“If we want to achieve a safer system to protect children, we must create the environment in which better skilled practitioners can practise and get on with the work of protecting children.” (Wood Report: Review of the role and functions of Local Safeguarding Children Boards, 2016)
The recommendations stressed in the 2016 Wood report pave the way for a fundamental reform of the system for protecting and safeguarding children. A new, more effective statutory framework sets out strategic multi-agency arrangements to ensure services are coordinated across a spectrum encompassing child protection, safeguarding and wellbeing. The key focus is to deliver a more effective model of multi-agency working across health services, the police and local government and to ensure all agencies are fully committed. Other vital partners such as the voluntary and community sector, schools, probation, the courts, and Cafcass also play very important roles in protecting children. More complex issues of safeguarding such as trafficking children, child sexual abuse and exploitation, and radicalisation and extremism, may often require a broader, community-wide response.
The reforms are being proposed at a time of unprecedented growth in demand for services to protect children and, at a time of austerity, increasing pressure on the resources to meet that need. Department for Education’s Children in Need Census data shows that in 2014-15 over 400,000 children identified as in need of support with over 62,000 children subject to a Child Protection plan. Since 2009-10 there has been an almost 80% increase in section 47 enquiries and a 27% increase in children with Child Protection plans. These figures have been compounded by high profile cases of historical allegations of child sexual abuse in institutions. The recent inquiry into child abuse in football has seen a total of over 100 referrals spanning all tiers of the national game.
All agencies that work or come into contact with children have a responsibility to ensure safeguarding procedures are in place to protect them from harm. This conference aims to help all services and agencies on their journey to be better coordinated and inform practitioners how to create a safer, more consistent approach to protecting and safeguarding children and young people.
The Government has accepted the Wood report’s recommendations and will publish a new statutory framework for multi-agency safeguarding procedures. The framework aims to support practice leaders to develop and deliver a national system for protecting children that rewards initiative and innovation and ensures a focus on improving service outcomes.
Police services have a leading role in safeguarding (gangs and youth violence, extremism-radicalisation, domestic and sexual violence). The Wood report highlighted that for police services multi-agency arrangements were too bureaucratic and required substantial demands on police time to attend meetings. The breadth and complexity of issues that pose a risk and threat to children are increasing at pace becoming ever more sophisticated, covert and encompassing. How can multi-agency arrangements be improved to be more intelligence-led and identify earlier children at risk?
Local authorities have the lead agency role for child protection (interfamilial abuse, neglect and harm) and have the responsibility to ensure each and every child in its area is protected. The Wood report highlighted that there is a need to further clarify that it is the responsibility of every school, regards of status, to comply with safeguarding arrangements. Further problems centred on defining an area and its boundaries with police and health services often having to serve several LSCBs. How can local areas create an environment in which better skilled practitioners can practise and get on with the work of protecting children?
The Accountability and Assurance Framework (AAF) sets out the safeguarding roles, duties and responsibilities of all organisations commissioning NHS health and social care. The Wood report recommends greater emphasis on how local health agencies fully participate in multi-agency practice to protect and identify vulnerable children and young people. The report was critical that too often Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCBs) agendas had a loss of focus on what key strategic issues are that need to be dealt with and the health representatives in attendance who can deal with them. How can multi-agency arrangements be reformed to ensure the collective NHS contribution can be made more effectively?
Prevention stops more intensive problems occurring by building on resilience and reducing risk factors, it relies on early, targeted action. Effective multi-agency practice should include a strategy for information and data sharing to allow for the identification of vulnerable children in need of early help. Services need to keep ahead of new threats and risks that are ever-changing and ever more complex and sophisticated at a time of reduced resources. Can decision taking be more devolved so that responsibility is at the point of actual service delivery?
All agencies that work or come into contact with children have a responsibility to ensure safeguarding procedures are in place to protect them from harm. This conference aims to help all services and agencies on their journey to be better coordinated and inform practitioners how to create a safer, more consistent approach to protecting and safeguarding children and young people.
The Government has accepted the Wood report’s recommendations and will publish a new statutory framework for multi-agency safeguarding procedures. The framework aims to support practice leaders to develop and deliver a national system for protecting children that rewards initiative and innovation and ensures a focus on improving service outcomes.
• It will examine the ethical and operational considerations for Social Workers and other frontline childcare professionals when using social media both in work settings and personally.
• It will look at the issue of private conduct of professionals and the implications of what information they make available to the wider public about themselves and their situation.
• It will examine the duty of confidentiality over the imperative to investigate allegations and highlight the conflict of interest that can occur in such situations.
• It will look at future thinking and consider the impact on members of the public.
Local authorities have the lead agency role for child protection (interfamilial abuse, neglect and harm) and have the responsibility to ensure each and every child in its area is protected. How can local areas create an environment in which better skilled practitioners can practice and get on with the work of protecting children?
Discussing how to deliver good multi-agency practice to protect and identify vulnerable children and young people.
In light of devolution deals and increasing combined authority arrangements how can local areas coordinate services to improve outcomes and ensure their effectiveness across a spectrum encompassing child protection, safeguarding and wellbeing?
Effective multi-agency practice should include a strategy for information and data sharing to allow for the identification of vulnerable children in need of early help. Services need to keep ahead of new threats and risks that are ever-changing and ever more complex and sophisticated at a time of reduced resources. How can decision taking be more devolved so that responsibility is at the point of actual service delivery? How can reforms support practice leaders so their time is focused on developing and improving outcomes?
In times of austerity training can often be seen as a nice to have. This presentation gives you an insight into the value of free resources to complement your training strategy. We also look at how using technology to train parents and young people can foster better communication and understanding between practitioners and service users.
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse has been established to investigate failings by institutions to protect children from sexual abuse, and to recommend changes that will help keep children safer now and in the future.
In addition to its investigations into a range of institutions in England and Wales, the Inquiry is leading a programme of research and analysis, and will host seminars to gather information and views on a range of important topics. Alongside this, the Inquiry’s Truth Project gives victims and survivors of child sexual abuse the opportunity to share their experiences, which will help inform the Inquiry’s findings and recommendations. Hear more about the Inquiry’s work, and about how your organisation can work with the Inquiry to support the Truth Project.
Recognising the challenge of supporting staff in busy work environments to further develop their safeguarding knowledge and applying it to their practice.
Health and local authority staff need to share information to help them provide better care and earlier interventions for children who are considered vulnerable and at risk. The Child Protection – Information Sharing (CP-IS) project is providing secure access to information when a child who has a child protection plan or looked after child status visits an unscheduled care setting in England.There are 152 local authorities, 1200 unscheduled care settings, and more than 75 IT systems in use today by children’s social care teams and NHS unscheduled care settings, such as emergency departments, minor injury units, and maternity units. The CP-IS project is joining these systems together and helping sites to change business processes so that health and social care staff have access to more information about the children in their care.CP-IS is currently being implemented by local authorities and healthcare settings across England. Find out how this project is making a difference and what frontline health and social care staff are saying about it.
Fiona Richards, NSPCC Regional Head of Service Yorkshire & Humber (confirmed)
Helen Westerman, Campaigns Manager, NSPCC (confirmed)
Better coordinated services can help create a safer, more consistent approach to protecting and safeguarding children and young people. How can services tackle the complexities of the multi-agency landscape and scale of their areas?
As technology moves at pace young people and children are having to face ever more complicated risks – how can support networks identify the most vulnerable and most at risk? What action can be taken to develop the resilience and knowledge to combat bully, sexual grooming, violence and personal safety?
Construction of The Bridgewater Hall commenced on 22 March 1993, but the idea of a new concert hall for Manchester dates back to the reconstruction of the Free Trade Hall in the 1950s after wartime bomb damage. The Free Trade Hall was home to the city’s famous Hallé orchestra and also hosted rock and pop concerts. However, despite holding great public affection, the 1850s Free Trade Hall was ill-equipped to respond to the rising standards of service and acoustic excellence demanded by performers and audiences.
All organisations that come into contact with children should have specific safeguarding policies and procedures in place. This includes voluntary and community organisations, faith groups, private sector providers, as well as schools, hospitals and sports clubs. (Reference: NSPCC)
