The Thurrock Local Safeguarding Children Partnership (TLSCP) business manager presented the report to the Committee. 

The TLSCP business manager updated the committee that Dr Prakash Srivastava, creator of the Neglect Graded Care Profile 2 assessment tool, will lead the LSCP Annual conference this year titled ‘Working Together to Identify and Tackle Neglect in Thurrock’. The conference will take place on 6^th December 2022. Workshops on the day will cover multi-agency collaboration, criminal neglect, vulnerabilities and impact on education and health.  The aim is for more practitioners to be aware of neglect, the importance of identification, how to assess and what support is available for families to reduce the incidence. The new Thurrock Neglect Tool Kit for practitioners will be launched at the conference. They had intended to deliver the conference face-to-face but have now taken the decision to deliver it virtually due to rising covid numbers and to ensure more people can attend.

The Pathway to Service and Threshold Intervention document that sets out the pathway and threshold criteria for making referrals to services regarding concerns about a child, has been reviewed and refreshed by a multi-agency Task and Finish group. The document is now completed and once ratified by the governance process the document will be published and shared throughout the muti-agency partnership.

Next week over three days on 22^nd, 23^rd and 24^th November, the LSCP will see over 4,000 children in Years 5 and 6, from across the borough travel to the Civic Hall in Blackshots, to experience the annual Walk Online Roadshow. This event sits under the priority of Violence and Vulnerability and raises the awareness of the positives as well as the risks posed to children online. The roadshow will cover interactive presentations from an Online Awareness Programme, Thurrock Gangs and Exploitation Manager, Essex Police and the LSCP Business Team. All children attending will be given a goodie bag containing useful resources around the online theme. A virtual parents and carers specific event will follow the roadshow on 1^st December 2022.  Due to the restrictions during 2020 and 2021, it was not possible to deliver the roadshow. In March 2023, an additional event will be delivered for children in Years 7 and 8, who would have attended during that period.

A new termly Safeguarding newsletter was launched in October to provide updates and information on safeguarding topics to all working with children and young people. The autumn edition includes a range of areas including a welcome from the Independent Chair and Scrutineer, LSCP Priorities 2022-2024, emerging concerns, legislation and updates and campaigns. The newsletter can be accessed via the LSCP website.

On Tuesday the TLSCP business manager along with other staff from the LSCP, Thurrock Safeguarding Adults Board and Children and Adult Social Care attended an Inter faith Networking event. The aim of the event was to bring all Thurrock faith communities and council services together to network and share information. Referral routes were shared and information was provided on what to do if they are worried about a child.

The learning from Shae and Ashley LHR lists ten recommendations that are further divided into sub-sections totalling 14 actionable areas. Work has started on all actions, 6 actions are complete and the remaining 8 are on track to be completed within timescales.

Councillor Kerin queried if neglect cases had increased.

The TLSCP business manager confirmed that she understands from information they receive from agencies that the numbers are quite steady. However, neglect was a priority before Covid and they hadn’t been able to do as much work on it as they liked as they couldn’t see children.

Councillor Kerin queried how closely the TLSCP staff team work with local schools.

The TLSCP business manager confirmed that their Governance groups have education representatives on all them. When identifying task and finish groups they also ensure that there are education representatives included on them. They meet with the designated safeguarding leads quarterly and share lots of information on what they are doing. On a day-to-day basis Headteachers or DSL’s can contact them to discuss any concerns they have. The TLSCP delivers training on safeguarding and managing allegations.

The Parent Governor Representative highlighted that she has previously attended the Walk Online programme and it is outstanding and she would recommend that anyone present at the Committee should attend.

The TLSCP Business Manager agreed and confirmed that things will have even moved on from a few years ago as there are always new emerging concerns and platforms coming up all the time.

The Chair requested that the Walk Online Roadshow details are circulated to Members.

RESOLVED

1.1      That the Committee note the update on the work of the LSCP and the progress made on Action Plans to date.