Social Work And Health Committee - 24/10/2005

At a MEETING of the SOCIAL WORK COMMITTEE held at Dundee on 24th October, 2005.

Present:-

BAILIES

COUNCILLORS

Bailie Wright, Convener, in the Chair.

The minute of meeting of this Committee of 19th September, 2005 was held as read.

Unless marked thus * all items stand delegated.

I NATIONAL AUDIT OF SEX OFFENDER CASES

There was submitted Report No 625-2005 by the Director of Social Work providing information on the outcomes for Dundee City Council of the National Audit of Sex Offenders undertaken on the direction of the Minister for Justice. This followed the publication, in April 2005, of the report into the management of post release supervision of a sex offender in North Lanarkshire.

The Committee agreed:-

(i) to note the contents of the report; and

(ii) to approve the improvement plan to develop services relating to the risk management of sex offenders.

II INTRODUCTION OF ViSOR

There was submitted Report No 610-2005 by the Director of Social Work on the proposed introduction of ViSOR (Violent and Sex Offender Register) to Dundee City Council.

The Committee agreed to note the contents of the report and approve the introduction of ViSOR to Dundee.

III REDEPLOYING THE ROWANS COMMUNITY RESOURCE TEAM

There was submitted Report No 594-2005 by the Director of Social Work seeking approval to disband the Rowans Community Resource Team and redeploy existing staff to vacant posts in high priority areas of Children's Services.

The Committee agreed:-

(i) to approve the plan to disband the Rowans Community Resource Team and redeploy existing staff to vacant posts within Dundee City Council; and

(ii) to instruct the Director of Social Work and Assistant Chief Executive (Management) to continue to consult employees and trade unions regarding all the staffing implications including redeployment.

IV CHOOSE LIFE

On a reference to Article II of the minute of meeting of the Social Work Committee of 16th February, 2004, wherein proposals for the implementation of the Choose Life Strategy were approved there was submitted Agenda Note AN420-2005 reporting that the Sub-Group had now approved an additional four payments for Choose Life Funding to the undernoted organisations amounting to 33,137 to primarily develop approaches and resources for young people and for the provision of training related to suicide prevention and mental health.

It was also reported that funding for Choose Life had been extended to 2008 and Dundee had been allocated 97,000 for each of the next two financial years to support initiatives aimed at reducing the incidence of suicide.

The Committee approved the release of the funding and noted the grant for 2006-2008.

HELEN WRIGHT, Convener.