Agenda Reports Pack (Public) 15/10/2012, 19.00 - Meetings ...

Key Priorities and progress for individualagenciesPage 234Police The Central police ChildAbuse Investigation Team(CAIT) has responsibility forall CAIT investigations acrossthe Tri-Borough area .Duringthe financial year 2011/2012CAIT dealt with 751 referralsfrom police, statutory andNGO partners of whichapproximately 45% weregenerated in response tosafeguarding concerns inHammersmith and Fulham. Inaddition to this CAITresponded to 356 specificrequests for information fromHammersmith and FulhamChildren’s Services.In Hammersmith and Fulham there arecurrently 150 children subject toprotection plans with data held by policeand partner agencies reviewed every sixweeks.Established information sharingagreements ensure the most up to dateinformation is provided to partneragencies enabling social careprofessionals to respond quickly toprotect and support the most vulnerablechildren. The CAIT investment toincrease the number of PoliceConference Liaison Officers hasenabled CAIT to attend all Initialconferences for children subject to aProtection Plan which includes all prebirthand transfer conferences acrossthe three boroughs. Staff from theCentral CAIT were also able to attend25% of Review Conferences conductedby Hammersmith and Fulham andotherwise providing written or verbalupdates for 100% of cases; in line withsafeguarding objectives.Since January 2012 CAIT officers havebeen deployed on a three shift rotaproviding round the clock cover torespond faster to critical incidents asthey arise and provide advice where it isThe Child Risk AssessmentMatrix risk assessment tool(CRAM) for currentinvestigations and for childrensubject to protection plans hasbecome embedded as part ofcore CAIT business. Thisprocess is an audited andsupervised review of knowninformation to establish ifidentified changes incircumstances for children atrisk require additionalintervention. The Central CAIThas also been able to respondpositively to requests toparticipate in Multi-Agencyaudits conducted inpartnership with Health,Education and Social Serviceswith an increased emphasis onchildren who have beensubject of protection plans formore than twelve months.Strong partnerships have beenmaintained with Great OrmondStreet Hospital (GOSH) andthe Foundation for the Study ofInfant Death (FSID) to improvethe level of service provided toparents who suffer the tragiclost of children under twoyears old through Sudden andUnexpected Death in Infancy(SUDI). The methodology ofSUDIinvestigations,developed with partnersthrough Project Indigo, hasbeen recognised by theAssociation of Chief PoliceOfficers (ACPO) Child DeathSub Group as best practice.Project Indigo continues toprovide a high quality serviceto victims and familiesbalancing the need for robustinvestigation in extremelysensitive circumstances.The Central CAIT currentlycontinues to form part of thepermanent membership of theTri-Borough Case Reviewpanel and Training panel.17