Issue - meetings

Consideration was given to the joint report of the Service Manager, Children’s Services and Strategic Education Improvement Manager.

It was informed that the report provided safeguarding performance information and analysis from Children’s Social Services and Education from 1st April, 2021 to the 30th September, 2021. The information enabled members to identify safeguarding trends and areas within the Authority that required further development to improve safeguarding practices in order to meet the safeguarding needs of children and young people within Blaenau Gwent.

The Service Manager outlined the referrals into Social Services and noted that there was an increase, however these were being monitored on a monthly basis and advised that similar issues had been observed in neighbouring authorities. The Officer further outlined the key points in relation to child protection.

At this juncture the Chair invited questions from Members.

A Member asked if there were a high number of referrals received from the Police that had to be re-referred back to the Police as not a matter for Social Services.

It was reported that no referrals were returned back to the Police, if a referral did not meet the threshold for statutory social services support, there were a number of initiatives in BG around preventative services, mainly Families First, and a package of support would be offered to families from the lower tier support services, with parental consent. The Officer stated that there was work ongoing with Education and Families First support workers, looking at a model that had been put in place with social workers in schools, to evaluate if the model was working, which prevents unnecessary referrals coming into the IAA Service.

Corporate Director Education left the meeting at this juncture.

Councillor J. Holt left the meeting at this juncture.

A discussion ensued around social workers and it was advised that the turnover of Social Care staff in Blaenau Gwent was no different to that nationally or in neighbouring authorities. There was a large turnover of staff and in these instances it could be difficult for the family to build longstanding relationships. It was added that the Authority attempted to ensure that there was little disruption when social workers left the Authority and cases needed to be reallocated.

The Safeguarding in Education Manager gave an overview of the education information related to April 2021 to July 2021. It was stated that the findings reported were during the pandemic, therefore it was not possible to make comparisons as there had been disruption to schools. The Officer further outlined Numbers of restrictive physical interventions Numbers of bullying incidents reported which have led to exclusions Quality Assurance Meetings, Estyn Judgements, Operation Encompass, Compliance Reporting, elected home education. In relation to elected home learning, the Officer pointed out that there are appropriate processes in place to monitor elective home education with formal visits held to check on the suitability of education. However, whilst the number of EHE pupils overall had increased this was similar to the rest of Wales and it was felt  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7