Health, Wellbeing and Local Government Committee

Announcement Of Committee Inquiry: Local Safeguarding Children Boards

The Health, Wellbeing and Local Government Committee has agreed to undertake an inquiry into Local Safeguarding Children Boards in Wales.

We are inviting individuals, groups or organisations with an interest or expertise in this area to submit written evidence.

Background

Local Safeguarding Children Boards were established in 2006. Their purpose is to ensure that relevant organisations in each local authority area co-operate to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.

The inquiry will look into the performance of the Boards across Wales in strengthening arrangements for protecting and promoting the welfare of children.

Terms of Reference

We have agreed the following terms of reference for our inquiry:

An inquiry into whether Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCB’s) are performing effectively and consistently across Wales in strengthening arrangements for protecting and promoting the welfare of children with a focus on the:

• Appropriateness of existing Welsh Government Policy and Guidance as relevant to LSCBs;

• Appropriateness of the scope and focus of LSCB responsibilities;

• Membership of LSCBs with reference to both the role of statutory partners and also the voluntary sector and smaller / specialist organisations;

• Arrangements for funding LSCBs;

• The relationship of LSCBs to other local partnerships, including Children and Young People's Partnerships; Community Safety Partnerships; Local Service Boards; the planned Integrated Family Support Teams.

• The effectiveness of LSCBs in promoting the protection and welfare of specific groups of vulnerable children such as children with disabilities, asylum seeker and trafficked children, black and minority ethnic children;

• The effectiveness of LSCBs in their specific role with regard to promoting the information sharing responsibilities and duties of LSCB partner agencies;

• The effectiveness of LSCBs in involving children and young people in their work.

How to Submit Written Evidence

You should submit written evidence to the Clerk of the Committee, to arrive no later than Friday 9 April 2010.

If possible, please supply an electronic version in MS Word or Rich Text format, either by e mail to health.wellbeing.localgovt.comm@wales.gsi.gov.uk or on a disk.

If this is not possible, please send your written submission to :

Clerk, Health, Wellbeing and Local Government Committee, National Assembly for Wales, CF99 1NA.

Further guidance on the submission of evidence is attached.

We would be grateful if you could share this request with other interested parties or, where appropriate, any of your member organisations.

Membership of the Committee: Lorraine Barrett AM, Peter Black AM, Andrew R T Davies AM, Irene James AM, Ann Jones AM, Helen Mary Jones AM, Dai Lloyd AM, Val Lloyd AM, Darren Millar AM (Chair)

15 February 2010

Advice on Submitting Evidence

The Committee may call on those who have submitted written evidence to supplement it in oral evidence to the Committee.  Please indicate in your response whether you would be prepared to give evidence in person.

Witnesses should be aware that once written evidence has been submitted to the Committee it is treated as the property of the Committee. Written evidence will be published on the Committee’s website, and extracts may subsequently be included in the report.

The Assembly will not publish information which it considers to be personal data.  If you are providing any information, other than personal data, which you feel is not suitable for public disclosure, it is up to you to stipulate which parts should not be published. You should provide a reasoned argument to support this. The National Assembly will take this into account when publishing information or responding to requests for information.

In the event of a request for information submitted under UK legislation, it may be necessary to disclose the information that you provide. This may include information which has previously been removed by the National Assembly for publication purposes.