CYSCB Storyboard · CYSCB Storyboard Introduction City of York Safeguarding Board (CYSCB) is a...

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CYSCB Storyboard Introduction City of York Safeguarding Board (CYSCB) is a robust multi-agency partnership of enthusiastic members, dedicated to the improvement of practice which safeguards York’s children. The greatest asset of the board is the strength of relationships a feature which has endured through a period of transformation and change. Over the past 2 years, the board has been reviewing how it operates to build on its strengths and address any issues hindering its development. In the summer of 2013, a peer review was undertaken by East Riding SCB to understand where the board had reached in its development and how it could improve. The review found good working relationships, but also highlighted the need for clear multi-agency performance and assurance frameworks, to allow the Board to deliver a greater degree of challenge. In the autumn of 2014, a development day was held to review progress against the ambitions of the board, to look at a future vision and how it that vision could be reshaped to better fit its objectives. The key outputs of this session shaped the principles of the restructuring of the board: Clear accountability to the appropriate agencies and individuals Clear and demonstrable influence A minimum of bureaucracy Clarified relationships between groups Equal and fair contributions from all partners Following this development day, the Chair circulated a consultation document with a proposed structure. Feedback was invited and received from a wide range of partners, resulting in a revised model which was discussed at CYSCB

Transcript of CYSCB Storyboard · CYSCB Storyboard Introduction City of York Safeguarding Board (CYSCB) is a...

Page 1: CYSCB Storyboard · CYSCB Storyboard Introduction City of York Safeguarding Board (CYSCB) is a robust multi-agency partnership of enthusiastic members, dedicated to the improvement

CYSCB Storyboard

Introduction

City of York Safeguarding Board (CYSCB) is a robust multi-agency partnership of

enthusiastic members, dedicated to the improvement of practice which

safeguards York’s children.

The greatest asset of the board is the strength of relationships – a feature

which has endured through a period of transformation and change.

Over the past 2 years, the board has been reviewing how it operates to build

on its strengths and address any issues hindering its development. In the

summer of 2013, a peer review was undertaken by East Riding SCB to

understand where the board had reached in its development and how it could

improve. The review found good working relationships, but also highlighted

the need for clear multi-agency performance and assurance frameworks, to

allow the Board to deliver a greater degree of challenge.

In the autumn of 2014, a development day was held to review progress against

the ambitions of the board, to look at a future vision and how it that vision

could be reshaped to better fit its objectives. The key outputs of this session

shaped the principles of the restructuring of the board:

Clear accountability to the appropriate agencies and individuals

Clear and demonstrable influence

A minimum of bureaucracy

Clarified relationships between groups

Equal and fair contributions from all partners

Following this development day, the Chair circulated a consultation document

with a proposed structure. Feedback was invited and received from a wide

range of partners, resulting in a revised model which was discussed at CYSCB

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meeting in January 2015. This model was adopted at the April meeting and is

now in place.

The new structure of the Board

The board development day provided evidence of robust debate and challenge

to agree vision, priorities and working structures. A previous observation from

partners was that there could be an over-focus on Children’s Social Care to the

exclusion of other agencies. Within the new structure, there is greater input of

other agencies, with 7 partners represented as chairs of sub-groups, providing

a broader spread of input. All board members are also asked to contribute to

at least one sub-group.

The change of the board structure to one more driven by priorities means

performance reporting is more closely aligned to the priorities, set by the

Board and relayed in the Annual Report. Currently these are:

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Early help

Neglect

Child Sexual Abuse & Exploitation

Children Missing from Home, Care and Education

Domestic Abuse

Four sub groups focus specifically on those 5 priorities:

Early Help group – reports to both the CYSCB and YorOk (Children’s

Trust) Board.

Neglect sub-group

Child Sexual Abuse & Exploitation/Missing from Home and Care sub

group (one sub-group looking at both of these priorities in terms of

vulnerability and exploitation.)

Domestic Abuse sub-group

These sub-groups may be task focused and time limited depending on the

scale of the need and the level of challenge required.

Four of the sub groups are ongoing and carry out the business of the Board:

Voice and Involvement – looks at the voice of children and young people

throughout the whole spectrum of intervention and across all agencies.

It seeks to hear and to enhance the input of children and young people

into service delivery and planning. The sub-group reports both to CYSCB

and to the YorOk (Children’s Trust) Board

Partnership Practice Scrutiny and Review Group (PPSRG)– carries out the

auditing of case file material on the Board’s behalf. Auditing is based

around themes identified by the group itself or in response to other case

reviews or local and national priorities.

Case Review Group – considers cases referred for review – Serious Case

Review or other form of review – and refers decisions and

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recommendations to the Independent Chair and the National Panel of

Experts. This group also reviews and challenges action plans in response

to case reviews – either single- or multi-agency.

Child Death Overview Panel (CDOP) – co-ordinated on CYSCB’s behalf by

North Yorkshire LSCB. Cross border scrutiny and analysis of all child

deaths and reports and data are also disaggregated and analysed for

York.

The final sub-group, the Priority Delivery Scrutiny & Review Group serves as

the executive body for the Board. This sub-group monitors and analyses the

performance and quality of interagency safeguarding practice, of learning

activities and progress against priorities.

Help, Protect and Care

CYSCB exists to support and challenge partners in assessing collective

performance against duties to protect children and young people. Whilst the

roles within the board are well understood, they are also supported by

protocols between partners and other boards (such as YorOk and the Health

and Wellbeing Board) to ensure all agencies are aware of how identified

priorities are being addressed. A signed protocol is in place between CYSCB,

the Health and Wellbeing Board, the Safer York Partnership, the Safeguarding

Adults Board and the YorOk (Children’s Trust) Board.

Over the last year, CYSCB has developed increasingly robust performance

information, which leads discussion at the board and sub-groups to identify

improvement. The information provides a view across the whole system based

on observed local outcomes, and improvement actions are identified for

appropriate agencies.

By structuring the board around priorities, a focus is maintained on the local

needs. This informs our annual report, which sets the local priorities for the

following year. In the themed inspection of Early Help in 2014, the early help

threshold document was commended, alongside the implementation of a new

early help strategy, responding directly to identify local need. This threshold

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document is now being reviewed in the context of the remodelling of Early

Help services which will result in the new Local Area Teams being launched in

early 2017.

Scrutiny of local data has identified Domestic Abuse and Neglect as high on the

list of priorities. For example, proportionally these two are the dominant factor

in contacts to Children’s Social Care; neglect as a category for child protection

plans is significantly higher as a percentage than any other category; the

percentage of children recorded as present at incidents of domestic abuse has

increased (the Board acknowledges that all or any of these may be a positive

improvement in awareness and recording processes.)

The combination of these along with other vulnerabilities e.g. missing from

home or care, sexual abuse and/or exploitation and missing from education is

also acknowledged by the Board.

Monitoring Front Line Practice

Regular and effective monitoring and evaluation of multi-agency front-line

practice to safeguard children identifies where improvement is required in the

quality of practice and services that children, young people and families

receive. This includes monitoring the effectiveness of early help.

The change of the board structure means performance reporting is more

closely aligned to the priorities, set by the Board and detailed within the

Annual Report. Early Help, Sexual Abuse and Exploitation, Children Missing,

Neglect and Domestic abuse are the subject of performance updates at each

board meeting.

In addition each priority linked sub-group of the Board reviews data pertinent

to their area and highlights issues and exceptions to the Priority Delivery and

Scrutiny Group and the Board.

Within the new structure is a new relationship between the Case Review Sub-

group (CRG) and the case file or record audit process carried out by the

Partnership Practice Scrutiny and Review Group (PPSRG) process. A forward

plan of targeted case record or thematic audits relating to priorities focuses

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scrutiny by PPSRG on areas of identified need, providing a continuing

assessment of actual practice. Beyond case records, there is a range of

approaches being developed by both the Case Review and Partnership Practice

Scrutiny and Review Groups to identify learning from both strong practice and

from areas for improvement.

Regular social work caseload monitoring data is provided to the Chair by

Children’s Social Care and data is included in the quarterly wider CYSCB Local

Authority Children’s Services quarterly monitor to give oversight of pressures

in the system. Children’s Social Care supervision audits are also in place and

shared with the Chair of the Board.

The CYSCB Learning & Improvement (L&I) Framework was reviewed and

refreshed in March 2016 with input from Board members and specifically from

the Chair and sub-group chairs. The L&I Framework provides a detailed and

comprehensive account of how the Board knows what it knows about

safeguarding activity across all partners and how it takes action to address

this.

Next steps:

As each sub-group produces highlight reports for each PDSG and Board

meeting, these will focus on the changes to practice identified and the

monitoring of the impact of those changes.

The sub-groups and the Board will be responsive to identified changes in

local need and adapt their focus and requests for information and data

using the means and methods set out in the Learning & Improvement

Framework.

Significant changes in local need or issues of national significance, would

lead to a review of, and changes or, more likely, enhancements to, the

Board’s priorities.

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Mutual Challenge

Facilitated by the Board and the Chair of the Board, partners hold each other

to account for their contribution to the safety and protection of children and

young people (including children and young people living in the area away

from their home authority).

Partners are able to challenge each other on areas for improvement within the

CYSCB meetings with information from improved performance reporting and

robust agency assurance reports. The chair concludes each meeting with an

evaluation of the impact made. For example, discussion has taken place in

respect of the provision of forensic paediatric assessment of sexual assault,

which has led to the escalation of the matter with NHS England.

As part of the Section 11 process a challenge event is held annually with North Yorkshire to identify areas for development within agency practice. The learning from this is included in the annual report and individual agency actions updated upon in assurance reports to the Board (S11 of the Children Act 2004 ‘places duties on organisations and individuals to ensure their functions and any services that they contract out to others, are discharged having regard to the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.’)

Further refinement of the Section 11 review process has provided a more

useful tool for partners to assess fully their safeguarding priorities and areas

for improvement.

Next steps:

Continue to review the Section 11 process to ensure it is applicable and

relevant to all partners, and link improvement actions into the assurance

reporting process.

Use partners assurance reports to the Board to ensure that actions

identified from the S11 audit and event are carried out.

Ask health partners also to consider their responses to the S11 audit

along with the findings in the CQC ‘Not Seen Not Heard’ review of

arrangements for children in care.

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Shared Contribution

Safeguarding is a priority for all of the statutory LSCB members and this is

demonstrable, such as through effective section 11 audits and assurance

reports. All LSCB partners make a proportionate financial and resource

contribution to the main LSCB and the audit and scrutiny activity of any sub-

groups.

CYSCB sees strong commitment from board partners to both safeguarding and

to the board itself. Overall attendance of meetings has remained good.

A three year financial model has been agreed with partners to ensure balanced

contributions and stability of the support arrangements. The Board produces a

compact for the Chair and partners to sign which outlines the responsibilities

and relationships.

Each of the statutory partner agencies and others are asked to make a

contribution to the Annual Report to demonstrate what they have done over

the previous year to ensure the safeguarding of children and young people.

A CYSCB newsletter is now produced quarterly with content suggested by

Board activity and Board members.

Next steps:

Communicate more fully – via the cross-agency impacts of actions to

ensure agencies can see the progress made.

Ensure that each Annual report gives a good picture of what the Board

has done and how the Board has supported and challenged safeguarding

activity across the city.

Learning and improvement

The LSCB has a local learning and improvement framework in line with

guidance in Working Together 2015. Opportunities for learning cover a wide

spectrum from front line training for practitioners to audit activity to analysis

of data and qualitative information by Board members. Learning is effective

and properly engages all partners.

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Serious case reviews are initiated where the criteria set out in statutory

guidance are met. Where practice can be improved, this is disseminated,

along with practice which is considered to be good. Serious case reviews are

published.

There is confidence in the CYSCB’s Learning & Improvement framework, which

was updated in 2015 and has been comprehensively refreshed in 2016. One

observation was that it should be developed to include more information from

services other than Children’s Social Care. Over the past year; far more data

has, therefore, been brought into the performance framework from other

partners including health and the Police. This information is now reviewed by

the Board and sub-groups as a matter of course, and will continue to be

developed in its coverage.

Although York has not had a Serious Case Review for over 3 years, there is

confidence in the serious case review process. Through the revised structure,

the Case Review Group is looking beyond just those cases which meet the

threshold, but also those below it where there could be useful learning. This

will provide for a broader range of lessons learned. Decisions made by the

group go as recommendations to the Board Chair and then to the National

Panel of Experts. One decision went to the Panel in 2016 and was endorsed by

the Panel.

Next steps:

Review the Learning & Improvement Framework as part of an annual

refresh.

Draw key areas of learning (including strengths of practice) into the

CYSCB Annual Report and CYSCB newsletter and other communications

to ensure maximum impact.

Disseminate learning from a Learning Lessons Reviews across the

workforce and embed findings in the new Neglect Strategy.

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Procedures

The CYSCB ensures that high-quality policies and procedures are in place and

that these policies and procedures are monitored and evaluated for their

effectiveness and impact and revised where improvements can be made. The

CYSCB monitors and understands the application of thresholds locally.

Threshold Guidance is published on the CYSCB website and on the YorOk

(Children’s Trust) website and training on the use and application of these

delivered as part of the Integrated Working Training. The work of the

Children’s Advice Team and ongoing dialogue with head teachers and pastoral

leads confirms an increasingly shared understanding of thresholds locally. The

threshold guidance is being reviewed and refreshed to include issues such as

‘radicalisation’ and female genital mutilation. This review will take place

alongside the establishment of the new model of delivering early help via the

Local Area Teams in early 2017.

CYSCB has a suite of procedures which are reviewed as new guidance or

intelligence becomes available. These procedures are published on the CYSCB

website. Priority sub-groups take the lead on thematic areas. The procedures

around Child Sexual Abuse & Exploitation have been updated, with a new risk

assessment tools and definitions. New guidance on Female Genital Mutilation

has also been published and a joint protocol with North Yorkshire County

Council and North Yorkshire Police on Children Missing from Home and Care.

Next steps:

Ensure procedures continue to be reviewed and amended, based on

knowledge of best practice and local intelligence.

Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation

The nature and extent of the local issues in relation to children missing and

children at risk of sexual exploitation are well understood by CYSCB which

oversees effective information sharing and a local strategy and action plan.

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Through the review of guidance and procedures, the approach to Child Sexual

Abuse & Exploitation has been brought together in a consistent and coherent

way, reducing the risk of differential approaches based on categorisation. Both

CSA & E and Children Missing are thematic priorities for the board and, given

their frequent co-dependence, are the remit jointly of one joint sub-group.

Whilst there is overall confidence in the CYSCB’s knowledge of CSE and

children who go missing, there is no complacency. The CYSCB CSA &

E/Children Missing sub-group provides regular updates to the Board.

Given the priority placed on this area York has a Joint Strategy Group with

North Yorkshire to ensure the alignment and cross-border coverage of policies.

High-level strategic review meetings have been held jointly with North

Yorkshire to allow the local authority Chief Executives, DCSs, Independent

Chairs and Senior Police to ensure a joined up response. This will continue

regularly through the Chief Officer Reference and Accountability Group, of

similar membership.

Following the reviews into the events in Rotherham and Oxford, the DCS

provided a statement to full Council on York’s arrangements, and the

Independent Chair reported to CYSCB and to the Council’s Learning and

Culture Overview and Scrutiny Board.

The board, in partnership with NSPCC, launched the “It’s not OK“campaign in

May 2015 which highlights the risks and the need for everyone to be aware

and take responsibility for preventing sexual abuse. This was made possible by

the commitment and contribution of partners who provided time and

resources to ensure its profile. Feedback has been very positive and the

development and presentation of an ‘It’s Not Ok’ play to over 200 children

resulted in several disclosures. The campaign moved into the community

phase in 2016 with workshops for parents, city-wide visual publicity about the

campaign and the start of training for taxi drivers.

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In July 2016 the campaign was formally closed but materials have been

distributed for schools to use and CYSCB is seeking further funding to roll out

the play and the workshops again. The campaign received national acclaim.

Next steps:

Continue the focus on this area and the need to maintain a joined-up

approach with other risk factors.

Review the full formal evaluation of the campaign including feedback

from the young people to whom the play and workshops were delivered.

Partnership practice and scrutiny review

Multi-agency case file audits – usually themed- are used by CYSCB to identify

priorities which will improve professional practice with children and families.

The Chair has used the findings of these audits to challenge and works CYSCB

partners, including the local authority, where there are concerns that the

improvements are not effective.

As noted above, revised arrangements for case file auditing are now being

implemented, providing a more complete spectrum of review from Serious

Cases through to individual practice improvements, using different tools and

methods depending on the need. Membership of both the sub-groups is based

on oversight of frontline practice, allowing challenges to be raised which are

understood at an operational level. The voice and experiences of children and

young people within each case audited are used as a measure of improvement.

The forward plan of audits is based on identified priorities and this will

continue to evolve as new strategic or operational priorities emerge.

Through recent audits, the Chair has followed up issues around data recording

and dental health, which is being taken forward by the Neglect sub-group.

Through feedback to the Board following one case file audit in the Partnership

Practice Scrutiny and Review Group, the issue was identified around the

availability of therapeutic support for victims of sexual abuse whilst criminal

proceedings are underway. The Chair of the Board wrote to the Police and

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Crime Commissioner, who has responded with some clarification; further

dialogue is expected. In the meantime NSPCC were able to take this

opportunity to highlight the work that they do locally with victims of sexual

abuse.

Recently, the Voice & Involvement Group has been brought into board

structure as a sub-group. The group works to ascertain how the voice of

children is being heard and to support and challenge agencies methods for

responding to this. Consideration is being used as to how other techniques,

such as writing reports from the perspective of the child, could be used to

draw even greater attention to the perspectives of children. Children and

young people’s views and responses to them are a key section of the Annual

Report and the Board is looking at how a child-friendly version of the Annual

Report can be produced.

Next steps:

Continue to increase the involvement of young people in board activity

including the Annual Report.

Develop a data set around Voice of the Child.

Ensure communications from the board are accessible to children.

Influencing the agenda

CYSCB works with other boards to influence, and ensure that, the planning of

services for children and young people is as effective as possible. Protocols are

in place for joint working between the Safeguarding Adults Board, the Health &

Wellbeing Board, the Safer York Partnership and YorOK. This has recently had

an impact in the governance arrangements around Domestic Abuse which is a

shared priority for the Safer York Partnership, and both safeguarding boards.

The Chair meets regularly with the chairs of all the strategic Boards, identifying

shared priorities and opportunities to influence further. The operational

managers for each Board meet quarterly to identify progress on priority,

overlaps in planning and to agree collaborative processes going forward.

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Members of CYSCB have been engaged in supporting YorOk in the

development of the new Children and Young People’s Plan, and with the

Health & Wellbeing Board in respect of the Health & Wellbeing Strategy. Board

members and the Chair have also engaged with the review around the

commissioning of health services for 0-19 year olds.

The Chief Officer Reference and Accountability Group (CORAG) also provides a

forum for discussion on agencies’ responsibilities, allowing safeguarding

priorities to be put into the debate at the most senior level.

Beyond direct involvement of the Board and partners, the CYSCB Newsletter is

distributed quarterly to partners and to practitioners, providing an update on

activity and national and local news on safeguarding initiatives. In October

2016 CYSC launched a Twitter account @LSCBYork to ensure that news on local

and national guidance, policy and initiatives can reach as wide an audience as

possible.

Next Steps:

Work to enhance the use of communication channels such as the

newsletter, website and social media, to ensure key messages from the

board are routinely picked up in other forums.

Review the protocols with other boards in light of the structure changes

to ensure they provide for appropriate input.

Training

The LSCB ensures that sufficient, high-quality multi-agency training is available

and evaluates its effectiveness and impact on improving front-line practice and

the experiences of children, young people, families and carers. All LSCB

members support access to the training opportunities in their agencies.

High-quality training has been provided or commissioned by CYSCB for several

years. This includes basic Child Protection Awareness, Multi-agency ‘Working

Together’ Safeguarding Training, training in recognition of signs and impact of

Domestic Abuse and interventions, and more specialised training, for example,

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on awareness and recognition of FGM concerns. Partners are fully aware of

the available training through the CYSCB and Workforce Development Unit

(WDU) website take up and evaluation of training is reported in the Annual

Report.

Within the new structure, training and development has become the

responsibility of the Priority Delivery and Scrutiny Group (PDSG), which

ensures provision, is aligned to the priorities of the board. The inclusion of the

Voice & Involvement Group as a sub-group of the Board will also allow more

feedback from children and young people on the impact on improving front

line services.

The PDSG focuses on the assessment of multi-agency training needs, and move

to a commissioned model based on priorities and supported by WDU. A

commissioning budget will ensure the availability of training activities for all

agencies, and the ability to co-ordinate and commissioning more specialists

training where this is identified as a need.

During 2016 a newly appointed CYSCB Workforce Development Adviser has

undertaken a full training needs analysis, with input from key partners and

consultation with every sub-group and Board members. Work is now well in

hand to commission further training for 2016/17 and to commence on

commissioning for 2017/18.

The new CYSCB Training Strategy was endorsed by the Board in October 2016.

Next Steps:

Identify more opportunities for joining up basic training provision across

the region and provide greater linking of single agency training needs to

achieve economies of scale where appropriate.

Establish the training programme for the rest of 2016/17 and for

2017/18.

Collect further information in regard to single agency safeguarding

training so that gaps are identified for multi-agency training input.

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Establish a process of evaluation which will include an evaluation of the

longer term impact o practitioners and children and young people.

Annual Report

CYSCB publishes an Annual Report with significant input from Board partners

The 2015/16 annual report was written as a comprehensive review of the year,

with a more summarised version to allow easy access. It identified

performance and included lessons from audits, reviews case reviews and child

deaths. The report set out the five key priorities for improvement Early Help,

Neglect, Child Sexual Abuse, Children who go Missing and Domestic Abuse. The

report was published and sent to Leader of the Council, the Chair of the Health

and Wellbeing Board, the Police and Crime Commissioner, the council Chief

Executive and the Directors of Children’s Services.

This year, work continues to provide an even greater analysis of performance

and improvement, drawing on input from across the partnership. It is also the

intention that a version of an annual report will be published which is designed

for Young People.

Next steps:

Co-ordinate the production of the 2016/17 annual report, ensuring it is

seen and reviewed by appropriate audiences and sets the priorities for

the coming year.

Highlight the voices of children and young people within all annual

reports going forward and work with young people to develop a version

which is more accessible to them.

In brief – some of what CYSCB has done

Voice of the child:

Ensured that the voices of children and young people are heard and that

they have a say in how their needs are met e.g. that children and young

people in the ‘Four Corners’ (Refugee Action York) refugee group are

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worried about ‘hate crime’ which the Board chair is following up with

the Safer York Partnership.

Learnt from children in the care of the local authority exactly what the

experience is like for them by attending the ‘Speak Up’ training and

listening to what the ‘Show Me That I Matter’ survey says.

Joined children with hearing impairments for lunch in May 2016 to

understand what their lives are like.

Early Help

Scrutinised reasons for closure of contacts to Children’s Social Care (CSC)

which don’t reach the threshold for CSC assessment.

Contributed to the large scale review of early help services currently

underway using a variety of means e.g. by Board members giving views

in person directly to the lead officers on the project and by contributing

to the consultations.

Observed and sought assurance of the arrangements in the ‘Children’s

Front Door’ including arrangements for those contacts which do not

meet the threshold for social care intervention. The Board Chair has

spent a day with Front Door Practitioners (Referral & Assessment and

the Advice Team) seeing how they work and listening to their views and

ideas.

Child sexual abuse:

Reviewed child sexual abuse cases in the PPSRG and in the CRG,

highlighting concerns about practitioners understanding, and practice, in

relation to child sexual abuse. This led to the ‘It’s Not Ok’ campaign and

a challenge to, and response from, the Police & Crime Commissioners

Office about therapeutic services for children and young people.

Published guidance on Child Sexual Exploitation including a CSE

assessment tool.

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Requested, received and disseminated information from the Police &

Crime Commissioner about commissioned therapeutic services to

support victims of sexual abuse

Found out much more about children in York who are vulnerable to

sexual abuse and exploitation, and ensured that services are put in place

to protect them, through increased information-sharing and joint work

between key agencies. The CSA&E Sub-group has sought information

from agencies about the provision of services and a multi-agency

operational group now meets to discuss these vulnerable children.

Carried out a major and nationally acclaimed campaign during 2015/16

jointly with the NSPCC called ‘It’s Not Ok’ to raise awareness and share

good practice in regard to Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation involving

more than 2000 year 7 children in discussions; 450 parents in

workshops; and nearly 300 professionals in seminars; along with

members of the public across York through an advertising campaign

using buses, posters in pubs and hotels and bin lorries.

Neglect:

Shared and consulted on a new citywide neglect strategy which will be

finalised later in 2016 in response to the high level of children referred

to Children’s Social Care because of neglect.

Arranged a Neglect Event in July 2016 providing practitioners with an

opportunity to learn about identification and intervention. Nearly 80

practitioners attended.

Supported training of practitioners in Children’s Social Care and 0-19

Healthy Child Service in using the Graded Care Profile.

Domestic abuse:

Highlighted for Safer York Partnership (SYP) and the York and North

Yorkshire Joint Coordination Group (JCG) prioritisation of the needs of

identified child victims of domestic abuse.

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Established a Domestic Abuse Sub-group to enhance understanding of

the impact on children of domestic abuse in York in order to continue to

challenge SYP and the JCG to improve the response to families where

children are exposed to domestic abuse.

Undertaken (in the Partnership Practice Scrutiny and Review Group) an

audit of cases which were considered at Domestic Abuse Multi Agency

Risk Assessment Conferences (MARAC), made recommendations for

practice and record keeping which have been checked and assurance

received.

Commissioned multi agency training on awareness of domestic abuse

including the impact on children and the new definition of coercive

control reaching more than 50 practitioners in the last 3 sessions.

Marked ‘National Safeguarding Children Week’ (17-21 October) by

working alongside IDAS (Independent Domestic Abuse Services) and other

services including Kyra and with colleagues in North Yorkshire and the

Safeguarding Adults Board, to share the message that ‘Domestic abuse

can affect anyone’ with stalls raising awareness of domestic abuse and

the support available to those affected including children.

Children who go missing:

Published a joint protocol across York and North Yorkshire in regard to

children who go missing from home and care so that agencies work

together to protect these children.

Recognised that children who go missing are vulnerable to Child Sexual

Abuse and Exploitation and to other risky behaviours.

Been assured that those individuals who appear to be of particular

concern are discussed at a multi-agency meeting so that support can be

provided.

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Made high level information sharing agreements and protocols to enable

this cross referencing to take place and for these children and young

people to be protected.

Checked that arrangements are in place for children missing from

education and children educated at home so that they are safe.

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM):

Published a new profile and local guidance including the mandatory duty to

report.

Delivered multi-agency training on recognising the possible signs of

FGM and being aware that it could happen in York

In addition the Board has:

Delivered multi-agency ‘Working Together’ training on all aspects of

concerns about children to over 200 practitioners over the last year.

Provided leadership for an ‘Inter-Board’ protocol with the Health &

Wellbeing Board, the Safer York Partnership, the YorOk Board and the

Safeguarding Adults Board so that all of these Boards work together to

safeguard children and young people.

Sought regular assurance reports from each CYSCB partner organisation

so that we know what they are doing to safeguard children.

Carried out a Section 11 audit of all partners safeguarding arrangements

along with audits for all schools about their safeguarding arrangements.

Supported schools – including academies and independent schools –

with their safeguarding practice and delivered training to designated

safeguarding leads.

Developed systems for scrutinising and analysing data from all partners,

used by the Board and all sub-groups.

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Recognised that there is much more to do and that there are always new

issues of which to be aware such as: trafficking, modern slavery, and

‘prevent’

Next steps

To provide greater visibility of individual agencies’ improvements,

identified by the Section 11 audit process, by requesting information on

agencies actions in response to this audit in all subsequent assurance

reports.

To work with schools on developing and refining the safeguarding audit

tool.

To use data effectively in each sub-group with sub-group. Chairs

reporting on issues and exceptions in their highlight reports to the

Priority Scrutiny and Review Group and to the Board.

To build on the operational relationships between partners to share

more joint intelligence in the setting of priorities.

To review protocols between CYSCB and other boards to ensure they

remain up-to-date and fully effective.

As each sub-group produces highlight reports for each PDSG and Board

meeting, these will focus on the changes to practice identified and the

monitoring of the impact of those changes.

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