Agenda and minutes

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber, Priory House, Monks Walk, Shefford

Contact: Jonathon Partridge  0300 300 4634

Items
No. Item

102.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 64 KB

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting of the Children’s Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 21 January 2014 and to note actions taken since that meeting.

Minutes:

 

The Committee received the Minutes of the previous meeting and in addition to noting that Mr J Reynolds had been in attendance it was agreed that Minute CS/13/98 should be amended to read “the Council would continue to lobby central government on the formula upon which it allocated funding…”

 

RESOLVED that the Minutes of the Children’s Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 21 January 2014 be signed by the Chairman as a correct record subject to the amendments above.

 

 

103.

Members' Interests

To receive from Members any declarations of interest and of any political whip in relation to any agenda item.

Minutes:

 

None

 

104.

Chairman's Announcements and Communications

To receive any announcements from the Chairman and any matters of communication.

Minutes:

 

The Chairman welcomed guests to the meeting and thanked officers and the Headteacher of Hawthorn Park Community Lower School for arranging a visit for Members to discuss issues relating to the impact on children of living in circumstances of domestic abuse/domestic violence.  A summary of the visit and some key issues that Members might consider raising during the meeting had been circulated.  The Chairman also outlined that the purpose of the meeting was to develop an understanding of the impact of domestic abuse/domestic violence on children and to arrive at recommendations to present to the Executive to enhance the Council’s offer in this area.

 

The Chairman also commented on her the recent appointment as a Member of the Social Care, Health and Housing OSC and the contribution of former Councillor Anita Lewis, who had recently passed away.

 

105.

Petitions

To receive petitions from members of the public in accordance with the Public Participation Procedure as set out in Annex 2 of Part A4 of the Constitution.

Minutes:

 

None.

 

106.

Questions, Statements or Deputations

To receive any questions, statements or deputations from members of the public in accordance with the Public Participation Procedure as set out in Annex 1 of part A4 of the Constitution.

Minutes:

 

None.

 

107.

Call-In

To consider any decision of the Executive referred to this Committee for review in accordance with Procedure Rule 10.10 of Part D2. 

Minutes:

 

None.

 

108.

Requested Items

To consider any items referred to the Committee at the request of a Member under Procedure Rule 3.1 of Part D2 of the Constitution.

Minutes:

 

None.

 

109.

The impact on children of living in family circumstances of domestic violence and abuse pdf icon PDF 70 KB

 

The Committee will receive a report and presentation relating to the impact on children of living in family circumstances of domestic violence and abuse in order to:-

 

1.    increase the understanding of Members in relation to the prevalence of incidents

2.    consider how best to support a multi-agency partnership approach to deal with the issue.

3.    reach consensus on some outcome focused recommendations that will enhance the offer to children living in these circumstances

 

The Committee has invited a significant number of persons to contribute to this discussion in order to agree evidence based recommendations.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

 

In setting the context for this item the Committee watched a DVD demonstrating the experiences of victims of domestic abuse and domestic violence.  A presentation was also provided by the Client Service Manager for Central Bedfordshire’s Refuges with regards to the “Children’s Worker Pilot”.  This presentation demonstrated the benefits of the Pilot that commenced in April 2013 and the impact of these posts on meeting the needs of women and children.  The presentation highlighted the numbers of children that had been supported and detailed some of the other supported outcomes that had been achieved as a result of the pilot.

 

The Committee also received a presentation of the Deputy Executive Member that provided an overview of the prevalence of domestic abuse, the impact of abuse on children and the current support that was available in Central Bedfordshire.  The presentation also set out some of the challenges and pressures in relation providing support for children and responding to incidents of domestic abuse.

 

The Committee discussed the issues in detail with a range of professionals and a service user in attendance at the meeting.  A full report of the meeting is appended in which the following issues were discussed:-

 

·         The benefits of early intervention and the extent to which additional funding could be made available to provide additional resources that would enhance the services that were available.  There was a need to recognise that funding in early intervention could reduce spend in the long-term although it was accepted that spending more on intervention and prevention could result in reduced funding being available to fund more reactive programmes of support.

·         The need for effective co-ordination of training and support for children across Central Bedfordshire in order to maximise outcomes.

·         The need to address the continuum of abuse that can occur where children learn behaviours they have learnt in relation to domestic abuse, which they then consider to be acceptable.

·         The importance of schemes such as the Healthy Relationships Programmes and encouraging schools to take part in these.

·         The difficulty of distinguishing between learning difficulties and the impact of domestic abuse.

·         Whether money could be saved by training a number of dedicated professionals to go to schools to deliver support, rather than schools arranging their own support.

·         The importance of understanding the prevalence of women as perpetrators of domestic abuse and the levels of support provided to male victims.

·         The need to ensure that rural areas of Central Bedfordshire had the same level of access to programmes as those in urban areas.

·         The value of Central Bedfordshire refuges and the service that they provided for women.

·         The negative impact of the national media and television programming in the manner in which it displays domestic abuse.

·         The importance of a multi-agency approach in order to effectively address the prevalence of domestic abuse.

·         The critical importance of HomeStart as a way of engaging with families.

·         The need to enhance signposting in schools to those services that are available in Central Bedfordshire. 

·         The need to ensure Members  ...  view the full minutes text for item 109.

Appendix to the Minutes pdf icon PDF 249 KB