This meeting was scheduled to hear updates on the work of the Newham Safeguarding Children Partnership, and the experiences of children in the care system in Newham. Councillors were also scheduled to review reports on the sufficiency of placements for looked after children and review key performance data relating to children and young people in Newham.

Newham Safeguarding Children Partnership

The Newham Safeguarding Children Partnership (NSCP) is a statutory multi-agency partnership dedicated to ensuring that children in Newham can live free from abuse and neglect. Councillors were scheduled to receive a report summarising its activities. The report identifies the following challenges facing the partnership:

• Workforce challenges within the NSCP business unit, which consists of one full-time manager, an Independent Chair and 0.25 member of staff. This impacts on the business unit’s ability to effectively support the partnership.
• The budget, as the Metropolitan Police’s contribution is limited to £5,000 per year, set centrally by the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC). The report says that discussions are ongoing with MOPAC, hoping to secure increased funding.
• Recent changes in personnel, which has impacted on the NSCP’s strategic direction. The report states that a new partnership agreement is being developed, and the role of the Independent Chair will be replaced by a chair from one of the Designated Safeguarding Partners¹ on a rotating basis.
• Partnership capacity, as budget constraints within member organisations have affected their ability to contribute to the NSCP’s activities. The report summarises the activities of the NSCP:
• The NSCP published updated safeguarding arrangements in 2024, intended to make them more transparent.
• A Safeguarding Friday Forum has been established to share learning and information.
• Seven-minute briefings have been introduced following Rapid Reviews² as a means to share key learning.
• Governance arrangements have been improved, including the introduction of a shared risk register to highlight strategic safeguarding concerns across the borough.

All-age exploitation

The NSCP and the Newham Safeguarding Adults Board (SAB) consider all-age exploitation, modern-day slavery and cuckooing³ to be joint priorities. They have improved multi-agency working through an Intelligence and Information Sharing Partnership forum which meets three times per week, and through a comprehensive child exploitation training programme.

The report says that during 2024/25, the focus will be on cuckooing, and this will be led by the SAB. The NSCP will concentrate on identifying perpetrators and securing convictions and equipping the Newham community with the knowledge and tools to recognise and address all forms of exploitation. The Modern Day Slavery Group will undertake a rapid needs assessment to help focus on short and long term priorities.

Child sexual abuse

The NSCP has chosen to focus on child sexual abuse as a priority, as it has been the subject of a number of recent reviews, and to address the recommendations of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse.

The NSCP says that work in this area has led to the following improvements:

• Stronger safeguarding policies and procedures.
• Increased accountability and oversight.
• More focused interventions and support for victims.
• Increased awareness and training for professionals.

The report says that during 2024/25, the NSCP will undertake a multi-agency audit on practice to test the impact of improvements made and identify areas for improvement.

Child Mental Health

The NSCP has chosen to focus on child mental health, in response to the learning identified from Newham CSPRs and the ongoing impact of the pandemic.

The report states that work in this area has led to the following improvements:

• Improved workforce awareness and competency.
• The launch of a Single Point of Access pilot programme in East Ham.

The report says that during 2024/25, the NSCP will review the impact of the development of the Single Point of Access and the delivery and expansion of mental health in school’s work. They will also review the embedding of the Newham Suicide Prevention Strategy and receive updates on progress against the action plan.

Other safeguarding priorities

The report provides updates on work on the following safeguarding priorities:

• Domestic abuse. It highlights the implementation of the Safe and Together programme and says that ‘our work with family members who are affected by issues of domestic abuse is showing clear signs of improvement and increasing impact.’
• SEND. The report summarises the local area's response to its Written Statement of Action, and says that ‘the most significant areas of development since the last inspection has been the positive Children’s Services ILACS inspection which rated Newham ‘Good’ with ‘Outstanding Leadership’, the redesign of the EHC assessment process which has led to significant improvements in Newham’s timeliness performance and helped to build stakeholder’s confidence in the partnership to deliver the improvements set out in the WSoA.’
• Care Leavers. The report summarises recent improvements in services provided to care leavers in Newham, including the opening of Terry Waite House and 'The Cove', and says that the Local Offer for Care Leavers is undergoing a refresh.
• Children Missing Education. A transformation programme began in March 2023 to simplify processes and improve safeguarding. The report says that as a result, ‘referrals have significantly increased caseloads and has improved safeguarding information and the new ways of working has improved attendance levels in schools and entrenched cases can be removed from their registers and then directly managed by the local authority.’
• Youth Justice. The Youth Justice Service was integrated into Children’s Social Care in 2024. The report says that the new service ‘is working to ensure that children who receive both youth justice and statutory social work support have aligned plans in place, that take a holistic view of need.’
• Private Fostering. The report says that Newham's private fostering statistics⁴ are comparable with other London boroughs.
• Refugees and Asylum Seekers. The report says that Newham Council developed a co-ordinated and multi-agency response to address the needs of refugees and asylum seekers, and that ‘our social work teams have been at the heart of driving forward our local response, alongside our Public Health Team.’
• Safer Workforce. The report summarises the activities of the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO), who is responsible for coordinating the response to allegations made against adults who work with children.

Learning from the system

The report summarises the learning from Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews (CSPRs) and Child Deaths. It highlights the importance of a number of issues, including:

• The importance of understanding children’s lived experiences and why some support systems may fail.
• The need for better communication and continuity in services provided to families, particularly in preventing crises.
• The role of race and cultural competence in safeguarding practices, with a focus on addressing biases and improving engagement with Black children and their families.

The NSCP developed Standards for Rapid Reviews. They describe how they engage with children and families, how practitioners are expected to be involved in the review process, and how learning will be used to improve practice.

Ensuring effective multi-agency safeguarding practice

The report summarises the work of the Performance and Quality Assurance (PQA) subgroup of the NSCP, saying that it ‘has reviewed performance data from CYPS, BARTS including maternity, ELFT, Police and 0-19 Health Service during 2023/24.’

The report summarises the activities of the multi-agency case auditing programme, which was further developed to focus on specific areas of the safeguarding system. It includes details of two audits which were carried out in 2023 on the quality of Education, Health, and Care Plans, and an audit on the effectiveness of discharge planning processes.

The report states that a single coordinated multi-agency data set remains outstanding, and that the NSCP will be allocating part of the funding received from the Department for Education to address this.

Improving skills and knowledge in the workforce

The report states that the NSCP continued to provide a comprehensive learning and development programme during 2023-2024 and provides a link to the online brochure: https://www.newhamscp.org.uk/learning-zone/.

It states that a new learning management system has been implemented and summarises the findings of a recent training needs analysis. It says that overall feedback from evaluation is positive.

Plans for 2024/25

The report lists the following plans for 2024/25:

• Implementation of Working Together 2023⁵. This will include a comprehensive review to ensure compliance and alignment with the updated guidelines.
• To produce a partnership Youth Safety Strategy with a focus on tackling exploitation and reducing youth violence.
• Focus greater attention on child sexual abuse
• Children missing out on education and disproportionality are a focus in the development of capacity to build on existing interventions.
• Child Safeguarding Practice Review (CSPR) Learning and Impact Assessments. These will measure the effectiveness of the learning from CSPR and its influence on safeguarding practices.
• Create a Multi-Agency Partnership Data Set. The NSCP will work with partners to establish a shared multi-agency data set, enhancing data use to better inform decision-making and improve outcomes across the partnership.
• Ongoing Review of Priorities. The NSCP will continue with current priorities while reviewing and adjusting them based on emerging needs and outcomes.

Experiences of Children in Care and Care Leavers in Newham

Councillors were scheduled to review a report on the experiences of children in care and care leavers in Newham. The report outlines the Council’s commitment to being an effective corporate parent, and provides answers to a number of key lines of enquiry, exploring a range of issues relating to children in care and care leavers in Newham.

The report says that 83% of all children referred to Children’s Social Care were allocated a social worker within one working day, and that the remaining children were allocated a social worker within 3 working days. It says that there were no children in Newham at the time of the meeting who were waiting to be allocated a social worker. It also reports that the council is restructuring its services to combine the Assessment and Safeguarding and Intervention Services so that children can have one social worker from the point of referral.

The report provides data on the categories of need for looked after children in Newham. It shows that abuse and neglect (51.8%) and family dysfunction (20%) were the two highest factors leading to children being taken into care.

The report also presents data on the number of missing episodes of looked after children. It shows that Newham has a higher number of missing episodes than England Average and its statistical neighbours, but is slightly lower than the figure for the general population of Newham. It says that Newham Council has a clear procedure in place based on the London Child Protection Procedures, and that a missing multi-agency sub group, which meets on a monthly basis to review learning and improve practice. The report says that high risk missing children are discussed at the Multi-Agency Child Exploitation (MACE) and Pre-MACE meetings, and that for all children who are missing, a multi-agency strategy meeting takes place within 24 hours of the missing episode to ensure a clear safety plan is in place.

The report provides data on the percentage of looked after children who have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) - 18%, which is lower than the figure for Newham’s general 0-17 population - 23.85%.

The report also shows that 36% of care leavers in Newham aged 17 and 18 were not in education, employment or training (NEET), compared to 3.7% of Newham’s general population for the same age group. It states that the council is taking a number of steps to support looked after children, including the use of Personal Education Plans and Progression Plans, and that in May 2024 Newham Council made care experience a protected characteristic.

Looked After Children (LAC) Sufficiency Assessments in Newham

Councillors were scheduled to review a report about the sufficiency of placements for looked after children.

The report provides a summary of the number of children in care and care leavers in Newham. At the time of the report, there were 415 children in care, and the number has grown to 51 per 10,000. The report says that Newham's rate of children in care is still below the rates for England. It presents data on the ethnicity and gender of children in care and care leavers, and their legal status and permanence plan.

It describes the range of support that is available to help children to stay in their home environment, including:

• Prevention and Edge of Care Services. These work intensively with children who are at risk of being taken into care.
• The development of a Youth Safety Strategy. This will co-ordinate the partnership in Newham to tackle youth violence and child exploitation.
• The Thriving Communities Team. Funded until the end of May 2025, it offers early intervention to children at risk of serious youth violence and exploitation.
• The Turnaround Project. This offers a bespoke 12-week support package to children aged 10 to 17 who are at risk of entering the Youth Justice System.
• Early Help and Families First Services. These offer targeted and intensive early help services for children and their families.
• The Youth Empowerment Service. This provides safe, supervised, stimulating and enriched learning environments for young people, working with those at risk of exploitation.
• The Pan London Protocol Reducing the Unnecessary Criminalisation of looked after children.

The report provides data on the national decline in the number of foster carers. It states that in 2022 Newham Council launched a 3-year Fostering Transformation Programme, which is focusing on recruiting, supporting and retaining a wide range of foster carers. It presents data on the ethnicity of children placed with in-house foster carers in 2023/24.

The report says that in 2023 Newham Council became involved in a new fostering pilot, called Local Community Fostering, which is a collaborative partnership between the six East London Boroughs.

It states that in 2023/24, there were 11 children adopted and 11 children made the subject of Special Guardianship Orders.

The report also highlights the financial impact of the lack of foster carers, saying that it is a factor in a forecasted overspend of £6.6 million in the children in care placement budget.

Education, Children and Young People Scrutiny Commission Work Plan 2024 – 2025

Councillors were scheduled to review the Education, Children and Young People Scrutiny Commission Work Plan 2024 – 2025. The report summarises the process for developing and prioritising scrutiny work programmes, which are agreed by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee at the start of each municipal year.

Performance Dashboard

Councillors were scheduled to review the Education, Children and Young People Scrutiny Commission KPI Dashboard. The dashboard is a collection of graphs and tables showing Key Performance Indicators relating to children and young people's services in Newham. It was scheduled to be discussed as part of the following agenda items:

• Youth Justice
• Newham Safeguarding Children Partnership
• Looked After Children Sufficiency Assessments
• Educational Inequality and Disproportionality
• School Attainment and School Attendance
• Child Protection
• SEND and Inclusion Strategy
• Virtual School Annual Report.