Agenda item

The Panel received a report delivered by Deb Loraine, Service Manager on the work carried out by the Erase team during the period 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023 (for copy of report and presentation see file). 

Details were provided of the two specialist teams who support children and young people at risk of harm outside their home i.e. the Adolescent Safeguarding and Exploitation Team (ASET) and the ERASE Team.  It was noted that the ASET function provided care-planning within statutory safeguarding procedures and delivered interventions to young people who were victims of, or were at risk of harm. 

The team also provided specialist advice and guidance to social workers, where a young person was open to the service, reducing the need to change social worker.  The ERASE team supported young people, to reduce the risk of exploitation and missing from home and was responsible for providing Return to Home Interviews when children go missing from home/care. The service also provided interventions to those at high risk due to exploitation.

Further to the Panel’s request at previous meetings for more in depth data in relation to missing incidents, the report provided a detailed summary of data relating to children missing from care. The Service Manager commented that for children in care, there was an increase in the number of children going missing from 125 to 142 in 2022/23.

The number of missing episodes had increased from 868 to 992. Compared to the same period last year, there had been an increase in the amount of young people looked after being reported missing, and a decrease for those living with family. The Service Manager referred to the close work undertaken with children’s residential homes to understand the triggers for the individual young person and to establish the most appropriate support, which may include working with partners such as education and health.  Expertise from a therapeutic social worker was also available where trauma support was required.

The Service Manager also provided information on development activity  including audit work, to provide a better understanding of any gaps in provision.  

In response to a question from the Panel as to the support provided by the police, the Service Manager confirmed that there had been a significant improvement in partnership working since the previous Ofsted inspection and the approach was very much proactive, with improvements in the sharing of information and intelligence.  The strengthening of this relationship had helped to avoid incidents of victim blaming.

The Strategic Manager for Children’s Homes referred to the recent audit of the service which showed feedback from families and carers on the support provided was extremely positive.  He assured the Panel that within his role, he also met with the police on a regular basis to ensure all children’s homes were meeting their requirements with regard to managing risk.  He also informed the Panel that a mandatory protocol was in place in all children’s homes which required that searches be carried out before a young person was reported to the police as missing, to ensure that only actual missing incidents were reported to the police.

Resolved:

That the report be noted.