Agenda item

The Board received a report of the Strategic Director, Children and Young People which reported on the conduct of and outcomes from Climbie visits to front line children in need teams and reviewed the outcome from the recommendations reported to the Board on 23^rd February 2009.

The Board was advised that training had been provided to PPB Members on 1^st June 2009, and this explained the purpose of both regulation 33 visits to children’s homes and Climbie Visits. There were currently four members identified to carry out these visits, two in Runcorn and two in Widnes. Visits were carried out quarterly and a report was then sent to the Operational Director, Specialist Services and to the Divisional Manager, Children in Need to respond to any issues raised.

It was noted that the purpose of Climbie visits were to:

·               Ensure that staffing levels were appropriate;

·               Check that workloads of individual workers were appropriate;

·               Ensure that referral management processes were sound and secure;

·               Check on the performance of the Duty Teams;

·               Check the progress of implementation of Integrated Children’s system (ICS).

            It was noted that issues raised around visits had been predominately around Health and Safety, working conditions for staff and Members had provided support in resolving a number of these issues.

            There had also been issues raised in relation to the workload of social workers. Examples of issues and resolutions had been outlined in detail in the report. There were two issues which needed to be addressed to strengthen the conduct of Climbie Visits. Firstly, there had been some difficulties engaging Members to carry out visits. Visits to the Widnes Team were prioritised by the two members involved and took place at appropriate intervals, however, embedding the same process in Runcorn had proved more problematic. All Members in Climbie visits must have an Enhanced CRB Disclosure. Secondly, whilst the visits had had a very positive impact, the expectation following the Baby Peter case, was that Members have a more detailed understanding of the functions of the contact, referral and assessment processes in ensuring children were safeguarded.

            Arising from Members’ comments and questions the following was noted:

• whether Councillors would be required to have several CRB checks as many had roles as Governors at local schools. It was noted that this would be investigated further;
• changes being made to improve recording of information to reduce social workers administrative tasks; and
• the size and scope of the Teams was felt to be sufficient for workloads as there was significant early intervention work ongoing.

RESOLVED: That

(1)       the contents of the report be noted;

(2)       a new and extended list of available Members be agreed by the Board and rota of Climbie visits agreed;

(3)       following all Climbie visits, the report provided by Members and the responses made by relevant managers should be reported to the PPB and scrutinised bi-annually; and

(4)       the focus of Climbie visits should give increased scrutiny to the core business of contact, referral and assessment processes and performance data should be routinely be discussed and understood.