Meeting documents

To receive the report and presentation.

The Director of Children’s Services, Julian Wooster, presented the report, noting that safeguarding children differs from safeguarding adults; he explained the Executive structure, wherein he has been nominated by the Local Authority and oversees the work together with Val Janson, Director of Quality and Nursing at Somerset CCG, and Dickon Turner, Superintendent at Avon and Somerset Constabulary.  Following the 2018 guidance, the Chair of the Executive rotates, and currently he holds that role. 

He noted that responsibility for the work of the Partnership is shared between three statutory partners: Somerset County Council, Avon and Somerset Constabulary, and Somerset Clinical Commissioning Group, while the Somerset Youth Forum is also a part of the Partnership and meets via Zoom to discuss important issues for children and young people in Somerset.  Other pieces of work have been done on child exploitation, strengthening links between partners, and supporting vulnerable families.  Later on this year they will report lessons learned from Covid; for the most part they have worked very effectively, but sometimes less so with certain families.  There is a consultation going on with respect to the next Children and Young People’s Plan, which collectively will need to be signed off by the Health and Wellbeing Board in the next few months.

As noted above, one area where a great deal of time was spent was in hearing from young people and getting their feedback.  In relation to this, a video was played for the Board entitled "Children’s Safeguarding Training for GPs", which was presented by Dr Jo Nicholl of Somerset CCG.  She met in March 2021 with numerous young people to ask questions about their thoughts and experiences with their GPs.  After the video, the Director of Children’s Services observed that the concerns raised by the young people could also refer to other services and professions as well.

The Board then discussed the presentation.  The Chief Executive-NHS Somerset CCG thanked the Director of Children’s Services and said it was great to see Dr Nicholl bringing her expertise to the issue of young people and GPs.  He asked that the video be widely distributed.  It was responded that the Partnership is keen to have continued feedback from young people and that they also have a video on how allegations made against authorities (such as in schools, involving bullying, etc.).  He noted that they have done a great deal of work around identifying bullying and abuse.

Judith Goodchild of Healthwatch stated that it was a very interesting video and asked what is being done to disseminate it to GPs and schools.  It was replied that the Partnership holds regular online events and have subgroups like the health group who share this information; such a structure works very effectively.  Aside from this, it is up to the GPs to take some action, while Ofsted and other inspectorates will note the information.

The Deputy Director of Public Health asked if commissioning and strategic thinking within safeguarding were being maximised; it was responded that part of what is being asked of partners is to include direct feedback from young people, such as those in children’s homes; this has led to better offers from bidders and has focused the process on supporting the children.  The Fire service has done great work involving children and young people.

The Director of Public Health stated that she loved the video; she also referred to the slide (Slide 12 of the presentation) on Early Help that stated, "Evidencing the impact of early help remains a challenge and will also be addressed through the development of the next Somerset Plan for Children, Young People and their Families" and noted the importance of quantifying this impact.  She opined that the Health and Wellbeing Board and ICB need to do more in this respect, albeit it is difficult to measure what you have prevented, as the traditional ways of measuring, including cause-and-effect, are not adequate.  The Health and Wellbeing Board and other such bodies need to have a discussion on how we measure, as well as on making decisions based on factors other than measurement such as common sense and moral considerations.  Otherwise, we will not get enough investment in prevention.  The Chair added that case studies and the "story" are very important.  The Director of Children’s Services agreed, noting the effect of lifestyles on wellbeing, but said that it is a challenge and that a national debate on this subject is occurring.  He said that their children’s home initiative was approached very differently from the norm, and a different approach is necessary across the health sector.

The Chair thanked the presenter and the Board for their contribution, noting that the next generation are very important as they will be the future leaders.

The Somerset Health and Wellbeing Board received the report and noted the presentation.