BM10-06/14M
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M I N U T E S - R E C O R D O F A T T E N D A N C E
Name
Hugh Connor
Neil Anderson
Ashley Boreland
Dr John Devaney
Paul Douglas
Kieran Downey
Dr Martin Cunningham
Liam Hannaway
Dr Carolyn Harper
Pat Cullen
ACC Mark Hamilton
Paula Jack
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
Title & Organisation
Chair Safeguarding Board for Northern Ireland
National Head of Service for N. Ireland NSPCC
Chief Executive, Ards Borough Council
CMR Panel Chair
Lay Member
Executive Director WHSCT
GP Partner, Queen’s Health Centre
Chief Executive Banbridge District Council
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Present Apology
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Director of Public Health
Director of Nursing and Allied Health Professions
PSNI
Chief Executive Youth Justice Agency
Director Children’s Law Centre
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Acting Director, PBNI
Chief Executive Children in N. Ireland
Chief Executive BELB
Lay Member
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 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
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In Attendance
Kathleen Marshall (+ 2 Members of Team)
Lynne Peyton
Margaret Burke
Helen McKenzie
Margery Magee
Bridie Pilkington
Independent Inquiry
CMR Chair
Professional Officer SBNI
Professional Officer SBNI
Communications SBNI
Independent Safeguarding Panel Chair
John Toner
Patricia Cuthel
Maggie Hills
Independent Safeguarding Panel Chair
Minute Taker
Business Support Officer
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A response on the issue of Quoracy setting a target of 50% and raising the issue of deputising to be sent to the Dept. for consideration.
The Director to include expenditure against The Thematic Review in future briefings.
Ms Beattie to provide update on the Risk Register in 6 months.
The Chair to write to the Dept. to highlight the on-going difficulties for
Member Organisations in knowing which Cases to refer to the Panel and the impact on the Panel’s work and effectiveness if all Cases of a
Historical nature, which met the criteria were to be referred.
The Chair
Ms Beattie
Ms Beattie
The Chair
Board Meeting 10 – 19/06/14 Minutes v0.1 draft 2

BM10-06/14M i. Welcome and Apologies
The Chair welcomed Board Members to the Public Section of the meeting.
The Chair noted apologies from 10 of the Board members and advised that the meeting was therefore not quorate, stating that in these circumstances, the SBNI
Regulations require that a further meeting should be called within 28 days. ii.
Minutes
The Chair asked Members if they wished to make any changes to the minutes of the
Board meeting of 27 th March 2014.
Under Item 3 (Section 12 Audit) Ms Leeson suggested that the Board should consider how best it could facilitate access to the North / South HUB by all of its
Member organisations and partners. It was agreed that this should be considered as a ‘Matter Arising’ at the next meeting.
With these amendments, the Minutes were approved by the Board. iii Matters Arising
All Actions have been completed and signed off. iv . Declaration of Interest
There were none raised. v . Chairman’s Business
1. Development Day
The Chair thanked the Board for a very good turnout at the Development Day in
May. In order to advance this work he proposed to seek further assistance from the
Leadership Centre.
The intention being that by November the Board would be able to receive for discussions / approval a document on the broader issues of Governance.
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There was some confusion about the status of the letter to Mr Holland from the
Chair, which had been shared with Board Members. Mr Morgan stated that he believed that the letter should be amended in the light of the Development Day. Ms
Jack also proposed that this issue should be included as an Agenda item at a forthco ming Board Meeting in order that the Board’s view should be taken and communicated to Mr Holland. Mr Downey commented that the Development Day was very constructive and as the letter had been drafted prior to this, he also believed further discussion was needed.
The Chair responded that he had shared his personal views with the Board. He emphasised a) these were his personal views and as the Independent Chair he wanted the Dept. to be aware of his views on these structural issues, however, b) he accepted that the Board also wanted an opportunity to discuss and debate this further. He would ensure that a time was created to allow the Board to discuss these structural issues, most probably at the Development Day planned for November. He would not invite Mr Holland to meet the Board until the Board had had time to consider this issue.
2. Quorate Regulations
The Chair advised Members that the Dept. was in consultation on the SBNI
Regulations with regard to Quoracy. The Dept. was suggesting a reduction from
⅔ to
⅓ for Board Meetings and Statutory Committees of the Board .
Mr Marshall stated that he recognised the dilemma for the Board in continuing to ensure that these meetings are adequately attended to fulfil their tasks but suggested, that it may be better to change quoracy to 50% as he felt a
⅓ threshold may not sustain standards that have already been set. Ms Jack raised the issue of
Deputies. She believed that if deputies could be consider, provided this was not on a regular basis and only with approval of the Chair that this would significantly help ensure that meetings were quorate.
Dr Devaney commented that lowering quoracy increases the risk of Conflict of
Interest becoming a problem and highlighted this with regard to the work of the CMR
Panel. Ms McAndrew also agreed that the proposal of 50% should be offered back to the Dept.
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Action 1
A response on the issue of Quoracy setting a target of 50% and raising the issue of deputising to be sent to the Dept. for consideration
Action by : The Chair
1. Finance & Risk Register
1(1) Finance
Ms McKenzie gave a brief financial overview on behalf of Ms Beattie. Ms McKinney raised the matter of the £140K returned to the Dept. and whether this would have a negative impact on next year’s funding.
The Chair responded that this was largely due to the delay in securing staff. He noted the on-going pressures on budgets across all Depts. but highlighted that the reason for this underspend had been shared with the Dept. and that they had been made aware that in this Financial Year the Board would be projecting a break- even in relation to expenditure.
Ms McAndrew asked if the projected expenditure for the Thematic Review was included in this financial forecast. The Chair stated that this was not included as the
Dept. had accepted that this was a separate cost pressure. Ms McAndrew asked that expenditure against the Thematic Review be recorded in any future financial overview.
Action 2
The Director to include expenditure against The Thematic Review in future briefings.
Action by: Ms Beattie
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1 (2) Risk Register
Ms McKenzie in introducing this item confirmed that 3 new Risks had been identified, but that 4 previous risks had been removed. In relation to the Thematic Review and the forthcoming meeting with the Minister to request an extension Ms McKinney noted that there could be a loss in public confidence if there was a delay in SBNI delivering on its objectives.
She stated that a agreement on way forward needed to be reached within next couple of weeks. Mr Marshall on a similar theme wondered what would be the impact on the SBNI producing its report after the Inquiry. He stated that this may be a matter for the Dept. to consider how they wished to influence this process. The
Chair indicated that following discussions with the Minister a communications approach in relation to the proposed extension would need to be developed. Ms
McKinney suggested that these controls could be incorporated into the Action Plan.
Mr Douglas raised the issue of finance. He tho ught that although the Board’s Budget was modest, finance should automatically be regarded as a risk issue. Ms Jack stated that the paper read as more as a register for the SBNI team rather than the
Board and felt that further work was needed.
Action 3
Ms Beattie to provide update on the Risk Register in 6 months.
Action by: Ms Beattie
2 e-Safety Update
Ms McKenzie gave an update on the e-safety forum. She stated that the forum had held its first meeting on 22 May 2014 and had agreed, membership from the voluntary sector, the work plan and the need to ensure consistent messaging across all of the SBNI Member Agencies. It was also noted that SBNI had purchased help and support from SWG to complete this task.
Ms McKenzie also confirmed that a valuable meeting had been held with the Dept. of
Education to discuss this issue. She noted that Departmental Officials were keen to play a role in working alongside the SBNI and felt this was an important development for the e-Safety Forum.
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She further advised that one of the recommendations in the NCB Report was the need to create a Strategic Plan for Northern Ireland. SBNI Officers had explained that the production of a Northern Ireland e-Safety Strategy was outside the remit of the SBNI but that Officers were prepared to assist in any way possible. As a result it now appears as if a number of Depts. were prepared to offer financial support to the
SBNI to produce a Northern Ireland wide e-Safety Strategy on behalf of the
Executive led by OFMDFM.
The Chair asked the Board if this would be considered as an appropriate way forward for SBNI, depending on additional funding being given to facilitate this.
Ms Wilson commented that from a pragmatic perspective if SBNI do not carry out this task then it would not be done at all, and said a mechanism for ownership would have to be established. Ms Leeson commented this would be good for the SBNI profile, provided it was well resourced. Ms McAndrew raised the risk of potential embarrassment of producing something tha t didn’t go anywhere. In the discussion which followed it was confirmed that the Board were going to build on-going working relationships with the Depts. in order to ensure ownership of this piece of work.
The Board were content for this piece of work to be undertaken by the SBNI, subject to suitable financial arrangements being put in place.
3 CMR Regulation Changes
The Chair referred to the paper before the Board. The Dept. have recently made 2 changes to the CMR Regulations which both have a relevance for how the Member
Organisations, The CMR Panel and the Board itself will need to operate in future.
The first relates to a change in the criterion for conducting a Case Management
Review. 17(2) (d) The Safeguarding Board determines that there is significant learning to be gained from the case management review which, if applied effectively, will lead to substantial improvements in practice in safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children in Northern Ireland.”
The second, is an amendment to more accurately reflect the requirements of the
SBNI Regulations.
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The Guidance to the Board indicates; The CMR Panel will make a recommendation in writing to the SBNI Chair on whether to proceed with a CMR. The SBNI Chair will consider the CMR Panel recommendation and will make a decision, about whether to proceed with a CMR. The decision will be notified in writing to the CMR Panel
Chair. This Guidance does not reflect the Regulations which place upon the Board as a whole, rather than the Chair the responsibility for being the final decision maker.
The implications of this change are:- a) The Board will nee d to develop a new system for managing CMR’s b) All previous Cases where decisions have already been taken, will need to be considered by the Board as a whole so that they comply with the Regulations.
The Chair noted that Dr Devaney, Ms Burke and the CMR Panel were working on a
Policies & Procedures paper which would be initially endorsed by the Panel before being brought to the Board for approval. This paper would be presented to the
Board at a future meeting.
In relation to the first amendment, that is ‘the criterion of significant learning’ the
Chair highlighted that this amendment had arisen from the earlier discussion about how the Board should address Historical Cases. The advice was welcomed in so far as it afforded the Panel and the Board the opportunity to consider Historical Cases in the context of the relevance and significance of the learning that would be gleamed from conducting such a Review.
The Chair pointed out that at a recent meeting held by the Childrens Services
Improvement Board, which he and Ms Beattie had attended the Professional
Leaders had raised a number of issues in relation to Trust notifying the Board, of
Historical Cases, which meet the current criteria, so that the CMR Panel and Board could arrive at a decision as to whether the holding of a Review was appropriate.
The Chair indicated that this amendment in his opinion was helpful in terms of decision making but did not address the issue of notification to the Board.
Mr Downey stated that if this process is unclear at this arbitrary level, then it would leave the Trusts and other Member Organisations at risk. He noted that the
Historical Cases could swamp and significantly delay the work of SBNI Board.
Board Members echoed this view.
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The Chair fully accepted these observations but noted that as the Regulations currently sat, all such Cases should be referred to the Board for decision making.
The Chair noted the Board’s concern and indicated that he would write again to the
Dept. highlighting this issue and the implications it could have particularly for the work of the CMR Panel and the uncertainty it creates for Member Organisations.
Turning to the second change to the Regulations, the Chair advised that the Board is now required to develop a procedure which deals with:
1. All New Cases
2. Reviews Historical Cases
Dr Devaney highlighted that to date the CMR Panel had considered 19 Notifications in two of which a recommendation is still pending. In six cases a recommendation for a CMR to be undertaken was made and in eleven cases the recommendation was not to conduct a Review. All these recommendations were endorsed by the
Chair in keeping with the Guidance. The Chair highlighted for the Board that the
Dept. have advised that the Board could not delegate this responsibility and must consider the recommendations of the Panel. He also highlighted that he and the
Director of Operations had expressed concern about this interpretation of the
Regulations believing that if not handled appropriately it would mean that the Board would be pulled away from its Strategic Role into an Operational Focus.
He also raised the question of how the Board would Quality Assure this process. Ms
Turbitt suggested that a delegation of the CMR Chair along with 2 others (nominated by the Board) to provide this additional step.
Dr Devanney suggested that perhaps in cases where no CMR is going to move forward, then these cases may need to come to the Board. Mr Worthington raised the query with regard to how much information would be required in order to make a decision. Mr Morgan suggested an apprise of all Cases to be brought to the Board, with only contentious Cases to be designed on Recommendations.
Dr Devaney stated that whichever process we adopt will involve Consolation at
Board Level.
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Ms Jack noted that striking the balance between duty a s a Board Member as well as discharging CMRs is one of the most important functions of the Board.
The Chair confirmed that CMR Panel would highlight the Cases for further discussion with the Board and formal mechanism would be developed,. All Members confirmed they were content with this at this time.
Action 4
The Chair to write to the Dept. to highlight the on-going difficulties for Member
Organisations in knowing which Cases to refer to the Panel and the impact on the
Panel’s work and effectiveness if all Cases of a Historical nature, which met the criteria were to be referred.
Action by: The Chair
4 Annual Report
Ms Magee gave an update on the Annual Report and thanked everyone for their contribution. She noted that the draft copy must go to the Dept. and six copies be sent to The Assembly before 10 th July. The Chair asked the Members was there any further feedback on this version of the Report as an earlier version had been discussed at the previous meeting.
Mr Downey stated that pages 29-31 referenced the work of the Safeguarding Panels but felt that this was overly standardised and therefore did not represent the actual work emerging at local level. He suggested that in future it would be helpful to reflect on this activity. Mr Toner noted that in terms of producing this first report, the focus had been upon aggregating the work of the Panels but accepted that future reports could present a more varied local picture. The Chair asked if these changes could be made within the timeframe. The general consensus was that this would be an issue for future reports. All Members confirmed that they were content with the final draft report.
5. Child Sexual Exploitation Media Campaign
Ms Magee gave an update on the campaign noting that ADVAN were present today for a photo opportunity. She noted that expenditure to date on Phase 1 of the
Campaign was £20k.
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This Phase was aimed at increasing general awareness among those who may come into contact with incidents of CSE. She stated that from 30 th June, posters will be advertised on 60 bus stops and billboards for a period of 2 weeks as well as leaflets, stickers being distributed to local taxi companies, hotels and pubs. Ms
Magee also stated that the SBNI received considerable cooperation from Councils,
Leisure Centres, Pharmacies and Policing Boards.
She confirmed that the ‘Safer to Know’ website would contain all Campaign
Information as well as signposting users to other useful links/websites. She also noted that a statement would be issued in relation to the Campaign tomorrow.
Ms Wilson asked if it would be possible for Members to see the press release prior to media circulation. Ms Magee agreed to circulate but reminded the Board that it was embargoed until Tuesday. Ms McKenzie added that the Officers were working with the 5 Safeguarding Panels as well as the local Policing Partnerships to get this message out to local audiences.
The Chair added that discussions had been taking place with NSPCC regarding the option of continuing to use the bespoke helpline number. He reported that the advice of the NSPCC based on their experience to date was that the helpline was being used so infrequently that it would be appropriate to use the more traditional and better known Child Helpline Number.
6 Any Other Business
No other Business was noted
7 Date, Time and Venue of Next Meeting:
Due to non-quoracy, date, time and venue for extraordinary meeting to be confirmed
The Chair brought the meeting to a close.
Signed by Chair: Date:
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