Agenda item

1. Mrs Palmer introduced the report and gave an overview into the role of a Local Authority Designated Officer.

2. Ms Burden, LADO and Education Safeguarding Manager, presented a report to the Committee, outlining the significantly transitional year for the service.

3. In response to comments and questions it was said:
   1. Ms Burden was happy to offer safeguarding training to Members.
   2. It was noted that LESAS had not previously engaged with the Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education (SACRE). Ms Burden recorded this for the faith lead to follow up. Kirsty Owens had been identified as the lead officer for work with faith groups. The team had joined a national focus group to explore barriers to engagement and collaborated with the organisation Thirtyone:eight to reach smaller faith communities. While strong links existed with larger groups such as the Church of England and the Catholic Church, smaller groups particularly those led by independent pastors, remained more difficult to engage. Ongoing work with partners aimed to raise awareness of services, address challenges and offer support, sometimes in collaboration with police colleagues or other churches.
   3. The service could be asked by partners within the Local Authority to do particular reviews, also schools select to commission them to do them themselves.
   4. Ms Burden had written peer auditing reports with Lancashire County Council, as well as Oxfordshire County Council, these would be circulated to the Committee after the meeting.
   5. Ms Burden confirmed that parents who educate their children from home could access the service. Whether the child was educated at home or not was not monitored by the service, Ms Burden explained that this was something that could be monitored in the future.
   6. The 75% increase in referrals came from a single local authority, considered to be an outlier. The National LADO Network had explored reasons for the upward trend, identifying factors such as high profile cases including the Lucy Letby case, which had raised awareness of LADO’s among communities previously unfamiliar with it. It was also noted that with publicity demand would increase which was seen as a positive in many ways.
   7. In terms of the ‘inappropriate conduct’ category in the Allegation Types 2024/25 category, Ms Burden explained that it acted as a catch all for a wide range of concerns that could not be categorised elsewhere.
   8. Ms Burden explained that funding was being sought to subsidise courses for early year providers, though this had not yet been secured and no promises could be made. In the meantime, alternative cost effective ways of engaging with providers was being explored, including running network meetings and potentially twilight sessions to avoid impacting nursery ratios
   9. The project being conducted with the Isle of Wight had no relevance to the prison population, alternatively it was related to the service for UASC.
   10. LESAS did not have a blanket view on the use of mobile phones by children in schools. LESAS aimed to support schools to manage the procedures they have in place, Ms Burden noted the difficulty schools would face trying to implement a blanket ban on mobile phone use. Ms Burden recognised the importance of mobile phones in situations such as diabetes blood sugar level monitoring. Additionally, Ms Burden explained that some of the physical interventions mentioned in the report had been due to mobile phones.
   11. It reported that the quality assurance framework for family hubs was being delivered in partnership with the safeguarding unit with the service contributing. Visit to each district family hub was scheduled to be completed by July 2026 and no issues were anticipated in meeting this target.
   12. For UASC homes and supported lodging units, the IRO team was leading practise inquiries and collaboration visits with the service participation in line with the timeline set by the IRO service. There was a program in place to oversee these homes, aligned with their Ofsted regulation, ensuring good quality of care and awareness of circumstances prior to inspections. For homes with heightened concerns, safety plans were implemented to address potential protests, alongside daily safety measures.
   13. A Member asked that within the next LESAS Report presented to the Committee, an update on the KPI’s and the outcomes of the action plan that would show that results were moving in the right direction.
   14. The service had changed its data collection method since developing LESAS, as there were some overlap between external safeguarding issues and inappropriate conduct. It was clarified that situations were classified as external safeguarding if they did not occur within the workplace, such as in a nursery or school.

RESOLVED that the Committee noted the report and its findings.