Issue - meetings

          The Board considered the Quarterly Report from the Halton Safeguarding Children Partnership. The report detailed the achievements of the Partnership and how it addressed areas for improvement that were identified in the Halton Safeguarding Children Partnership (HSCP) Business Plan. The key priorities for development or improvement were agreed by strategic leaders and included in the HSCP Business Plan 2024-27.

          Highlights in the report including the progress made against the Council’s priorities and the work done by the multi-agency strategic group. The Partnership had three goals: improve the quality and timeliness of practices regarding neglect, safeguarding children from violence and exploitation, and protecting children as victims of domestic abuse.

          Weekly safeguarding meetings were held regarding children who were identified as high risk and monthly operational meetings were held to discuss concerning trends, for example, the rise in ketamine use. The Partnership had formed a robust response to this including awareness activities.

          A mock inspection was done on children who were domestic abuse victims, and this showed that sufficient services were not in place for them. Therefore, awareness raising was done with young people and perpetrators and schools were being informed in a timelier matter when incidents happened so they could support the child in their school who was affected.

          Work was done to train frontline practitioners and improve attendance for high-risk children. Work needed to be done to improve transitional safeguarding between child and adult social care.

          The following additional information was provided in response to Member’s questions:

• ‘Level 8’ attainment is when children are given an average grading from their GCSEs.
• Following some investigation work, officers found a high correlation between poverty and neglect for children. Therefore, they planned to tackle to the root cause of this.
• A teenage pregnancy was a lot higher in Halton than nationally; the health and education sub-boards will investigate this imminently.
• Drug usage had reduced amongst young people following the success of workshops focusing on this.
• The Board praised the work done by officers of the Partnership.
• Schools recently received a new toolkit to ensure that they were being ‘inclusive by design’. The toolkit will be highlighted through numerous workshops and training.
• It was confirmed that the Council adopted the Joseph Rowntree definition of poverty regarding its children.

          RESOLVED: That the report be noted.