DECISION

1.    To note the work that has been carried out by the Tower Hamlets Safeguarding Children’s Partnership over the year 2021-22 and the outcomes that members would like to see from the THSCP over the next year.

2.    To note the specific equalities considerations as set out in paragraph 4.1 of the report.

Councillor Maium Talukdar, Deputy Mayor and Cabinet Member for Education, Youth and Lifelong Learning introduced the report which presented the annual report setting out the Board’s effectiveness of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children in its locality.

Officers explained the role of the Board and the three statutory partners and summarised the key achievements over the past year. Officers further explained that the Board always seek to put children’s voices at the heart of all it does. Areas for further work include strengthening the consistency of multi-agency work into neglect; information sharing, engagement of fathers and a common understanding of thresholds. The Board had recently agreed appointment of a new independent scrutineer, and three young scrutineers who would provide young persons’ perspective on the priorities of domestic abuse, exploitation and online safety.

The Mayor welcomed Mike Hamer, Acting Borough Commander. Mike explained that the Police currently lead on work into online safety and explained key strands of that activity and how parents and carers feed into this work.

The Mayor welcomed the report, thanked Mike, officers, partners and the lead member for their hard work. The Mayor indicated he would welcome a meeting with the new Borough Commander. He agreed the recommendations in the report.

RESOLVED:

1.    To note the work that has been carried out by the Tower Hamlets Safeguarding Children’s Partnership over the year 2021-22 and the outcomes that members would like to see from the THSCP over the next year.

2.    To note the specific equalities considerations as set out in paragraph 4.1 of the report.