Agenda item

To receive and consider the Berkshire West Safeguarding Children Partnership Annual Report 2021-22.

David Gussi, Chair of the Berkshire West Safeguarding Children Partnership (BWSCP) presented the 2021/2022 annual report of the BWSCP.

David Gussi believed that Youth Councils were a great idea, and to illustrate his opinion he shared a personal story.  He stated that 40 years ago he was the chair of the Youth Council in Wellingborough, at a time when there was no institutional support for youth councils.  At the time the Youth Council raised some money for mental health support for young people and set up a counselling service for young people called Serving Six, which was still going today. 

David Gussi was appointed chair of the BWSCP in July 2022, after this report date.  Some of the points made during his presentation are listed below:

·           The BWSCP was set up under the Children’s and Social Work Act 2017 which required local authorities to work with local police forces and Health in an executive group to promote children’s safeguarding;

·           The BWSCP includes Reading, West Berkshire and Wokingham.  It is accountable to each local authority, Thames Valley Police and each authority’s Chief Executive Officer;

·           He believed that it was important to present this report to Youth Council for scrutiny;

·           The report set out complex safeguarding contexts, safeguarding had expanded significantly in recent years;

·           The three local authorities were very different so it was important to make local decisions where possible;

·           He pointed out that this report was much more measured and honest than other such reports in other areas;

·           He informed that the Integrated Care Board (ICB) had recently been established, the participation of Health during the period covered by the report had not been as significant as desirable.

During the discussion of the item the following comments were made:

·           Councillor Chadwick asked for clarification on acronyms.  It was explained that BOB stood for Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire;

·           Councillor Chadwick asked what was the Child Exploitation Indicator Tool (mentioned on page 22 of the agenda); 

·           It was explained that this was a tool that was used to measure indicators of risk to children.  Such indicators were used for prevention of harm;

·           Councillor Bray, Executive Member for Children’s Services informed that a Harm Outside of the Home Strategy was currently being developed, and this could be shared with the Committee when ready;

·           Helen Watson offered to provide examples of the tools used to measure indicators of risk in writing, outside of the meeting;

·           Councillor Chadwick made reference to page 24 of the agenda and asked for more information about the findings that there was no evidence that social media was a contributing factor for serious violence;

·           David Gussi explained that a thematic review had been undertaken in Reading which had reviewed 13 incidents involving serious violence, and the review found that there was no evidence that use of social media had caused/contributed to those 13 incidents;

·           Councillor Rowland expressed concern about reports in the news that children as young as 9 years old were being exposed to pornography online.  She asked if Wokingham’s primary school children were watching pornography and what could be done about it;

·           David Gussi stated that he did not have specific statistics in this respect for Wokingham’s children.  BWSCP provided advice on its website about the safe use of the internet.  However, the issue of online safety was beyond the scope of the partnership, it was a national issue;

·           Sarah Clarke, representing Wokingham SEND Voices stated that SEND children were more vulnerable than other children and asked how they were being supported by the partnership;

·           David Gussi explained that the partnership’s job was to hold others to account, for example to monitor Wokingham’s SEND Board and SEND Strategy to make sure they were having an impact in children’s safeguarding;

·           The Chairman asked if issues such as: increase in poverty, the growing number of Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) and serious youth violence were impacting the priorities going forward;

·           David Gussi confirmed that poverty and the cost of living crisis were  issues that had to be monitored in relation to vulnerability.  Also of concern, was the number of young people and parents with mental health needs arising from the aftermath of the pandemic;

·           Councillor Boyt was pleased to note the initiative in relation to prevention of risk during Reading Festival.  However, she was concerned that not all schools had taken part in this initiative and asked that all schools be encouraged to take part in it;

·           David Gussi stated that there was a colleague from the Royal Berkshire Hospital that was promoting this with schools;

·           It was suggested that the Youth Council could be involved in this initiative;

·           In response to a question David Gussi stated that he liked the style of the current report.  Going forward, he was keen to establish accountability by the three partner agencies across the area.  He believed that the future reports should be presented for scrutiny earlier, and it was important to include the voices of vulnerable children in the report;

·           Councillor Malvern suggested including the annual report as a standing item in the forward programme;

·           Councillor Bray expressed concern over the police participation in the Wokingham area, given the fact that the other areas in the partnership were much larger.  She suggested that more frequent feedback on the work of the partnership be brought to the Committee;

The Committee voted in favour of the recommendations, and that the final wording would be agreed via email with the Chairman and Vice-Chairman.

RESOLVED That:

1)     The Committee recommends that Wokingham Youth Council is invited to take part in the scrutiny of BWSCP;

2)     The Committee recommends that the Executive supports the Online Safety Bill, specifically in respect of the concerns relating to children’s exposure to online pornography;

3)     Requests the development of a mechanism for regular updates on the matter of children’s safeguarding, to include information about the development of priorities;

4)     Requests regular updates from the Community Safety Partnership, focusing on children related work.