[Tim Brown]

An officer has suggested that there should be regular overview of safeguarding for children and also for adults considering it something inspections will pick up on.

Has this been raised as an issue elsewhere?

[Shelley Burke]

(16-08-2012 11:06 AM)Tim Brown Wrote:  An officer has suggested that there should be regular overview of safeguarding for children and also for adults considering it something inspections will pick up on.

Has this been raised as an issue elsewhere?

Yes - we've been doing a scrutiny session on child safeguarding for about 3 years now. The independent chair of the board safeguarding comes and presents the annual report to the scrutiny committee and they have a Q&A session. The chair was interviewed by Ofsted in our recent inspection of safeguarding and looked after children services and it went well. It's an opportunity for challenge, and also an important opportunity for members to see how much risk is being carried in the system.

We are trying to get something similar going for adult services too - hope to have a first run sometime this winter.


Shelley

[Andrea Clarke]

(16-08-2012 11:06 AM)Tim Brown Wrote:  An officer has suggested that there should be regular overview of safeguarding for children and also for adults considering it something inspections will pick up on.

Has this been raised as an issue elsewhere?

Safeguarding has been an integral part of the work of our Children and Young People OSC for some years. For members of council it is not just about inspections but about ensuring that children and young people are protected, that we have systems in place that have their best interests and safety at heart. The committee meets with frontline officers not just senior officers in order that they can hear first hand what is happening in the county. The committee also receives the annual safeguarding report and the independent chair of the SCB attends to answer questions. The committee has in place a framework for scrutinising safeguarding and I can email this to you if you want.

Adult Safeguarding is also considered by our Health, Community and Care OSC. The Independent Chair of the ASB attends those meetings as well.

I hope this helps.

[Louise Barnett]

We did have a monthly Vulnerable Children's Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting up until May which mostly focussed on safeguarding. Members received regular updates from Birmingham Safeguarding Children Board, verbal updates from the former Executive Member for Children's Social Care, updates from the Safeguarding and Children in Care Improvement Board and reports on specific topics such as missing children, unaccompanied asylum seeking children, looked after children, sexual exploitation, private fostering etc. The Committee has recently been replaced with a combined Vulnerable Children and Education Committee which has changed the focus slightly but Members still received a briefing on safeguarding and training on how to undertake their Reg 33 visits recently. Happy to send through the old Work Programme if that would be helpful.

[tim gilling]

(31-08-2012 10:18 AM)Louise Barnett Wrote:  We did have a monthly Vulnerable Children's Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting up until May which mostly focussed on safeguarding. Members received regular updates from Birmingham Safeguarding Children Board, verbal updates from the former Executive Member for Children's Social Care, updates from the Safeguarding and Children in Care Improvement Board and reports on specific topics such as missing children, unaccompanied asylum seeking children, looked after children, sexual exploitation, private fostering etc. The Committee has recently been replaced with a combined Vulnerable Children and Education Committee which has changed the focus slightly but Members still received a briefing on safeguarding and training on how to undertake their Reg 33 visits recently. Happy to send through the old Work Programme if that would be helpful.

We published a guide to scrutiny of Safeguarding in 2009:

https://cfps.org.uk/domains/cfps.org.uk/...yguide.pdf

We have just responded to the DfE consultation on potential changes to the safeguarding regime (about which we have some concerns)