Agenda item

To consider a report by the Head of Quality Assurance and Partnerships.

The Executive Director of People – Children introduced the Safeguarding Children Partnership annual report. This was the first annual report since the disaggregation of the Pan-Dorset Safeguarding Children Partnership, due to Dorset Council taking part in the Families First for Children Pathfinder. The new model of the partnership is chaired by a senior person from a statutory partner, rather than an Independent Chair, however an Independent Scrutineer had been appointed to the partnership. Overall, the partnership had achieved deeper integration, better communication, and Ofsted commented positively about it.

The Committee asked questions of the Executive Director of People – Children and discussed the report. The following points were raised:

·         A member raised that there are 23% of children living in poverty and gave examples of poverty to remind the committee the challenges that poverty brings to young people.

·         Although the numbers were low, members were concerned by the number of young people experiencing harm. The Executive Director explained the work to reduce and prevent harm, which included working with the Community Safety Partnership and the police. The Pineapple Project focussed on safeguarding young women and girls and individual children would have their own Child Protection Plans. If the risk of significant harm increased then support would be increased, with the possibility of the young person being taken into care where necessary.

·         A member raised that family hubs were becoming a trusted place for families and asked how the council could measure and show the value of family hubs. The Executive Director explained that metrics for families receiving support would increase and the number of child protection plans decrease over time as family hubs are successful. Specific metrics for family hubs would be explored.

·         There were impact reports from the voluntary sector which measured the impacts of family hubs. The Our Future Council programme and developing a new customer model would provide opportunities to how the council receives feedback from customers about services.

·         There was a new target to report to Government for the percentage of children achieving a good level of development at early years foundation stage. The council was achieving 70% for this performance measure, however members emphasised the need to be supporting the other 30% of children to ensure they were also being developed.

·         A member raised that attainment in schools was lower than average for Key Stage 2 outcomes. This was confirmed by the Executive Director, and it was a target to improve KS2 outcomes in the council plan. Improving attainment was being delivered through the Dorset Education Board, an education improvement strategy, a school improvement team, and education challenge leads.

·         Members asked how the role of the Independent Scrutineer would operate in the Safeguarding Children Partnership and requested that they contribute to the annual report in future years. The partnership meetings would be chaired by the council’s Chief Executive rather than an Independent Chair going forward.

The Committee Chairman summed up the discussion and reiterated the need to ensure that the council continues to have effective safeguarding arrangements for children and young people in Dorset.