Agenda item

(Report of the Portfolio Holder for Cooperative Council, Community Partnerships and ASB)

The Chair welcomed the Partnerships Vulnerability Officer to introduce the report to provide a biannual safeguarding update to the Health and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee.

It was highlighted that the report was written in the name of the incorrect Portfolio Holder and should sit under the Portfolio Holder for People Services, Engagement and Leisure who had seen the report but had given apologies of for the meeting.

The Officer provided the Committee with a summary of the report.

The Committee made the following comments/observations and asked the following questions:

1.     Whether safeguarding training extending to waste collectors?

It was confirmed that face to face training was carried out with the waste partnership teams and safeguarding reports were received from the team when they had concerns.

2.     Whether Members could feed into the ASB Coordination group weekly meetings?

The Officer confirmed that Members could share any issues with the Community Safety inbox and that any ASB concerns would be picked up. Where ASB was prevalent in an area this could be identified as a hotspot to be monitored by patrol officers. It was highlighted that the Staffordshire County Council lead was engaged with around youth offending.

Members highlighted that some areas have local meetings and   concerns raised were forwarded on to the AD, Communities

3.     Whether increases in referrals were linked to more training?

It was confirmed that awareness is higher straight after training however regular prompts are sent out to keep safeguarding at the forefront of everyone’s minds.

Where other training opportunities were received these were shared with managers to disseminate to staff who they may be relevant to.

4.     Whether training was offered to contractors?

It was confirmed that contractors are sent copies of what training is necessary to meet the requirements of the Council and quarterly updates were carried out with contractors on this.

5.     Whether safeguarding referrals could be reported anonymously?

It was confirmed that staff have the responsibility to make reports of any concerns, they are encouraged to be open and honest with residents where there are concerns around the need to make a report.

Members of the public may report concerns anonymously to the Council but this can be problematic as often more information is needed.

6.     Is Count Lines considered an issue within the Borough and what is being done in this area.

The Officer confirmed that County Lines is a very fluid and moves on very quickly, but that educating children and parents was key and lots of work goes on via the County to engage with parents and children and look at vulnerable children. Problems within the area usually involve children who have been placed in the Borough from Birmingham because of their connections to Birmingham.

Online exploitation is a larger issue, where again education is key and a lot of investment goes in to this within schools.

7.     Whether there is sufficient staffing/training budget in place in this area?

The Officer confirmed that they are the Safeguarding Officer and whilst they are busy, this is up and down. The Council offers online training via Astute and they are a trainer and carry out most of the Councils training meaning that they do not use all of the budget. In terms of personal development whilst there are lots of national courses this is not always relevant but that there are lots of local groups where training and updates are shared but they felt happy they would be supported if they needed training.

8.     What the lead time for referrals? What happens if there are concerns out of hours?

The Officer confirmed that staff report referrals to the safeguarding inbox which generates an automatic emailed to the Officer (this is monitored in their absence.) The report will detail what action has been taken by the Officers, if no steps have been taken, they will be asked to take the necessary steps (I.e. contact Police/safeguarding teams).

Where referrals haven’t hit the threshold for safeguarding then different avenues can be explored, such as referring into the Tamworth Vulnerability Partnership or other services.
There is a staff handbook with all contact numbers for safeguarding including crisis and staffs should contact the Safeguarding emergency duty team when it is out of hours. This would be picked up on the Monday to ensure all procedures had been followed.

9.     It was asked whether Members could receive a copy of the hotspot areas?

The Officer confirmed that this was not held by them and that this would need to be requested via the Assistant Director and Chief of Police.

The Committee moved an amended recommendation as below: