 This
is my first newsletter since I took over as Independent Chair of CSCB. I have
found my feet and been made very welcome by all the people I have met.
The
board is continuing to offer briefing sessions to practitioners following on
from our case reviews. These are proving to be popular (details below) so we
will be planning to do more sessions.
The
Board recently had a presentation from the ignite project, who are featured in
this letter. It is an innovative approach to problem solving which certainly
fired up the Board to think about how we keep in touch with this work.
Finally, we have recently published our Annual Report for the 2015/16.
David Peplow
Independent Chair, Coventry Safeguarding Children Board.
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A serious case review (SCR) takes place after a child dies or is
seriously injured and abuse or neglect is thought to be involved. The primary aim of a SCR is to help agencies
learn lessons from these events, and to use this experience to improve
practice.
SCR reports are on our website and Hardeep Walker, Serious Case Review Co-ordinator, has provided summary documents for the recently published Child C and Child E SCRs.
The LSCB recently hosted a successful event which built on learning from recent SCRs. Key
themes from these reviews which were discussed in the session were:
- Working with child neglect
- Parental drug and alcohol use
- Working with hard to engage
families
After great interest, two further sessions of the learning event have been arranged:
- Thursday 16 February 2017, 9:30am-12pm, New Committee Room 2, Council House
- Wednesday 8 March 2017, 9:30am-12pm, Diamond Room 2, Council House
To apply for a place on the learning event, please email coventrylscb@coventry.gov.uk
 Over the last 6 months a great deal of work has been taking place across local agencies and community groups to help make Coventry a safer and more resilient community, including:
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Women's engagement activities, including the Our Families Our Future initiative that is reaching out to local women to discuss how they can become more aware of, and involved in actions to help safeguard their families and themselves.
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More and more training events are taking place across all agencies – enabling practitioners to be more aware of the requirements of the Prevent Duty and how to access support both for them and individuals who may be at risk.
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Wider community engagement activities with voluntary, faith and community groups to enable local people to take a lead on community safeguarding measures.
Looking ahead, there are a few points for agencies to consider as we move into 2017:
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Availability of training. If you would like to discuss your training needs, or book a Prevent training/awareness session for your team, please contact Geoff Thomas. The Prevent training is free and can be delivered at a range of times/locations to suit. A new e-learning tool, aimed at those with responsibilities under the Prevent duty, particularly front line staff in schools and colleges, has been developed to help raise awareness of radicalisation. The e-learning will help staff to identify the signs that someone may be at risk and where to go for support. This is introductory training. It provides a foundation on which to develop further knowledge around the risks of radicalisation. The e-learning is publicly accessible by visiting https://www.elearning.prevent.homeoffice.gov.uk It is also available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/prevent-duty-guidance
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Risk assessment. The safeguarding information website currently provides a template to support agencies undertake a local risk assessment – one of the key requirements of the prevent duty. It is worth highlighting that the process of undertaking this risk assessment is the most important element rather than the template itself – engaging with other local partners to develop a shared appreciation of risk that is tailored and relevant to the individual agency and it would be beneficial to review arrangements for undertaking this assessment during 2017.
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Prevent referral – The Prevent Duty requires that if there are concerns that an individual may be vulnerable to radicalisation around violent extremism then these concerns need to be shared so that appropriate support is provided in order to safeguard those individuals. A revised referral form has been prepared to make sure that it is easier to outline and submit the referrals. The new referral form is available on the LSCB website. For individuals 18 years of age and under it needs to be sent to both of the following email addresses:
prevent_inbox@west-midlands.pnn.police.uk
ras@coventry.gcsx.gov.uk
If you have any issues relating to this newsletter, or any other issues regarding Prevent please contact Geoff Thomas 024 7683 1437.
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The Domestic Violence Risk Identification Matrix (DVRIM) is
a nationally recognised risk assessment tool, initially developed by Barnardo’s
in 2007. The purpose of the tool is to
assess the level of risk posed to children by male to female domestic
abuse. In Coventry, the DVRIM has been
used by some agencies for many years but in 2014, following the last Ofsted
inspection, it was agreed that all council employees working directly with
children should be trained in and utilising the tool. This allows for more consistency in assessing
and addressing risk across different services.
Since this time, a range of professionals in Coventry have
received DVRIM training. The training
not only introduces the DVRIM itself but includes sessions around definitions
of domestic abuse, the impact of domestic abuse on children and developing
skills around asking questions to inform the risk assessment.
The DVRIM is available on the Barnardo's website.
 Ignite
Coventry is a partnership project between Coventry Law Centre and
Grapevine. Working closely with Children’s Social Care and Whitefriars
Housing, Ignite will support services to think differently about how to achieve
outcomes for families and tenants. Ignite will work alongside services
using its unique blended methodology.
Ignite
will use a radical
reworking of legal advice methods, blended with community development
approaches to:
- grow
legal capability in people who impact on services most - those with entrenched
need and recurring crises - increasing their knowledge, confidence and
skills to deal with everyday law-related issues
- build
the web of individual, family and community relationships they need to move
forward into stable futures, costing less and contributing more
‘Igniters’
will be immersed in one of Coventry’s most disadvantaged neighbourhoods, encouraging
people to come to them before public services. In this way, we’ll disrupt existing patterns of behaviour
and change how people respond to problems.
Ignite coaches and advisors will use
rapid trust and network building techniques to immerse and position themselves
in Willenhall from where they can understand the neighbourhood, build
reputations and offer help both through pathfinder partners and more widely.
Problems
with a legal solution create extra motives to accept help. This starting point
enables Igniters to offer the
solution and build legal capability. Crucially, provision of legal
expertise also rapidly builds trust allowing the next steps in root-cause
problem solving to be
radically different.
Igniters will then coach the individual
or household to a position where they are much more connected and active in
their own lives. They will focus on what the person/household wants to achieve,
what informal support they need to get there, who they know who might help, and
what they could offer to others.
Working like this transforms
understanding of how to deal with problems and where to look for solutions. At
a community level this shifts expectations away from services as the first
source of help when something goes wrong.
For further information please contact Emma Bates: emma.bates@centralenglandlc.org.uk
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