People are protected and safeguarded from abuse and neglect, and any other types of harm
Tackling Child Sexual Exploitation
We have implemented changes to how we undertake Section 47 child protection investigations meaning that they now take place over a longer period of time. This allows us to gather information gradually and build a relationship built on trust with the victim to enable them to disclose their experiences in their own time. Previously we might have carried out a single visit and not taken any further action if no disclosure was made at that visit.
The Conwy Action Plan continues to work in line with the Welsh Government Action Plan, Preventing and Responding to Child Sexual Abuse. The topic of Healthy Relationships is included and we work with partners in Education Services to ensure that schools include information around healthy relationships as part of the pupils’ personal development syllabus.
What were the challenges?
Keeping the momentum going and ensuring that all involved continue to disseminate information and changes in practice.
What’s next?
In March 2022 we introduced Assessment Intervention Moving on training which is focused on the assessment of the young person and their family around concerns, risks and strengths of the young person across four key domains: sexual and non-sexual behaviours, development, family, and environment, considering both static and dynamic factors. This training will be offered to multi-agency practice leads, which will assist in the formulation of a referral pathway for Harmful Sexual Behaviours. The training offered to practitioners will then be facilitated by practice leads to all practitioners in social care during 2022.
Preventative work at our Family Centres
There has been continued focus on how we, and our partner agencies, can identify and support children at risk of exploitation throughout 2021-22. Our well established Family Centres who offer advice, guidance and support to families have been raising awareness of Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) and have developed a new information hub on our website to provide information, advice and support to children and young people, parents, carers and people in the community.
All five centres developed practice lead roles for those staff members who have taken part in ‘train the trainer’ sessions delivered by the Lucy Faithful Foundation. This enables them to run Parents Protect courses with their teams and parents around child sexual abuse and internet safety awareness.
The Family Centres have also established a multi-agency forum to discuss children who they believe are at risk of becoming exploited, with a clear link to children’s services to ensure that the most appropriate level of intervention is put in place. The Centres also launched a social media campaign on internet safety to promote our new web content for children, young people, and their families. Topics include setting up parental controls, using safe search engines, using social media and online gaming. Care Inspectorate Wales, in their Assurance Check of June 2021 stated that:
The local authority has designed an internet safety page focusing on supporting parents about risks and safety for children using the internet. This is an important piece of work given concern about this during the pandemic.
CIW
The Youth Justice Service are working collaboratively with the Family Centres in order to produce a pathway for the lower tier of criminal exploitation to implement early intervention. This process is also a mechanism to implement effective safeguarding processes, such as the need to escalate to children’s services for safeguarding investigations as and when required.
A training course facilitated by the Child Sexual Abuse Centre of Excellence ran from September 2020 until March 2021 and was attended by individuals from partner agencies such as North Wales Police, Health, Education, the Vulnerable People Team, and Youth Justice Service. The course provided information relating to research and data analysis, and there were guest speakers who work in different areas of CSA with both victims and perpetrators. Information was also shared regarding the requirements of assessments, supporting victims, working with and supporting non-abusing parents, and assessing and working with perpetrators.
This is a difficult and highly sensitive subject, which at times, was overwhelming for the many participants on the course, however the support from facilitators and each other was invaluable. The result is an enhanced ability within the Local Authority to respond with greater confidence to this area of child abuse.
Multi-Agency Child Sexual Abuse Forum (MACSAF)
As part of our CSA action plan we are focusing on raising awareness about CSA amongst parents, communities, and professionals through:
- Providing training and workforce development.
- Offering pathways for support, including for survivors.
- Making Conwy a safe place for people to talk about their concerns.
- Offering support and consultation for investigations.
The MACSAF is a multi-agency group, including the service leads who attended the six-month course we mentioned earlier, and some other key partners. The group meets every two months to:
- Hold and continue to add to a library of resources and tools
- Foster collaboration between agencies, including social workers, the Police, solicitors, doctors, nurses and teachers
- Keep up to date with research, information and support services
- Share information with our colleagues
- Learn from practice
The team will provide updates to colleagues twice a year in the form of a newsletter.
Child exploitation: a survivor’s account
In December 2021 our Children’s Fieldwork and Workforce Team commissioned Sammy Woodhouse, a survivor of the Rotherham Child Sexual Exploitation scandal, to provide a talk and Q&A session to help raise awareness around child exploitation.
Sammy was able to highlight how she was groomed as a teenager, including how it started, developed, and the control, aggression and threats used by her abusers. Sessions were available for young people, school staff and education-related professionals, parents, carers and family, and for other professionals based within social care, North Wales Police and BCUHB. Other slots were also donated to other organisations such as Barnardo’s, Haven of Light, and the Lucy Faithful Foundation, and to the Children’s Commissioner’s Office and Welsh Government’s Safeguarding Policy Manager. In all, around 230 people attended.
Although we are always striving to raise awareness of child exploitation, hearing from a survivor was much more impactful and, this time, the session wasn’t restricted to professionals (who already have a level of awareness). Delivering to young people, parents and carers helped to contribute to a contextualised safeguarding agenda, generating conversations about exploitation between themselves and their peers, family and friends.
We received positive feedback from all three sessions, and Sammy has now been contacted by other agencies and professionals to deliver similar talks, both in Conwy and the wider North Wales area.
Asked about what they would take away from the session, attendees provided the following insight:
It was very inspiring that Sammy was so brave and managed to talk about her experiences after everything she’s gone through. I was so shocked that professionals [in Rotherham] let it continue to happen for so long and didn’t take the concerns seriously.
The reality that Child Sexual Exploitation can happen to anyone, anywhere, given the right set of circumstances.
Strengthening Families Team
This year we have introduced an Early Intervention Multi-agency Panel and the Domestic Abuse Panel. Both Panels give practitioners a reflective space to talk about concerns they have with families they work with. They get advice and offers of support for families to prevent them needing to come into managed care services.
This service continues to develop specialist roles within the tea and this year we have a dedicated worker to work with families during pregnancy to help them address any emerging safeguarding issues at an early stage.
What were the challenges?
Delivering intervention face to face has been challenging throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite this teams have continued to find innovative ways to engage with families by maximising the use of technology and outdoors spaces which Conwy offers.
Families have clearly been impacted by the pandemic in ways that we were unable to predict. There has been an increase in referrals for families at the point of breakdown and children with complex presentations of emotional distress. The team have worked tirelessly to support these families whilst also taking on some tasks and responsibilities of other teams to share the burden.
What’s next?
This year we are introducing the Safe & Together Model across Conwy, This model is an evidenced-based new way of practice which improves outcomes for families impacted by Domestic Abuse.
Gaining feedback from children in our care
Every child in the care of the Local Authority must be allocated an Independent Reviewing Officer, whose role is to have oversight of a child’s case and ensure that their interests are protected throughout their time in care. IROs must ensure that they:
- Promote the voice of the child
- Ensure that the child’s care and support plan is up to date, effective, and appropriate to the child’s needs
- Offer the child access to advocacy
- Monitor the Local Authority’s activity as a Corporate Parent
Children have stated that the IROs should listen to them, make sure they are happy with their care and support plans, ensure their views are heard, and ensure that their plans are being delivered as they should be. IROs should be powerful enough to put things right, keeping in touch with each child they support between review meetings, seeing the child on a one-to-one basis, and explaining important decisions.
In preparation for every child’s review they are asked to give their views on where they live, who they spend time with, the team that supports them, and what matters to them. The IROs can then use this information to generate conversations about the child’s wellbeing and progress in a way that is led by the child. Here’s a flavour of what the children and young people have told us:
I feel happy with my foster carer and am enjoying all the things we are doing together.
Everything is going well and I am really enjoying my new Childcare apprenticeship.
I am happy with my bedroom because it is beautiful. I love having fun and eating yummy food, especially chocolate spread.
I want to be in foster care, my parents look after me and I have nice views and nice walks. I like the house and I have pets. It’s the best where I live.
Safeguarding Week 2021 Events
Due to ongoing Covid-19 restrictions our Safeguarding Unit once again arranged online events to mark Safeguarding Week in November. Two identical sessions were offered to all Conwy Council staff comprising:
- Opening of Safeguarding Week by Councillor Cheryl Carlisle
- Safeguarding is Everybody’s Business.
- Child Sexual abuse action plan and the launch of our new web pages.
- Raising safeguarding awareness around older people abuse.
In all, 54 members of staff attended the sessions from across the organisation, and the feedback they later provided was positive. They valued the event and were keen to share the information with their own teams.
The Safeguarding Unit also held the Children’s Safeguarding Forum during Safeguarding Week, raising awareness and enhancing knowledge amongst management staff around various topics and identifying areas for further development. We talked about:
- The Strengthening Families Team’s pre-birth processes and interventions, and their aim to reduce the number of babies removed from their families at birth in Conwy.
- An update from the Peri-Natal & Psychiatric Liaison Officer on how their service continues to grow, the tiers of involvement, and how they support a parent with their mental health.
- The North Wales Safeguarding Children’s Board Protocol, which supports children and parents, is currently being revised. We identified the need for joined-up assessments, both for the parent who is experiencing mental health problems, and the needs of the child.
- Judicial Review & Public Law Reform Child Protection; updates were provided from the current task and finish groups who are ensuring that processes are brought up to date with the recommendations from this review.
- A case with a positive outcome, demonstrating how interventions had been successful and had assisted parents to make the necessary changes required to keep their family together.
Contextual Adult Safeguarding
Contextual safeguarding looks to all areas of a person at risk’s life, including their home, family, peers, neighbourhood and contacts to gain a holistic view of the factors that place them at risk of harm. We employed this method at an area of concern in Colwyn Bay, where adult safeguarding and anti-social behaviour issues had come to the fore. An exceptional strategy meeting was set up, and after several discussions it was agreed that a Contextual Safeguarding model should be adopted to effectively guide the multi-agency meeting and ensure clear actions were in place to support the defined area (as opposed to concentrating wholly on individual cases via the usual case management approach).
The meeting agreed the development of the following:
- Clear terms of reference, GDPR criteria and resources to support the Contextual safeguarding model of working on the site.
- A weekly multi-agency discussion meeting, bringing all partners together to ensure timely and effective sharing of information and joint working. This has resulted in matters being escalated and supported earlier in the process, ensuring that the right partners responded at the right time, and incidents being dealt with in an improved timely manner.
- It has been agreed that a vacant flat on the site can be used as an interim drop-in interview facility so that individuals at the site can be seen outside of their own tenancy, ensure effective lone working and joint agency arrangements and make it easier for individuals to attend interviews and meetings.
What were the challenges?
- Ensuring that key partners were consistent in the activities undertaken around the Colwyn Bay site. For example, partners were concerned that police activity and attendance was inconsistent, however further discussion clarified that there was little criminal activity at the site and the majority of reporting was around safeguarding and anti-social behaviour concerns.
- Lack of alternative accommodation has resulted in the contextual safeguarding approach needing to be adopted, whilst move-on for several tenants on the site would alleviate much of the behaviours and concerns.
What’s next?
Meetings will continue until such time that alternative accommodation can be sourced. The weekly meetings provide an effective task-centred approach to responding to current issues on the site.
Contextual Child/Young People Safeguarding
Two multi-agency Contextualised Exploitation forums will be set up to bring partner agencies together to discuss those young people who are vulnerable and at risk of exploitation. The aim of this forum is to bring multi-agency professionals together on a six to eight-week basis so that information can be shared to help reduce those who are vulnerable and/or at risk of all forms of exploitation in Conwy.
The forum aids an early identification, prevention and creation of disruption strategies, but also aids the sharing of information for people of concern open to Authorities or agencies where concerns already exist.
What are the current challenges?
- Keeping focused with multi agency partners, aiding the understanding of multi-agency partners, not reviewing casework, to discuss and consider prevention, disrupting when young people are associating with older young people and adults who are considered to be a risk.
- All meetings are held virtually, this is difficult with the amount of professionals sometimes involved and also mapping exercises online
- Neighbouring Local Authorities are holding similar forums and the sharing of cross county information in relation to young people and adults is vital.
What’s next?
The forums will be launched in March 2022 to coincide with Child Exploitation day and will continue on a six to eight-week basis. We will review them after twelve months to consider the purpose, any positive outcomes and identify any emerging themes that may need to be addressed.
Modern Slavery case study
Following information received from North Wales Police and the National Modern Slavery Helpline in September 2021 we became aware of concerns that a private, newly-formed social care agency operating in the Conwy area were providing agency care workers who presented as being potential victims of modern slavery. In response to these concerns, full multi-agency strategy meetings were convened with key partners, including Health, North Wales Police, Care Inspectorate Wales and Denbighshire County Council. Initial meetings were covert and sensitive to the fact that any poorly timed enquiries or interventions would have jeopardised potential police enquiries and investigations. At this time the case continues to be under investigation by the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA), so actions below highlight work undertaken to date by the Local Authority and its partners.
- Enquiries with providers and care homes of their use of the agency in question, initially via covert and sensitive means.
- Communication with all providers to remind them of their duties and being mindful of ensuring that safe recruitment practices are always followed when utilising agency staff.
- Maintained safeguarding oversight of care homes in the area to ensure that, as far as possible, residents were not placed at risk as a result of the agency staff who were providing care.
- Ensuring that Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub team colleagues were fully briefed and given pointers on how to gather specific safeguarding concerns in the initial phase.
- Partners working closely when the GLAA began their operations.
- Undertaking clear actions with support from the Vulnerable People Team to support and advise the victims in the case.
- Initiate and progress position of trust meetings.
- Undertaking a de-brief session to gather learning from the process.
What were the challenges?
- Ensuring that all partners were responding consistently to the severity of the concerns raised.
- Ensuring that a balance was struck between maintaining safe care within the care homes, whilst at the same time, having to retain a confidential and covert approach.
- Delegation of tasks and which organisation undertook the lead on specific tasks within the wider investigation.
- Identifying key social workers/teams to support the process i.e. Section 126 processes were completed by a specific team which placed extra pressure on them.
What’s next?
We are awaiting completion and outcome of the GLAA investigation and anticipate learning from the de-brief outcomes meeting.
Preventing radicalisation
The Prevent strategy, published by the UK Government in 2011, is part of the overall counter-terrorism strategy, CONTEST. The aim of the Prevent strategy is to reduce the threat to the UK from terrorism by stopping people becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. The strategy has three specific strategic objectives:
- Respond to the ideological challenge of terrorism and the threat we face from those who promote it.
- Prevent people from being drawn into terrorism and ensure that they are given appropriate advice and support.
- Work with sectors and institutions where there are risks of radicalisation that we need to address.
The reporting year saw the launch of the three-year Prevent Strategy which is a framework that enables us to organise work in partnership to safeguard those vulnerable to radicalisation. During National Safeguarding Week in November 2021, we held a conference to raise awareness and understanding of the important work that is being undertaken under the umbrella of Contest and Prevent in Wales. We hosted a number of presenters including Professor Tracy Daszkiewicz, Deputy Director of Population Health & Wellbeing. She was pivotal in the response to the crisis which drew in multiple agencies, working around the clock to minimise harm and safeguard public health during the Novichok poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury in 2018.
