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Councillor Steel 

Councillor Laing 

I understand the new family’s first children services team is going live today. Can you explain what this will mean in terms of how children’s social care teams will work with children and families? 

Response: The team did launch today and it’s gone really well so far, it’s a really brilliant development. It’s the new multidisciplinary team which includes the multi-agency safeguarding hub which we call the MASH. The team who previously provided our out of hours response. It’s been developed to respond to concerns and referrals where children and families need more help or protection. The hours have been widened so it will now be running from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm Monday – Friday and 9:00 am to 5:00 pm on Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays. Outside of these hours, an emergency duty service will be on call, reviewing any overnight inquiries, to ensure children at immediate risk of significant harm, urgent adult safeguarding risks and immediate risk of homelessness get an urgent response.  

If a member of the public or a professional thinks a family needs more help or has a safeguarding concern about a child or a young person, they can contact the family’s first team on 0175266800. The number is available 24/7. The service will be using a conversation based approach to support information sharing and decision making. 

The newly extended hours will mean that professionals including teachers, police officers and health staff are able to get advice and support at a time that suits them. It will also mean that children, families and vulnerable adults will get supported with the right help at the right time. 

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Councillor Penrose 

Councillor Evans OBE 

With the University of Plymouth proposing significant redundancies in academic staff, and including closures in the public facing arts provision, ie. The gallery and the cinema. Do you feel that this would be a good opportunity to bring together the heads of these institutions and possibly with the inclusion of Marjons, to have a conversation about what the city needs. This matter affects our culture plan, so it’s time for a collaborative move thinking about how we safeguard these amenities, so that we can achieve the civic provision that we desire. 

Response: The three universities play such an important and active part in civic life within the City and it’s difficult to imagine what life would be like without them. 

They play a large part in culture as stated by Councillor Penrose, they play a large part in our growth board, for growth alliance Plymouth, for destination Plymouth and also, our ambitious plans for economic development. We must remember that the volunteering the university students do is invaluable. I think the suggestion that we convene with them, is a very good idea. Whether individual universities would want to discuss their individual problems with us, and with each other, remains to be seen. A discussion about  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21