Agenda item

(Item B6- Report by Mr P Gilroy, Chief Executive)

(1)          The Committee considered a report that marked the final stage of the review commissioned by the County Council in December 2008, following the publication of the urgent Joint Area Review in Haringey carried out in response to the death in 2007 of Baby Peter, undertaken by the Chief Executive, on the arrangements in Kent for protecting vulnerable children.  The report also gave an overview of the Review Team’s assessment of arrangements in their local and national contexts and set out a number of recommendations for consideration by the County Council which would meet on 1 April 2010.

(2)         The Chief Executive introduced the report explaining that protecting vulnerable children was a critical responsibility for the County Council with its ‘corporate parent’ responsibilities and said that he was pleased to be able to present the report to Cabinet and the Vulnerable Children Policy Overview & Scrutiny Committee for discussion and comment, en route to full Council, who initially commissioned  it.

(3)         Members were given the opportunity to ask questions and make comments which included the following:

(4)         Mr Bowles proposed, seconded by Mr Craske that the recommendation be altered to read “the Vulnerable Children and Partnerships POSC recommends that the County Council adopt the report in its entirety and thanked Mr Gilroy and his team for the extensive work carried out in producing the valuable report”.

Agreed without a vote

(3)         Mr Gilroy suggested that one recommendation that he had not made and would consider making to the County Council was to reinstate a radio slot on Radio Kent for Social Workers on aspects of their work to rebalance the negative imagery reported in the press.

(4)         In reply to a  question by Mrs Dean, Mr Gilroy  referred to page 87 of the report that indicated that the referral rates from neighbours was higher than from schools and questioned that there could not be so many of those children not at school.  Complainants did not find it easy but he was concerned as to why schools did not relate easily to the Local Authority services.

(5)         In response to a further question by Mrs Dean, Ms Davies said that Members would be advised of serious cases in future before they hit the media.  Mr Gilroy added that there were times when cases went through the courts and there would be issues of subjudicy but he would plead that the whole report be made available to Members and the public for more trust in the system.

(6)         Ms Davies outlined the actions already taken out on recommendations 75.2 to 75.8 and 75.8 to11.

(7)         Mr Bowles said that he was heartened by Members comments and thanked Ms Davies for her response on what was already happening with regard to the recommendations.

(8)         The Chairman thanked Mr Gilroy for a very full and frank report and for leaving KCC with a wonderful legacy that should be taken forward nationally as part of the tool kit for local authorities.

(9)         RESOLVED that the Vulnerable Children and Partnerships POSC recommends that the County Council at its meeting on 1 April 2010 adopt the report in its entirety and thanked Mr Gilroy and his team for the extensive work carried out in producing the valuable report.