Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Cllr Peter Curling – Cllr Lindsay Bliss substituted.

Councillors Catherine Dann, Judith Cooper, Anita MacDonald, and John Hensley declared personal interests in all items on the agenda due to their roles as school governors.

All items were Part 1 and were considered in public.

The minutes were agreed by the Committee.

The Chairman welcomed external witnesses Amanda Read (UK Border Agency) and Detective Inspector Gordon Valentine (MET Police), and Richard Nash (Children and Families, Service Manager).

Mr Nash began his presentation by stating:

·        in 2006/7 a significant number of young people went missing, a large proportion of who were from a Chinese background. This was largely due to an uncoordinated approach from the multi-agencies involved in the process of safeguarding at the port of entry; UKBA, Met Police and LBH.

·        Majority of children and young people who arrive at Heathrow without their parents produce either no papers or papers that were found to be false at passport control.

•        Adult facilitators and traffickers organise this illegal entry. Children and young people have little control or knowledge over their fate. UKBA estimate it costs £7-10k per person.

•        Those most at risk were ‘hidden’ within those arriving to genuinely claim asylum or be re-united with family.

•        The challenge in safeguarding at a Port of Entry is the lack of concrete information.

•        From October 2008 24 hour dedicated service for assessing children and young people arriving at Heathrow.

•        Joint assessments with UKBA staff. Improved information sharing.

•        Protection plan for each child including limiting communication and close supervision.

•        Development of a trafficking leaflet in 10 languages.

•        Multi-agency operational protocol with partners.

•        Fortnightly operational meetings that discuss each and every new arrival.

•        CASE EXAMPLE: During the latter part of 2008 a major break through occurred when a Chinese female who had previously absconded from our care returned. She had been held against her will and prostituted. She assisted in delivering key messages to new arrivals about what may happen to them should they abscond. This together with arrests made outside of the UK by UKBA significantly disrupted the trafficking of Chinese nationals through Heathrow.

•        2006/07 251 arrivals of which 28% (70) went missing

•        2007/08 221 arrivals of which 24% (54) went missing

•        2008/09 160 arrivals of which 13% (20) went missing

•        2009 to date 184 arrivals of which 4% (7) have gone missing.

•        Timely, 24 hour response and joint assessment with other agencies.

•        Protection Plans that reflect the potential risk highlighted in the Time Line.

•        Engaging with the subject immediately

•        Delivering 2 key messages to children and young people; you were very likely to be at risk if you follow the instructions you have been given before arrival and you were safe in our care.

•        The increased skills and awareness of all staff.

•        The majority of the 24 hour response relies on volunteers from the day-time staff.

•        Safeguarding at Heathrow attracts national attention and can threaten the council’s reputation. Currently there is no dedicated lead officer as no such post exists.

•        Those cases that were not resolved within 2 weeks and were not USAC (currently just less than 50% of arrivals were USAC) have to be absorbed by social work teams and no extra resources  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The Chairman of the Committee invited Officers to present this item. Officers informed the Committee that this was the second opportunity within the planning cycle for the Policy Overview Committee to consider issues relating to budget planning for 2010/11.  The budget report to Council for Council Tax setting for 2009/10 contained savings of £7.5 million rising to a cumulative total savings of £20.1 million required for 2010/11.  Cabinet had since provided a budget strategy to address this saving requirement by breaking down the overall target into thematic groupings consisting of specific saving targets.  Progress towards the achievement of these targets had been monitored monthly by CMT and reported to the Leader of the Council.  In addition, all Groups have been involved in a three stage budget planning and challenge process, and it is the output of this process that forms the basis of the budget proposals set out in this report.

There were a number of key issues to consider; there were a number of cost pressures for the group, particularly around recruitment issues within Children’s Services, where the cost of agency cover is a continuing issue. Officers were working with Corporate Human Resources to endeavour to address this issue.

The group is also working towards delivering the savings identified as part of the Service Review, with the focus on furthering the work on preventative services. However, it will be particularly challenging to find additional savings over and above these targets.

The funding of Asylum remains a significant issue. Officers were continuing to work with Home Office officials and ministers to seek additional funding to ensure that the full costs the Council incurs were reimbursed through the grant regime. Officers have amended a UKBA template to enable all Asylum costs to be clearly identified. This had been circulated to authorities by UKBA. The findings should help further our discussions on full funding and around specialist status

The savings included in the draft budget for Education and Children’s Services total £3.069 million and were included in.

The savings package for E&CS broadly reflects the continued delivery of the savings identified in the service review and actions to make the most effective use of grant funding towards the department’s budget.

Key achievements were detailed as below:

·        Improvements in GCSE results: The percentage of pupils achieving 5 A*-Cs (including Maths & English) increased from 45.9% in 2008 to 51.5% in 2009.

·        The percentage of pupils achieving 5 A*-Cs increased from 63.1% in 2008 to 68.5% in 2009.

·        Second Youth Mobile Bus launched

·        Summer FIESTA 2009 had been a great success, with around 4,000 places for young people on around 135 different courses, ranging from fashion to motor mechanics programmes, sailing to cooking competitions.

·        The full inspection in relation to safeguarding and looked after children took place in November and Hillingdon received a ‘Good’ rating i.e. ‘A service that exceeds minimum requirements’

·        Hillingdon received one green flag in the CAA for ‘Partnership working to support unaccompanied asylum seeking children’.

·        Social Work Practice Pilot launched.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

1.                     The Committee agreed the Forward Plan

The Committee agreed that the overview of safeguarding responsibilities and scrutiny paper would be presented at 23 March 2010.

The Committee agreed the Work Programme.