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BackSAFE Special Newsletter - Working Together to Safeguard Children 2018
Newsletter Special , A guide to the new Working Together
to Safeguard Children 2018
What does the newly published
statutory guidance
Working Together 2018 mean for all those who work to
safeguard and promote the welfare of children?
This statutory guidance has been revised and published July 2018
following a government consultation. The revised document reflects the
changes required to support the new system of multi-agency safeguarding
arrangements established by the Children and Social Work Act 2017.
All organisations must follow
the statutory guidance 'Working Together to Safeguard Children'.
It is issued by law; you must
follow it unless there's a good reason not to.
·
Section 17,
which puts a duty on the local
authority to provide services to children in need
and
·
Section 47 which requires local
authorities to undertake enquiries if they believe a child has suffered
or likely to suffer significant harm
·
Section 11 requires full cooperation of other partners with the a local
authority when carrying out specific safeguarding duties
·
This amends the Children act 2004 placing new duties on key agencies in
a local area to promote the welfare of children in their area
·
co-ordinate their safeguarding services
·
act as a strategic leadership group in supporting and engaging others;
·
and implement local and national learning including from serious child
safeguarding incidents.
To fulfill this role, the three safeguarding partners, who have equal
and joint responsibility for local safeguarding arrangements, must set
out how they will work together and with any relevant agencies. This is
covered in chapter 3.
So what changes does it bring to those working with children and their
carers and families?
This guidance emphasises, throughout,
that safeguarding children is everyone’s responsibility.
·
Chapter 1
The provision of early help with a
child centred approach are both
fundamental to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. This
requires all practitioners, including those in universal services and
those providing services to adults with children, to understand their
role in identifying emerging problems and to share information with
other practitioners to support early identification and assessment.
Practitioners should, in particular, be alert to the potential need for
early help for a child who:
·
is disabled and has specific additional needs
·
has special educational needs (whether or not they have a statutory
Education,
Health and Care Plan)
·
is a young carer
·
is showing signs of being drawn into anti-social or criminal behaviour,
including gang involvement and association with organised crime groups
·
is frequently missing/goes missing from care or from home
·
is at risk of modern slavery, trafficking or exploitation
·
is at risk of being radicalised or exploited
·
is in a family circumstance presenting challenges for the child, such as
drug and alcohol misuse, adult mental health issues and domestic abuse
·
is misusing drugs or alcohol themselves
·
has returned home to their family from care8
·
is a privately fostered child
The chapter follows through the processes, already in place, following a
referral and the need for all practitioners to cooperate.
Fears about sharing information must not be allowed to stand in the way
of the need to promote the welfare, and protect the safety, of children,
this must always be the paramount concern. To ensure effective
safeguarding arrangements all:
·
Organisations and agencies should have arrangements in place that set
out clearly the processes and the principles for sharing information.
The arrangement should cover how information will be shared within their
own organisation/agency; and with others who may be involved in a
child’s life
·
Practitioners should not assume that someone else will pass on
information that they think may be critical to keeping a child safe. If
a practitioner has concerns about a child’s welfare and considers that
they may be a child in need or that the child has suffered or is likely
to suffer significant harm, then they should share the information with
local authority children’s social care and/or the police. All
practitioners should be particularly alert to the importance of sharing
information when a child moves from one local authority into another,
due to the risk that knowledge pertinent to keeping a child safe could
be lost
·
Practitioners should aim to gain consent to share information, but
should be mindful of situations where to do so would place a child at
increased risk of harm. Information may be shared without consent if a
practitioner has reason to believe that there is good reason to do so,
and that the sharing of information will enhance the safeguarding of a
child in a timely manner. When decisions are made to share or withhold
information, practitioners should record who has been given the
information and why
There is also an information sharing myth busting guide on page 20
More detail about information sharing is part of the new
Data Protection Act 2018
and advice is covered by:
Information sharing: Advice for practitioners providing safeguarding
services to children, young people, parents and carers July 2018
·
Chapter 2
This chapter sets out a list of all who have functions and
responsibilities within this statutory guidance looking at
organizational and individual responsibilities to ensure effective
safeguarding.
It includes a new section on “people in positions of trust” highlighting
that “organisations and agencies working with children and families
should have clear policies for dealing with allegations against people
who work with children”.
Section 11 of the Children Act 2004
Places duties on a range of organisations, agencies and individuals to
ensure their functions, and any services that they contract out to
others, are discharged having regard to the need to safeguard and
promote the welfare of children. This has now been extended in the
Working Together 2018 to
include all who work with children, young people and or their families
and includes:
·
All schools: specifies that “this guidance applies in its entirety to
all schools”.
·
Early years and childcare: there is a new requirement that they must
“have and implement a policy and procedures to safeguard children”.
·
Health: a new section on “designated health professionals”.
·
A new section on “children’s homes”. This is to emphasise the need to
follow the regulations within Quality Standards and in particular,
“where there are safeguarding concerns for a child, their placement
plan, agreed between the home and their placing authority, must include
details of the steps the home will take to manage any assessed risks on
a day to day basis.”
·
“In addition to the requirements of this standard, the registered person
has specific responsibilities under regulation 34 to prepare and
implement policies setting out: arrangements for the safeguarding of
children from abuse or neglect; clear procedures for referring child
protection concerns to the placing authority or local authority where
the home is situated if appropriate; and specific procedures to prevent
children going missing and take action if they do.”
·
New section on “Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements” (MAPPA).
“MAPPA should work together with duty to co-operate (to manage the
risks posed by violent and sexual offenders living in the community in
order to protect the public and should work closely with the
safeguarding partners over services to commission locally.”
·
Voluntary, charity, social enterprise, faith-based organisations and
private sectors: Highlights that
“all practitioners working in these organisations and agencies who are
working with children and their families are subject to the same
safeguarding responsibilities, whether paid or a volunteer”.
·
The guidance also highlights that:
”charity trustees are responsible for ensuring that those benefiting
from, or working with, their charity, are not harmed in any way through
contact with it”.
These organisations and agencies should have in place arrangements that
reflect the importance of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of
children, including:
·
a clear line of accountability for the commissioning and/or provision of
services designed to safeguard and promote the welfare of children
·
a senior board level lead with the required knowledge, skills and
expertise or sufficiently qualified and experienced to take leadership
responsibility for the organisation’s /agency’s safeguarding
arrangements
·
a culture of listening to children and taking account of their wishes
and feelings, both in individual decisions and the development of
services
·
clear whistleblowing procedures, which reflect the principles in Sir
Robert Francis’ Freedom to Speak Up Review and are suitably referenced
in staff training and codes of conduct, and a culture that enables
issues about safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children to be
addressed.
·
clear escalation policies for staff to follow when their child
safeguarding concerns are not being addressed within their organisation
or by other agencies
·
arrangements which set out clearly the processes for sharing
information, with other practitioners and with safeguarding partners
·
a designated practitioner (or, for health commissioning and health
provider organisations/agencies, designated and named practitioners) for
child safeguarding. Their role is to support other practitioners in
their organisations and agencies to recognise the needs of children,
including protection from possible abuse or neglect. Designated
practitioner roles should always be explicitly defined in job
descriptions. Practitioners should be given sufficient time, funding,
supervision and support to fulfil their child welfare and safeguarding
responsibilities effectively
·
safe recruitment practices and ongoing safe working practices for
individuals whom the organisation or agency permit to work regularly
with children, including policies on when to obtain a criminal record
check
·
appropriate supervision and support for staff, including undertaking
safeguarding training
·
creating a culture of safety, equality and protection within the
services they provide
In addition:
employers are responsible for ensuring that their staff are competent to
carry out their responsibilities for safeguarding and promoting the
welfare of children and creating an environment where staff feel able to
raise concerns and feel supported in their safeguarding role
·
Chapter 3
This chapter set out multi-agency working advocating that there is a
shared responsibility between organisations and agencies to safeguard
and promote the welfare of all children in a local area.
The three safeguarding partners should agree on ways to co-ordinate
their safeguarding services; act as a strategic leadership group in
supporting and engaging others; and implement local and national
learning including from serious child safeguarding incidents
All 3 partners have equal responsibility and the safeguarding partners
must set out in their published arrangements on which organisations and
agencies they will be working with to safeguard and promote the welfare
of children, and this will be expected to change over time if the local
arrangements are to work effectively for children and families. A list
of relevant agencies is set out in regulations. All relevant agencies
are under a statutory duty to co-operate with the published
arrangements. (This includes all schools, colleges and educational
providers)
More information on the expectations of partners and agencies and how
multi-agency working will work across boundaries is included
·
Chapter 4
This chapter covers the changes that are to be made in undertaking
reviews of serious child safeguarding cases.
A new National Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel (the Panel) has
been established and will both oversee reviews and the lessons to be
learnt which has a national significance.
Locally, safeguarding partners must make arrangements to identify and
review serious child safeguarding cases, which, in their view, raise
issues of importance in relation to their area. They must commission and
oversee the review of those cases, where they consider it appropriate
for a review to be undertaken.
·
The guidance also has two
appendices:
Appendix A: Glossary
Appendix B: Further sources of information including: Department
for Education guidance; guidance issued by other government departments
and agencies, and guidance issued by external organisations. |
About SAFE
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