Information Sheet for Survey Participants

Ethical Clearance Reference Number: HR/DP-22/23-35229

Evaluation of the Multi-Agency Child Safeguarding Reforms NIHR 204237

We are inviting you to participate in a survey about the impact of the Multi-Agency Child Safeguarding Reforms. This is the first stage in a national evaluation commissioned by the Department for Health and Social Care. Before you decide whether you want to take part, it is important for you to understand why the research is being done and what your participation will involve. Please take time to read the following information carefully and discuss it with others if you wish. Email [email protected] if there is anything that is not clear or if you would like more information.

What is the purpose of the study?

The purpose of the study is:

To evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the multi-agency safeguarding reforms under the Children & Social Work Act 2017, under which Local Safeguarding Children Partnerships were introduced; and
To create an evaluation framework for ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the impact of the reforms.

Why have I been invited to take part?
You are being invited to participate in this study because you are involved in the work of your Local Safeguarding Children Partnership (LSCP). We are inviting all professionals with experience of LSCPs, whether you work in an LSCP executive, subgroup or business unit. This will ensure a range of perspectives from all agencies and actors involved in local child safeguarding arrangements through the LSCP as to what makes for an effective LSCP and how effectiveness might best be measured.

What will happen if I take part?
If you choose to take part in the project, you will be asked to complete an online survey. Please allow at least 30 minutes to complete it. Once you have read the information sheet, please contact the research team at [email protected] if you have any questions that will help you make a decision about taking part. If you choose to take part, you will be asked to provide your consent. To do this you will be asked to indicate that you have read and understand the information provided and that you consent to your anonymised data being used for the purposes explained. We will use the survey data to identify potential local areas for the second stage of the research. This will involve workshops in case study areas to explore the changes that have been effected in your local area following the reforms. Participating in the survey stage in no way commits you to taking part in the case study workshops, should your LSCP take part in that stage of the project.

Do I have to take part?
Participation is completely voluntary. You should only take part if you want to and choosing not to take part will not disadvantage you in any way.

What are the possible risks of taking part?
You should be aware that although we will not ask your name in the survey, we will ask your role in the LSCP in order to compare data from different post-holders and/or agencies in each LSCP. We will not publish any data from the survey that directly identifies you or your LSCP(s), and findings from the survey stage will be presented in an anonymised format. However, it may not be possible to remove some distinctive features such as whether an LSCP covers more than one local authority area. Therefore, there is a very small risk that some individuals might be able to work out your LSCP or possibly your identity from reports of the findings from the research.

What are the possible benefits of taking part?
There are no anticipated benefits for individuals taking part in the study. However, the greater engagement from LSCP partners, managers, scrutineers and representatives of relevant agencies in the study, the more reliable and powerful will be the findings. In particular, we wish to ensure that indicators/outcome measures proposed at the end of the study provide meaningful and constructive benchmarks for all agencies without imposing unrealistic or burdensome additional data collection requirements on professionals.

Data handling and confidentiality
Your data will be processed under the terms of UK data protection law (including the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018). Your data will be held securely on QualtricsXM and KCL SharePoint and accessible only to the research team until it has been anonymised, which we anticipate will be completed at the end of November 2023. The anonymised data will be archived and made available for future use by researchers.

King’s College London has a responsibility to keep information collected about you safe and secure, and to ensure the integrity of research data. Specialist teams within King’s College London continually assess and ensure that data is held in the most appropriate and secure way.

Data Protection Statement

If you would like more information about how your data will be processed under the terms of UK data protection laws please visit:
The KCL support pages here

Click here to view the King’s privacy notice

What if I change my mind about taking part?
You are free to withdraw from the survey, without giving a reason, by closing the survey tab. Any information you have given thus far will be retained in the study. Withdrawing from the project will not affect you in any way.

How is the project being funded?
This project is being funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research www.nihr.ac.uk

What will happen to the results of the project?
The survey results will be summarised in a report to the funders and to the Department for Health & Social Care and disseminated through The Association of Safeguarding Partners (TASP) and other professional networks in a format in which individual post-holders and LSCPs will be anonymised. They may be published in academic articles and will be reported in a range of formats so as to be accessible to all relevant stakeholders, including children, young people and families.

Who should I contact for further information?
If you have any questions or require more information about this project, please contact the research team using the following contact details:

Principal Investigator: Dr Jenny Driscoll [email protected]

Stakeholder communication: Alison Thorpe [email protected]

Liability statement
If this project has harmed you in any way or if you wish to make a complaint about the conduct of the project you can contact King's College London using the details below for further advice and information:

The Chair, Social Science & Public Policy, Humanities and Law Research Ethics Sub-Committee [email protected]

Thank you for reading the Participant Information Sheet.

Please click here to complete the survey.