Safeguarding Children and Young People –

recognising and responding to concerns

Antony SeymourOperations Manager

antony.seymour@southampton.gov.uk

Objectives - 1

Where did it all begin? Where are we now? Does Every Child still Matter? What does it mean for you? Where is it going?

What is ‘Safeguarding’? What does it mean for you? What is the Common Assessment

Framework (CAF)? Putting it into Practice

Objectives - 2

Following the murder of Victoria Climbie in February 2000, who was known to a range of health, social services and police authorities, Lord Laming produced a damning report on what had gone wrong and how all professionals needed to co-ordinate their approach to children at risk.

Where did it all begin? - 1

Is that the whole story?

The Government made a commitment in the 1998 White Paper Modernising Social Services to put in place new arrangements to commission from all its Chief Inspectors of services involved with children a joint report on children’s safeguards.

Identified a number of problems with the current system for safeguarding children.

Made recommendations for change

Child protection services less distinct and form a part of a spectrum services

Where did it all begin? - 2

What does this mean for you? - 1

provides the legal underpinning for the transformation of children's services as set out in the ECM programme.

'duty to cooperate in the making of arrangements to improve well-being’

Children’s Trusts – (no longer statutory)

Children and Young People’s Plans – (no longer statutory)

Director of Children’s Services

Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCBs)

The Children Act 2004

The five ECM outcomes

Be healthy:

Stay safe:

Enjoying and achieving:

Make a positive contribution:

Achieve economic well-being:

healthy schools, school meals,

safeguarding, bullying, harassment

aspirations,

transport, PSHE, sport, emotional well being

and discrimination

pupils progressing and succeedingattendance,

behaviour, respect, volunteering

school as thefoundation for lifelong learning, education the way out of the generational poverty trap

Extended Service – the vision Schools at the heart of every community offering services for children,

parents and others.  By 2010, all children should have access to a variety of activities

beyond the school day through extended schools.

High quality ‘wraparound’ childcare, available 8am-6pm all year round; a varied menu of activities, for example, study support, sport and music; parenting support, including information sessions at key transition points

and parenting programmes; swift and easy referral to a range of specialist support services such as

CAMHS, behaviour support and family support services; and services available to the wider community, including access to ICT, sports

and arts facilities.

What does this mean for you? - 2

Schools responsible for children's holistic development - social, emotional and cognitive. Family, community and children's welfare will move

alongside the fundamental aims of school

Emphasis on Inclusion - responsibility for all pupils including the disaffected and hard to engage

Teachers Collaboration Multi-disciplinary and multi-professional

What does this mean for you? - 3

Key changes to phrases in the children's sector include the replacement of safeguarding with child protection, children's trusts with “local areas, better, fairer, services” and using the term “help children achieve more” in place of Every Child Matters or the five outcomes.

http://www.cypnow.co.uk/bulletins/Daily-Bulletin/news/1021116/?DCMP=EMC-DailyBulletin

Where do we go from here?

Safeguarding

protecting children from maltreatment;

preventing impairment of children’s health or development;

ensuring that children are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care

Working Together to Safeguard Children, 2010

Child Protection

Child protection is a part of safeguarding and promoting welfare. This refers to the activity that is undertaken to protect specific children who are suffering, or are likely to suffer, significant harm.

Effective child protection is essential as part of wider work to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. However, all agencies and individuals should aim to proactively safeguard and promote the welfare of children so that the need for action to protect children from harm is reduced.

Working Together to Safeguard Children, 2010

Significant Harm

Where a Local Authority are informed of a child who is suffering, or likely to suffer ‘significant harm’, they shall make, or cause to be made, enquiries to enable them to decide whether they should taken any action to safeguard or promote the child’s welfare.

Children Act 1989, section 47, www.opsi.gov.uk

Roles and Responsibilities of different agencies

‘All those who come into contact with children and families in their everyday work, including people who do not have a specific role in relation to child protection, have a duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children’

(Department of Health et al, 2003b, page 2, paragraph 1)

Education

All schools (and further education institutions in respect of students under 18) must have a designated senior person for child protection. They have additional training and are responsible for making sure that children in their school who may be children in need, including where there are concerns about significant harm, are referred to social services.

Child Protection Liaison Officer (CPLO) “a senior member of the school's leadership team who is designated to take lead responsibility for dealing with child protection issues, providing advice and support to other staff, liaising with the local authority, and working with other agencies.

The designated person need not be a teacher but must have the status and authority within the school management structure to carry out the duties of the post including committing resources to child protection matters, and where appropriate directing other staff.”

Safeguarding Children in Education DfES/0027/2004 guidance issued under s157 and 175 Education Act 2002

1. Making Referrals

you may have concerns about a child, and refer those concerns to Children’s Social Care or the police (via your designated senior person in the case of schools).

There are three key ways of being involved

2. Providing help/services as part of an agreed plan

you may be asked to carry out a specific type of assessment, or provide help or a specific service to the child or a member of their family as part of an agreed plan and contribute to the reviewing of the child’s progress (including attending planning meetings or child protection conferences).

3. Providing information for children’s social care (social services)

you may be approached by children’s social care and asked to provide information about a child or family or to be involved in an assessment or to attend a planning meeting or child protection conference. This may happen regardless of who made the referral to children’s social care.

How worries about a child come to light A child tells someone what is happening to them You see signs of abuse or neglect You see worrying changes in a child’s behaviour or

moods or in a parent’s behaviour to a child Someone else tells you about something they have

seen or heard An adult or child tells you that they have hurt a child A parent or carer tells you that they are having

problems in meeting their child’s needs

Some indicatorsSexual Abuse Being overly affectionate or

knowledgeable in a sexual way inappropriate to the child’s age

Being isolated or withdrawn

Physical Abuse Unexplained recurrent

injuries or burns Refusal to undress for gym

Emotional Abuse Continual self-deprecation

(‘I’m stupid, ugly, worthless, etc’)

Extremes of passivity or aggression

Neglect Constant hunger Poor personal hygiene Poor state of clothing

What to do if a child tells you they are being abused: Overview for school staff - 1 Yours is a listening role. Do not interrupt the child if he or

she is freely recalling significant events. If questions are needed to clarify understanding, they should be framed in an open manner, in order to not lead the child in any way.

You must report orally to the designated senior person immediately (see CP Policy).

Make a note of the discussion, as soon as is reasonably practicable (but within 24 hours) to pass on to the designated senior person (CPLO). The note should record the time, date, place and people who were present, as well as what was said.

What to do if a child tells you they are being abused: Overview for school staff - 2 Remember, your note of the discussion may need to be

used in any subsequent court proceedings.

Do not give undertakings of absolute confidentiality to the child.

Your responsibility in terms of referring concerns ends at this point, but you may have a future role in terms of supporting or monitoring the child, contributing to an assessment or implementing child protection plans.

http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/wholeschool/familyandcommunity/childprotection/schools/summaryteachers/

Common Assessment Framework (CAF)

An initial assessment of a child or young person’s needs for services across all professions and agencies that is: child or young person centred and completed with

them (and their family) holistic, covering the range of educational, health,

social care, behavioural and family issues and looking at areas of strengths as well as need

evidence-based and common to all agencies a coordinated response to front line service delivery

A process that may lead to specialist assessment

CAF – some benefitsBenefits:

Multi-agency working and child-centered services Shared language across agencies Earlier identification and earlier intervention Easier, less bureaucratic access to a range of services

and less repetition for children and families Better quality and more appropriate referrals A ‘Lead Professional’ will take responsibility where more

than one service need is identified

the successes“I was lucky to be at a school that only had good experiences of young people from care; this meant they were not judgmental. They also assumed that I would not fail and that I had the same chances as any other young person - from my experience, an attitude rare amongst schools.”

“The staff at my home and the teachers at school have really encouraged and helped me with coping with my problems and my school work. Staff in the unit pushed us into going to school.”

Further Reading Keeping Children Safe: The Government’s response to The Victoria

Climbié Inquiry Report and Joint Chief Inspectors’ Report Safeguarding Children, 2003, DoH

What To Do If You’re Worried A Child Is Being Abused (2003) Working Together to Safeguard Children (2006) Protecting Children: A handbook for teachers and school managers (2nd

Ed) (2004) Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families

(2000)

Websites: www.everychildmatters.gov.uk www.teachers.tv/everychildmatters