BM13-01/15M
13th Meeting of the Safeguarding Board for Northern Ireland
To be held on 9th January 2015 at 2.00pm,
The Spinning Room, Mossley Mill Newtownabbey
PUBLIC
MINUTES-
RECORD
OF
AT T E N D AN C E
Name
Title & Organisation
Glenys Johnston
Neil Anderson
Dr John Devaney
Paul Douglas
Kieran Downey
Dr Martin Cunningham
Liam Hannaway
Dr Carolyn Harper
Pat Cullen
ACC Mark Hamilton
Declan McGeown
Paddy Kelly
Cheryl Lamont
Pauline Leeson
Dr Clare Mangan
James Marshall
Dr Cathy MacPherson
Fionnuala McAndrew
Carmel McKinney
Paul Morgan
Brian McCaughey
Dawn Shaw
Ian Sutherland
Marie Roulston
Una Turbitt
Lynda Wilson
Cecil Worthington
Koulla Yiasouma
Chair Safeguarding Board for Northern Ireland
National Head of Service for N. Ireland NSPCC
CMR Panel Chair
Lay Member
Executive Director WHSCT
GP Partner, Queen’s Health Centre
Chief Executive Banbridge District Council
Director of Public Health
Director of Nursing and Allied Health Professions
PSNI
Chief Executive Youth Justice Agency
Director Children’s Law Centre
Acting Director, PBNI
Chief Executive Children in N. Ireland
Chief Executive BELB
Lay Member
Designated Paediatrician
Director of Social Care and Children HSCB
Lay Member
Dir. Children & Young People’s Services SHSCT
Northern Ireland Prison Service
Operational Director Action for Children NI
Director of Children’s Services SEHSCT
Director of Children’s Services NHSCT
Safeguarding Nurse Consultant PHA
Director Barnardo’s NI
Director of Child Care BHSCT
Director Include Youth
Present
Apology
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In Attendance
Sharon Beattie
Margaret Burke
Margery Magee
Bridie Pilkington
Roisin Toner
Director of Operations SBNI
Professional Officer SBNI
Communications SBNI
Independent Safeguarding Panel Chair
Minute Taker
Board Meeting 13 – 09.01.15 Public Minutes v0.2
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BM13-01/15M
Action
No.
Page No.
Action:
To be completed by:
1
4
Amended SBNI Regulations to be circulated to Board members
Ms Beattie
2
4
Ms Beattie
3
4
4
5
Risk in relation to the Thematic Review to go onto the risk
register.
Risk in relation to multi agency policies to be assessed and to
go onto the risk register.
The CMR Practise guidance to go out for consultation
Board Meeting 13 – 09.01.15 Public Minutes v0.2
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Ms Beattie
Ms Burke & Dr Devaney
BM13-01/15M
Preliminaries: Apologies, Quorum, Conflict of Interest, Complaints
Ms Beattie welcomed the Board members to the Public Board meeting and
confirmed apologies from ACC Hamilton, Ms Lesson, Mr McCaughey, Mr Toner, Ms
Cullen and Mr Morgan.
Quorum
The Board was quorate.
Conflict of Interest
There were no conflicts of interests noted.
Complaints
There have been no complaints.
1 13/15
The Chair invited any comments on the minutes. The Board agreed the minutes.
The Chair advised that she would sign the minutes as an accurate record of the
meeting.
2 13/15
The Chair advised that the SBNI Regulations had been amended and implemented
on the 1st January 2015 to reduce the quoracy requirements. Ms Beattie advised
that deputisation has also been amended in the Regulations in which it is allowed but
not expected. Ms Yiasouma asked what that meant for the voluntary representation
on the Board. Ms Beattie replied the advice from the Department is that as named
positions from the voluntary organisations are not cited in legislation, then deputies
can attend but again this is not encouraged.
Ms Beattie advised that Board membership will be addressed by the external review.
Ms Shaw advised that there should be complete clarity as to whether the voluntary
organisation was recruited to the SBNI Board or the individual. Ms Beattie advised
that she had written to the Department when this issue was last raised and the
Department advised that it was the organisation that was recruited and not the
member as an individual. The Chair asked the Board to support Ms Yiasouma being
replaced on the Board by her successor within Include Youth until the review is
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BM13-01/15M
complete and membership is reviewed, to which the Board agreed. Ms McAndrew
asked if Board members should formally notify the SBNI of their deputy’s to which
Ms Beattie replied that Members had already done so.
Action 1:
Amended SBNI Regulations to be circulated to Board members
Action by: Ms Beattie
The Chair advised the Board that the SBNI were still awaiting approval for the
funding for the Thematic Review.
Ms Beattie advised that the Risk Register was to be amended and the Chair
requested that the Thematic Review should be included as a risk.
Ms Beattie
advised that the Policy and Procedures Committee requested that the risk of
professional staff working to regional policies that were 10 years old should be
added to the register. Ms Beattie invited Mr Sutherland to advise the Board on the
potential risk. Mr Sutherland stated that a discussion had come up due to RQIA who
were to undertake a three year review between 2015-2018 and this will include a
regional inspection of child protection services and in that regard discussion had
come up at the Policy and Procedures Committee regarding extant regional policies
and procedures that were originally adopted by the four area child protection
committees. He added the SBNI had never undertaken an exercise to adopt or
review these and there were questions on whether this was the SBNI’s responsibility
to do so. The Chair asked how extant the policies were to which Dr Devaney replied
2005. The Chair advised that professionals required multiagency policy’s that were
not 10 years out of date.
Action 2:
Risk in relation to the Thematic Review to go onto the Risk Register.
Action by: Ms Beattie
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BM13-01/15M
Action 3:
Risk in relation to multi agency policies to be assessed and to go onto the Risk
Register.
Action by: Ms Beattie
The Chair introduced herself and asked the Board members to give a brief
introduction and the organisation they work for. The Chair informed Board member’s
that Ms Beattie has copies of her biography for those who were interested.
The Chair set out her approach toward Board meetings. She stated they would start
and finish on time, she expected high attendance, substitutes would be on exception,
all members would have read the papers in advance, any other business would be
taken off the agenda and request for agenda items would be forwarded to Ms Beattie
or the Chair herself before the Board meeting. She welcomed and invited debate at
Board meetings.
The Chair advised that her contract was for approximately one year predicated on
the end of the external review which would commence in April and be completed in
December 2015.
The Chair advised that she would work a minimum of five,
maximum of 8 days per month and looked forward to conducting one to one
interviews with each of the Board members when she returns to Northern Ireland in
February. The Chair advised that in light of the Department external review, the
CIPFA review would be postponed until such time as the Board receives the Terms
of Reference for the external review so that the Board can determine whether there
is a complimentary role.
The Chair advised that the external review would be carried out by Alexis Jay OBE
and the terms of reference were being drafted by the Department. She has written to
Mr Holland to invite Alexis Jay to attend the next Board Development Day which is
scheduled for the 28th May as it would be useful to meet her and to share the SBNI’s
views with her. The Chair asked the Board if they agreed that the internal review
should be postponed to which they agreed.
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BM13-01/15M
4 13/15
Ms Beattie invited any comments in regard to the Director’s Report to which Dr
Cunningham asked for further information in regard to the Section 12 audit and
whether discussions had taken place with Integrated Care as the HSCB. Ms Burke
confirmed that this had occurred and that a draft Section 12 audit had been
developed and would be shared in due course.
5 13/15
Dr Devaney stressed the importance of having detailed CMR guidance and asked
the Board were they content that the guidance went out to consultation. Dr Devaney
advised that the guidance had evolved in the last year, as the Department had made
quite a number of changes to Departmental Guidance which impacted on CMRs.
Ms McAndrew advised the Board of a number of issues. The first was that the
flowchart on the last page should be referred to within the body of the guidance. The
second involved the dissemination of learning. Ms McAndrew advised that there
should be a separate appendix on how the learning will be disseminated. She
advised that there should be complete clarity on the dissemination of learning. She
also stated there should be information in the guidance on completion of the
Individual Agency Reviews (IAR), how they should be conducted and before
completion they should include how the dissemination of learning arising from these
will take place.
The Chair advised that once the IAR was completed and action plan completed by
the agency there should be a section which explains the learning and how Board
would disseminate the learning..
Ms Beattie advised that there have been comments in regard to making the
guidance clearer which will be incorporated into the guidance. The Board agreed
that the document should go out for consultation and the required amendments
should not hold up this process.
Action 4:
The CMR Practise guidance to go out for consultation
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Action by: Ms Burke
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6 13/15
There was no other business noted.
Date time and venue of next meeting
4th February 2015
The Beeches, 12 Hampton Manor Drive, Belfast
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