Issue - meetings

As detailed in the recommendations.

Councillor Mullin introduced the Corporate Safeguarding Policy report which set out the work being undertaken to ensure that the Council fulfilled its safeguarding responsibilities.

            The Chief Executive explained that the Wales Audit Office (WAO) had published a report in July 2015 ‘Review of Corporate Safeguarding Arrangements in Welsh Council’s’.  They reported that corporate safeguarding responsibilities with local authorities across Wales were not always well understood and identified that corporate safeguarding responsibilities needed to be fully integrated with the work of other services.

            Safeguarding was a wider concept than the protection of children and adults and dealt with the promotion of:

·         Physical, emotional and mental health;

·         Protection from harm and neglect;

·         Education, training and leisure; and

·         Contribution to society.

Safeguarding was a shared responsibility.  Whilst Social Services was the lead service within the Council, everyone, whatever their role, had a responsibility to safeguard the well-being of children, young people and adults.  Safeguarding had always been strong in Flintshire and an Annual Report would be submitted to Cabinet and would draw attention to the Council’s performance in complying with Corporate Policy and Guidelines.

Councillor Christine Jones welcomed the report and commented on the amount of work that had been undertaken to date to strengthen safeguarding arrangements.

RESOLVED:

(a)       That Cabinet be assured that work was being undertaken to improve corporate arrangements for safeguarding children and adults;

(b)       That the draft Corporate Safeguarding Policy be approved for wider consultation; and

(c)        That Cabinet receive annual reports on work carried out to improve corporate safeguarding arrangements and the effectiveness of relevant policies.