It is right to say at the outset of these comments that multi-agency arrangements for the safeguarding of children in Leeds are strong. There is strong commitment to safeguarding children at senior levels in all agencies. There is an ability and willingness on the part of the statutory partners and other agencies to sort out any difficulties and grapple with some of the more testing issues facing Leeds and other locations in the country.
In 2023, the Leeds Safeguarding Children Partnership (LSCP) took the decision to replace the role of Independent Chair of the partnership with the new role of Independent Scrutineer to further strengthen the LSCP’s resilience in the future.
This new role commenced on 27 September 2023. Since that date, the Government’s revised national guidance, Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023 was published, which includes the continued requirement for independent scrutiny and requires full implementation by December 2024.
The new Government guidance built on research conducted by the University of Bedfordshire and others in 2022, about what makes for effective independent scrutiny. The functions of the Independent Scrutineer in Leeds are therefore to:
- provide safeguarding partners and relevant agencies with independent, rigorous, and effective support and challenge at both a strategic and operational level.
- provide assurance to the whole system in judging the effectiveness of the multiagency safeguarding arrangements through a range of scrutiny methods.
- ensure that statutory duties are being fulfilled, quality assurance mechanisms are in place, and that local child safeguarding practice reviews and national reviews are analysed, with key learning areas identified and effectively implemented across the safeguarding system.
- ensure that the voice of children and families is considered as part of scrutiny and that this is at the heart of arrangements through direct feedback, informing policy and practice.
- be regarded as a ‘critical friend’ and provide opportunities for two-way discussion and reflection between frontline practitioners and leaders. This will encourage and enable strong, clear, strategic leadership.
- provide independent advice when there are disagreements between agencies and safeguarding partners and facilitate escalation procedures.
- evaluate and contribute to multi-agency safeguarding published arrangements and the annual report, alongside feeding into the wider accountability systems such as inspections.
The Independent Scrutineer in Leeds commenced work on the above areas immediately and agreed with the LSCP a plan of scrutiny for 2024-25 based on this guidance.
The focus of attention in 2023-24 was to assist, support and advise the LSCP on its review of structures, considering local needs and the requirements of new Government guidance.
The Independent Scrutineer provided input to the establishment of a new Audit and Review sub-group whose purpose was to enhance the level of assurance about the quality of safeguarding activities in Leeds to inform the Executive group in future about areas requiring deeper dives, improvement or replication of excellent practice. This group agreed the first multi-agency review and audit to take place in 2024-25 and the need for a future annual plan of multi-agency review and audit.
The Independent Scrutineer also supported partner agencies in recruitment of a new LSCP Business Unit manager who assumed post in January 2024 and will provide the leadership and drive needed.
The Independent Scrutineer has also supported and challenged as required the discussions of the Review Advisory Group about cases where children have suffered serious harm because of child abuse or neglect. This group agreed measures to build on its successes in learning relevant lessons to focus on high quality reviews taking place as quickly as possible and the Independent Scrutineer was able to take part in high quality analytical discussions about these cases where managers from different agencies came together to discuss openly means by which to overcome challenges. The partnership in Leeds experiences very similar key practice challenges to those experienced by other local safeguarding partnerships, namely ensuring that practitioners are able to balance the need to support vulnerable parents and carers with an inquisitive approach which ensures safeguarding of children, the difficulties in working with frightened survivors of domestic abuse and those responsible for carrying out domestic abuse and the challenges and time needed to form effective working relationships with teenagers who are risk of exploitation and/or involvement in violent acts against others.
The Independent Scrutineer met with a range of managers and staff in different organisations working in Leeds. These meeting established common themes regardless of the role of the staff concerned. Resources are very tight and do not always permit practitioners to do as much as they know is needed and not as early as would be effective. The critical issues facing agencies were domestic abuse, serious youth violence and exploitation of teenagers and dealing effectively with cases of suspected neglect. The Independent Scrutineer was able to discuss these issues with lead managers in the LSCP and the LSCP agreed these areas as their priorities for 2024-25 with the issue of neglect being focused on ensuring that arrangements to offer early family help dealt effectively with concerns of neglect.
It is very positive that the LSCP has set itself some highly challenging questions to answer about seeking to take steps to resolve further a range of safeguarding issues which can all be intractable across the country. It is positive that agencies in Leeds can build on their strengths to focus on these questions while continuing to devote attention to ensuring the here-and-now is working effectively.
The Independent Scrutineer also reported that all staff in varied settings have a positive regard for working in Leeds and all are proud of how their individual employers in the local authority, NHS or police service encourage them to achieve the highest standards possible. The Scrutineer also noted the high level of commitment among all agencies at managerial and frontline levels to the Leeds Approach, involving an understanding of the impact of life trauma on individuals and how they behave as a result to focus energy on support and assistance wherever possible.
There is also clear leadership and priority given to safeguarding in each of the statutory agencies (local authority, NHS and police) but also in schools and the voluntary and community sector groups working in the city. The senior leaders of the statutory agencies meet at least monthly and often more frequently and demonstrate both an ability to work well together but also to challenge one another and resolve disagreements with or without the need for the Independent Scrutineer’s involvement.
There are and will continue to be challenges in a large city with several areas made up of people living in poverty. Furthermore, Leeds is also host to regional and national services such as paediatric services at Leeds General Infirmary, a secure children’s home and a Young Offender’s Institute (YOI) at HMP Wetherby.
The latter received an inspection report published in March 2024 which contained a number of areas for improvement. Some of these related to the continued detention at Wetherby of young female offenders in provision built and set up for young male offenders. The LSCP has rightly committed to work alongside the new Governor at the YOI to support the necessary improvements for all young people who are detained there.
Leeds was also host to a Joint Targeted Area Inspection undertaken by multiple inspectorates and led by Ofsted about arrangements to safeguard children at risk of involvement in or affected by serious youth violence. The report of this inspection has since been published and confirms the high quality of practice based on trauma-informed principles in work with a challenging group of young people at substantial risk of harm in Leeds. The Independent Scrutineer met with the Lead Inspector and was able to share thoughts and respond to queries to assist this process.
The most significant work for the LSCP in 2024-25 will be to consolidate on the work undertaken to date to ensure the continuation of a strong response to safeguarding issues in Leeds:
- Ensuring that the revised structure of sub-groups and priorities agreed by the LSCP work to full effect at a time when each of the three statutory partners faces challenges over resources with each having also needed to reduce financial contribution to the LSCP for 2024-25.
- Improving the multi-agency assurance of safeguarding service quality through a range of different review and audit approaches. This will strengthen the LSCP’s ability to direct attention and resources quickly.
- Ensuring implementation of Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023 in respect of learning and development activity, governance arrangements and a revised protocol relating to working with Children in Need as required by the guidance.
- Enhancing working relationships with other strategic and planning groups in Leeds working with issues affecting the safeguarding of children, especially the Safer Leeds Executive, the Domestic Abuse Local Partnership and the Family Help Board.
- Enhancing current arrangements to ensure that the voice of children and young people influence safeguarding arrangements so that there is direct input from children and young people and especially those with experience of safeguarding systems.
- Improving the linkages between frontline staff and those making decisions in the LSCP so that the visibility of the LSCP for frontline staff is enhanced. The Independent Scrutineer will continue meeting with frontline staff and managers in the city to support this aim and ensure that there is a shared understanding of needs and issues wherever possible.
In sum, the multi-agency arrangements for safeguarding children in Leeds are strong and this strength will enhance ability to meet future challenges in terms of safeguarding children.
The welcoming of the new role of independent scrutiny, in place of the independent chair function, will further strengthen the LSCP’s resilience in the future.
David Derbyshire