Agenda item

REPORT OF THE COMMUNITY HEALTH AND WELLBEING TEAM LEADER

To receive and comment on the annual report of progress made against the Council’s fulfilment of the statutory duty to maintain an effective safeguarding function with regard to children and adults at risk.

RESOLVED:

(1)     That the annual report of progress made against the Council’s fulfilment of the statutory duty to maintain an effective safeguarding function with regard to children be noted;

(2)     That the annual report of progress made against the Council’s fulfilment of the statutory duty to maintain an effective safeguarding function with regard to adults at riskand the Authority’s duties in relation to specific areas such as Prevent and counter terrorism, modern slavery and human trafficking and domestic abuse be noted;

(3)     That it be agreed that sufficient and robust processes are in place at NHDC for application and review of safeguarding processes, and that an annual review and presentation to this Committee should continue.

REASON FOR DECISION: To fulfil the statutory and lawful obligations within the approved budget and officer resources, and to ensure that a regular corporate review exists.

Audio recording 8 minutes 19 seconds

The Executive Member for Community Engagement introduced the report entitled Annual Safeguarding Report 20/2021.

She drew attention to the following:

·                The Covid-19 pandemic had had a tremendous impact on the number of safeguarding cases of concern;

·                In some significant areas the number of referrals had doubled, or more than doubled over the last year, e.g. domestic abuse referrals;

·                Regular meetings to consider the situation had been held with the Police and Crime Commissioner and counterparts across the County throughout the pandemic.

The following Members asked questions and took part in debate:

·                Councillor Clare Billing;

·                Councillor Terry Hone;

·                Councillor Tony Hunter;

·                Councillor Kate Aspinwall;

·                Councillor David Levett.

Comments included:

·                Lockdown and the pandemic had increased mental health issues amongst many people and this was not likely to get any better in the short term;

·                SADA did an outstanding job and it was good to hear NHDC was supporting them;

·                Last time the report had been presented in December, lower reporting levels had been seen due to lockdown;

·                Thanks were conveyed to officers for managing the changes brought about by the pandemic. The next 6 to 9 months would be pivotal and the level of referrals was uncertain so the Council would need to be ready to act quickly and flex resources as necessary;

·                Safeguarding was acknowledged as being important to the community’s recovery from Covid.

The Executive Member for Community Engagement responded to questions and comments as follows:

·                NHDC has worked closely with and supported Stevenage Against Domestic Abuse (SADA).

The Community Health and Wellbeing Team Leader responded to questions and comments as follows:

·                There were a variety of mental health services which vulnerable people in the community could be referred to, depending on their level of need, from psychiatric support to GPs and charities such as Mind;

·                NHDC had carried out a successful pilot with SADA in 19/20 in which they picked up all the domestic abuse cases which were originating from the housing team and they were now taking domestic abuse cases from across the authority;

·                NHDC had provided financial support for welfare packs;

·                NHDC was trialling using SADA to support with modern day slavery cases;

·                A number of teams across NHDC had become busier with the increase in referrals;

·                Putting SADA in place had hugely increased case management and meant that NHDC had dedicated people managing cases, rather than teams such as housing having to manage alongside their other work;

·                Reporting levels were still relatively low but these were expected to increase as more face-to-face meetings took place as lockdown was eased.

The Service Director – Legal and Community drew attention to potential funding from MHCLG which might be available for high level intervention pilots, following the Domestic Abuse Act which came into force in April 2021.

Councillor David Levett proposed, Councillor Kate Aspinwall seconded, and it was:

RESOLVED:

(1)     That the annual report of progress made against the Council’s fulfilment of the statutory duty to maintain an effective safeguarding function with regard to children be noted;

(2)     That the annual report of progress made against the Council’s fulfilment of the statutory duty to maintain an effective safeguarding function with regard to adults at riskand the Authority’s duties in relation to specific areas such as Prevent and counter terrorism, modern slavery and human trafficking and domestic abuse be noted;

(3)     That it be agreed that sufficient and robust processes are in place at NHDC for application and review of safeguarding processes, and that an annual review and presentation to this Committee should continue.

REASON FOR DECISION: To fulfil the statutory and lawful obligations within the approved budget and officer resources, and to ensure that a regular corporate review exists.