INDEPENDENT INQUIRY INTO CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE – CHILDREN IN THE CARE OF LAMBETH COUNCIL INVESTIGATION
27th July 2020 – 31st July 2020
Week 4
Brief overview of witness evidence
Day 18 – Wednesday 29th July 2020
Councillor Edward Davie – Elected member Lambeth Council and Cabinet Member for Children and Young People
Councillor Edward Davie has been an elected Member of Lambeth Council since May 2010 for Thornton Ward. He was designated as the statutory Lead Member for Children’s Services on 22 April 2020, when he was appointed Cabinet Member for Children and Young People. For the previous two years he was Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care and for the seven years prior to that he chaired scrutiny committees including Health and Adult Social Care (2011-2014), Overview and Scrutiny (2014-2018) and Children’s Services Scrutiny (2016-2018).
Councillor Davie provides this statement on behalf of Lambeth Council in respect of the current role of Councillors in the governance and decision-making arrangements in the council in relation to children in the care of Lambeth (MORE DETAIL BELOW)
Dr Emily Phibbs – Clinical Psychologist
Dr Emily Phibbs is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist who has experience of working with survivors of abuse. The Inquiry has asked a number of questions to Dr Phibbs surrounding the impact of child sexual abuse. (MORE DETAIL BELOW)
LA-A61
The Inquiry heard from LA-A61, a survivor of abuse.
Thursday 30th July
NON-SITTING DAY
Day 19 – Friday 31st July 2020
Core Participant Closing Submissions
Day 18 – Wednesday 29th July 2020
Councillor Edward Davie – Elected member Lambeth Council and Cabinet Member forChildren and Young People
Councillor Davie begins his statement by apologising on behalf of all current Lambeth councillors, to everyone who has been failed by Lambeth Council during the period covered by this inquiry. When a child becomes the legal responsibility of a local authority, they are obviously extremely vulnerable, and it is the legal and moral duty of that local authority to protect and nurture them. He confirms that as the evidence to this inquiry has made clear, Lambeth Council failed many children over decades leading to great harm to them and their families. Childhood trauma of the nature described by brave witnesses to this inquiry has lifetime consequences and has caused terrible damage.
Within his statement he discusses many points such as; governance and decision making, Corporate Parenting and Members Enquiries. In section 2 of his statement he discusses Statutory Responsibility for Children’s Services, The role of the statutory Director of Children’s Services (‘DCS’) and how it has professional responsibility for the leadership, strategy and effectiveness of local authority children’s services and is responsible for securing the provision of services which address the needs of all children and young people, including the most disadvantaged and vulnerable, and their families and carers. In discharging these responsibilities, the DCS works closely with other local partners to improve the outcomes and well-being of children and young people. The DCS is responsible for the performance of local authority functions relating to the education and social care of children and young people. The DCS is responsible for ensuring that effective systems are in place for discharging these functions, including where a local authority has commissioned any services from another provider rather than delivering them itself. Because the role of DCS is politically restricted, it cannot be held by an elected Member. He discusses the Lead Member for Children’s Services and the Working Together policy.
Councillor Davie discusses the Overview & Scrutiny and Assurance of Children’s
Services. He confirms that The Overview & Scrutiny Committees are not decision-making bodies but are designed to hold the Council’s executive (Cabinet) to account. Scrutiny provides backbench (non-Cabinet) councillor with the opportunity to question Cabinet members, senior officers and other statutory partners on their proposals and hold them to account for their decisions and for the delivery of anticipated outcomes.
The Children’s Services Scrutiny Sub-Committee is a scrutiny sub-committee of the Overview & Scrutiny Committee. The purpose of the Children’s Services Sub-Committee is to scrutinise the provision, planning and management of children and young people’s services including children’s social care; safeguarding children, children in care; Special Education Needs and education inclusion; troubled families and the Youth Offending Service; education, learning and schools; youth services; early years; education capital estate; and youth and play services.
In section 5 of his statement he Corporate Parenting Board and confirms that that its responsibility is to monitor and review the quality and effectiveness of all services, delivered by the Council, partner agencies and commissioned services, taking into account the needs of children looked after and care leavers. The Corporate Parenting Board provides oversight to ensure that children looked after and care leavers are effectively supported to reach their potential through the provision of high-quality parenting, education and opportunities to develop their talents and skills and effective support for their transition to adulthood
In section 6 of his statement Councillor Davie discusses the Lambeth Fostering Panel is a statutory panel responsible for making recommendations in respect of fostering matters. Specifically, the function of the Panel is to consider: applications for approval and recommend persons suitability to act as a foster carer, the first annual review of newly approved foster carers, any subsequent foster carer’s reviews referred to it by the fostering service, recommend whether foster carers remain suitable, advise on and monitor the effectiveness of the procedures for undertaking reviews, provide advice on other matters or cases referred to it, to dual approve prospective adopters as foster carers and vice versa to enable permanency, whether a foster carer is suitable to care for a child long term. He confirms that The Panel is not a decision-making body; having considered each case presented, it then makes recommendations to the council’s decision maker. This is currently the Assistant Director for Corporate Parenting who will make the final decision on the matter having regard to the recommendation of the Panel.
He confirms that with respect to cases presented for approval of permanence plans for children to be placed with long term foster carers many documents would be provided to the members in advance of the Panel meeting, some of these include; Childs Permanence Report (known as the CPR) — a detailed profile of the child’s needs completed by the child’s allocated social worker, matching report setting out the rationale and basis for recommending the child be placed long-term with the identified foster carers and; a Support Plan setting out the council’s proposals to support the placement including social work and financial support.
Councillor Davie discusses the training and allowances for Councillors. He confirms after each borough-wide election newly appointed councillors are invited to attend an induction programme where information is provided about specific responsibilities and Committees. There is also an ongoing programme of Member development which continues through the term they are elected. Training is offered for Councillors sitting on the Corporate Parent Board. This provides members with information about their roles and responsibilities as a corporate parent to children who are looked after by Lambeth.
As a Councillor he has attended corporate parenting, mental health, governance and finance training.
In section 8 he discusses relevant partnerships with other organisations and the role councillors play with these organisations.
Councillor Davie concludes his statement by saying that he is relatively new to his respective role and he are currently reviewing a range of procedures and approaches including those related to the safeguarding of looked after children. He intends to make a series of further improvements starting with setting priorities at the Corporate Parenting away-day scheduled for 29 July 2020.
He states that whilst a range of training is offered to newly elected councillors at the
start of the municipal year he wants to ensure that more councillors participate in corporate parenting and safeguarding training by exploring how to make these sessions
He states that they also intend to increase the opportunities for children to make their voices heard and influence decision-making. To support this, Lambeth Council is developing a bid to become a UNICEF Child Friendly Borough in which the human rights and voice of children is paramount. High performing authorities such as Leeds City Council have adopted this model successfully and we intend to learn from them and UNICEF as this approach is developed.
Finally he states that Lambeth Council is committed to doing whatever is required to ensure that Lambeth Council learns from the outcomes of this inquiry. It will implement the recommendations it makes in addition to the current work that it is undertaking to improve safeguarding and wider outcomes of all Lambeth’s children, but most particularly of those they are directly responsible for children who are looked after or who are their care leavers
Dr Emily Phibbs – Clinical Psychologist
Dr Emily Phibbs is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist who has experience of working with survivors of abuse. The Inquiry has asked a number of questions to Dr Phibbs surrounding the impact of child sexual abuse.
Dr Phibbs is asked about the challenges faced by children who suffer from complex needs and/or communication difficulties when reporting abuse and particularly those children in residential care. In response to this Dr Phibbs discusses the ways in which the difficulties faced by children who have suffered abuse are heightened for those children who suffer with complex needs/ communication difficulties. She discusses how an additional difficulty that these children face is the inability of adults to facilitate communication with the child. She explores the importance of adults being willing to learn to communicate with such children. She discusses how children’s needs differ depending on their specific disability. For example, intellectual disabilities, physical disabilities, mental ill-health and trauma.
Dr Phibbs is then asked to comment upon how the reporting of disclosures of sexual abuse by children with complex needs and/or communication difficulties differs from those children who do not suffer such difficulties. It is Dr Phibbs view that it seems highly likely that the reporting of disclosure of abuse is impacted by a high number of these children being unable to communicate in conventional ways which has not been understood by the adults around them. She also discusses how changes in the child’s behaviour (such as aggressive or difficult behaviour) can cause difficulties as the adult may not understand the reasons why the child is behaving in this way and a behavioural response may be given by the adult which places the child in double jeopardy. She discusses how children with additional needs my re-enact aspects of sexual abuse and how the wrong response from an adult can be a further bar to a child being able to communicate their lived experiences.
Dr Phibbs is then asked to comment upon an article she co-authored called “Opening Doors; best practice in therapy when a child might be showing or telling that they are at risk” (Marchant, Fuller and Phibbs 2017). Phibbs explains how this document sets out ways in which children can be safely support to provide further information around possible abuse and barriers that can occur when children makes or seems to make a disclosure or allegation of abuse. She is subsequently asked by the Inquiry to provide best practice advice. Dr Phibbs outlines the range of advice available in order to support children with complex needs when raising concerns about possible abuse.
Dr Phibbs has been asked by the Inquiry to comment upon whether the language used by an adult can impact the accuracy of a child’s account of child sexual abuse. Dr Phibbs discusses the current guidance in place for interviewing children and the importance of carefully questioning children. She gives examples of best practice. Dr Phibbs discusses, in details, the Achieving Best Evidence guidance. This is the guidance that the police use when conducting police interviews.
Dr Phibbs is asked about the importance of understanding a child’s psychological or development condition and the impact that may have on communication skills prior to any interview being undertaken. In response to this question Dr Phibbs discusses the role of police officers and how they cannot be expected to fully appreciate the multiple aspects of child development and psychological that may impact a child witness. It is her view that police officers ought to be able to recognise when they need assistance due to a child’s inability to communicate from other professionals. She discusses how guidance is available for this and the tools, and other resources, available to assess a child’s ability to communicate. Dr Phibbs goes on to discuss the professional support that the police have access to such as a National Vulnerable Witness Advisor.
Following on from this Dr Phibbs provides details of best practice for preparing to interview a child with complex communication needs and where sexual abuse is suspected and, in particular the use of registered intermediaries and how this works in practice.
Dr Phibbs is also asked what steps can be taken to obtain the best evidence from a child. In this section of her statement Dr Phibbs concentrates on the support available to children post-interview such as when they are giving evidence at court. She refers to the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidene Act 1999 and the special measures used such as, for example, the removal of wigs by judges and barristers and the uses of screens so that the witness cannot be seen by the defendants. She also discusses the use of intermediaries, pre-recorded evidence, evidence by video- link and the guidance available to the courts and advocates for dealing with vulnerable witnesses.
In Part 2 of her statement Dr Phibbs is asked about the abuse of children at Ivy House and Monkton Street which were Lambeth homes for children with complex needs. Dr Phibbs deals with the abuse and communication issues of specific children known to the Inquiry as LA A26 and LA A49.
Dr Phibbs goes on to discuss the a form that a police officer is required to complete following a disclosure of abuse, MG02 Form. She discusses how her understanding is that the form may be the first part of the documentation of a child’s need for special measures within the Criminal Justice system and assists the police with planning. She discusses how the police would need to make enquiries if it is clear at that stage that a child has communication difficulties and how an intermediary may be necessary.
Dr Phibbs is asked whether this ‘assessment prior to interview’ raises any concerns in practice. It is her view that there is a danger that the information gained for the specific purpose of filling in a form may be privileged over the broader requirement to fully engage with an assessment of a child witness through gaining as much information as possible from those that know a child’s communication well. Dr Phibbs also discusses the implications of undertaking an assessment prior to an interview. She discusses how the police officer undertaking the ABE interviewer may not always be the person who undertook the assessment and so may not know the full information about the child. She is unsure whether these forms are always completed prior to children giving video evidence.
Within her statement Dr Phibbs reiterates the integral role that intermediaries play in supporting vulnerable child witnesses.