Chapter 1: Preface and Introduction

	Preface
	Message from Chair of Peterborough Safeguarding Children Board
	Introduction

Preface

"The support and protection of children cannot be achieved by a single agency. Every service has to play its part. All staff must have placed upon them the clear expectation that their primary responsibility is to the child and his or her family."

Lord Laming in the Victoria Climbié Inquiry Report 17.92 and 17.93

'Please keep me safe'. This simple but profoundly important hope is the very minimum upon which every child and young person should be able to depend. Sadly, sometimes even our imaginations fail to help us understand the dependency of young children or the vulnerability of adolescents, regardless of their displays of bravado. Most adults recognise that children and young people need security, stability, love and encouragement.

Policies, legislation, structures and procedures are, of course, of immense importance, but they serve only as the means of securing better life opportunities for each young person. It is the robust and consistent implementation of these policies and procedures which keeps children and young people safe. For example, organisational boundaries and concerns about sharing information must never be allowed to put in jeopardy the safety of a child or young person. Whilst children and young people's safety is a matter for us all, a heavy responsibility has rightly been placed on the key statutory services to ensure it happens.

The Protection of Children in England: A Progress Report

Lord Laming, March 2009

There are some key features of effective arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of children which all agencies will need to take account of. These arrangements will help agencies to create and maintain an organisational culture and ethos that reflects the importance of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children.

At an organisational or strategic level, these key features are having:

Senior management commitment to the importance of safeguarding and promoting children's welfare;
A clear statement of the agency's responsibilities towards children available for all staff;
A clear line of accountability within the organisation for work on safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children;
Service development that takes account of the need to safeguard and promote welfare and is informed, where appropriate, by the views of children and families;
Staff training on safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children for all staff working with or (depending on the agency's primary functions) in contact with children and families;
Safe recruitment procedures in place;
Effective inter-agency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children; and
Effective information sharing.

2. Message from the Chair of the Safeguarding Children Board

As Chair of the Peterborough Safeguarding Children Board I am pleased to introduce these revised inter-agency procedures. They include changes as a result of Working Together to Safeguard Children, 2010, the national statutory guidance which is intended to support and guide the practice of staff and managers in all organisations with responsibilities for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children.

These core procedures were developed in conjunction with the Local Safeguarding Children Boards for Cambridgeshire, Peterborough, Bedfordshire and Luton. Cambridgeshire and Peterborough continue to seek consistency in procedural arrangements for the practical advantages of those organisations which operate across both areas.

Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and, in particular, protecting them from significant harm, depends on effective joint working between agencies and professionals that have different roles and expertise. These procedures provide the foundation for you to undertake this shared responsibility.

Felicity Schofield
Independent Chair

Introduction

	Aim
	Context
	The Context for This Document - Flowchart
	How to use This Document

Aim

1.1

The aim of this document is to:

Assist decision making when there are concerns about the safety or welfare of a child;
Set out the procedures that should be followed when a child has been identified as at risk of harm;
Give guidance to assist practice.

1.2

It is designed for managers and practitioners in all agencies who work with vulnerable children and is published by the Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB).

Context

1.3	The overall national context for this document is set out in Context of this Document Flowchart. The contents of this document are consistent with government guidance set out in Working Together to Safeguard Children (2010), which provides detailed information about all aspects of safeguarding children and can be accessed via the LSCB website. Peterborough Safeguarding Children Board (PSCB).
1.4	This document also draws on lessons from local case reviews and current literature relating to safeguarding practice.
1.5	The Children Act 2004 requires each local authority to establish a Local Safeguarding Children Board as the key statutory mechanism for agreeing how organisations in each local authority will co-operate to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and ensure that practice is effective. Agencies that are members of the PSCB are identified in Peterborough Safeguarding Children Board - Membership.
1.6	The regulations governing Local Safeguarding Children Boards (The Local Safeguarding Children Board Regulations 2006. Statutory Instrument 2006 No. 90) identify the functions of the LSCB. The first function is to develop policies and procedures for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children in the area of the authority, including policies and procedures in relation to: The action to be taken where there are concerns about a child's safety, including thresholds for intervention; Training of persons who work with children or in services affecting the safety and welfare of children; Recruitment and supervision of persons who work with children; Investigations and allegations concerning persons who work with children; Safety and welfare of children who are privately fostered; Co-operation with neighbouring children's services authorities and their Board partners.
1.7	These procedures cover all of the above and are endorsed and published by the PSCB. It is expected that member agencies will ensure that all relevant staff have access to this document and comply with it.
1.8	In some instances, the topics above will also be covered by more detailed local protocols. These will be available, and kept up to date on the PSCB website and staff should consult this as necessary.
1.9	Any new protocols / practice guidance will be emailed to all manual holders.

The Context for This Document - Flowchart

Figure 1

Click here to view the Context Flowchart.

How to use This Document

1.10

This document is intended to help all staff working with children and families act in a way which is most likely to promote the welfare and safety of a children. It sets out procedures that should be followed at key stages of work with children and families.

1.11

The contents of each chapter are set out under the following headings:

Procedures. These are based on statutory guidance, endorsed by the LSCB and therefore should be followed unless there are exceptional reasons for not doing so. Where procedures are not followed the reason for this should be recorded in the agency records;
Practice guidance. This to assist practitioners in making sound professional judgements.

Supplementary documents

1.12

Additional documents which have informed these procedures and are published by government departments can be accessed via the Department for Education website. They are:

Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families (DoH 2000);
What to do if you are worried a child has been abused (DFES 2006);
Safeguarding Children and Safer Recruitment in Education 2006;
Safeguarding Children in Whom Illness is Fabricated or Induced (DCSF 2008);
Information sharing practice guidance 2008;
Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) Guidance (Home Office 2009);
Safeguarding Children and Young People from Sexual Exploitation (DCSF 2009);
Working Together to Safeguard Children (2010);
Procedures for managing allegations against people who work with children (Working Together 2010, Appendix 5);
Safeguarding Children who may have been Trafficked (DCSF 2011);
Dealing with Allegations of Abuse Against Teachers and Other Staff (2011);

Supplementary Leaflets

1.13	Leaflets covering a variety of topics are published by the SCB and are available from the SCB administrator and on the SCB website.

Glossary

1.14	The following terms are used throughout the text:

Term	Definition
Child	Anyone under 18 years of age
Abuse & Neglect	Forms of maltreatment of a child
Children's Social Care	The work of local authorities exercising their social services functions in relation to children Safeguarding & Promoting the Welfare of Children Safeguarding and promoting the welfare may be described as two sides of the same coin. Safeguarding has two elements: Protecting children from harm; and Preventing impairment of children's health or development. Whereas promoting welfare is a proactive responsibility, i.e.: Ensuring that children are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care; and Creating opportunities to enable children to have optimum life chances such that they can enter adulthood successfully.
Well-being	Children achieving the five outcomes set by the Government. Stay safe; Be healthy; Enjoy and achieve; Make a positive contribution; Achieve economic well-being.

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