Agenda Item No. 4

THE VALE OF GLAMORGAN COUNCIL

HEALTHY LIVING AND SOCIAL CARE SCRUTINY COMMITTEE: 11 SEPTEMBER 2018

REFERENCE FROM CABINET: 3 SEPTEMBNER 2018

C404              CORPORATE SAFEGUARDING ANNUAL REPORT 2017/18 (L) (SCRUTINY COMMITTEES – SOCIAL CARE AND HEALTH, LEARNING AND CULTURE, CORPORATE PERFORMANCE AND RESOURCES) -

Cabinet was updated on the work that had been undertaken to improve corporate arrangements for safeguarding and protecting children and adults who required specific Council services and to ensure that the arrangements were effective.

The Corporate Safeguarding Working Group was established within the authority to learn lessons from the 2011, Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) and Estyn joint report following their investigation into the way Pembrokeshire County Council managed allegations of professional abuse and its arrangements for safeguarding and protecting children in education. The group had been working through an action plan to improve safeguarding across the Council. 

Cabinet agreed a Safer Recruitment Policy for the Council and Schools (January 2013).  It had been adopted by all Vale of Glamorgan schools and throughout the Council.  The Annual Report  attached at Appendix 1 to the report clearly outlined the sustained improvements for safer recruitment policies across the Council, including education and demonstrated that practice continued to improve.

In the past, safeguarding activity by different parts of the Council had been reported separately to Cabinet, relevant Scrutiny Committees and Corporate Management Team.

During 2017/18 the Environment and Housing Directorate joined the Corporate Safeguarding Working Group.  The directorate already took a key role in a number of safeguarding and protection approaches and this activity would be included as part of the reporting arrangement from 2018/19.

The Social Services and Wellbeing (Wales) Act 2014 was implemented in April 2016. The Act brought about changes in particular relating to the introduction of a 'Duty to report' which meant a revision of the corporate safeguarding policy to bring staff's attention to this duty.

The new 'Working Together to Safeguard People Guidance' under Part 7 of the new Act was now published.  Guidance on handling individual cases (volumes 5 and 6) to protect children and adults at risk was launched for public consultation by Welsh Government on 31st January 2017.  The guidance provided advice on what should happen if an individual had concerns about the well-being or welfare of a child or an adult at risk. The guidance was published in 2018.

This was a matter for Executive decision

RESOLVED –

(1)       T H A T the work undertaken to improve corporate arrangements for safeguarding and protecting children and adults be noted.

(2)       T H A T  Cabinet continue to receive six-monthly reports on work carried out to improve corporate safeguarding arrangements and the effectiveness of relevant policies.

(3)       T H A T the report be referred to the Social Care and Health, Learning and Culture and Corporate Performance and Resources Scrutiny Committees for consideration.

Reasons for decisions

(1)       To note the recent developments in corporate arrangements for safeguarding

(2)       To allow Cabinet to exercise effective oversight of this key area of corporate working.

(3)       To respond to requests that each Scrutiny Committee was provided with update reports.

Attached as Appendix – Report to Cabinet – 3 September 2018