Hampshire County Council Children and Families Advisory Panel Meeting

Apologies were received from Cllr Bains.

Members were mindful that where they believed they had a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest in any matter considered at the meeting they must declare that interest at the time of the relevant debate and, having regard to the circumstances described in Part 3, Paragraph 1.5 of the County Council's Members' Code of Conduct, leave the meeting while the matter was discussed, save for exercising any right to speak in accordance with Paragraph 1.6 of the Code. Furthermore Members were mindful that where they believed they had a Personal Interest in a matter being considered at the meeting they considered whether such interest should be declared, and having regard to Part 5, Paragraph 5 of the Code, considered whether it was appropriate to leave the meeting whilst the matter was discussed, save for exercising any right to speak in accordance with the Code.

The minutes of the previous meeting were agreed as a correct record.

No deputations were received.

The Chairman invited Members of the Panel to feedback on any visits to Children’s Homes since the last Panel meeting.

Cllrs Briggs, Henderson & Wade shared details of recent visits to Children’s Homes and interactions with the Willow Team. All commented on the high standards of the homes and the enthusiasm and knowledge of the staff members they met.

The Chairman added that, following the conclusion of the Children & Families Advisory Panel's business there will be an interactive briefing session for members on the County's Foster Carers & Adopters Virtual Reality Training.

The Panel received a presentation from the Director of Children’s Services providing an overview of Hampshire County Council’s Child Exploitation Video Project.

The Panel noted that the project was joint funded by the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner and the Violence Reduction Unit using local actors and locations. The project was started as child exploitation is an area where education is needed for young people to act as a preventative factor. A toolkit for teachers has been produced to help and assist them with the delivery of this topic.

The panel noted that the resource was free and available for use by all Hampshire schools and the team were working on introducing it to other youth settings and charitable organisations.

The panel viewed an example video and received an overview of the topics covered by the resource and the suggested methods to deliver them.

In response to questions members found that:

·           One of the challenges with child exploitation is that the forms it takes are constantly changing.

·           There is cooperation with neighbouring authorities, many of whom have or are starting similar teams to HCC’s Willow Team.

·           Measuring the success of preventative work can be challenging, as you are trying to measure things that didn’t happen. Additionally, there is a lot of the work that crosses LA boundaries, with exploited children and young people travelling into and out of towns and cities.

·           The Willow Team supports social workers and other staff by advising them on cases which may be at risk of exploitation.

·           There is an increasing effect from middle class drug use which the public does not seem to be aware of.

Resolved:

That the Children & Families Advisory Panel note the contents of the presentation on the Child Exploitation Video Project.