Agenda item

To consider the annual reports of the North Yorkshire Safeguarding Adults and Children Boards for 2020-21.

The Committee received the report of the Partnerships Manager which asked Members to note the content of the Annual Report for the North Yorkshire Safeguarding Adults Board (NYSAB), and the North Yorkshire Safeguarding Children Partnership (NYSCP) Independent Scrutineers Annual Report 2020-2021.

The Committee heard that the NYSAB Annual Report covered the activity in 2020-2021 and provided evidence of the key areas of focus for the current year, to provide leadership, challenge, and direction to ensure that partner agencies improved outcomes for adults at risk of harm or abuse.  

Members noted that a Section 11 and governance audit had been developed with the North Yorkshire Safeguarding Children’s Partnership, City of York Safeguarding Adults Board and Safeguarding Children’s Partnership; this reassured NYSAB that partner organisations had everything in place to deliver safeguarding effectively.

It was further noted that there had been a review of the guidance which had been written for responding to concerns about Persons in a Position of trust (PiPoT). This was where a concern related to someone’s personal life, but which may also impact upon their job role, if that person worked with adults who had care and support needs.

The Committee were informed that over the year of 2020-21, 3456 safeguarding concerns had been received, this showed a decrease of 23% from the previous year.

In terms of agreed priorities for 2021-2023, Members noted that NYSAB would re-connect with local communities in North Yorkshire to raise awareness and develop strategies to address and reduce the risk of abuse.  Ensure multi-agency safeguarding policies and procedures were in line with best practice to meet the needs of older and younger vulnerable people; and ensure that NYSAB was able to effectively adapt and respond to wider contextual changes affecting adult safeguarding.

The Committee heard that the NYSCP was a statutory body, led by an Executive which carried co-ordination and accountability responsibilities under the 4 Priorities “Being Young in North Yorkshire”.   It was confirmed that the 4 priorities were a safe life, a happy family life, a healthy life: and achieving in life.

It was highlighted that the Independent Scrutineers Annual report had identified that there were children and young people with special educational needs, with or without disabilities, who required additional support beyond the resources available, and that there had been an increase in family poverty caused by adults’ job uncertainty, leading to a need for more access to free school meals or other practical support.

In terms of local delivery, the Committee acknowledged that Selby District Council actively participated in stakeholder meetings to include the Selby Local Safeguarding Partnership (LSP).  Officers also managed the Safer Selby Hub, which addresses the issue of community safety, prevent and safeguarding.  In 2020, the Council had supported the virtual campaign, Safeguarding Awareness Week; the overarching topic had been “Safeguarding is everybody’s business”, with a focus put onto how to report a concern.

Members asked a number of questions in relation to the use of acronyms within the report, what was being done to rectify the issue of low attendance at meetings, why there was no inclusion of statistics at a district level, and what actions were being taken to ensure that all carers were Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checked, to ensure that person’s suitability to the job position.  Finally, in terms of placing children into foster homes, it was queried what involvement the Board had in the process and with whom did the responsibility sit.  

The officer stated that she would feed back the comments made by the Committee to the NYSCP Executive, and any formal response would be circulated to Members.

 RESOLVED:

To note the content of the North Yorkshire Safeguarding Adults Board and North Yorkshire Safeguarding Children Partnership Independent Scrutineers Annual Reports 2020-2021.