarding of children with economic deprivation being a potential factor in the risk of maltreatment. The rising numbers of families accessing assistance from the 7 Foodbanks outlets in Stockport starkly demonstrate this economic deprivation. Lack of security of housing and employment for families also produces increased risk around safeguarding children. Additionally there is increased risk for homeless young people aged 16-17 who Page | 11

are still entitled to services from children’s services. Family Justice Board Stockport Local Authority is represented on the Greater Manchester Family Justice Board by the Corporate Director, Services to People. A task group has been established to review placements of Looked After Children analysing reasons for delay including use of experts, numbers of adjournments, late filing etc. in order to make recommendations as to how to improve performance. Issues are reported back to SSCB as required. Education Partnership Safeguarding in education has been supported by a safeguarding advisor for a number of years, but the engagement with SSCB has been underdeveloped. This engagement has been enhanced by the new Director of Education. A new Safeguarding Accountability Framework was established for the sector. Most of the work streams overseen by the Director of Education provided separate audits in respect of their safeguarding children arrangements under Section 11. Each of these audits was moderated by the QA&PM Sub Group in turn, with some actions to strengthen arrangements put in place. Education establishments have a safeguarding aspect within their Ofsted Inspection regime. A programme of self-evaluation against Safeguarding Standards was completed in 2014 to offer assurance that schools had arrangements in place. The response to this was very slow and consequently a new process is currently being developed. The aim is to create two separate tools. One is an in-depth self-assessment to help schools comprehensively assess and plan their approaches to safeguarding - this will be a voluntary document. The second tool will be a shortened version of the previous tool with a view to gathering key information about safeguarding4 in a succinct and relevant format. Schools have also had training workshops on Female Genital Mutilation and Preventing Violent Extremism to support an on-going agenda nationally in Education settings. This has also been offered to the independent schools network. Greater Manchester Safeguarding Partnership The Partnership is attended by the Head of Safeguarding and the Performance and Development Manager in her capacity as chair of the Business Manager groups. Examples of initiative this group has led on are:      

Greater Manchester Safeguarding Policy and Procedures this is supported by a GM Policy and Practice group attended by the Performance and Development manager and a Service Manager for Integrated Children Service. Greater Manchester Safeguarding Board quality assurance and data set. The eventual aim is to be able to compare across Greater Manchester LSCB’s. Independent Chairs task and finish group to consider a funding formula. This did not result in a successful outcome, given disparity of organisational arrangements and in-kind contributions. Serious Case Review Training for prospective new independent reviewers. Support to Project Phoenix to achieve consistency for child sexual exploitation work across Greater Manchester. Scrutiny on the use of PACE beds (Police and Criminal Evidence Act provision - emergency accommodation for young people charged with offences requiring bail places).

The Partnership publishes an annual report: http://www.gmsafeguardingchildren.co.uk/

4

Section 175 157 Education Act 2002 requirements for safeguarding

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New Policy Direction for Stockport The Stockport Family Model The Department for Education (DfE) Social Work Innovation Fund granted Stockport £3.2 million to implement an ambitious whole system change in the delivery of social care at reduced cost. Stockport Family aims to restore the family, building on their strengths, with the expert assistance of a motivated workforce, supported by whole system training in restorative approaches. The aim is to break the intergenerational nature of underachievement, disadvantage and emotional deprivation in some families, which will be achieved by all staff taking a whole family approach to their interventions. Stockport is in the midst of reorganizing a whole system change across services to embed the new approach. The Stockport Family model will be delivered through all mainstream services. Every agency providing a service to children and families is being offered a three day training programme to embed a restorative approach to their work with children and families. Social workers in locality teams will be available to support the wider workforce to differentiate between struggling and harmful families and will promote restorative approaches to supporting families find their own solutions. In time, social workers will sit with colleagues in the Integrated Children’s Service (ICS) and operate as one multi-disciplinary service, with designated links to local services delivering interventions to children and families. All schools within the local areas will have a nominated social worker. Referrals from schools, which are the second highest rate after the Police, will be routed through these nominated workers and schools will have increased confidence in the response from social work colleagues in the contact centre in relation to requests for advice, support and decision making. This will help to reduce the reactive nature of some of the referral activity. Similarly health colleagues and others working within ICS will have access to the social work skills and experience (and vice versa) to enable facilitative consultations to support help to children and families rather than making referrals. The SSCB is a stakeholder in supporting the change in key safeguarding services, and acting as a ‘critical friend’, with a watching brief on unintended consequences for the safeguarding system. There are clear implications for both the early help services and statutory social work, with challenges for all partner agencies. The overarching aim is a reduction by 2017 in costly court proceedings. This could represent up to a 20% decrease in the Looked after Children population with associated cost reductions from expensive external placements. It is also hoped to achieve a reduction in children placed on Child Protection plans (from the baseline taken on 1st September 2014) and a reduction in the number of children coming into care from a family where a child has previously been removed. The outcomes for children and families should be:  Fewer family breakdowns.  Better health outcomes for children and families.  Better educational outcomes for children.  Reduced crime and anti-social behaviour. The success of the model will be evaluated by user satisfaction, family care, health outcomes, educational outcomes, crime, and value for money and professional confidence. The evaluation is led by TNS SMRB, a leading social research agency, and SSCB will scrutinise interim reports carefully in the role of ‘critical friend’. Stockport Targeted Prevention Alliance and Alliance for Positive Relationships Developments in commissioning in the Local Authority resulted in the Targeted Prevention Alliance, in place from 1st July 2015, as part of the Investing in Stockport borough-wide initiative. The approach aims to provide a faster, more co-ordinated and consistent response across preventative services. The result should be an improved 'journey' for the individual, with a greater emphasis on finding solutions and early help, and better informed services delivering intervention at the right time. Page | 13

Services for domestic abuse, services for people with mental health difficulties and substance misuse issues which effect parental capacity will all sit within this service largely located within the adult service arena. Clearly there needs to be strong links with the children’s workforce to safeguard children from the impact of these issues. It was recognised that domestic abuse work required improved strategic coordination and oversight, and this has been subject to a full review. The findings were reported to SSCB in September 2014. Work on the ground in Stockport in general is recognised as being very good across a range of services but the review identified the need for a whole systems approach to domestic abuse in Stockport with a clear need for more preventative, earlier identification and support. The approach is called the Achieving Positive Relationships (APR), the governance of which is under the Supporting Families Board. Core elements of the approach include:     

A shift towards prevention through earlier identification and support. Support for perpetrators. Integrated referral pathways and commissioning for complex alcohol misuse and mental health services with domestic abuse services. Awareness raising. An integrated prevention strategy and business plan.

Domestic abuse data will be provided for the SSCB dataset for scrutiny in relation to the impact on children and SSCB will maintain a keen interest in the effectiveness of arrangements over the coming year.

SECTION 2 - Local Context Demographic context Stockport is considered to be a 'typical' district in the country, closest to the national average across a range of indicators. It is an area of relative affluence, but there are polarities of need within neighbourhoods with small areas that rank within the 2% most and 2% least deprived in England5. The resident population of Stockport is 285 032 people There were 67,500 children and young people under the age of 20 (0-19 years) in 2014 which make up 23.7% of the population of Stockport. Based on Office of National Statistics mid-year population estimates there has been a 5% reduction in the 019 population between 2001 and 2014. However, the 0-4 population has increased by 8%. The population is predicted to rise over the next 10 years with a rising birth rate and rising aged population. Stockport is less ethnically diverse than the national average with 92% of the population identifying themselves as white in the 2011 Census compared to 86% nationally. Over time the diversity of the population is increasing and the number of people identifying themselves as from a Black or Minority Ethnic Group (BME) almost doubled from 2001 to 2011, to 22,500. The percentage of Stockport’s school aged population who are from a BME background has increased by 2.1 percentage points over the last 2years. 15.7% of pupils were from a BME background in January 2015 compared with 13.6% in January 2012. Stockport has seen an increase in both the Muslim population and people of no religion over the last decade. On the whole these populations are younger than average.

Deprivation On the whole, the health and well-being of children in Stockport is generally better than the England average. The infant and child mortality rates are similar to the England rates. Stockport’s child poverty rate as at August 2012 was 14.6%6. The local child poverty measure is calculated using child benefit data, out of work benefits and tax credits data. Importantly, this measure 5

Stockport Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) 2011). This report is presently being updated and information to inform the updated report was provided by Public Health

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relies on finalised tax credits awards to provide complete information on family income and circumstances for the entire year. Therefore, there is a two year lag on the publication of this measure due to the availability of finalised tax credits data. Whilst Stockport has lower child poverty in comparison with the national figure and the Greater Manchester figure, the percentage decrease from the preceding 5 years of 5.8% was lower than the same comparators. Free school meals Based on the January 2015 school census, 5,400 children in Stockport were registered as entitled for free school meals. On the census day, January 2015, 4,400 children took their free school meal entitlement. 22.9% of referrals to Children’s Social Care during 2014/15 involved children who were eligible for Free School Meals. The Authority is continuing to work hard to ensure families who are entitled to take up free school meals are doing so.

Other Context Data Two Year Old Entitlement In relation to the 2 Year Old Entitlement to funded early education, the take up of free nursery places for 2 year olds for those on low income, remains good, particularly in areas of high deprivation. Recent take up figures of nearly 90% was achieved across the Authority- much higher than the national average. This demonstrates high numbers of families benefitting from quality early education, which is proven to improve outcomes for children. Young Carers At the end of March 2015 Signpost Young Carers was in contact with 369 young carers, and providing support packages to 301 young carers and their families. 47 Young Carers and their families are in the TAC process and 5 were on a Child Protection Plan. Children with a disability Stockport has 3496 children recorded as having a disability. 27.9 of those are classed as Children in Need - slightly lower than the national average. 25 children were placed on a Child Protection Plan in the year. Young offenders In 2014-5 there were 140 offenders known to Youth Offending service which compared to 182 the previous year. The figure for new entrants in March 2015 was not available. However at March 2014 there were 66 first time entrants, there were 70 in 2013 and 71 in 2012. For comparison in 2011-2 there were 126 new entrants. Hospital admissions In 2014-5 there were 911 admissions to hospital as result of injury which is higher than previous years and is growing year on year. In 2013-4, there were 841 admissions to hospital as a result of injury and in 2012-3 there were 777. The figures for Stockport are consistently higher than the national figures. Significant Safeguarding Data The following data is a sample of that collected for the SSCB data set: 1.

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On 31 March 2015 there were 243 children subject to Child Protection plan. This has dropped considerably from 358 on 31 March 2014, but is still considerably higher than the rate 4 years ago. It is now more in keeping with the national rate.

HMRC published data 2012

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2. The numbers of those who are in care remain consistent at 299 on 31 March 2015 and also below the national average. Of these children 157 were newly received into care. On the same date there were 270 children from other areas placed in Stockport residential care establishments. 3. There were 4481 referrals to the Supporting Families Pathway compared with 3769 the previous year. 4. There were 2899 referrals to Children Social Care. This figure was higher than the previous year (2746) and is rising year on year. 5. In 2014-5 there were 722 child protection investigations (Section 47) carried out where there was high risk of significant harm. This was broadly consistent with the national average ( in 2013-4) 6.

Children in need numbers fluctuate slightly every year but remain below the national average. At the end of 2014-5 there were 1684 Children in Need compared with 1596 the previous year. There were 1696 CAF’s completed that were logged onto the recording system. These are early help assessments.

7. Children who are privately fostered – rates are very poor despite concerted efforts to raise awareness. This appears to be a national trend. In 2014-15 year there were only 2 cases reported – in 2013-4, only 1 child. In previous years we have had as many as 8 children. 8. Domestic abuse where children are witness to it remains a significant problem in Stockport . The number of referrals to the Police to the MASSH (Multi Agency Safeguarding and Support Hub) was 1972 last year slightly lower than the previous year. The number of children that were subject of a referral to the MASSH as a result of safeguarding concerns rose to 893 from 824 the previous year. This is as a result of increased awareness and training in the Police about the impact of domestic abuse on children. 243 of the cases heard at MARAC (Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference - where the most high risk offenders are considered and safety plans made) had children in the families. 9. The numbers of parents who live with children entering drug treatment remained quite stable at 368, whilst 343 were in alcohol treatment, and increase of 50 from the previous year. 10. The number of those children who are in receipt of a therapeutic service from MOSAIC service in 2014-5 due to parental drug misuse rose slightly from 85 to 94. 11. The number of young people entering substance misuse treatment with MOSAIC has doubled from 44 in 2013-4 to 98 in 2014-5. 12. There were 98 incidents recorded by the Police which were related to Child Sexual Exploitation. The numbers referred into the Multi agency Sexual Exploitation procedures rose from 37 last year to 46 this year. 13. In 2014-15, the number of children recorded as being missing from the family home was 278. The number missing from care is recorded as 133 children. (care home data for the previous year is unavailable so a comparison cannot be made). 14. The number of children recorded as missing from education was 5 children on 31.3.2015. 15. In 2014-15, 78 referrals were made to the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) under the Allegation Management arrangements - a drop from the previous year (2013-14) when there were 93 referrals.

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SECTION 3 - Quality and Effectiveness of Arrangements and Practice including Effectiveness of Early Help ‘Vulnerable children and families in Stockport have access to a range of universal services which are 7 effective in delivering positive outcomes’ CQC

Early Help Activity and Developments in the Multi Agency Safeguarding and Support Hub Stockport has been evolving their multi agency safeguarding and support hub (MASSH) since the launch of the Supporting Families Pathway in 2011. This has paved the way for a rigorous response to screening the needs that present at the MASSH for children and young people. Cases screened through the Supporting Families Pathway are quality assured by a senior practitioner to ensure that decisions are sound and that the screening tool has been used appropriately to best support the child and family. “Multi agency safeguarding arrangements as part of the Stockport supporting families’ pathways are effective in ensuring joined up working between agencies and health disciplines to achieve best outcomes for children, young people and their families” 8.CCG Review Since November 2014, cases deemed not to require a statutory response are discussed in the Integrated Children’s Service Allocation Panel. This is to ensure that in such a multi-agency service that the case is allocated to the most appropriate lead professional. That case is then managed by use of a CAF or TAC plan to support the needs of the children. It is pleasing to see the level of CAF activity in Stockport with many agencies now using CAF’s. The quality of CAF’s is monitored through multi-agency audit, where variable standards have been seen. Improvements required include consistency in the quality of assessments across the multi-agency network, the inclusion of fathers and consistent recording of the voice of families. A Strategic Steering Group oversees this work and quarterly data is presented to the Quality Assurance and Performance Management Sub. SSCB multi agency audit had also identified these themes, as well as new areas for improvement such as such as managing complex families. The role of the Lead Practitioners in these families is seen as essential. These themes were picked up for inclusion in the training programme which supports CAF/TAC. Training is provided online with classroom based workshops to support practitioners develop their skills. There continue to be challenges in the use of CAF as an assessment for support at a lower level of need and the Team around the Child (TAC) process. Having recognised that the CAF is often used as a referral to try to get a referral into Children Social Care, a great deal of emphasis has been put into training to ensure quality assessments are produced to identify the needs of the child. In response to agency feedback, a new referral form for Children Social Care is planned to try and address this difficulty.

Levels of Need/Threshold The levels of need or thresholds were revised, and then re-launched in Jan 2014. The overall purpose is to make sure children and families get the help they need when they need it at the right level. This document assists practitioners to work out the services to help children and families thrive. It is not understood how well these thresholds are understood by partner agencies. The Levels of Need document sits alongside the Stockport Family approach which encourages greater family generated solutions.

7

Review of Health services for Children Looked After and Safeguarding in Stockport. Care Quality Commission 2015

8

Review of Health services for Children Looked After and Safeguarding in Stockport Care Quality Commission

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http://www.safeguardingchildreninstockport.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/stockport-levels-ofneed-and-visual-ttool-july-2013.pdf

Integrated Children’s Service The Integrated Children’s Service became fully operational on 8 November 2014. This is a joint service across Stockport NHS Foundation Trust and Stockport Council, designed to change the way public sector organisations offer services across the whole public service system. The intention is to build a new integrated preventative and universal service model for Stockport, based on evidence for good quality early intervention and prevention. The services coming together to form ICS included: Children’s Centres; Early Years; Family Nurse Partnership, Family Support Teams; Health Visiting; Mosaic Young People’s Substance Misuse Service; Parenting; School Nursing; Services for Young People; Youth Offending Services. As the service moves into the new Stockport Family Model the following has happened:  Weekly allocation meetings have provided a framework that supports the swift allocation of cases that are submitted via the MASSH to the Integrated Children Service. This has given opportunity for an agreed approach to the identification of the most appropriate professional to make initial engagement with the family to do a holistic assessment.  Opportunities have been created to discuss best practice and learn from experiences of colleagues around the table. The introduction of the ICS Quality Assurance and Performance Framework has brought together good practice across ICS to give clarity to expectations of quality assurance activity and consistency across the whole service. Reports are submitted to the Quality Assurance and Performance Management Sub Group.

Child Protection There has been a reduction in the number of Section 47 enquiries and Initial Child Protection Conferences undertaken in 2014/15. 722 Section 47 enquiries were undertaken in 2014/15 compared to 664 in 2013/14. 346 Initial Child Protection Conferences were undertaken in 2014/15 compared to 426 in 2013/14. Our rate of Section 47 enquiries per 1,000 0-17 year olds is now much lower than the national rate. The number of referrals to children’s social care in 2014/15 increased by approximately 200 compared to 2013/14. During the same period, the number of referrals to the Supporting Families Pathway also increased by approximately 700. 30% of the children who were referred to Social Care in 2014/15 were also referred to the Supporting Families Pathway in the same year. During the last 12 months there has been a significant change in the outcomes of social care referrals. During 2014/15, 19% of referrals resulted in social work duty actions and 74.4% resulted in a social work assessment. In 2013/14, 11.5% of referrals resulted in social work duty actions – that is they needed some further enquiries - and 83.2% resulted in a social work assessment. There has also been a longer term change in the reason for referrals to social care. In 2014/15, 34% of referrals were for abuse or neglect and 52% of referrals were for family dysfunction. In 2011/12, 57% of referrals were for abuse or neglect and 24% were for family dysfunction. The children’s social care re-referral rate has increased from 20.2% in 2013/14 to 21.8% in 2014/15 The increase in referrals is considered to be likely to the number of service changes and the implementation of the coming together of the Integrated Children Services and Stockport Family. It is recognised that change does create an impact, but the impact is consistent with that seen elsewhere in the Northwest who are undergoing redesign. This aspect of data is carefully monitored and a quality check on referral decisions is undertaken regularly. In addition a research partner on Stockport Family will carefully analyse the emerging data over the coming months to assess the evidence for change. Page | 18

For neglect cases the use of the Graded Care Profile is recommended as an initial baseline assessment tool to identify areas to be addressed and then revisited to show improvement or lack of movement. The local procedure to promote this tool is being revised and SSCB wants to see evidence that this tool is being used more regularly. Training around neglect is provided through the SSCB multi-agency training programme. Supplementary workshops to support practitioners with skills in completing Graded Care Profile are also available as a multi-agency option and also as bespoke sessions for individual services on request. A priority for the SSCB last year, assurance has been received through audit and data that that the response at the point of referral for services is robust and has made enormous strides into ensuring that children get the right service at the right time early in their journey through services.

Child Protection Plans Data on children who are neglected or physically, sexually or emotionally abused is provided to Heads of Service on a regular basis and multi-agency data is scrutinised on a quarterly basis by the SSCB Quality Assurance and Performance Management Sub Group. Trends and patterns are reported to the SSCB and to the Senior Leadership Team and plans are put in place to further interrogate or address issues. The number of children subject to a child protection plan has reduced considerably across all categories. The end of year 2014-15 figure was 242 compared to 358 children on Child Protection plans in 2013-14. Most plans are in respect of emotional abuse which incorporates elements of domestic abuse or neglect. Very few plans were made for sexual abuse or physical injury. Categories of Child Protection Plans on 31.3.2015 Emotional Abuse

127

Neglect

110

Physical injury

1

Sexual Abuse

4

TOTAL

242

The reduction in Child Protection Plans reflects the move to managing risk more effectively with partners and greater confidence in the on-going provision of support following the formal launch of the Step-down procedures. It is felt that the reduction also reflects the greater role of the Independent Reviewing Officer (IRO) in offering consultations. It remains important however to remain vigilant about whether children do require a Plan to keep them safe. Children who become subject of a child protection plan for a second or subsequent time within a 2 year timescale has increased from 10% in 2013-14 to 19.3% in 2014-15. The national rate and our statistical neighbour average was 15.8% in 2013/14. The Plans are reviewed regularly for appropriateness of the decision making by the Operational Manager of the Safeguarding Children Unit. However the reason for this increase not fully understood is likely to be linked to large family groups. Consequently further research has been commissioned, led by an experienced Independent Reviewing Officer to try and understand this issue. Cases where children are neglected or physically, sexually or emotionally abused are managed through established CAF/TAC/CP and LAC processes as described in the levels of need document. The Stockport Family approach will provide an opportunity to refine processes based on quality collaborative working rather than rigid adherence to agency thresholds. Page | 19

One of the key priorities for the SSCB as set out in the business plan for 2014-15 is to act as a critical friend to the Stockport Family approach to ensure that children are effectively safeguarded during this period of transition. Embedded researchers from the Stockport Family evaluation partner will also feedback on patterns and trends and the voice of service users and carers to allow quick implementation of changes that might be required to practice.

SECTION 4 - Progress on Priority areas - What did SSCB achieve last year? Last year SSCB had 4 priority areas for work which were set out within the Strategic Priorities Document 2012-15. The work of the Board is largely carried out, or overseen by the Sub Groups and partner agencies to support Multi agency work. The following points give a flavour of the work that was achieved last year on the priority areas.

1. Identifying the demand on services and ensuring quality of provision.      

Development of multiagency data set following Greater Manchester developments. Strengthened quality assurance and performance management Sub Group. Audit of Pathways for children with parental substance misuse. The independent review of CSE completed. New Quality assurance Framework for recently established Integrated Children Services. SSCB Support and Challenge event for Stockport Family.

2. To focus on safeguarding issues for young people with specific vulnerabilities.  Pathway for Self Harm for Education led by Public Health.  Work with partners including schools faith and community sectors to increase the awareness of CSE and promote prevention.  New CSE strategy and action plan.  Contribution to New Belongings and planning for vulnerable looked after children

3. To address the impact of adult behaviour on the welfare of children  Neglect – development of outcome measures identified through Public Reform work (Susan Claydon)and measuring outcomes.  Involvement with LARC 6 research into working with neglect in communities.  FGM training for Education sector. 4. To      

improve the effectiveness of safeguarding services. Development of partner agency contribution to Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub. New Strategic Sub Group for CSE with new named lead from Children Social Care. New Domestic Abuse and CSE team located at MASSH. Shared seminar with Adults Safeguarding Board members around identifying best practice re transitions. Introduction of Learning Events to promote learning from reviews and audit. E-learning promoted to include CAF and TAC training.

SECTION 5 – Sub Group Activity The Sub Groups are responsible for delivering the functions of SSCB as outlined above.

Implementation Sub Group The Implementation Sub is responsible for co-ordinating the work of the Sub groups and monitoring the SSCB business plan. The sub group is largely made up of senior operational managers who are responsible for translating the SSCB priorities within their agencies. This Sub group also receives information and safeguarding reports from other avenues. The sub group is also responsible for oversight of the communication function. Page | 20

The following provided detailed reports or presentations on safeguarding arrangements to the Implementation Sub in the past year which fell outside formal Section 11 arrangements:                 

Arrangement for children with disabilities and Special Education Need. The Virtual School arrangements. Multi Agency Safeguarding and support hub (MASSH). North West Ambulance Service. NHS England. Fire and Rescue Service. Community Rehabilitation Company. Project Challenger. Signpost Stockport Young Carers. IRO Annual Report. I HOP - children of prisoners. Accidental injuries Action Plan. Integrated Looked After Children Board. Domestic Homicide Reviews. Preventing Violent Extremism and gang related activity. Anti-bullying activity. CAFCASS Annual report Safeguarding.

Each identified actions to improve the development of their safeguarding arrangements in a time of shrinking resources and capacity. The other sub groups are responsible for the following functions:

Training Sub Group The Training Sub Group provides a detailed overview of single and multi agency safeguarding arrangements for training across the Authority Training Sub continues to be well represented and well-attended by colleagues from partner agencies. It maintains oversight of the multi-agency training programme and receives updates on single agency safeguarding training. The multi-agency training programme follows an academic year; Training Sub produces an annual training report which is presented to the main board and then posted on the SSCB website. http://www.safeguardingchildreninstockport.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/annualreport1314finalwebsite.doc The annual training report provides an overview of attendance at courses, single agency training and how training is making a difference to practice especially with regards to improvements identified through the Learning & Improvement Framework. Training is essential in ensuring practitioners and managers have the necessary skills and knowledge to deliver the safeguarding arrangements, promote good multi-agency practice and where possible address gaps in knowledge. The programme is a blend of classroom based sessions and online learning. The classroom based sessions are made up of a mixture of half day, full day and two day components; all courses are regularly updated to ensure that the content reflects up-to-date research, local learning and arrangements. The online learning is delivered through various providers. Domestic Abuse Awareness and Basic Awareness Child Abuse & Neglect are provided by Virtual College through an AGMA contract; this is a differentiated option based upon the learners contact with children. Mental Capacity Act training is provided by Kwango and workers are encouraged to access national provided online learning as appropriate e.g. the Home Office FGM package. The core programme is mainly delivered by a Training Pool of experienced staff drawn from across partner agencies. Some courses are commissioned from external consultants with proven expertise Page | 21

and knowledge of the subject area. Recruitment to the training pool is an ongoing process and board partners are very supportive as they view this as a good development opportunity for their staff. Learning events It was identified last year that SSCB must get much better at disseminating information and learning, so that learning produces the required change and embeds into practice. Consequently in 2014-15 there was the introduction of Safeguarding Learning Events to better disseminate local learning from Multi-Agency learning Reviews (MALRs) and multi-agency audit as part of the Learning and Improvement Framework. Safeguarding Learning Events also provide an opportunity to update on national and local learning from research. They are two-hour briefings that are to be held termly and act as cascade events; delegates are expected to share the resources with colleagues and then report on this activity to the Training Manager. The first events were held in March 2015 and 65 people attended the sessions from across SSCB partner agencies. Initial feedback was very positive: “I thought it was a great morning could have discussed the issues all day! I thought the case followed by activity helped focus and bring the story to life.” Health participant “I think the session was very well put together. It format ensured engagement and discussion around the table, it was useful for me as we had people from different agencies and services on our table which I think is crucial for sharing and learning.” Probation (NPS) participant “Good format. I found the stories very comprehensive.” Housing participant

Policy and Practice Sub Group This Sub Group is responsible for the provision of policies, procedures and guidance for multi-agency arrangements, to protect children and promote their welfare The Greater Manchester Safeguarding Policies and Procedures have been effective in providing consistent guidance across the conurbation. Policies provide essential guidance but do not in themselves protect children. Protection of children requires professional judgement in responding to concerns in a multi- agency network. We have evidence that people do always not automatically go to policies when they encounter an unfamiliar situation and we need to constantly remind people of the role of policies in their work. The governance of these procedures was delegated to the Greater Manchester(GM) Policy and Procedure Group, which is a multi-agency group coordinated by the GM Partnership Coordinator. A representative from Integrated Children’s Service, and the Performance and Development Manager attend this group for Stockport. The policies are updated twice yearly and the changes are highlighted on the home page. Individuals can sign up for alerts for updates and this is encouraged. The local Policy and Procedures sub group sits quarterly and is chaired by the Voluntary sector representative on SSCB. The role of the group is to maintain local multi-agency procedure, and to monitor effectiveness of the use of policies and whether they are ‘fit for purpose’. An exercise was completed in the autumn where the use of 4 policies was explored and evaluated as needing some small changes. These changes were fed into the GM Policy group. Examples of work in the last year are:  Self-harm guidance for Schools was completed by Public Health. This is presently being amended for the multi-agency network and then for the GM policies – capacity has delayed this.  Escalation policy - completed by local rep for GM Policy and Procedure Group.  CSE procedure including MASE process - this local procedure is presently under revision again as processes develop.

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The use of on line policies has been welcomed as it has meant that policies are updated frequently. A helpful bonus is that we have many more policies and guidance in one place that would have been the case previously.

Quality Assurance and Performance Management Sub-Group This sub group has responsibility to oversee quality and effectiveness of arrangements and practice. Multi Agency Quality Assurance activity The Quality Assurance and Performance Management (QA&PM ) Sub Group has undergone major review and development in the last year and made good progress at implementing the Quality and Assurance Framework which was developed in 2013. The Sub Group is Chaired by the Designated nurse for the Clinical Commissioning Group, who is also the Vice chair of the SSCB. Strengthening this area of work was a key priority for SSCB last year: 

Data set enhanced. We have worked on developing the multi-agency data set to capture data to be less reliant on Local Authority data only. There is still work to be done - particularly to capture Health data.



Scrutiny of that data results -further information has been gained from relevant professionals to support the narrative around the data. Examples from the last year have included the following: o Domestic abuse an increase in referrals through the Contact Centre and through the Supporting Families Pathway was noted, and the consequent increased effect for Children’s Social Care, where the increased level of presenting need requires a Social Work Assessment. o An increase in Child Protection Plans - linked to the increase in referrals and the increase in Section 47 enquiries undertaken. A report scrutinising this data had been taken to the Local Authority Scrutiny Committee and concluded that the cases going to Child Protection Conferences were appropriate. There is a close watching brief in this area. o Reported domestic abuse incidents continue to rise, and concern was expressed about agency’s capacity to respond to the needs of children. o MASE figures – low levels of referrals over two Quarters.



Exception reporting to SSCB, highlighting areas of concern and areas of good practice.



Section 11’s are completed and moderated on a 2 year rolling cycle by the QA&PM Sub Group and reported to SSCB through the Chair’s highlight and exception report to SSCB. This year we considered: o o o o o o o

Stockport Foundation Trust. Education Psychology. Behaviour Support Service. Education Access Service. SEN team. Children’s Social Care. Safeguarding Children Unit.

A number of gaps were identified through these audits for example lack of knowledge about safeguarding structures in their own organisation, the location of safeguarding policies and procedures, and training issues for staff who transport children. Agencies are asked to complete action plans where there are gaps and report to Quality Assurance and Performance Management sub group on completion.

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Single Agency Safeguarding Audits Single agency audits are regularly received from   

Children Social Care. CAF TAC audit. ICS will report in 2015.

In addition there were a number of other audits reports last year   

Journey of the Child Multi agency audit - 4 interim reports and an overview report. Thematic Review - statutory visits to children subject to a CP Plan. Foundation Trust - safeguarding CAF/TAC Audit.

Audit and Monitoring Sub Group This group reports to the Quality Assurance and Performance Sub. The group is responsible for two areas of work: 1. Updating and monitoring the Progress of Action Plans as a result of reviews. Agencies are required to provide evidence of the completion of actions and the implementation of recommendations to the Group. Final Completed action plans are presented to the QA&PM Sub for sign off, before being reported to the SSCB. Serious Case Review recommendations return to the SSCB for sign off. 2. Multi agency audit - Journey of the Child Multi-Agency Audit Our multi agency audit programme over the last year has involved an in depth look at 20 randomly selected cases to look specifically at whether the child was getting the right service at the right time. This involved a multi-agency audit group looking at cases on four days over the year, where agencies bring their own files for discussion and scrutiny. Practitioners are encouraged to attend and add value to the quality discussions. It was proposed that audit activity would take place quarterly on an age cohort at a time to look at:      

A Looked After Child. A Child Protection case. A Team Around the Child case at Level 2 or 3 of the Level of Need. A Team Around the Child case which had been stepped up or down though the level of need; Every cohort included a child with a disability. Other themes such as neglect, CSE, substance misuse and domestic abuse were included.

This is not an audit on case files – that is for the individual agencies - but rather a discussion on the quality and timeliness of service that the child and family received. The audit can only be indicative given the small number of cases scrutinised but gives us a picture of what is happening in the multiagency network, and therefore is particularly useful when triangulated with other quality assurance work. The audits found evidence that in the majority of cases the child got what was needed at the time. There was evidence generally of good multi agency working, quality of assessment and voice of the child which was pleasing. Further attention needs to be given to the quality of plans particularly in TAC and the processes around the step down process. Where there were large families in TAC it was difficult for the lead practitioner to manage the TAC which met all the needs of the children, and where the sample case was not the main subject of the referral there were examples of that child not getting a full holistic assessment as good practice dictates. Nevertheless, despite the small sample size the ‘window' provided into multi agency practice was positive. The audit reinforced the view which has emerged in other work that multi agency work is Stockport is good and that effort to include the voice of the child are robust in work with children and families.

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Learning and Improvement Panel The Learning and Improvement panel is chaired by the Head of Safeguarding and Learning and is scheduled bi -monthly to consider cases which are referred for further scrutiny. It includes consideration of cases which have been notified to Ofsted, or cases where one of the agencies requests that a case warrants Multi-Agency Learning Review to learn lessons. Serious Case Reviews Should the elements of a case reach the statutory threshold for a Serious Case Review a Serious Case Review Panel meeting is held which is chaired by the Service Director. There were no new cases meeting the criteria for a Serious Case Review Panel. However following a decision to conduct an independent Review of the learning from Operation Windermere, a joint Police and Children’s Services investigation into CSE, in Jan 2014, this was underway in the year. The independent case review used a systems approach to explore the CSE arrangements in the Authority. This review was completed in September and signed off by SSCB in November 2014. Having made arrangements to share the findings with the participants it was published on SSCB website in January 2015. This review posed 9 challenges to Stockport about its arrangements: 1. Is the CSE strategy giving sufficient clarity in regard to priorities or direction in the allocation and use of resources? 2. Is the MASE giving sufficient value for money in identifying intelligence about children vulnerable to CSE and about perpetrator threat and activity? 3. Is the CSE strategy sufficiently focused on the threat of CSE other than from gang related or organised networks? 4. Who is providing the leadership and oversight of CSE strategy and action across the local education community? 5. Is Stockport Safeguarding Children Board confident that referral pathways and assessments are working effectively enough in regard to children vulnerable to CSE? 6. Is Stockport Safeguarding Children Board confident about arrangements for other local authorities proposing to place a child in Stockport? 7. What plans do Stockport Safeguarding Children Board have for more direct contact and consultation with children and young people regarding their experience of services and development of policy and strategy? 8. What particular lessons are to be developed in giving confidence to boys as well as girls about disclosing CSE? 9. Are the proposals to amalgamate CSE and domestic abuse realistic in terms of workload and providing sufficient clarity and focus to either? These challenges were accepted as appropriate and were incorporated in the new CSE Strategy and Action Plan: http://www.safeguardingchildreninstockport.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/cse-strategy.pdf (also see the Section on CSE below.) Work on improvement on the CSE response is well underway. Multi agency Learning Reviews (MALR’s) Multi-Agency Learning Reviews are one of the main tools that the SSCB has to assess practice as they provide opportunities to review practice in detail from a multi-agency perspective. The aim is to review a case quickly and collaboratively to identify shortfalls in practice and put actions in place quickly to improve the safeguarding system. They can also be used to look at good practice.

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Four Multi-Agency Learning Reviews were carried out in 2014-5 which looked at the following areas of practice:    

Neglect. Teenage mother. Non accidental injury of a baby. Parent with learning difficulties having a second child.

These reviews have a significant influence on practice particularly as we seek to involve practitioners and operational managers in them where possible. The recommendations from these reviews are monitored by the Audit and Monitoring Sub Group and we seek to have the recommendations completed within six months. The learning from these reviews is disseminated through SSCB and Implementation and Training Sub Groups.

Child Death Overview Panel (CDOP) Stockport, Trafford and Tameside Tripartite Child Death Overview Panel (CDOP) reviews the deaths of all children and young people to look for trends and issues of public health, with a view to taking action to prevent future child deaths and to improve the health and safety of the children in the three areas. The aggregated findings from all child deaths informs local strategic planning, including the local Joint Strategic Needs Assessment, on how to best safeguard and promote the welfare of children in the area. Trends:  Over the year ending March 2014 there were 21 deaths in Stockport, half of which were premature babies where risk of death is greater.  Consistent with national picture, a very small number of these had features of smoking, alcohol and co sleeping.  Stockport has a higher than average number of mothers who smoked at the time of death. It is a consistent feature, both locally and nationally, that children under 1 year old account for two thirds of child deaths. These deaths have common features around low birth weight, prematurity and maternal smoking and associated issues of hypertension, diabetes and obesity. Public health and partners have agreed a robust plan to address these areas of concern.

Online Safety Sub Group A report from the online safety sub was presented to the SSCB in November 2014 and the sub-group also co-ordinated a report on preventing & tackling bullying that was presented to the board in 2015. The sub-group continues to consolidate the changes described in last year’s annual report. Attendance remains an issue and is strongly influenced by operational requirements for members. Meetings have been reduced to quarterly in an attempt to support operational managers but have been increased in length from 90 minutes to 2 hours to ensure sufficient time for business to be discussed. The Online Safety subgroup works closely with the CSE Strategic Group and Training Sub-Group. Progress reports are presented to Implementation Sub. The sub-group undertook a revision of ‘is your child safe on the internet’ leaflet it had previously produced in 2007. A task & finish group updated the resource but it was agreed that there are excellent national resources available and the website has been updated to signpost parents & carers appropriately. Information about E-Safety training can be found in the Annual Training Report 13-14 pages 38-40. Additional information for this year will be provided in the Annual Training Report 14-15. E-safety sessions have been provided to parents and carers via schools by the Schools Health & Well-being Adviser; e-safety sessions have been provided to pupils. In September 2014, the Family Placement Service provided a specialist session from Eileen Fursland on fostering and social networking for both Page | 26

staff and foster carers. Online safety awareness sessions have been provided for foster carers as part of the post-approval programme. Safer Internet Day 2015 was held on February 10th 2015 with the theme ‘Let’s create a safer internet together’. The event was promoted to schools & colleges and the national resources from the UK Safer Internet Centre made available via Office On-Line. Safer Internet Day (SID) offers the opportunity to highlight positive uses of technology and to explore the role everyone plays in helping to create a better and safer online community. The Resource Framework for Primary Schools was launched at the Primary Heads Consortium meeting on safer internet day, February 10th 2015. The resource was well-received: “I have just finished looking over the resource framework which you sent me, and I think it's fab!..... it fits very well alongside the work we do already in PHSE etc., and actually pulls together some of the strands around internet safety, which we all do, but this framework provides resources (clips, links etc) for specific aspects of online safety, e.g. Trolling, and so on. It is good to have resources or links provided for use with FS and KS1, instead of having to source our own. I would be more than happy to use this in our school.” Headteacher The resource framework will be evaluated in March 2016 after it has been in use for twelve months.

Children at Risk Sub-Group Stockport has a new Children at Risk Strategic Group and Operation Madison is the Operational Group which considers children missing from home. Both report through the SSCB. The strategic group sits quarterly and the operational group meets fortnightly (GMP) and monthly with multi-agency colleagues. A partnership ‘Children at Risk’ workshop was held in March 2015 which looked at setting the strategic and operational direction for the MFH strategies. It was well attended and follow up meeting with the GMP and the Safeguarding Unit have identified the need for a renewed strategic representation for the Children at Risk Group and a joint chairing arrangement for the monthly multiagency Madison Meeting, as well as combining this with the existing MASE (Multi-Agency Sexual Exploitation) Panel (see below for details on the groups of children).

SECTION 6 - Development of our Learning, Scrutiny and Challenge What have we learned from all of our audit activity and reviews? This year we felt our audit activity was coming together to help us triangulate messages from other areas of scrutiny such as Multi-Agency Learning Reviews, other agencies audits, our data, and our own multi-agency audit. As our quality assurance information is gathering apace we need to pull it together across all sectors. We are going to do some further work on this as a priority for next year but the emerging themes are;     

Issues with the use of CAF/TAC. Not sharing information effectively. The role of management oversight. The use of chronologies along with the quality of assessments. Gaps in procedure, or not following procedure.

These are not new themes or unique to Stockport. This confirmed that the most consistent message is about doing the basic tasks of the job well, rather than anything new which needed to be implemented. There has been a great deal of consultation and training in relation to CAF and TAC processes over the last couple of years, to embed it fully across the workforce but problems persist. It is hoped that the introduction of the e-CAF will help drive consistency and quality forward. Page | 27

There have been a number of new themes emerging:   

Unease about families where the evidence is not strong but there is a ‘gut’ feeling things are not right. Transfer of cases across local authority boundaries. Management of large and complex families.

National Learning The SSCB Training Manager alerts staff to those reviews which may be of particular relevance for services. National reviews that have informed practice this year have included:  Rotherham CSE Review - benchmarking report by chair.  Real Lives Real voice - Ann Coffey report.  If it’s not better it’s not the end. Inquiry into child Sexual Exploitation in Gangs and Groups: one year on.  Transforming Care: a national response to the Winterbourne View Hospital.  Francis Report - Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust.  Neglect and SCR’s – Marian Brandon Report for the NSPCC. Future direction The QA&PM Sub Group has on-going discussion about proportionality in relation to reviewing and learning as resources are stretched. Time needs to be given to embedding learning and, as such, this is a priority action for next year. Care will be taken with the decisions to hold multi agency learning reviews that they are to glean new learning rather than reinforce gaps we are already know.

SECTION 7 - Priority Groups of Children; Effective Practice in Stockport There are many good examples of effective practice in Stockport. Some examples of work with priority groups of children are set out below.

Children Missing Education (CME) We are aware that children and young people of compulsory school age who are not in receipt of fulltime education may be at increased risk of harm. Stockport aims to operate a single front door to services so that reporting children who go missing from school is straightforward. Co-ordination may rest with Social Care, or Services for Young People depending on the outcome of initial screening. Schools must report children missing from school within 10 days, but they are aware of their duty to report straight away if there are safeguarding concerns. The most common reasons that children miss education are:  Lack of provision to meet child’s needs.  Issues around appeals processes/Parental failure to register a child in education.  Refusal to take up school place post exclusion. Children Missing from Education are referred to a Young People’s Workers who will work with the family and other agencies ensuring that the child/young person returns to education as soon as possible. This may involve using CAF/TAC processes. Academies and Independent schools can refer for Enforcement and Prosecution work only.

Missing from Home Going missing from home can be symptomatic of other issues occurring in school or within the family and going missing creates additional vulnerability for children and young people. New statutory guidance issued in January 2014 contained the responsibility to complete independent interviews in additional to the Safe and Well checks already carried out by the Police. Page | 28

All children are screened from the first time that they are reported missing or absent and checked against a number of systems (attendance, health etc). If it is decided that a CAF or statutory assessment is needed children and families are offered this. A high proportion of missing cases that weren’t previously known to services are offered support; work is ongoing to ensure that this data becomes automated so that we can offer accurate data on this subject area. Children who go missing from home who are open to social care, with foster carers or LAC are offered independent return interviews usually within 24 hours of returning home and no longer than 72 hours of returning. Arrangements are underway to have these interviews completed by the new Children’s Participation and Engagement team. In Stockport the number of children reported missing from the family home continues to be greater compared to those that go missing from Care. This year the number missing from Care homes rose from 16.8% to 25.9% of the total children going missing which is considerably less the number of children who go missing from family homes. It should be noted that our data has not been reliable as only a portion of missing children was included in the data systems. Steps are being made to rectify this. Our response is guided by the procedures outlined in the Greater Manchester Safeguarding Handbook http://greatermanchesterscb.proceduresonline.com/chapters/p_ch_missing_home_care.html There are clearly some improvements to be made in our response to missing children and a strategic response is under review to develop a co-ordinated response from the local authority, relevant partners and GMP. We need to ensure that we have a strong understanding of the risks associated with children that go missing. This includes sharing and overlapping of data, amalgamating some existing meetings and processes to ensure that information is collated and shared efficiently and speedily and also developing a joint rapid response, with the independent return interview officers, to ensure that children are safe. This is being addressed and monitored through the Children at Risk sub group

CSE Arrangements CSE work is well established within the authority. Arrangements are regularly scrutinised by SSCB, and CSE has been the subject of two reviews by Independent Reviewers using a systems approach over the previous 2 years. The most recent of these has been mentioned previously in this report The newly formed CSE strategic sub group is responsible for driving improvements through the strategy and action plan. The new Domestic Abuse and Child Sexual Exploitation (DACSE) team colocated in the MASSH alongside the Police CSE team provides consultation and advice to other professionals, as well as a specialist service to children who are identified as being at risk of, or victims of CSE. All children identified as being at risk of CSE in Children’s Social Care, including LAC, are either co-allocated a DACSE social worker or have one as their primary social worker. Support is also provided where appropriate to care leavers to ensure that they are supported during transition to adult services. CSE work is further supported by GM Project Phoenix initiative. The number of incidents of CSE reported in Police data has risen as a result of increased awareness and training and the influence of Project Phoenix. Multi agency planning takes place at Multi-Agency Sexual Exploitation (MASE) meetings which are chaired by the Safeguarding Children Unit. This is well attended by partners and improvements have been made as a result of regular reviews of the process. These arrangements are for children and young people both within the Authority and those placed by other authorities. Action plans are managed within existing processes of TAC, Child Protection or Looked After Children. Where children are considered to be at risk of CSE a standard indicator of concern tool developed by Project Phoenix is used to identify the risk factors to inform interventions required to reduce the concerns.

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Following a significant reduction in the number of children referred to MASE during the earlier part of the year 2014/15, the number has now increased significantly. In Jan-March 2015 there were 20 young people referred to MASE compared to just 7 in the previous six months. This is as a result of the increased activity in the DACSE team and the amount of training and support they have given to support agencies to identify and respond appropriately. Plans are currently being considered to amalgamate the MASE process with the Police’s multi-agency meeting to consider all missing from home children. A database is kept by the DACSE coordinator of all children who are assessed using the CSE indicator of concern tool. This enables easy reference to those children assessed as being at risk of CSE, or who have been victims of CSE, and collates information about factors of concern, and the risk identified. Records are also kept on the children’s services electronic case management system of those children discussed at the MASE meetings. Work is on-going in partnership with GMP and Project Phoenix to produce a consistent data set across GM to inform development of a Problem Profile on CSE. A therapeutic service for victims and their families is provided by third sector organisation Beacon counselling via the Liberty Project. CSE awareness training has been provided for every designated safeguarding lead in schools and resources provided for early response to risk over the past few years. Real Love Rocks has been commissioned for every secondary school in the coming year. CSE is part of the multi-agency training programme with additional specialist training commissioned from time to time. A CSE practitioner’s forum provides the opportunity for CSE champions within agencies across Stockport Family to share knowledge, information and practice and contribute to the delivery of the CSE strategic action plan. Awareness raising events are conducted throughout the year in conjunction with Project Phoenix activity.

Education Engagement in CSE work There has been much done in schools over the last few years to raise awareness in schools and improve identification and referral of those young people at risk. New work completed this year includes  Education engagement in MASE.  Primary Framework ( staying safe, self-generated images and positive relationships).  Education engagement in MASE.  Real Love Rocks - drama presentation run by Barnardos. At the very end of the financial year Barnardos announced that their CSE resource Real Love Rocks is to be provided to all primary and secondary schools, PRUs and academies free of charge throughout Greater Manchester. Funded through the Police Innovation fund, the Greater Manchester safeguarding Partnership is working with Barnardo’s and the 10 Local Authorities to ensure this is rolled out effectively to all schools in 2015/16. A series of network meetings and events has been held in Stockport to support this roll-out. Page | 30

Children Affected by Parental Substance Misuse The number of children living in households in Stockport where there are adults engaged in drug or alcohol treatment services are higher than the national average. The adult (26+) treatment services are currently being re-commissioned and have an emphasis on family work with an expected delivery model that is more collaborative with children’s services, demonstrating improved outcomes for children. This will be embedded within the new commissioning contracts. This will go live in October 2015. Stockport provides specialist therapeutic provision for children and families affected by parental and family substance misuse through the Mosaic service. A pathway between Mosaic and the Children’s Safeguarding Unit has been in place since 2007 and ensures that Mosaic are invited to initial case conferences, where substance misuse is a factor and is a means of engaging affected families in substance misuse services. Mosaic provide a wide range of multi-agency drug and alcohol awareness training including early identification and brief interventions to all key children, family and adult services on a rolling basis. They also have a worker who specialises in CSE within the team. MOSAIC’s training is continually updated to include the changing nature of substance misuse in the Authority. The referrals to the service show an increasing number of children identified through work in schools and at an earlier stage than initial case conference. There were 98 young people presenting for treatment in 2013/14, compared with 44 in the previous year. It is pleasing to see the uptake in provision of service.

Children exposed to Domestic Abuse The number of domestic incidents reported by the Police where a person under 18 years of age is present, in close proximity or ordinarily resident and not directly involved reduced by 17% at the end of 2014-15 compared with the same time the previous year, which represented a reduction of 75 incidents. The reduction in Stockport is the largest reduction of any Local Authority in Greater Manchester. Despite this reduction, the number of children subject of a domestic abuse referral to Stockport Council increased, which reflects the whole service training for response officers in relation to the awareness of the impact of domestic abuse on children. The Youth Offending Service deliver a programme aimed at teenage perpetrators of domestic abuse called Respect which aims to prevent the cyclical pattern of behaviour in families. In relation to the Respect Programme - ‘Adolescent to parent violence’, 9 families have completed this as a group work intervention over the past 12 months and 2 have completed it on a one-to-one basis. 3 families are starting one-to-one sessions and a further group work programme is aiming to start in September/October 2015. These figures are in relation to formal programmes but other cases have engaged with the Respect toolkit as part of supervision. These are small numbers as yet, but this is a valuable resource for those in the criminal justice system who present a high risk. Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC) continues to perform well in relation to high risk domestic abuse. Last year 234 children were considered as part of the arrangements. MARAC enables agencies to effectively share information and work together to safeguard children who are living within an environment of high risk domestic abuse There is a Children’s Services representative at every MARAC to ensure that safeguarding every child is considered. There are varying actions and interventions that can be implemented through this process such as a formal Social Work Assessment or the Team Around the Child (TAC) process being initiated, or specialist services or a joint response between different agencies present at the MARAC.

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Looked after Children (LAC) There are 82 (19/05/15) Looked After Children living outside the Local Authority (23 are distant placements and the remainder are mainly in Greater Manchester with a small number being a little further afield in the North West). The responsibility for these children sits under the Integrated LAC Board, chaired by the Service Director. That Board provides an annual report to SSCB to outline arrangements for LAC. Health Assessments of LAC children were identified as a concern in the Ofsted inspection in 2011 but the recent CCG inspection reports outlines the improvements in Service that have been put in place. ‘Overall the quality of review health assessments was good, with evidence that practitioners had taken time to build a rapport with the child and encourage the child to enter into a discussion about their health and wellbeing9’.

Vulnerable Young People in Transition between Children and Adult Services SSCB has been working with Stockport Safeguarding Adults Board (SSAB) in relation to young adults who my need support but do not meet the criteria for traditional adult services. This group contains some of our most vulnerable care leavers. A fortnightly 16+ accommodation panel provides advice in relation to individual young people and provides strategic oversight of needs and trends to inform commissioning and sufficiency. The ‘New Belongings’ pilot in children’s services aims to deliver gold standard services to care leavers which includes reviewing the transition process between children and adult services. The Multi-Agency At Risk System (MAARS) in adults’ social care co-ordinates decision making and offers advice and access to services. A successful bid to the Minister for funding to develop this work should result in further improvements in 2015-16.

Private Fostering A detailed private fostering report comes to the Implementation Sub Group annually. Very low numbers of privately fostered children are reported –there were 2 young people in 2014-5. Research indicates that there is likely to be a far higher number of privately fostered arrangements in Stockport than those notified to Social Care despite repeat publicity and widespread publication. This pattern is replicated across other Local Authorities. Given the low numbers again this year the council will be holding a further private fostering event in the autumn to keep raise awareness.

Hospital Attendances and Admissions due to Unintentional and Deliberate Injury (0-17 year olds) The high number of hospital admissions identified over the last couple of years has led to the appointment of a half- time child accident prevention co-ordinator in Public Health, which also contributes to the ‘Stay Safe’ priority of the Children’s Trust. The Preventing Unintentional Injury Action Plan and this has been presented to SSCB Implementation Sub and will report at regular intervals.

Special Educational Needs and Disabilities In September 2014 the government made changes to the law for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) to join up health education and care plans from birth to 25 years. The new law results in changes to the way parents’ and their children receive support from their local council, health and social care services and their child’s nursery, school or college. There is greater focus on personal goals, increased family involvement and improved rights and protections for young people in further education and training. Statements of special educational needs and Learning Difficulty Assessments are replaced with a single Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan for children and young people with complex needs. 9

Review of Health services for Children Looked After and Safeguarding in Stockport. Care Quality Commission

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Arrangements are well underway in Stockport and include;  a local offer, in Stockport this is called Stockport Family Information Hub (www.stockportinfo.co.uk). Providing accessible wide range of information for families, young people and professionals in one place, developed with parents and carers.  All schools, colleges, early years settings have to provide a schools offer outlining what additional support they can offer children and young people with SEND. These are published in the local offer and 100% of schools have now published this.  Independent advisors and independent information advice service for families and young people to support them through the EHC planning process (advocacy, representation, mediation) which are all in place. Stockport is also a pilot for the new tribunal arrangements.  Planned programme to transfer all statements to EHC plans from 1st September 2014 to 31st March 2018, focus each year will be on year 6, 9 and 11. Stockport has a pre and post 16 EHC plan to reflect the differing elements of planning at different stages in a young person’s life.  The SEND support must show how school is meeting additional needs before EHC plan.  Introduction of personal budgets.  A family can request an element of the personal budget to be paid as a direct payment to family so that they can purchase provision. This needs to be agreed in support.  Plan outlining what is to be purchased, with a clear regard for safeguarding. All families now have a support plan and the personal budgets policy is now published on the local offer.  Joint commissioning – 0-25 SEND strategy (draft) has been produced with an associated action plan, outlining vision and actions to align and pool budgets to meet young people’s needs, predominantly across health and local authority.  Transport – new 0-25 transport policy is currently being developed.  Work underway with adult services to ensure smoother transition for children to adult services and this is further supported by the linkages between the adults and children’s safeguarding boards.  Work is underway with colleges and employment/training providers is in place to ensure local offers in place for children with special educational needs and disability.  Work with the Clinical Commissioning Group to appoint a dedicated Medical Officer for children and young people with a disability.

SECTION 8 - Managing Allegations The Allegation management system in Stockport is well established, but there is a constant need to remind agencies that all allegations need to be scrutinised through this system particularly as the workforce changes. The Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) has a duty to manage and oversee the multi-agency decision making that takes place when there are any concerns arising when a person is working in a position of trust with children. Risks are considered and plans are put into place if required. The LADOs promote a culture of careful scrutiny and there is a clear focus on monitoring for any emerging pattern of concerns. Training is an important part of the LADO function and continues to be prioritised. The LADO submits a detailed report every autumn to SSCB for scrutiny.

SECTION 9 – Engagement with and Participation of Children It continues to be a challenge for SSCB to achieve influence of young people for strategic planning for the Board. However all agencies provide evidence of participant engagement within individual services and there are good methods to achieve this. The engagement of young people in single agencies is scrutinised as part of the Section 11 and also through audit. The voice of the child and family is particularly sought in audit in relation to planning for their own lives.

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Specific SSCB activity this year included 

 

Young people came to the CSE Strategic Sub Group to discuss the CSE Strategy and a return visit was made to them by the Performance and Development manager to share the training package and the Strategy. This contact resulted in an increased focus on school awareness programmes. The Lay member has been given a specific focus on linking to engagement with young people through the Participation team. SSCB made a financial contribution and offered consultation to Stockport Youth Forum ‘How you getting home?’ Campaign.

The recently appointed team of Participation and Engagement officers are very important to the Authority and partners to ensure the voices of children, young people, their families and carers inform case planning and service delivery. The Children and Young People’s Survey had a very poor response this year which left us without a clear picture of a wide range of young people’s views. A challenge was made to the school representatives to promote full cooperation next year amongst their peers in order to achieve a better take-up. The Participation team will develop and implement a survey to gather views across Stockport children and will work with a group of school age children to design, complete and evaluate a questionnaire on a range of issues that are important to young people to replace the ‘Tell us Survey’ for the SSCB partners.

SECTION 10 - Equality and Diversity SSCB takes the view that all children should have a holistic assessment of their safeguarding need which takes account of any issues of equality and diversity and identity and this is central to all quality assurance work. This is reinforced through the Stockport Family approach. The attention to children from minority ethnic groups is clearly a growing issue for us as we know that the black and minority ethnic child population is growing at the younger end. Policies on culturally appropriate practice were included into the GM Safeguarding Policies and Procedures, as well as specific procedures to cover Forced Marriage, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and abuse linked to spiritual and faith beliefs. The requirement to use translators in practice across agencies is already well embedded where the first language is not English. FGM training is a thread through safeguarding training. Schools have had particular training to raise awareness. Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) training is also high on the training agenda for the coming year. In every multi-agency audit, a Looked after Child and a child with a disability are included to increase scrutiny of these areas of particular vulnerability.

SECTION 11 - SSCB Effectiveness, Contribution and Challenge In a recent review of effectiveness of LSCB’s by the LGA10 it was identified that one of the most important factors that contribute to the effectiveness of LSCBs was an explicit sign-up from each of the partner agencies at the highest level; another was strong leadership not only from the Chair but also from those attending the Board. A contributory factor to effectiveness was linked to establishing a culture of challenge and scrutiny, alongside a strong performance management system, which allowed the progress of decisions taken by the Board to be monitored. This, in turn, was said to depend on having representatives of sufficient seniority who were able to make sure Boards’

10

Review of current arrangements for the operation of LSCB’s. Research in Practice and Local Government Association May 2015 http://www.local.gov.uk/documents/10180/6869714/RiP_Review+of+current+arrangements+for+the+operation+of+LSCBs__ May_2015.pdf/5940af9c-7ae5-4346-84b8-655c30b291c7

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decisions were actioned, and who were able to oversee their implementation at strategic and operational level. This perspective bears some similarity to Ofsted’s view: LSCBs have limited authority and do not have powers to require agencies to act. Each of the partner organisations that make up the LSCB has its own accountability structure and is inspected separately. There is no obligation on partner organisations to take account of the advice of the LSCB or to carry out any recommendations given by the LSCB. Evidence from Ofsted reviews suggests that their effectiveness continues, therefore, to be hampered. (Ofsted, 2015a) At the time of writing Stockport is awaiting an Ofsted inspection. SSCB undertook a self-evaluation in March 2015 and identified a number of areas which required improvement. These included:         

Quality assurance processes needed to be strengthened and the learning from these activities embedded into practice. Police Annual Reporting. Lay member representation. Communication and learning. Voice of child on strategic influence. Influence on Private Voluntary and Independent sector. Sub group representation/attendance. Evidence of Impact and influence needs to be measured. Missing from Home arrangements needed further organisation.

SSCB identified that these should be pulled into priority actions for the coming years and evidence of that is contained in the Business Plan 2015-7 for the Board.

Effectiveness The following are identified as areas where SSCB has proved effectiveness and demonstrated influence: Commitment of Partner Agencies  Agreed strategic priorities - reviewed SSCB Priorities document and action plan.  Increased use of standing agenda item to assess risk to safeguarding system as organisations change.  Agenda planning for efficient Board meetings.  Individual annual meeting between SSCB Chair and Sub Group chairs.  Review of sub group effectiveness by SSCB Chair and subsequent challenge re attendance at SSCB Sub groups.  Task and finish groups - Information sharing policy re CSE, CSE community engagement.  Sufficient and reliable resources - to date the SSCB has managed with the resource it has.  Involvement of the voluntary and community sector - Sub Group chair represents Private and Voluntary sector.  Developing relationship with Stockport Safeguarding Adults Board and commitment to joint working in key areas such as communication and learning. Impact on partners  Developing robust quality assurance systems.  Good multi-agency learning reviews.  New Learning events to disseminate learning.  Risk and challenge log.

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Impact on children and families  Re-written CSE priorities and action plan.  Good arrangements for Policy and Procedures.  Scrutiny of effectiveness at ‘front door’ to services at the Multi-Agency Safeguarding and Support Hub.  Voice of child evident in multi-agency audit of service provision.  Voice of Child through Stockport Youth Forum - strategic influence for CSE Strategy.  Financial contribution and consultation to Stockport Youth Forum ‘How u getting home’. Impact on community awareness  Informative Website.  Strong Links to Project Phoenix Greater Manchester CSE initiative and consequent awareness raising.  CSE awareness day Stockport Precinct.  CSE training to community groups e.g. faith sector, taxi drivers.

SECTION 12 Statement of Effectiveness of Local Safeguarding Arrangements from the Independent Chair The SSCB must seek assurance that safeguarding children arrangements in the borough are as effective as possible. This is a challenging task because the "whole system" for safeguarding children is extremely complex and the various partner agencies which contribute to that whole system continue to implement significant changes in order to adapt to reducing budgets. This does not mean that the system for safeguarding children in Stockport is in a state of flux because change is being well managed by leaders of partner agencies. However, the splitting of the Probation Service into two separate organisations (The National Probation Service which manages high risk offenders released into the community and the Community Rehabilitation Companies which manage medium and low risk offenders), appears to be injecting unnecessary risk into the safeguarding children system at a time when every other partner organisation appears to think it sensible to move towards greater integration. The SSCB will continue to monitor the impact of changes introduced by partner organisations but will pay particularly close attention to the changes to the Probation Service. The safeguarding children system remains under strain but has proved remarkably resilient in the face of increasing demands. There were 2899 referrals to Children’s Social Care in 2014/15 which is more than double the rate of referrals when I became independent chair of the SSCB in 2011. This high level of referrals appears to have become the “new normal”. (It is hoped that the revised domestic abuse strategy, with a much stronger emphasis on the prevention of abuse, might reduce referrals of children adversely affected by witnessing domestic abuse in their family.) That this scale of increase has been absorbed during a period when the effects of austerity have been plainly felt reflects great credit on colleagues across the safeguarding children system. The Supporting Families Pathway (SFP) evolved into the Multi-Agency Safeguarding and Support Hub (MASSH) over the course of the year and continues to play a vital role in ensuring that cases which don’t meet the criteria for referral to Children’s Social Care receive appropriate support. The CQC review commented on the effectiveness of the SFP/MASSH in ensuring joined up working between agencies and health disciplines to achieve best outcomes for children, young people and their families. During the year “rapid response” CAF co-ordinators were appointed in the MASSH and have proved highly effective in helping families. The year on year increase in CAF completion is also extremely encouraging. It is vital that partner agencies fully support the CAF process because it enables multiagency intervention prior to needs becoming more acute. However, we need to see a greater emphasis on the quality of CAF completion – an issue picked up by the CQC review of the contribution of health services to the safeguarding children agenda. Page | 36

Additionally, the SSCB would like to see the rate of re-referrals of cases to Children’s Social Care at a lower level than is currently the case. Re-referrals occur for a number of reasons one of which may be the adequacy of “step-down” arrangements. The re-referral rate increased from 20.2% in 2013/14 to 21.8% in 2014/15 which takes us slightly above our statistical neighbours. Additionally, children who become subject of a child protection plan for a second or subsequent time within a two year timescale increased from 10% in 2013-14 to 19.3% in 2014-15. The reasons for this increase are not fully understood and research has been commissioned. It is vital that the SSCB becomes aware as quickly as possible of any risks which emerge in the safeguarding system. The principle means by which this is accomplished is the Quality Assurance and Performance Management Sub Group which provides an exception report to each meeting of the Board in which both risks to safeguarding performance and good practice are highlighted. During the year the Board introduced a risk log to enable it to better track risks and concerns until they had been resolved. The safeguarding children system should be a learning system in that we should be aiming to continually improve practice through reviews and audits. The Board’s Training Sub Group has made very promising progress in evaluating the impact of training on professional practice but it remains a challenge to ensure that learning from review activity is fully embedded. A very significant series of multi-agency audits which examined the “journey of the child” reached a conclusion during the year. The audits revealed generally strong multi-agency working to ensure the needs of children were met. The voice of the child was prominent in an assessment which is very pleasing. Further attention is necessary to the quality of plans, particularly within TAC and around the step down process. A particularly valuable piece of learning was that where a child was not the primary focus of the referral, the assessment of their needs was not always as holistic as it should have been. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) undertook a review of the effectiveness of health services in safeguarding children in December 2014. This involved the CCG, Stockport NHS Foundation Trust and Pennine Care Foundation Trust. Much positive practice was highlighted including:           

A well established and closely monitored pathway into CAMHS. A significant improvement in access to CAMHS assessments which are now available 7 days a week. Positive daily contact between CAMHS and the paediatric ward at Stepping Hill Hospital. Positive work by CAMHS with local schools to raise awareness of mental health issues. Good access to weekly sexual health and drop-in clinics run by School Nurses in both Special and Maintained schools. Well established referral to the Mosaic child substance misuse services from the Emergency Department of Stepping Hill Hospital. GPs making excellent use of the electronic portal into the Stepping Hill Hospital information system to obtain immediate access to information about child patients attended the Emergency Department. Close links between the teenage pregnancy midwife and the Family Nurse Partnership to identify and refer those expectant teenagers who would benefit from intensive support. Good arrangements for access to specialised midwifery for women with mental health issues. The reconfiguring of some health and social care services, including health visiting into an integrated children’s services model was welcomed although at the time of the CQC review it was considered to be too early to assess impact. Much action has been taken across health services to strengthen supervision arrangements.

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The CQC review also identified development areas including:  

  

  

Lack of individualised birth plans to support midwifery staff in fully understand the mother’s needs and ensure new-borns are safeguarded effectively. Limited opportunity to see expectant women alone or at home at the time of Midwifery Booking, highlighting the risk that women who are experiencing domestic violence are not being identified so that they can receive appropriate support to ensure the safety of themselves and their unborn child. Lack of arrangements for midwives to attend GP practice safeguarding meetings in areas where these take place, or to liaise with colleagues from social care as part of a safeguarding liaison forum. Lack of face to face health visitor liaison with midwifery services, with liaison dependent on written maternity liaison forms. Where there was regular liaison between GP practices, health visitor and school nurses, children were being safeguarded more effectively. But GP services were judged to have been slow to build relationships, with approximately 75% of GP practices not yet ensuring a school nurse was routinely invited to practice meetings. Need to develop creative ways for GPs to participate in, and contribute to, Child Protection case conferences. Child Protection plans and case conference minutes not secured in case records in either adult or child mental health services. Lack of a formal health policy to guide staff on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) given that women who have been victims of FGM are beginning to access hospital treatment at Stepping Hill Hospital.

The SSCB will monitor plans put in place to address areas for development. However, a consistent feature of the approach adopted in Stockport is a determination to address areas in which room for improvement has been identified. As previously stated the system for safeguarding children in Stockport has remained remarkably resilient. The partnership ethos remains strong and the commitment to continuous improvement is undiminished despite the pressures brought about by austerity. The Safeguarding Children Board is adopting a vigilant approach to the identification of risks to safeguarding outcomes and monitors the action taken to mitigate those risks. Arrangements for safeguarding children and young people in Stockport are considered to be sound.

SECTION 13 - Conclusion and Recommendations for Future Priorities and Business Plan SSCB priorities as set out within the SSCB Strategic Priorities document were compiled following a workshop within the SSCB meeting in March 2015. The priorities were specifically identified as new areas of focus as opposed to ‘business as usual’. The Strategic Priorities document where on-going work has been incorporated into the Sub Group’s business plans. The work on the Action Plan is carried out largely by the Sub Groups with Strategic Oversight from SSCB. The success of the plan depends largely on capacity of partner agencies to lead strategically, and provide the resource to support the work in a climate of diminishing resource. Priorities - What are we going to focus on next year? For 2015-7 we developed a new strategic plan and trimmed down the number of priorities. The following areas are those we particularly want to focus on in the coming year, in addition to the work of the Sub Groups which is on-going and can be considered ‘business as usual’;

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1. Learning and Improvement - this relates to the development of Quality Assurance which is underway and will be a priority over the next two years to really embed the scrutiny function of the board. The embedding of lessons learned will fall under this priority so we can look forward to seeing some definite outcomes emerging from this whole learning cycle. 2. Communication – this area for improvement relates to the need to make sure all partner agencies are as up to date and aware as they can be in relation to areas of vulnerability which have been identified as new and emerging threats, particularly in relation to vulnerable groups such as children at risk of child sexual exploitation, female genital mutilation, forced marriage, trafficking and radicalisation. Other forms of communication from the Board, particularly with communities and young people, will be explored. This area of work will be carried out in partnership with Stockport Safeguarding Adult Board. 3. Stockport Family - as the picture of children’s services undergoes a transformation under the umbrella of Stockport family and the use of restorative approaches, all partners will need to maintain a watching brief on the effectiveness of the safeguarding system. The role of SSCB is to be a ‘critical friend’ to the developments, and we will hold a series of ‘Support and Challenge events with partners to carry out this responsibility. The Priority document and Action plan be found on SSCB Website: http://www.safeguardingchildreninstockport.org.uk/ The Action Plan is carefully monitored and reported at intervals to SSCB.

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Appendix 1 1. Glossary CAF - Common Assessment Framework CTB Children’s Trust Board CSE - Child Sexual Exploitation CDOP - Child Death Overview Panel DACSE – Domestic Abuse and Child Sexual Exploitation team. ICS - Integrated Children Service IRO - Independent Reviewing Officer LSCB – Local safeguarding Children Board LIP Panel - Learning and Improvement Panel GMP - Greater Manchester Police GM Partnership - Greater Manchester Partnership Multi agency At Risk System (MAARS) MASSH - Multi-Agency Safeguarding and Support Hub MFE – Missing From Education MFH –Missing From Home MFFH – Missing From Family Home P&P Sub - Policy and Practice Sub SCR Panel - Serious Case Review Panel SSCB - Stockport Safeguarding Children Board SfYP - Services For Young People SYF - Stockport Youth Forum TAC - Team around the Child QA&PM Sub - Quality Assurance and Performance Management Sub group

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Appendix 2 SSCB Members list Andrew Webb Ann Smith April Higson Cath Briggs Cath Millington Chris McLoughlin Danny Pearson / Eddie Moore David Mellor (CHAIR) Deborah Woodcock Duncan Weldrake Enda Ross Gerard Sweeney Helen Harrison Ian Mecrow Jacqui Belfield-Smith Jane Connolly Jenny Curzon / Sarah Johnson Jill Sheldrake Joe Barker/Joanne Meredith John Berry / Cheryl Hughes Judith Morris / Jo Ellis Julie Raymond Walters Keith Walker/Liz McCoy/Jackie Stewart Mike Halsall / Sajada Zaman Martine Webster Phil Beswick Rebecca Key Sue Gaskell Una Hagan Viki Packman Wendy Meikle

Corporate Director, Service for People Directorate Lay member Stockport Homes Clinical Commissioning Group Director Head of Disability Partnership Service Director, Children's Safeguarding & Prevention Principal Designate of Aquinas College Independent Chair Children's Social Care Public Health Community Rehabilitation Company Children's Safeguarding Unit SSCB Training Manager/Training Sub Group chair On Line safety Sub Group chair Designated Doctor. NHS Trust Stockport Integrated Children's Service - Youth Offending Service Head of Service - Safeguarding and Learning/ Implementation Sub Group chair/ Learning and Improvement Sub Group chair Primary School representative Together Trust - PVI representative/Policy and Practice Sub group chair Secondary School representative Greater Manchester Police Director of Nursing & Midwifery, Stockport NHS Foundation Trust CAFCASS Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust Legal Services Cheadle Hulme School (Independent) Service Director for Education Service Manger Children Social Care/CSE Sub group chair Designated Nurse for Safeguarding/Quality Assurance and Performance Management Sub group chair SSCB Performance & Development Manager/Audit and Monitoring Sub Group chair Head of the Integrated Children's Service Executive Councillor (C&YP)

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Appendix 3: Attendance at SSCB

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