Action and discussion points
- Getting people engaged in multi-disciplinary team meetings – no one has been involved in any since last meeting
- Action – Community Southwark: invite Alex Morgan’s replacement (Tracy Young) to next meeting
- Referral feedback to VCS groups from council – Alex from the council previously said they were improving this process. Ross mentioned some improvement but still lacking information
- Action – Community Southwark: Find out from the council – Tracy Young? – what information groups should be getting back from their referrals
- Action – Network: Collect examples of referrals and the feedback received (or lack thereof)
- Care agencies not providing suitable care. Further discussion that this is poor across the board. Query around how this is being tracked or shared – are NHS bodies looking at this, or perhaps HealthWatch?
- Action – Community Southwark: Speak to Healthwatch colleagues, invite to meeting?
- Right Care Right Person Policy – Met police no longer responding to mental health crisis calls (unless crime is being committed or person at risk of harm). Implemented 1 Nov, supposedly a communications plan and board set up to spread news but nobody in network had heard of anything.
- Council has been preparing an internal safeguarding dashboard, What would we like to see here – eg. where referrals come from
- Action – Network: Contact Heena.Butt@southwark.gov.uk with suggestions
- LeDer (Learning from Lives and Deaths) – big info/data gap for people from BAME groups with learning difficulties and autism, are these groups experiencing barriers to care and support?
- 2023-2026 LeDeR strategy presentation
- Action- Community Southwark: Flag this with HealthWatch team
- Big push on Cuckooing information and awareness – Cuckooing Awareness Poster
- Training places available as part of suicide prevention project – Mental Health First Aid, trauma informed practice, suicide prevention and Making Every Contact Count
- Action – Network: If interested please contact Layla.Glover@southwark.gov.uk and Paul.Hudson@southwark.gov.uk
- Query around how the safeguarding network works? if there are concerns do they have to wait for the next meeting, are there any groups in the background for idea sharing in between meetings?
- If there are ever individual safeguarding concerns, follow your organisational procedures
- If there are safeguarding support questions you can reach out to the chairs of the network or to Avi at Community Southwark
- When they’re not sure about things, you can call the adult social services team (OPPD team, 020 7525 3324) and asking hypothetical questions, e.g. is this a situation we need to act on
- You can refer to OPPD team by email (OPPDContactteam@southwark.gov.uk), this is how they decide whether to treat it as safeguarding concern and move it forwards, but if in doubt raise it as a safeguarding concern, worst case they reply saying it’s not safeguarding
Special topic – London Communities Emergencies Partnership (LCEP) emergency safeguarding feedback
- Community Southwark has some funding from the Greater London Authority (GLA) to support emergency planning (how to mobilise VCS groups what major incidents happen)
- Often these situations involve call for volunteers
- E.g. terror attack in London Bridge a few years ago, Kensington and Chelsea dealt with Grenfell
- Other boroughs have plans for mobilising at short notice – e.g. Sutton has a bank of emergency volunteers
- Some safeguarding questions about how to handle this, need to have safeguarding principles in place and guidance for safeguarding (e.g. people working in pairs, taking care about information in WhatsApp groups)
- Could be useful to have centralised system and comms plan in the borough to connect people:
- Having a network specifically for advance response
- DBS checks done and registered for automatic update
- Closed network so people’s data isn’t being shared with unknown people
- Important to think about ward-specific responses, and emergencies-specific training for groups to access for these situations
- CS has coordinated closed WhatsApp group for winter cost of living support with vetted organisations, this has been a helpful resource, something like this could be useful
- In the case of extremist support, is there possibility of liaising with e.g. Prevent to identify groups which should be providing guidance and training but aren’t currently, perhaps through the Faiths Forum?
- Action – Community Southwark: contact partners for further discussions
- Are there already conversations happening about how groups might be involved in/planning for emergency situations – is there capacity for this work, have people given some thought to advance planning on safeguarding for volunteers, how would the VCS respond to it?
- Action – Network: contact Community Southwark if you have done any work on this, or have any ideas to share
- Action – Community Southwark: Keep item on the agenda for future meetings
Special topic – My Learning Source (Southwark Council’s internal training platform)
- Community Southwark are collecting examples of people trying to access the system and struggling so we can make collective representation to the council for improvements
- Step-by-step guide for the platform currently available on Community Southwark website
- Some discussions ongoing in the council around adjusting training provision due to low numbers
- Action – Community Southwark: create survey to find out which courses are most helpful / needed by VCS
- Discussion around potential for a peer support network for front facing workers, like the social prescribing network used to offer
- Noted that levels of need since Covid are much higher so there’s a lot of demand for support, especially for smaller organisations
- Action – Community Southwark: Look into creating safeguarding peer support group. Also to consider how could we better capture data on the impact of this network (e.g. could there be more training, could these network meetings happen in person to offer more opportunities for peer support)
- Social prescribing discussion, around need for people from local groups to be trained in how to do social prescribing in a uniform way
- Action – Network: contact social prescribing teams for more information
Read the full minutes: Minutes – 12 March 2024
Next meeting
- The next network meeting will be held on Tuesday 11th June, 10am-12pm. All are welcome, please register for your free place via our website.
- The agenda for the June meeting is now ready.
