To receive apologies for absence from Members of the Committee

39.1    Apologies were received from Councillors Nigel Hartin and Kevin Pardy and from Sian Lines (Hereford Diocese).

39.2    There were no substitutions

Members are reminded they must not participate in the discussion or vote on any matter in which they have a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest and should leave the room prior to the commencement of the debate.

40.1    Members were reminded that they must not participate in the discussion or vote on any matter in which they have a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest and should leave the room prior to the commencement of the debate.

40.2    There were no declarations made

The minutes of the last meeting, held on 14 March 2018, are TO FOLLOW

41.1    The minutes of the meeting held on 14 March 2018 had been circulated.

41.2    RESOLVED

That the minutes of the meeting of the people Overview Committee held on 14 March 2018 be approved as a true record and signed by the Chairman

To receive any public questions or petitions from the public, notice of which has been given in accordance with Procedure Rule 14.  The deadline for this meeting is 10.00am on Tuesday 8 May 2018

42.1    There were no questions from members of the public

To receive any questions of which Members of the Council have given notice.

Deadline for notification: 10.00am on Tuesday 8 May 2018

43.1    There were no questions from Members

To receive a report from the Service Manager COMPASS and Assessment and the CSE Co-Ordinator

44.1    Members received the report of the Service Manager COMPASS and Assessment and the CSE Co-Ordinator which provided an overview of the arrangements currently in place to tackle CSE in Shropshire.

44.2    The Director of Children’s Services advised the meeting that the topic had been brought to the Committee at the request of the Chairman in order that Members could satisfy themselves that robust arrangements were in place.

44.3    The Independent Chair of the Shropshire Safeguarding Children Board (SSCB) explained that the role of the Board was to co-ordinate work and ensure the effectiveness of work carried out by partner organisations and that the Board was supported in its work by a number of sub-groups which reported back to the main Board.

44.4    The Service Manager COMPASS and Assessment advised the meeting that when a suspected case of CSE was reported it was added to the CSE tracker. She added that weekly triage meetings were held with Partners to discuss any new referrals received and to ensure that appropriate risk levels were identified for each case, and that cases were also discussed at the monthly meetings of the CSE panel. The Service Manager informed Members that where a case was flagged as high risk it was referred to COMPASS for a social work assessment.

44.5    The SSCB Learning and Development Lead informed the meeting that the SSCB organised a wide range of different training, for both single and multi-agency teams, schools and other teams within the Children’s directorate.  She added that a programme of training had been developed for taxi drivers following a requirement for them to receive training had been added to the licencing conditions.  The SSCB Learning and Development Lead advised Members that a range of different ways of delivering training were being developed including E-learning.

44.6    A Member asked how the service worked with departments such as licensing and neighbouring authorities. The CSE Co-Ordinator confirmed that all partner organisations worked well together and that there was good sharing of information.

44.7    A Member commented that partnership working was essential and asked what happened if there was a breakdown.  The Independent Chair commented that one of the roles of the SSCB was to monitor how partners worked together and to ensure that they followed correct procedures.

44.8    The Chairman asked how victims of CSE were supported. The Independent Chair commented that there was a difficulty in persuading young people to recognise that they were victims. The board was nonetheless looking at how it could strengthen the support it offered

44.9    A member asked about how we work with pubs, clubs and hotels. The independent Chair made reference to the good Ofsted rating for partnership working, strategically and operationally. He also noted that we often received intelligence from hotels, with whom we had good working relations

44.10  A Member asked whether there were any hotspots of abuse. Chief inspector Purcell commented that anywhere where young people gathered without supervision was potentially a risk, and that the police had increased  ...  view the full minutes text for item 44.

The current Scrutiny Work Programme is attached.

Members are asked to consider whether there are any other items they wish to be added to the work programme.

45.1    The draft work programme had been circulated

45.2    Members were asked to advise the Chairman if there were any other topics that they wished to be covered by the Committee

Members are reminded that the next meeting of the People Overview Committee will be held on Wednesday 18 July 2018 at 10.00am.

46.1    Members were reminded that the next meeting of the People Overview Committee would be held on Wednesday 18 July 2018 at 10.00am