Agenda item

Report of the Director of Children and Adult Services

The Director of Children and Adult Services submitted a report (previously circulated) to enable Members of this Scrutiny Committee to consider the Annual Report of the Darlington Safeguarding Partnership for 2019/20 and to comment thereon.

Ann Baxter, Independent Chair of the Darlington Safeguarding Partnership attended the meeting to outline the Annual Report, which was a statutory requirement to account for the Partnership’s achievements over the previous year and to make an assessment of the effectiveness of multi-agency safeguarding arrangements within the local area.

It was reported that the 2019/20 Annual Report was the first report provided by the Partnership under the new safeguarding arrangements for children and adults and outlined what the Partnership had done over the period Aril 2019 to March 2020, drawing upon a range of data and information to illustrate the effectiveness of safeguarding arrangements.

It was noted that there had been challenges in establishing a joint partnership, however partners had fully embraced this new opportunity with the aim of strengthening and developing partnership working to keep children, young people and adults with needs for care and support safe.

Nick Lindsay, the 11-19 Partnership representative highlighted that although education was not a statutory partner, education in Darlington had been given a voice and acknowledged the support of all education settings in the development of change.

The Independent Chair confirmed the strong partnerships with the education settings and also referred to the challenge that the Covid-19 pandemic had on everyone in Darlington towards the end of the reporting period and acknowledged the longer term challenge to see how all partners had worked together to keep people safe during this time.

Discussion ensued on the Annual Report and Members referred to Elective Home Education (EEE) and in particular in respect of the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) community, which forms the largest single ethnic minority group in County Durham and Darlington.

Tony Murphy, the Head of Education and Inclusion acknowledged the increase in EEE and advised that this was a national issue and that the authority were working with the Traveller Service to address this issue; and John Armitage, the Service Lead confirmed the work that was being undertaken on a daily basis with the aim of  reducing the amount of elective home education in conjunction with the Partnership and schools/academies across the borough. 

A Member also asked a question in relation to the Multi-Agency Self-Assessment Audit 2019/20 regarding the principles of safeguarding that were reported as generally embedded in practice.  The Independent Chair confirmed that the majority of partners did acknowledge the importance of ensuring compliance with the audit and they could demonstrate appropriate safeguarding arrangements were in place, however agreed that improvements could always be made towards raising the profile of safeguarding.

RESOLVED – That the Darlington Safeguarding Partnership Annual Report for 2019/20 be noted.