The Corporate Director - Children submitted a report, to present to the Corporate Parenting Cabinet Committee prior to its formal submission to CSSIW, the Annual Report of the Head of Service – Safeguarding and Family Support submitted for and within the Annual Council Reporting Framework.  This was the fifth Annual Report of the Head of Service following the introduction of the current arrangements for evaluating Social Services in Wales.  The process centred on self-evaluation, involve consultation with Care and Social Services Inspectorate for Wales (CSSIW) and would continue to be the major source for CSSIW’s inspection programme.  The report was shown at Appendix 1 to the covering report.

            By way of background information, the Head of Safeguarding and Family Support, confirmed that in 2010 CSSIW introduced a new “Annual Reporting Framework” requiring all authorities in Wales to produce an Annual Report on the Effectiveness of their Social Care Services. The Annual Report delivers the council's own assessment of performance in respect of their social services responsibilities and focuses on strategic objectives and improvement priorities across the department.  This new approach to reporting is intended to:

§  see performance management accountability transfer from the national centre back to Council Members, Chief Executives, Directors, Managers and Officers;

·         present a recognisable picture to those delivering and served by their social services locally;

·         generate the core set of information needed by CSSIW to deliver their annual performance;

§  provide assurance function;

§  link much more immediately to business planning for priority improvement.

Work to develop this framework for annual reporting came from a commitment shared by the WLGA and ADSS Cymru to report openly and promptly on the effectiveness of each authority in meeting both needs and statutory obligations in social services, and also to link that report urgently to planned and continuous improvement. The Annual Council Reporting Framework places social services firmly at the heart of corporate and democratic local government. The Statutory Director for Social Services in Bridgend was completing an Annual Overview Report which had been informed by the annual reports of the Heads of Service for both the Safeguarding and Family Support Service and Adult Social Care.

            The Head of Safeguarding and Family Support, confirmed that the report had been considered by the Children and Young People Overview and Scrutiny Committee and any recommendations for change, to improve clarity and readability, would be taken on board.

            The report at Appendix 1, would be submitted to CSSIW as a supplementary report to that of BCBC’s statutory Director of Social Services’ overview report.

            He added that key issues to note in the attached report included;

·         An overview of the primary aims of the Safeguarding and Family Support Service.

·         An overview of the range of service provided by the service.

·         An overview of performance

·         An overview of significant strategic and operational developments throughout 2013-14

A Member referred to page 18 of the Appendix document to the effect on children of parents drinking alcohol excessively.  He asked what steps were being taken to try and reduce and prevent this in communities.

The Head of Safeguarding and Family Support confirmed that steps were actively being pursued in relation to prevention and intervention with regard to the above, i.e examining ways how key statutory bodies such as Social Services, could work with parents to reduce their alcohol consumption to a level whereby it does not have a negative impact on their role as responsible parents.  This also applied to substance misuse he added.

Social Services perhaps with support from other key agencies, would intervene and take children away from their parents if they were considered to be at any sort of risk from them  engaging in the above activities.  Parents would then be referred to groups such as alcohol counselling services for support in a bid to reduce their levels of consumption, which in all probability, would then assist their parenting abilities.

A Member referred to page 20 of the report Appendix, and question 33, under the sub-heading Parenting Tasks. He asked if the question, i.e. “(Guidance) - Parents fail to enforce discipline”, should be altered by replacing the word discipline with ‘control’.

The Head of Safeguarding and Family Support advised that he would consider this suggested refinement.

The Leader referred to Appendix 5 (i.e. page 5) and Child Protection Registration and De-Registrations during 2013-14.  He asked for the Officer to expand on how both of these correlated with the other.

The Head of Safeguarding and Family Support confirmed that a child conference would be arranged if any young person was deemed at risk of abuse, in order to reach a decision whether or not the child should be placed on the child protection register.  If this takes place, then after three months a Review Conference is convened to establish if the initial concern regarding risk had subsequently been minimised, or whether they should remain on the register this remains monitored thereafter he added.

The Head of Safeguarding and Family Support stated that what the two different graphs portrayed, is that young people can be initially placed on the Child Protection Register, but subsequently be de-registered if conditions within their family environment improve quite quickly.

A Member asked what actions the Department were taking to reduce cases of Looked After Children and referrals in relation to teenage pregnancies, and why are referrals higher at some parts of the year as opposed to others.

The Head of Safeguarding and Family Support confirmed that there is often an increase in referrals around the Autumn period, as young people previous to that have time off from school during the summer holiday, where they can spend a considerable amount of time outdoors possible consuming alcohol and becoming involved with substance abuse, etc.  These referrals usually are subject to an assessment which gets completed by around October/November time, hence then revealing an increase in referrals when compared to the rest of the year.

Teenage pregnancies often involved young women who are not in any way connected to Social Services, so the Department therefore worked with schools and the Youth Service in order to promote issues such as safe sex, and advising of the risks of promiscuity being enhanced through activities such as the consumption of alcohol and/or substance misuse, which could sometime result in unwanted pregnancies.

Should this occur however, there were services , for example Flying Start, who provided assistance tor young mothers to adequately support their children. This was once more a case of a combination of prevention and early intervention and support mechanisms being put in place in these types of scenarios, the Head of Safeguarding and Family Support.

RESOLVED:          That Members both considered and noted the Annual Report attached to the covering report, and the steps that were being taken to prevent teenage pregnancies as well as the Information in the form of date regarding registration.