Issue - meetings

The Panel received the report of the Executive Director for Children and Learning outlining the context in which the service was working for children and families in Southampton; successes, challenges, and service priorities for the coming year.

Rob Henderson, Executive Director of Children & Learning was in attendance and with the consent of the Chair, addressed the meeting.

The Panel noted and considered the content of the presentation, in particular:

·  The post-pandemic impact on mental health issues, substance abuse, domestic abuse, and other family relationship issues, which had continued to increase referrals locally and nationally.

·  The number of children in need was predicted to rise from 85K to 100K by 2025 in England.

·  Foster Care shortages were a local and national challenge.

·  School non-attendance and exclusions had increased nationally and was prevalent in Southampton. SCC was working in partnership with the police and multiple agencies to address this.

·  The increase in permanence of SCC social care workforce (90%) and senior leadership team (95%).

·  The Hertfordshire Family Safeguarding Model would be launched in Southampton in September 2023.

·  In September 2023, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight was set to become the second region in the UK to benefit from England’s largest youth-centred wellbeing programme. ‘BeeWell’ was founded to improve wellbeing support available to young people and training for teachers to identify mental health issues. It would be funded by CAMHS and the Integrated Commissioning Board.

·  The Neglect Toolkit, which replaced MASH, provides the framework for good practice around the early identification and signs of neglect and was undergoing tracking, improvement, and self-evaluation.

The Panel noted and considered the content of the Ofsted Annual Engagement Meeting letter. In particular:

·  New Audit Framework: Talking to children, social workers, and partners.

·  Ofsted stated that the Council’s new audit framework was one of the best they had seen.

RESOLVED:

1)  That, to help develop understanding of the locality working model in Southampton, the presentation detailing the key elements of the Southampton approach is circulated to the Panel.

2)  That, reflecting the high prevalence of cases of neglect in Southampton, the feedback provided by schools on the use of the Neglect Toolkit and how it is supporting decision making is circulated to the Panel.