Agenda item

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Public Health detailing the revised delivery framework for the prevention of unintentional injuries in children and young people (0-19 years) in County Durham 2014-2017, which now requires further consultation and approval (for copy see file of minutes).

The Consultant in Public Health reported that a workshop to assess progress in implementing the strategy was held in November 2016, which included partners representing different sectors involved in delivering the plan. Following a review to see if the strategy was still fit for purpose, the refreshed strategy had now been developed as a delivery framework, reflecting the various delivery strands, along with a forward plan to represent key actions and outcomes to be addressed during 2017 to 2020.

Councillor Crute welcomed the centralisation with the Children and Families Partnership Board and was pleased the strategy had been developed as a delivery framework as his main concern was how to deal with the separate issues internally through the individual scrutiny committees.

Councillor Brookes asked about the relationship between unintentional injuries and the issue of neglect where a child has had multiple admissions to hospital for unintentional injuries. The Consultant in Public Health advised that all practitioners use a home environment tool and have training to identify triggers that are linked with the early help work in make sure the information is shared.

The Head of Early Help, Assess and Safeguarding added that practitioners and accident and emergency teams were well-versed with non-accidental injury issues. It was explained that when a child was seen with injuries, they have to decide if the explanation given was plausible. If the explanation given does not add up then the safeguarding referral would be reported.

It was noted that the home environment tool was used universally to make an assessment on whether the environment was a risk to the child. The Local Safeguarding Children’s Board were looking at regular patterns, capturing information such as missed GP and Dental appointments.

The Head of Early Help, Assess and Safeguarding agreed that depravation would have an impact and advised that an analysis of child poverty was being produced to show the impact of inequality between areas of the County resulting in circumstances in which a child was born into that would impact on education attainment and mental health issues.

Councillor Patterson referred to depravation, childcare arrangements and universal credit implications and commented on the figures and proportions moving forward.

Councillor Crute added that the impact of the Welfare Reform and the Economy in County Durham requires considering the framework had implications for the remit of many of the scrutiny committees especially the impact of Universal Credit on County Durham communities.

The Consultant in Public Health advised that she would be happy to give a presentation to each individual scrutiny committee.

Resolved:

That the information contained in the report be noted.