Agenda item

The Committee considered a report of the Corporate Director of Children and Young Peoples Services and received a presentation from C Ring, Strategic Manager, Safeguarding and Professional Practice (for copies see file of minutes) which provided a summary of the progress made in the first year of the implementation of the Signs of Safety Practice Framework in Durham.

In addition to the key milestones outlined in the presentation, the Strategic Manager confirmed that another 5-day training course had been commissioned to deliver training to 60 practitioners and another 2-day Durham Safeguarding Children Partnership (DSCP) training course for 25 partners which would take place the following week.  He also updated the figures to confirm that the 1-year Conference had been attended by 130 staff and partners.  A regional judiciary briefing had taken place in July 2019 and it was hoped that a whole system event would lead to a national conference in the future.

In response to a question from Councillor Bainbridge, the Strategic Manager confirmed that Signs of Safety had made it possible for a child to be kept with her mother, through safety planning with 15 family members and that was due to the social worker finding out how many people were in the family network.

Councillor Jewell said the number of staff who had undertaken the training was remarkable and queried how it was being received and whether staff were buying in to it.  The Strategic Manager confirmed that he was pleasantly surprised by the response and positivity.  One of the barriers to overcome was that as with anything new, people assumed it was going to take time but this was something that only required a different approach.  The Head of Children’s Social Care added that this could not be implemented superficially, it needed depth and integrity – some staff had worked in their role for over 20 years and implementing a new practice was challenging, but it would be phased over 2-3 years.

In response to a question from Councillor Hall on whether the new practice would see any changes to the figures for Children in Care and Looked After Children, the Strategic Manager confirmed that the long term vision would be that  risk is managed differently and the number of children in care would reduce.

The Chair noted the emphasis was moving away from talking about risk and was a benefit to children and families, but she queried whether staff would have more job satisfaction with a more positive approach and whether it could also have a positive impact on retention rates.  The Head of Children’s Social Care agreed it was more rewarding, and other critical issues for social worker retention rates included quality support from Managers, excellent caseload management and terms and conditions of employment.

In response to a question from Councillor Hall about partnership working and information sharing, the Strategic Manager confirmed that a challenge was making sure Social Workers were aware of, and able help families navigate through services.  The Head of Children’s Social Care confirmed that DSCP and the Troubled Families Programme were key parts of the partnership structure and there had always been a focus to ensure a robust early help offer, in addition to building a preventative service to ensure issues did not escalate for children and families.

Councillor Kennedy commented on the success of One Point and the Head of Children’s Care confirmed it was operated jointly with early help and Signs of Safety.

Resolved

That the report and presentation be noted and an update to be provided in 12 months.