Apologies for absence were received from:

Cllr Sonia Zvedeniuk

Estella Gomez

Kathleen Williams

Apologies for lateness were received from:

Cllr David Lindsay

Cllr Dori Schmetterling

Any member of the Council who has a disclosable pecuniary interest in a matter to be considered at the meeting is reminded to disclose the interest to the meeting and to leave the Chamber while any discussion or vote on the matter takes place.

Members are also reminded that if they have any other significant interest in a matter to be considered at the meeting, which they feel should be declared in the public interest, such interests should be declared to the meeting. In such circumstances Members should consider whether their continued participation, in the matter relating to the interest, would be reasonable in the circumstances, particularly if the interest may give rise to a perception of a conflict of interests, or whether they should leave the Chamber while any discussion or vote on the matter takes place.

Declarations of interest were made by:

Cllr Will Pascall – Governor, Chelsea Westminster Hospital and Governor, Colville and Marlborough Primary Schools.

The minutes of the meeting held on 28 September 2023 are submitted for confirmation.

The minutes of the meeting held on 28 September 2023 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

To outline the work of the Local Safeguarding Children Partnership over the last twelve months and future plans.

The Chair introduced the item and invited the Lead Member for Family and Children’s Services and supporting officers to take part in the discussion.

During discussion of the report, the Committee:

1. Was concerned by higher numbers of referrals to Children’s Social Care and Early Help compared to Westminster despite a smaller population of children aged 0-18. Officers clarified that figures were partly inflated due to a legacy system being unable to distinguish between a contact and a formal referral. A new system had been implemented in response.

2. Requested that the figures for children aged 0-25 with special educational needs and children with Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) be confirmed.

3. Discussed concerns about schools not fully participating in Operation Encompass – a police-led initiative to notify schools of a domestic abuse incident – and ongoing efforts to improve sign-up rates.

4. Asked how practices had been updated to address the impact of children being classed as victims under the Domestic Abuse Act 2021. The Council had reviewed commissioning policies and realigned commissioning processes to ensure children could access Council services and support as victims. Additional work to map other existing services and partnership arrangements was also undertaken. Training for school staff and awareness programmes were mentioned as strategies to identify and address domestic abuse concerns for children who would not openly communicate an issue.

5. Suggested greater focus should be placed on showing where multiagency working under the Partnership had been challenged.

6. Highlighted the excellent feedback received regarding the North Kensington Inclusion Project, including the independent advocacy offer, and asked about plans to expand the scheme in the future. The Lead Member advised the Council was looking to continue the scheme and funding options were being explored.

7. Asked how the Council was addressing gaps in mental health provision for children where a parent has been imprisoned as identified by the Child Death Overview Panel. The Council had commissioned a full report and action plan in response.

8. Noted concern that 23% of referrals to the LADO service regarding a safeguarding breach were substantiated.

9. Discussed funding challenges related to the LSCP. Officers suggested a funding formula would lead to a more equitable funding model across the Partnership.

10. Noted the traditional concept of safeguarding from harm had been augmented to also include protection from harms associated with not fulfilling potential, which was indicative of a wider transformational approach to integrating services, and called on the LSCP to ensure its multiagency practice was appropriately aligned with the integrated approach. It was noted that the LSCP’s main priority remained to safeguard children and ensure protection from harm.

11. Discussed ongoing budgetary pressures and accepted that whilst the report focused on the year 2022-23, emphasised severe concern that the report did not mention strategic issues that would require addressing in the future.

12. Considered the main safeguarding risks affecting the partnership, including: cost of living pressures; budgetary pressures; a rise in the number of families housed in temporary accommodation and the location and quality of that accommodation; challenges in maintaining  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

This report is a key component of the annual reporting cycle to inform the Family Services Select Committee of child protection and safeguarding activity in this financial year 2023-2024. The report also advises on improvement activity for 2023.

This report is to be read in conjunction with the Annual Self-Assessment Report (August 2023) attached as Appendix 2.

The Chair introduced the item and invited the Lead Member for Family and Children’s Services and supporting officers to take part in the discussion.

The Committee:

1. Highlighted the importance of regular consultation with looked-after children to understand what the Council was doing well as well as what could be better to avoid stoking disillusionment within the cohort of looked-after children.

2. Raised serious concern about emerging cases of serious injuries to children with disabilities and limited communication abilities in the private care sector and requested the 2024 update on Child Protection Activity directly address work undertaken by the Council to respond to those cases.

3. Was concerned by use of the word ‘curious’ in reference to safeguarding practices in faith settings and suggested the Council should be more rigorous in its oversight of safeguarding in the wider community. Officers stated the Council was promoting safeguarding advice and training in the wider community, bringing groups across the community together to strengthen safeguarding practices. The Committee noted the Council’s role was only advisory, with no enforcement powers to ensure statutory practices were followed.

4. Highlighted the relative strength of maintained schools as arenas for safeguarding compared to other partners and asked how strong the safeguarding relationship was with independent schools in the borough. Officers advised the relationship was strengthening, but still required improvement, and a designated safeguarding lead for schools and education services was in place to develop the relationship further. Awareness of safeguarding concerns among parents and school governors was increasing accountability.

5. Discussed the reasons why looked-after children go missing and emphasised the duty of the Council to be proactive in understanding what was influencing missing episodes and offer targeted support in response. Whilst mental health issues were sometimes relevant, the main concerns were placement breakdown or exploitation.

The Chair summarised the discussion and thanked members and officers for their contributions.

The Annual Corporate Parenting Report covers the period April 2022 to March 2023, and it outlines how the Council is fulfilling its statutory duties to our Looked After Children and Care Leavers. The report provides an overview of our care population and the support provided to our Looked After Children and Care Leavers to enable them to achieve the best possible outcomes in every aspect of their lives.

The Chair introduced the item and invited the Lead Member for Family and Children’s Services and supporting officers to take part in the discussion. Officers outlined some of the report’s key points.

The Committee:

1. Asked how the Council maintained contact with care leavers to ensure they were successful in transitioning into independent adulthood.  Following consultation with care leavers, the Council was developing an alumni programme to provide an information service and hold events for care leavers to maintain contact and ensure support was available beyond age 25.

2. Expressed concern about the number of care leavers in the criminal justice system generally and asked how the Council was working to ensure its looked-after children did not follow that path. Officers noted that statistics on care leavers in the criminal justice system were slightly misleading as young people remanded in custody were automatically categorised as looked-after, even if there was no previous corporate parenting relationship. Nevertheless, the Council offered additional support to all care leavers, including, for example, ringfencing apprenticeship opportunities or housing options specifically for care leavers. The Council had also received funding from the Department for Education to develop a peer-mentoring service for looked after children and care leavers as a direct response to requests from young people.

3. The Council was concerned by an increase in the number of children subjected to extended legal proceedings in familial disputes and the resultant high degree of pressure on front line services with children not exiting care in the expected way.

4. Emphasised the importance of higher education and employment and training opportunities for looked after children.

5. Discussed the role of wider family connections in looked-after children’s lives, and particularly unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. Officers noted managing dislocation and associated trauma for children who had come to the borough from conflict overseas was essential. The Council was seeking to develop a lifelong links programme to ensure looked after children and care leavers maintained contact with those important to them.

The Chair summarised the discussion and thanked members and officers for their contributions.

To scrutinise the proposed areas of budget growth and reductions in areas within the Committees Terms of Reference.

The Chair introduced the item and invited Cllr Pascall as Chair of the Budget Working Group to comment on the report. Cllr Pascall suggested particular attention be paid to how much progress had been made on recommendations from the 2022/23 Budget Working Group and encouraged further recommendations be made to the Budget Working Group, which would in turn report to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

The Committee were invited to discuss the elements of the report related to Children’s Services. During discussion, the Committee:

1. Raised concern about school funding following the Department for Education’s error in miscalculating funding for schools nationally. Officers advised the RBKC Schools’ Forum had oversight of the Dedicated Schools’ Grant and offered to share greater detail on the impact on schools’ funding outside of the meeting.

2. Raised concern that there were inadequate resources in mainstream schools to meet the Delivering Better Value Implementation Plan aim to increase inclusion in local mainstream schools to avoid the use of more expensive special placements. Additionally, more children with special educational needs in mainstream schools would further stretch limited resources. The Lead Member highlighted the challenge of rising numbers of children with special educational needs and increased financial pressure and noted the cumulative deficit of over £6m in the Dedicated Schools Grant was a particular area of concern as that deficit would revert to the Council’s overall budget in 2026.

3. Noted the proposed 2% salary savings and asked where the service was planning to make those savings, and the impact on residents and services. The Lead Member advised the savings would primarily be achieved through organisational restructuring and holding vacancies where they arose. Officers accepted that some services would be scaled back to achieve the cuts.

4. The Committee cautioned that cuts were an unsustainable approach and transformational change would be required in future years to ensure the Council could balance its budget. The Lead Member agreed and noted that transformational work was underway. The Committee resolved to make a recommendation on this subject to ensure the work was completed in a timely manner and directorate was appropriately held to account on its delivery.

5. Noted reviewing outcomes of the 0-5 Strategy was a key recommendation made in 2022/23 and the Strategy would have been implemented for one year in Spring 2024. The Committee recommended that a report be produced on the first year’s activities of the 0-5 Strategy, as soon as possible after the first year had ended.

The Chair summarised the discussion and thanked the Lead Member and Officers for their time.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The Council regularly report back to the Committee on progress with transforming and redesigning the delivery of children’s and family services within to address expected budget gaps from 2025/26 onwards, including NHS funding.

A report to be produced on the first year’s activities of the 0-5 Strategy, as soon as possible after the first year had ended, and included in the Select Committee’s Work Programme for discussion at a public meeting at a suitable time.

This report sets out the select committee’s work programme for the municipal year 2023/24. It details the items for at each select committee meeting, scrutiny activities outside of committee, methods for carrying out scrutiny work, and details of the support available to enable members to scrutinise topics in depth.

The Chair introduced the item and invited members of the Committee to discuss the work programme. The following points were raised:

1. In its scrutiny of the provision of youth services, the committee should consider the impact of new youth and education centres opening in White City, in Hammersmith and Fulham, on existing provision in North Kensington.

The committee AGREED the work programme.