Minutes

The Chairman, Peter Dwyer welcomed all to the meeting.  Roundtable introductions were made.  Apologies for absence were noted from Louise Burton and Angie Ridgwell.  Replacements were in attendance for Supt Ian Whitehead, Hazel Gregory, Debbie Duffell, Stephen Cox and Alison Aylott.

Resolved:  The minutes of the Lancashire Children's Services Board meeting held on 27 March 2018 were approved as an accurate record.

Action Log Updates

Item 5 – MASH Feedback - it was noted that this was included at agenda item 3b) on today's agenda.

Item 9 – SEND Recovery Plan – it was noted that this was included at agenda item 5 on today's agenda.

Item 11 – Early Help Pathways – it was noted that this was included at agenda item 6 on today's agenda.

Item 19 – Acronyms - a list has been circulated to Board members.

Item 21 – Care Leavers offer – there are plans through the Purposeful Practice Board and the Corporate Parenting Board to follow this up and will appear in the 12 week Improvement Plan.

Item 22 – MASH Monitoring Visit and Letter - it was noted that this was included at agenda item 3b) on today's agenda.

Item 23 – Inspection Readiness -it was noted that this was included at agenda item 3c) on today's agenda.

3a)  Performance Summary March

John Readman, Executive Director of Education and Children's Services, Lancashire County Council introduced a presentation which included the performance update.  The performance dashboard was included in the agenda pack and John and Peter Dwyer were in discussion about how reporting would be addressed going forward.

3b)  Action Plan following the Ofsted Inspection Monitoring Visit

Simon Fisher, MASH, Lancashire County Council and Eric Halford, Lancashire Constabulary gave an update on the final Ofsted Monitoring Visit to MASH on 27 and 28 February 2018.

The document provided at Appendix B gave details of what was said by Ofsted, what was being done in response, the next steps and how improvements would be evidenced.

Issues raised included the 70% of cases where children are referred by police to the MASH when they did not end up receiving services from Children's Social Care following an assessment.  Eric Halford commented that this was an issue with the quality of the referrals and partly that the organisation does not have a system for collecting the detailed information and so refer in, so as to capture the information.  This was being addressed and hopefully around September there would be an ability to record non-crime related information on a new system when CONNECT was introduced.  At the next Operational Group meeting they would be looking at live cases to gain a better understanding of what information was required on contacts/referrals.

The LSCB were currently looking at a single referral form Pan-Lancashire and were delivering training in relation to the thresholds within the Continuum of Need.

Eric confirmed that the Police queues was reducing and this had been maintained since March 2018, consistently reducing for the last four weeks.  This still required close monitoring by the MASH Steering Group.

There had been an increase in PVPs (Police Vulnerable Person report) from MASH to Early Help and there was a positive response from the Police on the ground on this.

Continued engagement with Commissioned Services was needed for their contributions to delivering early help.  Contract and monitoring requirements were needed, to be proactive both internally and externally to ensure that cases were being picked up by the contracted agencies.

The following actions were agreed within the MASH plan:

Peter Dwyer spoke about forward planning and the most crucial delivery implication being the Leadership with partners and owned across the team and requested that there be an item on the next agenda on "What the Lancashire Leadership offer" may look like, which would include culture/leadership/

behaviour and which we would all follow.

Resolved:  That an item be on the next agenda be "What the Lancashire Leadership Offer will look like".

David Graham and Sian Rees, Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Team, Lancashire County Council presented the Board with the Written Statement of Action which had been produced as a response to Lancashire's local area SEND inspection undertaken by Ofsted and Care Quality Commission (CQC) between 13-17 November 2017.  The Written Statement of Action was submitted to Ofsted on 18 April 2018 and they had 10 days to reply to say if they were in agreement with the document.

The Written Statement of Action addresses the 12 areas of significant concern identified during the inspection and clearly defines the areas of high level actions the partners needed to address.  Details of these were found in the Written Statement of Action that was included in the agenda pack.  There were five themes which would be taken forward by a dedicated SEND Transitional Partnership Board.  Five sub groups would be responsible for delivering actions and report monthly progress to the SEND Transitional Partnership Board.  Progress will be monitored by the Department for Education with a quarterly visit undertaken and a feedback report provided.

There was a crossover of work from the SEND inspection that would be included in the forthcoming Ofsted inspection of Children's Services and this was noted.

The Written Statement of Action (WSOA) was noted by the Board along with the wish to ensure that the overlaps across plans was attended to.  For example, Children with Disabilities (CWD) team performance and links to education assessments and plans.

Siobhan Collingwood raised concerns from a schools perspective on SEND and safeguarding, and wondered what the expectations were, from Headteachers. 

Action:  John Readman agreed to speak with Siobhan Collingwood after the meeting.

A report was attached to the agenda pack and there were no issues arising from it.

Siobhan Collingwood spoke to the Board and slides were included in the Powerpoint presentation.

Since January 2018, Siobhan had been in discussion with primary Headteachers across Lancashire on safeguarding and concerns they had.  The main areas of concern were:

• caseloads which were increasing
• complexity of cases, not just happening in hot spot areas, but across the County, supervision/support for Pastoral Leads
• budgetary pressure on schools. 

Some Heads did not have the budget for Pastoral Leads so the Head undertook this additional role which put extra pressure on them.

A case study was provided where wraparound care from a whole team of agencies had been involved and things had improved, however, continued support from those agencies were needed.

Concerns with Children's Social Care (CSC) were highlighted in the presentation and this was echoed in Secondary Schools also, Andy Smith confirmed.

Looking at ways forward was using Operation Encompass which was to improve inter-agency communication around domestic abuse thereby assisting the provision of timely support for children and families.  Siobhan Collingwood outlined a Hub and Spoke Safeguarding Networks whose aim was to improve the quality of support for the work and reduce the quantity of referrals to MASH and CSC.  The model had the potential to improve communication and enhance effective multi-agency family support.  It also enabled schools to receive support from professionals providing Early Intervention.  Catalogue resources available nationally and locally and ensure a multi-agency approach to Alternative and Complementary Education Services.

Operation Encompass had been modelled on a pilot in Greater Manchester and they were willing to come and work with Lancashire on this.

With regards the Hub and Spoke Safeguarding Network, this was proposed to be developed locally these were to be shared at the Safeguarding Board next week. If this proposal was supported then plans would be developed to pilot it in the North, South and East of the County.  If agreed then the LSCB would look to set up a small task and finish group to take this forward.

Sakthi Karunanithi raised that GPs have experienced the same issues and were looking at support arrangements in neighbourhoods.  It was agreed that any pilot would involve GPs at neighbourhood level.

There would be an initial investment for around 12-18 months, followed by a sustainability plan to continue the work if it proved effective.. The progress of the work undertaken so far was noted and that further proposals following the project work up would be considered at the LSCB.

There were no items of urgent business received.

It was noted the items for future meetings were:

• rollout plan for 12 multi-agency venues
• Early Help pathways and step downs
• Police progress against Improvement plans
• SEND written Statement of Action
  Collaborative leadership
  LSCB update

It was noted that the next meeting was scheduled to be held on Tuesday, 22 May at 1.15pm in Committee Room 'B' – Diamond Jubilee Room, County Hall, Preston, PR1 8RL.