Agenda item

REPORT OF THE SERVICE DIRECTOR – LEGAL AND COMMUNITY

To consider the Annual Safeguarding Report 2023-2024.

RESOLVED:

(1)   Received and commented on the annual report of progress made against the Council’s fulfilment of the statutory duty to maintain an effective safeguarding function regarding children, adults with care and support needs, modern slavery, Prevent and domestic abuse.

(2)   Noted the SIAS Audit Action Plan tracker (Appendix A).

(3)   Agreed that sufficient and robust processes were in place at the Council for application and review of safeguarding processes, and that an annual review and presentation to this committee should continue.

REASON FOR DECISIONS: The recommendations made, contained within paragraphs 2.1 to 2.3, are the best course of action that can be accommodated within the approved budget and officer resources, that will fulfil our statutory and lawful obligations but also ensure that a regular, corporate review exists.

Audio recording – 136 minutes 07 seconds

Councillor Val Bryant, as Executive Member for Community/Partnerships, presented the report entitled ‘Safeguarding Annual Report 2023-24’ and advised that this report provided detail of the background on safeguarding over the past year.

In response to a question from Councillor Matt Barnes, Councillor Bryant advised that:

·       The training provider had confirmed that increased training did increase confidence of staff to raise concerns and led to a rise in information being shared and discussed, and ultimately referrals increased.

·       Feedback was requested after training sessions by the training provider, including a question on whether confidence had increased to raise concerns. From the sessions held in June and July the average response for the courses were; Basic Child 4.1 out of 5, Basic Adult 4.5 out of 5, Advanced Child 4.8 out of 5 and Advanced Adult 4.5 out of 5. Overall, the average was 4.4 out of 5, from 72 responses received. Therefore, there can be confidence that cultural change had taken place following training.

In response to a question from Councillor Jon Clayden, the Service Director – Legal and Community advised that:

·       There was context regarding domestic abuse reporting figures within the table in the report.

·       The number of child referrals relating to domestic abuse would generally be higher than the number of adults, as adults referred could have multiple children.

·       All staff at the Council were trained on raising safeguarding concerns, but the front facing services were most likely to report these, such as housing, who represented the majority of referrals made.

Councillor Matt Barnes, as Chair, proposed and Councillor Jon Clayden seconded and, following a vote, it was:

RESOLVED:

(1)   Received and commented on the annual report of progress made against the Council’s fulfilment of the statutory duty to maintain an effective safeguarding function regarding children, adults with care and support needs, modern slavery, Prevent and domestic abuse.

(2)   Noted the SIAS Audit Action Plan tracker (Appendix A).

(3)   Agreed that sufficient and robust processes were in place at the Council for application and review of safeguarding processes, and that an annual review and presentation to this committee should continue.

REASON FOR DECISIONS: The recommendations made, contained within paragraphs 2.1 to 2.3, are the best course of action that can be accommodated within the approved budget and officer resources, that will fulfil our statutory and lawful obligations but also ensure that a regular, corporate review exists.

Following the outcome of the vote, Councillor Val Bryant noted that:

·       Councillor safeguarding training completion was very low for 2023 and efforts had been made to address that this year, including training provided before a Full Council meeting.

·       All Councillors had been provided the documentation required to be signed via email.

·       The aim was to achieve 100% of Members having completed the safeguarding training and this would be tracked in future years.

·       To date, 27 Members had attended the session before Council in July, 17 Members had returned their signed form and 3 Members had completed the GrowZone e-learning module.