Council and democracy

Agenda item

Items Raised by Thurrock Local Safeguarding Children Board

This item is reserved to discuss any issues raised by the Thurrock Local Safeguarding Children Board.

Minutes:

Alan Cotgrove, Thurrock Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB), provided the Committee with an update on the work undertaken which included:

 

The Walk Online roadshow

 

·         This was taking place on 5, 6 and 7 March 2019 at the Civic Hall in Blackshots. The roadshow catered towards years 5 and 6 and out of all the Thurrock primary schools, only 4 would not be attending. Over 4,000 children would be in attendance over the 3 days of the roadshow. The roadshow aimed to raise awareness and teach children on social media and internet safety and gang related issues. Essex Police and the Youth Offending Service would be providing their support on the roadshow and Youth Cabinet had helped on the information to be given out at the roadshow.

 

·         A goody bag would be handed out at the roadshow which was shown to the Committee. Goodies included stationery, a variety of colouring books which told a story on the issues covered in the roadshow, a ‘Be Smart’ on the internet game sheet and a safeguarding word search.

 

·         A sealed adult pack was also included in the goody bag which contained a letter inviting parents and carers to the adult roadshow on 23 May 2019 to be held in the afternoon and evening. The adult roadshow aimed to raise awareness of apps and games used by young people.

 

·         Questionnaires would be undertaken with children at the Walk Online roadshow and data to be shared with schools and the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC). A similar game to ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?’ would also be played at the roadshow to help gather data on children’s’ knowledge on the raised issues.

 

Social care work

 

·         LSCB had been working with the police and voluntary services on Black, Minority and Ethnic (BME) Groups safeguarding awareness sessions and were looking to roll this out across the Borough.

 

Partnership work

 

·         LSCB had been supporting and working together with the Thurrock Community Safety Partnership on the gang related conference.

 

·         A Signs of Safety course, Interfamilial and Safeguarding course had been completed.

 

·         Work on the new safeguarding arrangements was ongoing.

 

Thanking Alan Cotgrove for the report, the Chair opened the item up to the Committee for questions.

 

Regarding the safeguarding information to be provided at the Walk Online roadshow, Councillor Hague questioned if the information would also be available online or if there would an app for it. In reply, Alan Cotgrove said LSCB was looking into going digital with the information and would be changing the LSCB website to contain an age appropriate section with this type of information.

 

On the 4 schools that would not be attending the roadshow, Lynda Pritchard, Church of England Representative, asked if the LSCB had accepted the 4 schools would not attend and sought the LSCB’s thoughts on this. Alan Cotgrove reassured the Committee that the LSCB had spoken with the schools and that the schools were running their own programmes in house. He went on to explain that the roadshow and similar events were often used by schools as a launch pad to start their own programmes. LSCB carried out quality assurance tests on these programmes through audits with schools.

 

Councillor Akinbohun asked what subjects would be covered in the Walk Online roadshow. Alan Cotgrove said the event was targeted towards years 5 and 6 and raising awareness on internet safety was increasingly targeted toward the lower pupil years. The campaign had begun off the back of a case of a murdered child in Thurrock and since then, a lot of work had been undertaken in different age groups. Councillor Akinbohun followed up by asking whether feedback was gathered from children. Confirming this was the case, Alan Cotgrove went on to say LSCB communicated with schools for feedback and LSCB would contact schools 6 months later with the gathered data to address raised issues. Although the knowledge was instilled in children, it relied on self-enforcement from children.