BRIEFING SESSIONS ON SAFEGUARDING PEER REVIEW

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BRIEFING SESSIONS ON SAFEGUARDING PEER REVIEW
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PURPOSE OF THE SESSION

• Understanding the findings of the peer review
• Reminder of the vision for the Councils
  Childrens Services
• Understanding the revised thresholds document
• Reminder of the importance of a whole system
  focus
• An opportunity to reflect on your role in working
  with colleagues from Childrens Services to
  improve outcomes for children and young people
• Slides will be emailed following all the briefing
  sessions

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SLIDES WHICH FOLLOW WERE USED BY THE PEER REVIEW
TEAM IN THEIR FEEDBACK SESSION
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The Peer Team

• Gail Quinton Director of Children's Services,
  Worcestershire
• Gareth Barnard, Member Peer, Bracknell-Forest
• Pat Elliott Operations Manager, Warwickshire
• Helen Jackson - Head of Child Health
  Commissioning, NHS Norfolk Waveney
• Kay Burkett - Review Manager, Local Government
  Association
• David Asher Case Reviewer
• Amy Weir - Review Analyst

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Peer Review

• Peer review is based on agreed themes
• Not an inspection invited in as critical
  friends
• Information is confidential and non-attributable

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The Process

• Front-line questionnaire
• Case file mapping group
• Case records review
• Audit validation
• Document and data review
• Initial thoughts presentation
• Interviews and visits
• Prioritisation conference
• NB. The case record review found that there has
  been improvement in the quality of child
  protection practice. No child or young person was
  found to be at risk of significant harm.

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Safeguarding Children Themes

• Vision, strategy and leadership
• Effective practice, service delivery and the
  voice of the child
• Outcomes, impact and performance management
• Working together (including health and wellbeing
  board)
• Capacity and managing resources

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Agreed areas for the peer team to review

• Is there evidence of a developing learning
  culture on safeguarding in all partner agencies
  which focuses on outcomes?
• How good is awareness and understanding of child
  protection practice across all agencies?
• Are the systems which have been developed for
  ensuring that child protection practice
  effective?
• What evidence is there that children and young
  people have early access to services when they
  need them (below social care thresholds)?

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Vision, strategy and leadership

• Strengths
• Clarified the operational vision for safeguarding
• Visibility of members, DCS and senior managers
  valued
• Safeguarding is a stated priority for the Council
  and reflected by key partners
• Improvement Board in place with good engagement
• Significant planned and continued resources
• Areas for further consideration
• Clarity about how strategies and governance fits
  together
• Simplifying planning and sticking with it
• Continued focus, pace, capacity and future
• Succession planning for key roles
• Tailor communication

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Effective practice, service delivery and the
voice of the child

• Strengths
• Recognition across the partnership of progress
  being made
• Evidence of introduction of new ways of working
• Revised threshold document and its importance
• Voice of the child emerging
• Principal Social Worker roles seen as positive
  and valued
• Areas for further consideration
• Inconsistency is recognised
• Develop sharing of good practice further based on
  the childs journey
• Continued focus on quality through reflective
  practice
• Degree to which early help is impacting on
  safeguarding pressures
• Risk management and information sharing

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Outcomes, impact and performance management

• Strengths
• Evidence of escalation of concerns
• Practice standards enabling greater clarity
• Scrutiny having a positive impact
• Audit framework in place
• Areas for further consideration
• Further develop the sophistication of audit
  implementation
• Use the knowledge to build a learning culture
• Supervision making a difference
• Make the performance information work for you
• From process to outcomes

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Working together (including health and wellbeing
board)

• Strengths
• Readiness for HWB
• Willingness to engage and a strong commitment to
  a more focused WSCB
• Impact of inspection has driven positive response
• Good examples of joint working
• Areas for further consideration
• WSCB to strengthen and to hold partners to
  account
• Pace and impact of newly formed WSCB
• Thresholds implementation to drive understanding
  and working together
• Good quality multi-agency training strategy and
  delivery
• WSCB business plan to be updated
• Roles and responsibilities of partners understood

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Capacity and managing resources

• Positive observations
• Wiltshire has a good range of resources
  opportunity to harness to good effect
• Commitment to investment in keeping children safe
  in Wiltshire
• Good joint commissioning
• Range of resources to increase capacity
• Caseloads appear to be more manageable
• Morale good at front-line and staff feel
  listened to more
• Areas for further consideration
• Resilience and sustainability
• Recruitment drive
• Behaviours framework used to support
  accountability
• Open learning culture not yet mature across the
  partnership
• Workforce development

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Peer Review agreed priority actions

• Moving from process to outcomes
• Resilience and sustainability
• Sharing good practice further based on the
  childs journey
• Recruitment
• Roles and responsibility of partners and the LSCB

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ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS ON THE PEER REVIEW
FINDINGS OR ON THE PRIORITY ACTIONS?
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Safeguarding key messages

• Excellent practice to keep our children and young
  people safe
• We will achieve this by
• SMART child focussed plans underpinned by good
  risk assessment
• Outcome focussed practice
• Continuous improvement-debate and challenge
• Excellent communication with all parties

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Wiltshire Childrens Services Vision

• To safeguard and make a positive difference
  to the life chances of children, young people and
  families by
• Reducing inequalities
• Promoting resilient communities, families and
  individuals
• Prioritising effective prevention and early
  intervention
• Ensuring high quality, accessible, integrated and
  customer focused services
• Raising achievement and well-being, particularly
  for those vulnerable to poorer outcomes

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INTRODUCTION TO THE MULTI-AGENCY THRESHOLDS
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Average monthly activity
4616 calls emails
610 become Contacts AND 438 become Referrals
306 Initial Assessments 82 Core Assessments
NB. Our current estimated rate of initial
assessments for 2012/13 is 436 per 10.000. The
latest available information on our statistical
neighbours is a rate of 292
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The Munro Review of Child Protection

• Preventative services can do more to reduce
  abuse and neglect than reactive services. Many
  services and professions help children and
  families so co-ordinating their work is important
  to reduce inefficiencies and omissions.
• Early help is better for children it
  minimises the period of adverse experiences and
  improves outcomes for children. One of the
  principles of an effective child protection
  system.

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Clear messages from 2010 Working Together
guidance are that social workers are not the
answer to every problem. Safeguarding is
everybodys business and universal services, such
as schools and early years settings, have a
crucial role to play, not only in identifying
children at risk of significant harm, but also in
co-ordinating preventative services to provide
targeted support at the earliest sign of
problems
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Levels of need in Wiltshire

• 1297 SARFs (Specific Agency Referral Forms
  registered between September 2011 and November
  2012).
• 1173 open CAFs (as at 30 November 2012).
• 64 of all recorded contacts and referrals do
  not meet Social Care thresholds (Autumn 2012).
• 500 is the government estimate of the number of
  families with complex needs in Wiltshire.
• 11.6 of children on Health Visitors caseloads
  are in families with complex needs (October
  2010).

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• All services and schools attending a MAF sign
  up to Terms of Reference (TOR)
• which promote integrated working,
  professional respect and a shared vision
• advocating early intervention to support
  local vulnerable children and young
• people.
• MAFs are locally managed and operate within the
  framework of the county-
• wide Multi-Agency Thresholds document. Their
  success in promoting early
• intervention to support effective joined up
  level 2 intervention by all services
• and prevent escalation to level 3-4 services
  was recognised in the authoritys
• Ofsted report. They do this by
• promoting better information-sharing
• facilitating advice and signposting
• achieving a more immediate response from agencies
  to support individual
• children and families
• identifying and responding to gaps in provision
  locally for vulnerable
• children and families generally.

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• The Area CAF Coordinators promote early
  intervention and integrated working through
  support and advice to the Lead Professional and
  the Team around the Child process by
• Running a Monday to Friday CAF helpline
• Quality assuring all registered CAFs.
• Attending the Multi- Agency Forums (MAFs)
  operating in each community area
• Delivering area based training.
• Attending the Gateway panel.
• Supporting the process of step downs and step
  ups to Children and Families

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A multi-agency Gateway Panel has been established
to prioritise and manage access to higher level
family and parenting support services.

• Focuses on access to family and parenting
  support services, providing a gateway to
• The Wiltshire Families First Service
• The Family Group Conferencing Service
• The Childrens Social Care Family Support Service
• The Specialist Family Assessment and Support
  Service provided by Oxford Health
• (who run local Child and Adolescent Mental
  Health Services).
• Adolescent Support workers and Prevention Project
• Meets weekly and adopts a principle of no
  delay.
• Families are referred via a CAF (part of
  planned step down from social care) or an ASSETT
• form from youth offending team.
• Mostly for families where some intervention
  already exists following completion of CAF.
• Proper oversight of the support that families
  are receiving.
• Tracking system for Troubled Families initiative
  (Complex Families initiative)

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• Run by Action for Children - started on 1
  April 2012.
• For families and parents of children and young
  people who do not meet the
• social care threshold but with needs which
  cannot be met by support offered
• by Childrens Centres and Parenting Support
  Advisers alone.
• The family situation will be complex which
  might be due to
• Ongoing and problematic substance misuse of
  parents
• Mental health needs of parents
• Domestic violence
• Learning difficulties of parents
• Offending or risk of offending or anti-social
  behaviour of children
• Parents in receipt of statutory parenting
  orders.

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Key Contacts

CAF Team                 01225 713884 (9-5
Mon-Fri) CAF_at_wiltshire.gov.uk Early
Years                01225 757950 SEN
Support Service  01225 718095 Social Care
Referral Assessment Team    01380 826200
referrals_at_wiltshire.gov.uk Emails
containing personal or confidential information
must be sent to  referralsandassessment_at_wiltshire
.gcsx.gov.uk Emergency Duty Service
(Safeguarding)     0845 6070 888 (out of hours
service) Remember Information sharing with
consent from the parent (or young person if
appropriate) is required unless there is evidence
of serious harm or neglect.
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Further support and guidance

Guidance and tools are available on
www.wiltshirepathways.org and soon on the
new-look www.wiltshirelscb.org website CAF
helpline Mon- Fri 9-5 Tel [phone]
caf_at_wiltshire.gov.uk Childrens Social Care
Referral and Assessment Team Tel [phone]
(out of hours Tel [phone]) CAMHS Tel
01225 905094
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For 5/10 minutes in 2s or 3sAre you clear
about your roles and responsibilities with regard
to the multi-agency thresholds? If not could
you note down any issues or areas where you are
not clear on a sticky note. (This will help us in
planning further dissemination)
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WHERE NEXT?

• Reference Groups 22nd March 2pm to 4.30pm
  better integration and more synergy across
  Childrens Services
• Following up on priority actions incorporating
  these into the Safeguarding Improvement Plan
• From week of 8th April the weekly social care
  bulletin will become a Childrens Services
  bulletin
• Beginning to think about implications of the new
  safeguarding inspection framework which has a
  strong focus on early help
• Continuous improvement and a drive for excellent
  outcomes for Wiltshires children and young people