FIVE ways in which the safety of children in Thurrock who come under the watch of the Thurrock Safeguarding Children Partnership will be up for approval this evening (Tuesday, 6 October).

Thurrock Council's Children's Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee will hear about a serious case review that took place into the death of a Thurrock child - and the consequences of her death.

The story has been much reported the failing of the council's children's services team were pursued at length by the Thurrock Independent newspaper and its news editor Andy Lever - ultimately leading to the council accepting a serious case review was needed.

And the newspaper's reports forced the hand of the council to launch an investigation by a barrister specialising in children's care which led to the council implementing a series of changes in how it ran the children's services department.

The council's chief executive, Lyn Carpeneter, had briefed senior councillors that is was not required and there were no discernable failings!

The findings of the review were damning about the council's performance and tonight's meeting will hear how things might improve.

They are:

1. "Thurrock Safeguarding Children Partnership should review within the next six months its procedure for the escalation of concerns and for resolving differences of view between professional and agencies. This should especially consider where there are challenges to the thresholds applied to cases which involve a number of agencies, and where there are persistent concerns about either neglect and/or parental engagement.

1. "Thurrock Safeguarding Children Partnership should develop a series of practice workshops to be run between agencies to explore and build on better co-operation and understanding of handling complex or persistent cases. Case studies should be used – such as this Review - and the development of joint or group supervision approaches should be explored. This should be viewed as an opportunity to strengthen understanding between services and encourage wider joint working and sharing of relevant information about concerns.

1. "Thurrock Safeguarding Children Partnership should, using the principles within the Signs of Safety approach, review interagency procedures for establishing agreement with families of written care plans involving all those working with a child, with shared, clear and practical objectives that can be monitored– especially in persistent cases of poor parenting and neglect.

1. "Thurrock Safeguarding Children Partnership should consider auditing the operation of the Prevention and Support Service programme to establish the extent to which the positive evaluation in the 2019 Ofsted report has been sustained and strengthened

1. "Thurrock Safeguarding Children Partnership is recommended to encourage the continued development of the Signs of Safety approach, and the use of the Graded Care Profile 2 for use across agencies and professional groups."

The full report to be put before tonight's meeting can be found here.

Thurrock Nub News editor Neil Speight, who also owned and edited the Thurrock Independent, commented: "The report put before the committee tonight and recommendations totally vindicate the stance of the Thurrock Independent and particularly the work of the late Andy Lever, who knew instinctively and passionately that something was not only wrong with the system, but something was rotten inside the council structure that led to it denying there were any problems – which clearly we now know there were.

"It is a shame Thurrock Council and its senior personnel have not had the decency to say sorry and admit the council was actively trying to cover up its failing. It is testimony to good journalism that we are where we are today on this matter, rather than it being swept under the carpet as the chief executive wanted it to be."