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 patrols where they perceived there to be a risk. He added that they also covertly monitor social media for intelligence

44.11  A Member expressed concern on the low uptake on training for members. The Chairman agreed that more should be done to encourage uptake. The Portfolio Holder for Children and Young People agreed to raise with the Leader

44.12  A Member asked that given the current difficulties with public funding, was the funding for the service sufficient.  The Director of Children’s Services commented that the whole of the public sector is under financial pressure, and that the service would have to look at how it can make itself more efficient and more effective. She assured Members that this was an area that the Council did not want to reduce resources and that the budget was being maintained.

44.13  The Chairman thanked Officers for attending the meeting and commented that she felt that there was a very robust system in place for dealing with cases of CSE.