Agenda item

To submit a report by the Director of Social Services.

Submitted – a report by the Director of Social Services in respect of an overview of the work of the Corporate Safeguarding Board.

The Leader of the Council said that Corporate Safeguarding is the responsibility of all services of the Council.  To support the implementation of the Safeguarding Action Plan an Operational Corporate Safeguarding Board was established with a membership of safeguarding champions from all services of the Council.  She further said that this report is to assure the Elected Members of the effectiveness of the Council’s safeguarding arrangements. 

The Director of Social Services reported that the Authority has established a Strategic and Operational Corporate Safeguarding Boards which has a robust agenda in place which include important data which is shared with the Boards.  He accepted that the report contains extensive information and that there is a need to summarise the information in the next report to this Committee.  The Director of Social Services further said that there are other partnership and governance arrangements in place such as North Wales Regional Safeguarding Boards for Children and Adults, for dealing with specialist safeguarding matters.  The Council has a duty to contribute to the operation of these Boards on a regional basis.  There is a Regional Contest Board and the Deputy Chief Executive, Mr Dylan Williams is the representative of this Authority.  The Gwynedd and Anglesey Community Safeguarding Partnership has responsibility for overseeing Prevent programmes within the partnership’s services.  The Regional Vulnerabilities and Exploitation Board has oversight in respect of Violence against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence and the Safeguarding and Quality Service Manager Represents this Authority on this board.  

The Committee considered the report and made the following main points:-

·      Questions were raised as to whether the partner organisations are in agreement as to the priorities with the safeguarding arrangements and whether they share information.  The Director of Social Services referred to Domestic Abuse and noted that North Wales Police share information between partner organisations across North Wales; this allows for lessons to be learnt if a specific areas sees a rise in Domestic Abuse figures and as to address the issue and to put services in place to tackle the issue.  Multi-agency response is undertaken and discussions are also undertaken within the Vulnerability and Exploitation Board as regards to Domestic Abuse.  He noted that this Authority has an ‘one front door’ service in relation to domestic abuse referrals that allows for low level Domestic Abuse cases up to high level; cases are addressed at an early intervention to alleviate potential issues reaching a high level of abuse and also as regards to placing children into care if the situation escalates. The Director of Social Services also said that this Authority has employees that specifically deals with families where domestic abuse is present and there is also a good working relationship with Gorwel who provides support for people who suffer domestic abuse or support for people at risk of losing their homes and prevent homelessness;

·      Questions were raised as to whether any service needs to be prioritised within the Corporate Safeguarding Action Plan. The Director of Social Services said that lessons have been learnt as regards to the pandemic and there is a need to focus and prioritise the demand lead services that have been affected by the pandemic.  He said that priorities within the previous Action Plan could have been too ambitious as safeguarding will need to be reviewed on a continuous basis to address factors that will arise as the needs of people change;

·      Questions were raised as to whether each service is prioritising the training of staff.  Reference was made to the data within the report with regard to the education service with 52% afforded training as regard to cyber security.  The Director of Social Services responded that when staff are able to return to the Council Offices it is hoped that the training session can be convened in group that can focus on safeguarding.  The Director of Education, Skills and Young People said that the Education Service work closely with the Social Services Department as regards to safeguarding but schools also has a structure in place as regards to safeguarding.  He noted that safeguarding is a priority within Estyn’s visits to schools to make sure that safeguarding structures are in place to protect the children and young people;

·      Reference was made to the CIW inspection of the Adults’ and Children and Families Services in June 2021 with comments received as regards to the National recruitment issues and specifically within Adults’ Services on Anglesey. Questions were raised as to whether recruitment issues continue and whether it is a risk factor for the service.  The Chair said that recruitment issues within the Care Sector has been a problem for a number of years and he questioned as to whether it was the salary of these posts is a factor in attracting young people to apply for such posts.  The Director of Social Services responded that salary for such posts is not always an issue when recruiting for staff.  He noted that it requires caring support workers that are able to afford support and personal care to vulnerable people which can be challenging at times.  He further said that affording good working conditions is also important factor when recruiting care staff; the Authority has been working in partnership with Coleg Menai to afford work experience within Care Homes;

·      Questions were raised as to the risk assessments decline within the Children’s and Adults’ Services.  The Safeguarding and Quality Service Manager clarified that this related to a self-assurance exercise not to a decline in undertaking risk assessments to ensure a safe workforce.  The Safeguarding and Quality Service Manager explained that each service should have a process for undertaking risk assessments if there was an issue or concern in relation to an employee.  Services also need to have processes in place to assure themselves that they were compliant with the Local Authority’s Corporate Safeguarding Policy. However, the Action Plan also include two assurance activities per year to be conducted be each service and reported on a corporate basis.  The current plan included an assurance activity in relation to the risk assessment requirement in relation to employees in some situations.  It was this assurance that was not completed within the planned timescale.  

It was RESOLVED to note the arrangements that are in place, as well as the areas that the Strategic Corporate Safeguarding Board are driving to ensure that the Authority meets the statutory duties in this field.

ACTION : As noted above.