Agenda item

Report of the Assistant Director, Children’s Services

The Assistant Director, Children’s Services, submitted a report (previously circulated) to provide Members with an overview of the work undertaken by the Independent Reviewing Officers in relation to Children who are Looked After and Children who are the subject of Child Protection Conferences and / or multi-agency Child Protection Plans; and to consider the Annual Reports of the Independent Reviewing Officer for 2022/23, and the Child Protection Conference Chair for 2022/23.

The submitted report stated that the production of the Independent Reviewing Officer Annual Report 2022/23 was a requirement under the statutory guidance and covered the role of the Independent Reviewing Officer which is a defined role that relates to Children Looked After; and the Child Protection Conference Chair Annual Report 2022/23 covered the role of the conference chair in relation to children who are in need of safeguarding and the statutory requirements are set out in Working Together to Safeguard Children (July 2018).

It was highlighted that for the period April 2022 to March 2023, due to the roll-out of the Agile Working programme and post-Covid-19 working arrangements across agencies, formal meetings, which in previous years would have been face to face, had been conducted using virtual platforms. It was reported that this applied to all Child Protection Conferences and Child Looked After Reviews.

Members entered into discussion on the tracking of families between areas; how child participation in Children Looked After Reviews worked, and how children contributed; and the desire not to ask children to relive previous bad experiences.

RESOLVED – That the annual reports of the Independent Reviewing Officer and Child Protection Conference Chair for 2022/23 be noted.