LSCP Subgroups

The LSCP RAG is made up of a senior representative from the three statutory partners, the independent scrutineer, a legal advisor and business unit member, with the chairing role rotating between the three statutory partners.

The group has overall responsibility for the serious child safeguarding review process in Leeds, identifying and reviewing cases which, in their opinion, raise issues of importance in relation to Leeds and where appropriate, the commissioning and oversight of the review of those cases in line with Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023 Chapter 5.

The serious child safeguarding review process in Leeds and relevant learning from this year is outlined in the section LSCP Reviews 2023 – 2024.

The group has a key role in ensuring the identification of good practice and areas of learning with the objective of improving outcomes for children and young people and preventing future harm.

The RAG also considers the learning from national reviews to inform and improve practice in Leeds, and ensures that learning from reviews at all levels are communicated with the other LSCP groups for consideration, including Learning and Development and the Audit and Review groups. 

This new group was established this year, after consideration to how we understand and capture the impact of developments in practice. This group oversees the implementation of a multi-agency review and audit plan and receives summaries of key lessons (and fuller details where required) from single agency audits conducted across the LSCP partnership. The group is tasked to review relevant safeguarding data and advise the LSCP Executive of critical trends in respect of needs relevant to safeguarding children.

The group is chaired by the Deputy Director of Nursing and Quality, for NHS West Yorkshire ICB in Leeds, with membership from across the safeguarding partnership. The independent scrutineer is also a member of the group, to ensure that the lens of scrutiny is applied at the earliest opportunity.  

The activity of the group has been limited to date as it was only introduced at the end of the year. The focus has been on establishing a representative group, with a clear focus and workplan to ensure that any activity informs practice and offers assurance on safeguarding activity to the LSCP Executive.

There is recognition that more needs to be done to develop an audit framework, however, audits have continued in relation to the JTAI themes.  
 
In the second half of the year the JTAI theme moved to Serious Youth Violence, and an inspection was undertaken in Leeds, see the External Inspections Section.
  
All learning identified within the JTAI audit process is shared across the partnership and will now form part of the work of the LSCP subgroups. 

Audit activity has continued to take place across the partnership and within organisations, with this work identifying strengths and opportunities in safeguarding practice, as well as offering a level of assurance. 

Within the Children and Families Service there is an established Quality Assurance Framework which was revised and implemented in early 2023. The Quality Assurance Framework includes the aim to undertake a schedule of auditing activity, which includes Interactive Learning Audits, Audit Participation Groups, and thematic audits.   

The weekly referral review meeting forms part of Leeds Children’s Services quality assurance framework. The meeting is attended by a representative from the 3 statutory safeguarding partners and is chaired by the Principal Social Worker. The meetings’ purpose is to provide multi agency oversight of safeguarding decision making on contacts to Children’s Social Work Service, where the primary factor for referral is abuse or neglect. The meeting is a safeguarding multi-agency check point, ensuring children are safeguarded with proportionate and appropriate responses to risk and need.

During 2023/ 2024 an internal audit of the child safeguarding arrangements within NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board, provided significant assurance that the day-to-day operations of safeguarding children was appropriate and compliant with national guidelines and best practice. 

The Annual Safeguarding Staff Audit within LTHT, identified that staff know where and how to find safeguarding advice and support, how to make a safeguarding referral, how to escalate serious safeguarding incidents and the location of safeguarding policies and procedures.  

A health audit review meeting is held monthly, between health partners and the Duty and Advice manager. This allows agencies to work together to review the standard of referrals into services, offering feedback and identifying areas for improvement, in a timely manner.

Leeds have developed strong multi-agency arrangements to respond to child exploitation through its Multi-Agency Child Exploitation (MACE) arrangements, with the silver MACE group forming part of these arrangements.

The previous risk and vulnerabilities group, this year has been redesigned to ensure a more focused approach to the safeguarding needs within the city, in particular in relation to exploitation, serious youth violence and knife crime. This group is now known as Silver MACE and feeds any challenges and opportunities into the LSCP Executive, who are the Gold MACE.

The group is chaired by the Head of Crime and Safeguarding, Leeds District, West Yorkshire Police, with membership that includes health, education, third sector, CSWS, youth justice and representative from Safer Leeds.

The Silver Group will seek assurance that there is a focused approach and a robust multi-agency response towards prevention, early identification and intervention of children and young people, and the proactive targeting, disrupting and prosecuting of individuals or groups who seek to exploit, abuse and harm children.

In addition, the group seeks assurance that best practice is undertaken and also takes account of local and national research to continually improve safeguarding arrangements in this area of work. 

The Learning and Development Group has been redesigned this year to strengthen the focus on learning from reviews, findings of assurance activity and responding to the voice of children, young people and practitioners.

The group is now chaired by the Head of Quality & Practice Improvement and Principal Social Worker. The membership has been reviewed to ensure that there is representation from senior members of partner organisations.

Due to the review, the Learning and Development group has not met as frequently as in previous years, but the learning from reviews continues to have been progressed and is referred to in the LSCP Reviews 2023 – 2024 section. 

The multi-agency training offer has continued throughout the year and is referred to in the Multi-agency Training section. 

Learning and Development opportunities continue to be available for staff and can be accessed via the LSCP website and are promoted within the monthly Newsletter. 

Previously this group was a Policy and Procedures group and met when required in line with the need to update or develop new or existing policies and/or procedures.

Following the review the group has been renamed as the Policy and Practice group, to ensure that a focus is maintained on practice improvement, incorporating policies and procedures. This group will now meet regularly and is chaired by the Deputy Chief Nurse of Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust, with senior representation from across partners.    

The initial focus of the group has been to identify all policies and procedures that require reviewing, to ensure that practitioners have access to the most up to date resources. This includes the implications to practice and policy of the new revised Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023 guidance.  

In addition, the LSCP have arrangements in place with the other five LSCP’s in West Yorkshire to ensure there is consistency of policies across this geographical footprint.
 

The LSCP Education Reference Group has been renamed this year to the LSCP Education Safeguarding Group, to recognise the vital role that education plays within the safeguarding arrangements in Leeds. The main purpose of the group’s work is to support the wider strategic work of the LSCP, and the work of the group has been re-purposed this year to ensure it is able to fulfil its strategic responsibilities.

The group is now chaired by the Executive Principle of a Local Academy Trust with a deputy chair from further education, with membership from a wide range of education establishments and relevant partners.

This year to enable the Education Safeguarding Group to effectively fulfil the remit set out as part of the LSCP the ESG has redefined the membership of the group to ensure roles and responsibilities are clear and support the effective delivery of strategic work as summarised below: 

• The ESG Committee (ESGC): The committee is a small group of leaders who will provide strategic leadership and oversight of the group’s work. The leadership of the group will have representation from Leeds Safeguarding Children’s Partnership, The Local Authority Safeguarding team and the Education sector with clearly defined roles and responsibilities. 
• ESG Core Membership Meetings. This group has been constituted to ensure strong representation across the education sector to capture their voice and views and membership is drawn from key educational organisations from across the city.
• Task and Delivery Groups (TDGs): TDGs will be established to support the completion of key actions and membership will be relevant to the task and include appropriate expertise and knowledge.

A commitment has been made to recognise education as the fourth LSCP Statutory Executive partner in Leeds. 

Representatives from the vast third sector in Leeds remain significant and active partners within the safeguarding arrangements. The LSCP structure includes a Third Sector Safeguarding Group, which is chaired by the CEO of Leeds Survivor Led Crisis Service with the deputy chair from Homestart and support from Voluntary Action Leeds.

The purpose of this group is to ensure that our third sector partners have a strong voice, acting as a conduit to sharing learning from LSCP safeguarding reviews and audit work, highlighting challenges or opportunities, and supporting the development of safeguarding practice.

The group has met quarterly throughout the year with each meeting consisting of updates from both the LSCP and organisations from across the third sector. The meetings are themed to support discussion and sharing of views and ideas. Attendees then share this information with their colleagues and within their own organisations, gaining feedback as appropriate.

Themes this year have included areas of practice development, identified learning and changes in safeguarding practice, including suicide prevention, concerns resolution process, learning from reviews, illegal money leading and the role of the scrutineer.

A further development this year was the formation of a Care Collective (working title) to look at the support/services that are available to Care Experienced, Care Leavers and those at risk of entering the care system. In the current economic climate this is an opportunity to consider how statutory and third sector organisations can work together. This group is in its early stages of development. A Chair and Vice Chair are now in place, and an initial meeting taken place with the first task identified; to map what’s happening across the city. Progress will then be reported back to the LSCP Executive.

The purpose of this group is to oversee and ensure the integration of the Specialist Child Protection Medical Service within the pathway of safeguarding assessments of children and young people in Leeds, including ensuring that there are relevant policies and procedures in place and any risks are escalated and addressed.

This group is chaired by the Head of Safeguarding in Leeds, for the West Yorkshire ICB, with Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust (LTHT) providing the deputy chair. The membership includes representatives from West Yorkshire Police, Children and Families Service, and the Child Protection Medical Service (CPMS), safeguarding leads from the ICB, LCH and LTHT and Mountain Health Care who are commissioned to provide sexual abuse medicals throughout West Yorkshire.

This year, due to the review of the subgroups that has taken place and operational issues effecting the membership the MASOG, the group has not met as regularly as it previously would have, however, there has remained in place a process of escalation via the usual process for any operational issues that have been identified.

The focus going forward is to review the purpose and functions of the group and a development session is planned to ensure that focus of the group is aligned with the needs and prioritises of the partnership.

The Secure Estates group has only met once this year, due to the review that has taken place, although communication between the services and relevant agencies and escalation of concerns to the executive has been maintained.  

The group is to be refreshed as of the start of 2024-25, with a reviewed TOR and a new chair from Leeds Community Healthcare Trust (LCH), membership will continue to include representatives from the secure settings within in Leeds, as well as children and family services, West Yorkshire Police and health services.

The group will continue to monitor the safeguarding arrangements in three secure settings in Leeds (Wetherby Young Offenders Institute, Adel beck Secure Children’s Home and the Police Custody Suite) providing oversight and challenge in relation to safeguarding. 
Inspection findings and progress with relevant action plans will continue to be overseen and areas of concern highlighted to the LSCP Executive. The findings of any inspections undertaken this year are reported in External Inspections section.

Restraints 
The LSCP has a duty to report on restraints within secure estates and this data is collated annually. A separate annual report from the Secure Settings group will be produced and presented to the LSCP Executive and to other relevant boards.

Wetherby YOI
In Wetherby YOI, 1181 restraints have taken place, including low to high level and planned and unplanned this year. Approximately 80% of the restraints involved young people identify as male and 20% female.  
An inspection that took place in Wetherby YOI this year (see External Inspection section). Following the outcome of the inspection that LSCP Executive wrote to the Governor, met with the leadership team, requested the YOI improvement plan and have agreed to monitor this, providing appropriate support and challenge.

West Yorkshire Police Custody Suite 
West Yorkshire Police data indicate that this year, 1176 children and young people had force used on them pre - detention, with 1047 of these recorded as having soft physical force used, which can include restraint or the use of handcuffs. 
Over the year, 207 of children and young people received physical force (163 recorded as soft physical force) post detention, within the custody area. 
When the data was analysed by WYP it was noted that these numbers are reflective of the type of offence an individual was arrested for. This data will be analysed further and overseen by the secure settings group.

Adel Beck Secure Children’s Home
Adel Beck is a secure children’s home (SCH) operated by Leeds City Council and is approved by the Department for Education. It accommodates up to 24 children and young people of different genders aged between 10-17 years of age. It provides for up to 14 children and young people placed by the Youth Custody Service and up to 10 children and young people subject to section 25 (welfare) of the Children Act 1989 who are placed by Local Authorities. The admission of children under 13 years of age on welfare grounds under section 25 requires the approval of the Secretary of State for Education.

This year Adel Beck data demonstrates that there were 168 restraints carried out within the year, across the different units. Approximately 43% of these involved a young person who identified as male and 57% female.  

More detailed data such the age of the young people, ethnicity and type of restraint, are provided by the secure settings and analysed in the Secure Setting group and will be included within the Secure Settings annual report.   

The Children and Young People’s Partnership was developed to provide strategic leadership, vision, and drive delivery of the LSCP Annual Report priorities and the Leeds Children and Young People’s Plan (CYPP).

The meeting is now chaired by an Executive member of the LSCP, currently the Director of Children and Families, reporting directly to the executive. Membership includes the chairs of the LSCP subgroups and wider safeguarding partnership, voice and influence, Executive Member for Children, Families & Adult Social Care, LCC, Third Sector, Education, as well as leads related to the CYPP. 

This year, the purpose, functions and prioritises of the meeting were part of the review of the governance structure carried out by the Executive. An engagement session has been held and views sought regarding the future arrangements for the meeting, wider partnership arrangements and oversight of the CYPP as well as an OBA to develop the safeguarding priorities for 2024-25. There has also been a continued focus on bringing the voice of children and young people into the partnership. 

Child death review partners are the local authority and the ICB. Statutory responsibilities are set out in Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023. To ensure that these statuary responsibilities are met in Leeds both CDOP and Neonatal Death Overview Panels (NDOP) are held regularly with a standalone annual report published on our website.

CDOP/NDOP are key to learning from deaths of all children and this year there has been a variety of learning identified and subsequent actions.

In brief the key changes made this year, as a result of the learning in CDOP and NDOP are:

• The Local Resilience Forum have taken forward national recommendations from the Manchester Arena Bombing.
• Bath time duck safety campaign was delivered by Health Visitors and an update was made in the written information given to parents in the “red book”.
• Health visitor policy on warning about sleep pods reinforced. Posters about the dangers of sleep pods in wards. 
• Health visitors in Leeds have embedded the ‘every sleep a safe sleep’ campaign into their advice to families with newborns. 
• Health visitors in Leeds now share information about risk of suffocation (for example from nappy sacks) at an earlier stage. 
• Links strengthened with third sector organisations supporting Gypsy Roma and Traveller families.
• Midwifery colleagues in Leeds have started to use the national Birmingham Symptom Obstetric Tool (BSOT) to help identify which women should be advised to come into the labour ward. 
• There is improved liaison between HV service and hospital antenatal team to provide links for babies who are expected to be unwell after birth and require enhanced support. 
• Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust have done work to improve advocacy for those young people aged 16 and 17 years old via training on the Mental Capacity Act 
• Leeds Community Healthcare NHS trust have done work to prompt promotion of covid vaccination.
• Partners are developing a revised guidelines for SUDI which will include better signposting to senior police to help sensitively manage access to scenes of death.
• Enhanced training has been given to midwifery teams to aid the interpretation of monitoring of mothers and babies in labour.
• Adequate thermal management of very premature infants has been highlighted to maternity and neonatal services and remain under continuous review.
• Improvement in the collection of key demographic information for SUDIC cases has been trialled, to improve data capture.
• Vaping has been added as a section into the analysis proforma.