Although a formal committee of Brighton & Hove City Council, the Health & Wellbeing Board has a remit which includes matters relating to the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), the Safeguarding Children Partnership, Safeguarding Adults Board and Healthwatch.

Title:	Brighton & Hove Local Safeguarding Children Partnership  (BHSCP), Progress Report October 2019 – March 2020
Date of Meeting:	10^th November 2020
Report of:	Statutory Safeguarding Partners: Brighton and Hove City Council, Sussex Police and Clinical Commissioning Group (on behalf of ‘health’ partners)
Contact:	Sally Kendal, BHSCP Business Manager	Tel: 07717 303332
Email:	Sally.kendal@brighton-hove.gov.uk
Wards Affected:	All
FOR GENERAL RELEASE
Executive Summary There is a shared responsibility between organisations and agencies to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children in each local area authority area. The Brighton & Hove Local Safeguarding Children Partnership (BHSCP) is led by three Statutory lead Partners who have a shared and equal duty to make arrangements to work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children. The lead safeguarding partners, Brighton and Hove City Council; Sussex Police; and the Clinical Commissioning Group are responsible for the join-up of local services to achieve the best possible outcomes for children and families across the City. The BHSCP is comprised of  representatives from statutory and non-statutory agencies and organisations in Brighton & Hove with a shared responsibility for keeping children safe. Under its recently published Partnership arrangements (June 2019) the BHSCP oversees the strategic direction and work of partners. Key activities also include: · undertaking child safeguarding practice reviews in order to improve safeguarding practice other multi-agency learning reviews, · audits and qualitative reviews and sharing learning opportunities, · developing and delivering multiagency learning and development opportunities This short progress report describes key work undertaken by the partnership to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people. It covers a six-month period, following inception of the new partnership arrangements, from October 2019 to March 2020.

1. Decisions, recommendations and any options

This report is submitted to the Board for information. It is recommended that the Board:

1.1 Note the report and commend to partners the importance of promoting partnership working to safeguard children, young people and their families across the city.

1.2 Note the BHSCP’s business plan priorities which run from April 2020 to March 2023 (page 7 of the report) and consider how this work  aligns to work being undertaken as part of the city’s joint strategic needs assessment relating to “Starting Well” . Priority 4 (below) will focus on implementation recommendations from the Sussex wide review of emotional health and wellbeing support for children and young people, ensuring that gaps in provision are addressed.

· Priority 1  - Partnership Engagement and Accountability: The new arrangements will provide strategic leadership to embed the principles of safeguarding citywide.

· Priority 2  - Safeguarding children from violence and exploitation: There is a clear understanding of the scale of complex and contextual safeguarding within Brighton & Hove and that the needs of children and young people affected by violence are identified and assessed effectively.

· Priority 3  - Neglect: The needs of children and young people affected by neglect are identified and assessed effectively resulting in timely and appropriate intervention.

· Priority 4  - Mental Health and Emotional Health and Wellbeing: Service provision for children who need support for emotional and mental health issues is consistently good across Brighton & Hove.

1.3 Note that the BHSCP is in the early stages of understanding the long-term impact of Covid-19 on safeguarding and supporting our children, young people and their families as well as considering how best to promote their wellbeing and targeting our resources accordingly.

2. Relevant information

2.1       Working Together to Safeguard Children 2018 places a statutory requirement on the safeguarding partners to publish a report at least once in every 12-month period,  setting out what they have done as a result of the arrangements, and how effective these arrangements have been in practice.

2.2       The BHSCP  replaced the Local Safeguarding Children Board in September 2019. It commenced a journey to refine its arrangements: to work in partnership with agencies and organisations across the city to protect children from abuse and neglect, and to support children and young people who have suffered harm or abuse. As part of its arrangements the partnership appointed two scrutineers whose role is to provide independent assurance regarding the effectiveness of the BHSCP’s work  and act as critical friend to support ongoing development of the partnership.

2.3       In summary during this 6-month period:

• The partnership continued to establish new ways of working flexibly: the key change is that the Local Safeguarding Children Board meeting has been replaced by a  smaller strategic leadership body, the Steering Group, which is led by the three safeguarding partners. This approach is aligned to the reforms introduced by the Department for Education under Working Together 2018, to improve efficiency and focus on core child safeguarding responsibilities across local authority areas.

• Neglect of children and young people: the BHSCP co-hosted a Neglect Conference  with the West Sussex Safeguarding Children Partnership, which focussed on early learning from learning reviews across both local authority areas; the impact of neglect on child development and case studies. Recognising and responding to neglect in families remains a BHSCP priority.  The partnership plans to introduce the latest version of the Graded Care Profile (GCP2), a neglect assessment tool developed by the NSPCC to support practitioners working across the partnership to apply a consistent approach to identifying neglect at the earliest opportunity.

• Between April 2019 and March 2020 training was delivered to a total of 866 staff, including attendance 399 attendees at the BHSCP’s core training days (p 14 of the report).

· Building on previous work to tackle criminal exploitation, the BHSCP’s Exploitation Group is co-chaired by Sussex Police and the BHCC’s Safer Communities lead. It includes Public Health and Safeguarding Adult Board (SAB) representatives, thus enabling a city-wide approach to address this priority work area.

• This  short report prefaces the first annual report which will cover the period April 2020- March 2021 and will run in accordance with the business year cycle to enable the BHSCP to utilise comparative data.

3.         Important considerations and implications

Legal:

The information contained in this report remains crucial to the ability of the different agencies represented to be satisfied that they are meeting their statutory obligations to work together to prioritise safeguarding and wellbeing of children.

            Legal Adviser consulted: Natasha Watson Date: 27/10/2020

            Finance:

The report details a breakdown of budget contributions from partner agencies (page 24 of the report). The local authority contributed just over 50% of partner contributions to the budget during this period. In addition, the local authority hosts the BHSCP’s business team on behalf of partner agencies.

There are no financial implications directly resulting from the recommendations of this report.

Finance Manager consulted: Paul Jeans       Date: 14/10/20

Equalities:

The BHSCP, led by the three lead safeguarding partners is committed to working with partner agencies organisations and the voluntary and community sector to work to ensure all children and families have timely and appropriately focussed access to safeguarding services which meet their specific needs.

Equalities Manager consulted: Anna Spragg Date: 13/10/20

Sustainability:

There is a statutory reequipment under Working Together to Safeguard children 2018 for local authority areas to form multiagency safeguarding arrangements led by the three joint ad equal safeguarding lead partners – police, health (led by the Clinical Commissioning Groups) and the local authority. A continuing commitment to funding the partnership’s work is required.

Supporting documents and information

Appendix 1:  Progress Report: October 2019 – March 2020.