RESOLVED:

A. That Cabinet noted the content of the Merton Safeguarding Children Partnership (MSCP) Annual Report for the period 2022-23

At the invitation of the Chair, the Independent Chair of the Partnership presented the report noting the ongoing focus was ensuring the voice of the child was paramount. A new governance structure had been put in place and it was important to test this was working with the structure outlined within the report. A lot of emphasis was on learning and development and learning had come from local reviews and children safeguarding reviews across London and national reviews, with a move towards multi agency training.

The Cabinet Member for Children’s Services thanked the Independent Chair for her work and noted that strong leadership and partnership was evident in the work that was done.

The Executive Director Children, Lifelong Learning and Families noted that there were different sorts of training and there was focus on how to share practice.

In response to questions from the Cabinet, the Independent Chair and Cabinet Member advised that training programmes were ongoing and would raise issues for new members of staff.

The Chair thanked the Independent Chair and officers for their work and report.

RESOLVED:

A. That Cabinet noted the content of the Merton Safeguarding Children Partnership (MSCP) Annual Report for the period 2022-23