Key Updates from the March and April Children, Young People and Families Partnership Meetings

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Children Young People and Families  Strategic Update and Key Issues from  March 26th Manchester Children’s Board and April 10th Manchester Safeguarding Children’s Board (MSCB)  (April Children's Board was cancelled)

Beth Plant, Manager of Policy and Influence at Macc

Contents
• Early Help
• Police response to domestic violence
• Forced marriage
• MSCB training
• Sexual Health
• SRF Partnership Updates – Central, North and South
• Reports and Papers,

Key Issues:

Early Help Strategy

Numbers of Child Protection Cases and Looked After Children Continue to Rise
There has been an expectation that as more resources are focussed on Early Help that the number of children requiring higher levels of intervention will decrease.  It is still very much early days but the numbers are not decreasing they are increasing.  Child Protection plans rose from 734 in March 2013 to 907 in February 2014 - a 23% increase. There is concern that this increase is not sustainable and questions are being raised about early intervention and support work and why it appears not to be having a positive impact on the numbers of either Child Protection cases or the number of Looked After Children. MSCB are awaiting a full investigation into the reasons for this.  This is something that has profound

Report on Transformation of Early Years Services.

A report for the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee was presented  to the Children's Board, about the transformation of Early Years Services in line with the Early Years New Delivery Model.  A number of VCS groups were decommissioned as part of these changes which was discussed at the Children, Young People and Families Leader's Group.  They are currently consulting on a range of proposals for the future of Sure Starts within the city that will be delivered by public sector and voluntary sector organisations.  This is part of the wider Public Service Reform agenda which is focussed on reducing dependency and targetting resources on those in most need.

Police Response to Domestic Violence within Greater Manchester
Her Majesty’s Constabulary Inspectorate (HMCI) published two reports looking at improving Police Response to Domestic Abuse. One is a national report and one specifically focuses on Greater Manchester which is singled out for particular concern.

The reports highlight a range of issues that give cause for concern including:
• Evidence Collection – photos not always taken of injury – or sometimes taken on officers' phones because they do not have access to official equipment
• Limited skills within the police force to deal effectively with domestic violence
• Feedback of the public’s experience of dealing with the police around domestic violence is not systematically collected
• The police are aware they must take ‘positive action’ in dealing with domestic violence but are not clear what this means in practice
• The DASH (Domestic Abuse, Stalking and Honour Based Violence (DASH 2009) Risk Identification, Assessment and Management Model) is not always being used effectively by police
• There are particular concerns about GMP – although their high risk response was viewed positively, there were significant concerns about the way that they deal with medium and lower risk cases

Forced Marriage
The issue of forced marriage within Greater Manchester was thrust into the spotlight by a documentary on ITV, which can be viewed here

In the light of this MSCB created a task and finish group to review Manchester’s approach to forced marriage. The group is producing a strategic statement on forced marriage and honour based violence which  remain a priority for the board.

Greater Manchester has the highest numbers of Forced Marriage Protection orders in England. These figures may indicate there is a particularly prevalent issue here and at the same time, that there is high awareness and positive action taking place about forced marriage. It is difficult to monitor performance of protection orders as they can be heard at several courts in the North, away from Greater Manchester, which is often a  necessary course of action in order to protect the victims.

The Forced Marriage Strategy will be launched shortly and circulated. Training will be available from MSCB.

Training Capacity of MSCB 
MSCB currently has one training co-ordinator who collaborates with a pool of co-trainers supplied by MSCB partners. However, many of the co- trainers are unable to deliver courses by themselves, either because of logistical issues or confidence issues. Several areas of training cannot be delivered currently because of shortages in suitably experienced trainers. The training Coordinator does not currently have the capacity to develop a strategic training plan because of the volume of training the coordinator has to deliver. Without a strategy it is difficult to implement the learning from serious case reviews which is of concern to MSCB.

MSCB have asked for a report to look at what is necessary to provide a training regime that is robust, fit for purpose and not overly reliant on any one individual trainer.

Public Health Report: Improving the sexual health of young people living in Manchester. Presented to Manchester Children’s Board March 2014
The under 18 conception rate has fallen from 540 in 1998 to 353 in 2013. However considerable local variation remains. It is difficult to trace definite causation but some of the factors believed to be responsible were:
• Increasing use of long term reversible contraception
• Clinical and non clinical outreach including Crash and Brook
• KS4 Pupil referral Units working with Brook.

Good Practice Example:
Set of 3 Sex & Education (SRE) lessons focusing on consent, keeping safe and sexual health and responsibility for Key Stage 4 pupils as part of the Wythenshawe ‘Love Safely’ programme. Schools that took up the offer of the 3 lessons were then offered an assembly delivered by the Big Comedy Shop. The assemblies were attended by 1,188 students. Evaluations by school staff and young people were very positive and the intention is to offer these to schools as part of the SRF:

• Manchester has the highest incidence of HIV outside of London and the South East
• Increasing numbers of residents are being diagnosed with common sexually transmitted infections including chlamydia, gonorrhoea and ano-genital herpes
• Rates of common sexually transmitted infections including chlamydia, are highest among residents aged 15-24
• The ‘Love Safely’ Teenage Pregnancy Prevention programme is working well in Wythenshawe SRF area and work is currently underway to develop similar programmes in East and Central SRF areas
• Public Health are working with VYM on a project with young men - Understanding Consent

News from the Children’s Strategic Regeneration Framework (SRF) Partnerships presented to the Children's Board

More information about the role of the SRF Children's Partnerships is available here and you can see information about how their workplans are progressing here
Central Children’s Partnership Update
• Continuing to work to raise the profile of the Manchester Common Assessment Framework (MCAF) and to improve the quality of MCAFs carried out in the SRF  area. A sample of MCAFs revealed that 30% were of low quality and 60% had key information missing
• They are setting Up a Central MCAF Subgroup to look at improving awareness and quality of CAF in the area
• They have produced a school readiness booklet, building on the one produced by the Wythenshawe SRF which was viewed as a very useful tool

North Partnership Update
• 97 MCAFs have been done in North Manchester which is 30 % of the city total
• 766 referrals to the Troubled Families Unit were made,  15% of these were from schools
• Dental Health in the area is very poor. The proportion of children with tooth decay in North Manchester was 75% compared to the Manchester rate of 39% and the England rate of 28%.
• 4 Parent Courses are running which are being delivered Complex Parenting Scheme

South Partnership
The Partnership is conducting a  review and refresh as attendance has declined. It will report back to the Children’s Board on its plan for future development.

Reports and Documents for Circulation
External Reports
'In the child's time: professional responses to neglect' March 2014, Ofsted
The report explores the effectiveness of arrangements to safeguard children who experience neglect, with a particular focus on children aged 10 years and under. The report draws on evidence from 124 cases and from the views of parents, carers and professionals from the local authority and partner agencies.

How Safe are our Children, 2014 NSPCC
The report seeks to measure the extent of abuse and neglect in the UK. To do this the authors have identified 20 different indicators of child safety and for each of these it reports on the available data and provides an analysis of the implications.

Papers