a)     

The review reported

      i.        information sharing between organisations as having been an issue and nobody having the full picture of concerns for a particular child;

     ii.        There had been a lack of robust and critical thinking challenge;

    iii.        The triggering of statutory child protection processes had not been taking place at the right time and the workforce didn’t have the right skills and experience to undertake complex work;

    iv.        There had been a reluctance in challenging and working with reluctant parents;

     v.        The had been a lack of understanding of the lived experience of children;

    vi.        There had been a poor understanding at times of domestic abuse;

  vii.        The uncertainty that the right organisational structures were in place to enable effective child protection work to take place;

b)     

Significant work had been undertaken in Plymouth over a 12 month period to address some of the points within the report. Plymouth had worked to ensure education colleagues were involved which significantly improved the likelihood of getting safeguarding right for the children of Plymouth;

c)     

The scorecard had been updated for the partnership to bring in more multi-agency data and would enable change in areas across the city;

d)     

The report highlighted that within both authorities that they didn’t have the right multi-agency oversight in place. Plymouth had already put in place arrangements to change this and the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub would report into the Plymouth Safeguarding Partnership to provide oversight and scrutiny on a quarterly basis;

e)     

An assurance plan had been created to provide assurances on issues that could be affecting Plymouth to ensure Plymouth families were not experiencing what had been found elsewhere;

f)      

An assurance plan had been created to provide assurances on issues that could be affecting Plymouth to ensure Plymouth families were not experiencing what had been found elsewhere;

g)     

Government needed to provide some legislative change to enable change within some of the recommendations of the review;

a)        

The Partnership had introduced a refreshed case resolution protocol to ensure challenge and critical scrutiny is recorded robustly;

b)       

There had been a specific training programme offered by the Partnership focussed on domestic abuse. The principal social worker of children’s social care had emphasized a specific focus on upskilling the workforce on domestic abuse;

c)        

Plymouth had been working with the NSPCC to reduce the level and impact of sexual abuse across the city. There had been a regular range of events that happened such as the PANTS campaign targeted at children in primary school in terms of raising awareness with children at a young age so they are able to think about their safety. The NSPCC had been carrying out healthy relationships work which had been reaching young children in an appropriate and sensitive way;

d)       

When it came to concerns that are safeguarding, where it was likely or possible a child would experience on-going significant harm if disclosure regarding a carer was made. There had been agreement within legislation and within mandatory guidance that consent did not have to be sought from a parent to report the concern for investigation.

e)       

The Committee would receive the domestic abuse paper that would go to Cabinet in December.