TASP Newsletter - Archive

 

NEWSLETTER – SPRING 2021

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to TASP’s early Spring Newsletter.  Following our Christmas break we are pleased to announce the resumption of our free monthly webinars.

We have invited Sir Alan Wood back to our February event (22^nd Feb at 4pm) where we will discuss with him the contents of his review of the changes to Multi Agency Safeguarding Arrangements and learn how our work may continue to evolve as more evidence of good and innovative practice emerges. If you haven’t booked your place yet, be quick because we are nearly at capacity. Click here to register.

All our Webinars are recorded. We publish these on our website along with the slide presentations and full reports on dialogue generated during Q&A and breakout meetings during the session by attendees. These are available to watch and to download for our TASP Members. To review all topics, take a look at our website at www.theasp.org.uk/webinars.

There are two new pieces of content for members only as well as the standard broadcast!

1. Laura Anderson from the Department for Works and Pensions re-recorded her session, explaining their new stream of work, sharing their local representatives contact details and answering the questions raised at our Webinar (13). Click here (and log in) to view
2. Dez Holmes, from Research in Practice joined us for a follow up conversation on Transitional Safeguarding, where she reflected on statements and questions posted by attendees. This is a great Podcast! Just over 30 mins. Click here (and log in) to view

The challenges of safeguarding are consistently with us and recently a variety of reports consultations and reviews on distinct aspects of child welfare and professional practice have been released. In this newsletter we will look at:

• The independent review into children’s social care
• The Children’s Commissioner’s reports into child poverty
• The Government’s child sex abuse strategy
• The LGA’s concern over the increasing incidence of serious harm suffered by children during Covid
• The Journey of the Domestic Abuse Bill through the Houses of Parliament
• Changes to Working Together ‘18

Over the past few weeks, the trustees of TASP have continued to work with a reference group and other stakeholders to seek to make the association relevant and useful to its members.

NEW TRUSTEE

 

To that end, we are delighted to announce that we have expanded our expertise base by appointing Nasima Patel as our latest trustee. Here is her biography.

Nasima is a Social Worker who has worked in both the voluntary and statutory sector at Director level undertaking policy work, developing and leading services for children and families over many years. Nasima led on the early development of services for sexually exploited and trafficked young people nationally for which she received a lifetime achievement award and then on a major change programme.  Nasima has been working in Newham for over two years on various programmes mainly related to early help, preventing exploitation, supporting the Covid response and service improvement.

Nasima is keen to see a shift in children’s work from a reactive response to families to a practice model that is steeped in relationship-based partnerships and one that is able to integrate the lived experience of families and communities especially with regard to poverty, poor housing and discrimination at its centre.  

TASP now has six Trustees with two further discussions in the pipeline. Watch this space, or take a look at our website for further updates.

Independent Review into Children’s Social Care

 

This has been trailed for some time by the DfE but was announced formally on 15^th January. It is to be led by Josh McAllistair.

Josh is a former teacher and was the founder of Frontline, the social work charity.  (https://thefrontline.org.uk). The reviews terms of reference can be found here .

Josh and his team will be supported by experts by experience. If you would like to be or nominate someone to be an expert by experience you can find out how to by visiting the Government review home page.

TASP has been in contact with Josh’s team to see if there is a possibility of getting a direct audience with Josh for our members, to have a discussion and they have responded positively to date. TASP will continue to pursue this.

Children’s Commissioner Report into Child Poverty

An impressive group of people from the full range of the political spectrum, as well as third sector experts have contributed essays to the Children Commissioner’s recent report into the state of child poverty in the UK.

The key issue that the report draws out is that the gap between well off and poor children after several years of lessening has started to widen again and without some bold action is likely to accelerate. See the report here.

The Government Child Sex Abuse Strategy

Published in January, the Home Office “Tackling Child Sex Abuse Strategy” has three objectives:

• tackling all forms of child sexual abuse and bringing offenders to justice
• preventing offending and re-offending
• protecting and safeguarding children and young people, and supporting all victims and survivors

It contains an aspiration to impose new duties on tech companies and proposes some new powers for the police and justice agencies to manager known offenders.  It wants to see strong local partnerships working together (and sharing information) to protect children from harm, bring offenders to justice and support victims and their families and communities. The full Strategy documentation is available here.

LGA’s concerns over serious injuries suffered by children during pandemic

The LGA have reported a 34% rise in serious incident notifications.  This is clearly a concern and the LGA are seeking resource to understand the issue better. The rise in numbers, while certainly a concern may also be linked to the change in the way in which serious incidents are now referred to the National Panel. Accessed here

The Domestic Abuse Bill

This should become law in the late Spring.  However, its most recent hearing, which was a committee of the whole House of Lords, had two days of debate and many amendments to it have been tabled. In a few days’ time those amendments will be subject to further debate and scrutiny. There may be a number of significant revisions to the Bill when it eventually becomes law.

Changes to Working Together 2018

We have been provided with a list of the changes to WT 18 which constitute what this time is a fairly minor update. Below is a complete list.

• Clarifying that consent is not needed for information sharing of safeguarding concerns arising from the Data Protection Act 2018 and GDPR.

  Working Together 2018 suggests that consent would have to be obtained to share information about safeguarding concerns. There have been concerns that the Data Protection Act 2018 and the GDPR altered the understanding of consent to information sharing, such that it is generally not applicable in safeguarding. The information sharing section of the guidance has now been amended to make clear that information sharing around safeguarding concerns does not need consent where other legal bases for sharing will be more appropriate, for example, information about safeguarding concerns should be shared where this is necessary (e.g., in the child’s best interest) as part of the performance of a task in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority. Corresponding changes to the non-statutory Information Sharing Guidance: advice to practitioners providing safeguarding services to children, young people, parents and carers (2018) will follow to a later timescale in late Spring 2021.

• NEW Inclusion of references to Domestic Abuse/ insertion of definitions and strengthening words on domestic abuse and controlling or coercive behaviour

  to include definitions and strengthen wording on domestic abuse and controlling or coercive behaviour to reflect the forthcoming Domestic Abuse Bill which will introduce a statutory definition for domestic abuse and incorporate the impact of domestic abuse on children as victims in their own right. These minor changes also respond to the recommendations of the Joint Committee on the draft bill where we committed to amend Working Together to clarify that coercive control is included within the existing definition of harm.

• New para on - Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 insertion of a section 213 B into the Housing Act 1996- duty to refer: and corresponding inclusion in the Working Together Statutory Framework document.

  This duty has been in force since 2018 but was missed in the last full revision of Working Together. The duty to refer to local housing authorities’ cases of (threatened) homelessness as a result of the Homelessness Reduction Act 2017 (which amended the Housing Act 1996) places duties on public authorities, including local authorities, to intervene at earlier stages to prevent homelessness in their areas. This duty applies to all social services functions, including early help, leaving care and child protection; and is intended to increase early identification and intervention, which is critical for safeguarding against homelessness.

• Updating contact details and streamlining the section on Armed forces
• Minor clarification on the voluntary, charity, social enterprise (VCSE), faith-based organisations and private sector paragraph.
• Footnoting Public Health England (PHE) reference to reflect forthcoming re-structure.
• Inclusion of reference to the words missing children
• Text inclusions to align with ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ (KCSIE) guidance 2020
• Inclusion and clarification on multi-agency safeguarding arrangements
• New table included to strengthen clarity on notifying a serious incident, rapid review and local child safeguarding practice review
• Change of title in relation to the term ‘Contextual Safeguarding’
• Inclusion Toolkit/ Framework on CSE/ CSA
• Adding reference to children of offenders
• Strengthening the wording around the safeguarding of children in mental inpatient settings
• Deletion of link in Appendix B- Guidance on safeguarding children with illness fabricated or induced.

 

National Police Chief’s Council

The Vulnerability Knowledge and Practice Programme (VKPP) are running a virtual conference, “Protecting Vulnerable Persons – Learning the Lessons and Developing Policing Responses” on Tuesday 16^th March 2021. They hope to look and discuss how agencies can effectively work together to meet these challenges and they invite colleagues to attend. For more details and to register for the conference, click here.

Thank you from TASP

Thank you to all colleagues who have supported TASP this financial year. We recruited 63 Safeguarding Partnerships as TASP members, with Greenwich, Sefton and Buckinghamshire joining since our last newsletter.  We have done some analysis on geographical spread of membership and have noted that we have a weaker coverage in the North East, North West and South West. We are in conversation with colleagues in the North East and we would like to appeal to the North West and South West regions to reach out and let us know if there is any way that we may be able to support Partnerships in these regions in a way that we have not been able to do so to date. We will also be sending out a brief survey to all current members to ensure we are meeting your needs. April will be the beginning of our financial year, and membership renewals will be upon us. If you need any further information or support, please do not hesitate to contact us.

We regularly receive and scan for information and news that we think will be helpful for partnerships. You can often find further information on the website and we will try to signpost this whenever we can. The things we include in the newsletter are guided by direct relevance, topicality and contributions and suggestions from members and TASP supporters. Inclusion and any commentary should not be seen as a direct endorsement but rather to help you have a look and make up your own minds.

We would really welcome contributions, especially if you have a story you would like to share that others would benefit from. Drop us an email and we can discuss how to include this at [email protected]

Please phone the Association on 07880 209 788 if you would like any help at all, or email Alison at [email protected] if you have queries.

Advertising with TASP Paid advertisements appear in TASP publications, including print and other digital formats including links to third party sites. TASP does not endorse or evaluate the advertised product, service, or company, nor any claims made by an advertisement. Advertising does not influence editorial decisions or content. TASP reserves the right to refuse, reject, or cancel any advertisement for any reason at any time without liability. TASP does not accept any responsibility or liability for the content of those advertisements and sites and the offerings made by third parties.

 

 

 

 

Speaking up for those involved in Safeguarding and Working for children and the vulnerable

 

Newsletter - Winter 2020

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to our winter letter. TASP is now 12 months old and we face the start of a new year in a very different position from how we might have imagined things to be last autumn.

Covid has brought a myriad of professional problems for those involved in all areas of child protection but it has also encouraged and accelerated innovation. It is hard to see how recent progress and increased uptake in digital communications will not significantly change working styles forever. The challenge for us all will be to make sure that more efficient working methods don’t compromise the safeguarding of the vulnerable.

The substantial retreat of professionals from the service user’s living space makes sense to prevent run away infections but once Covid’s threat has subsided we need to have a clear-eyed look at what the overall impact of care at a distance has been.  

TASP was at the forefront of discovering what was happening in the early stages of Covid through our Spring webinars, where we explored the challenges facing safeguarding partners. Two of our trustees have written an article for the Journal of Children’s Services on the observations and issues arising from these webinars. This will soon be available at the Journal of Children’s Services. We will include a further link on publication.

All our Webinars are recorded. We publish these on our website along with the slide presentations and full reports on dialogue generated during Q&A and breakout meetings during the session by attendees. These are available for download to TASP Members. To review all topics, take a look at our website at www.theasp.org.uk/webinars

TASP Journey

The aim of the Trustees has been to establish our organisation as a significant voice for safeguarding and to make known the important role that partnerships play in keeping children and the vulnerable safe.   We also want to be a place where those involved in safeguarding can find a community of people with a range of linked experiences, who are prepared to share their expertise and contribute to learning and improvement in safeguarding. We want their opinion to be sought and their knowledge respected.

For us to reach that point we feel we need to attract at least 50% of England’s safeguarding partnerships as members. We are pleased that we have made steady progress towards this goal and now 60 partnerships (out of 131 in England) are members.

The starting point for TASP was the changes made to the former LSCB arrangements, so our efforts are, for now, focused on this significant transition. However, we are exploring with non-statutory safeguarding bodies how they might contribute to and be supported by TASP. To that end we have appointed some new trustees who will help us extend our reach. TASP also collaborates with other groups and bodies who share similar objectives such as the Safeguarding Adults Board Chairs network and the Association of Child Protection Professionals (AoCPP).

TASP TRUSTEES

We are delighted to announce that we have increased our trustee body through the appointment of the following trustees, and you can see from their brief biographies how they will add to the knowledge, expertise and influence of TASP.

 Deborah Hodes is a Consultant Community Paediatrician and lead paediatrician at the Lighthouse, Camden. Deborah studied medicine at the Royal London Hospital and trained in paediatrics. Her first consultant post was in Hackney until she moved to UCLH in 2003; she was designated doctor for safeguarding in the London Borough of Camden from 2014 for six years. Deborah is a fellow of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and has an active role there. Her expertise lies safeguarding children, and in particular child sexual abuse and female genital mutilation.

 

 

Nazir Afzal was Chief Crown Prosecutor for North West England and most recently was the chief executive of the country’s police and crime commissioners. He has many current senior roles. He is a member of the Independent Press Standards Organisations, is advisor to the Welsh Government on gender-based violence and is the independent member of the Oxfam Safeguarding and Ethics Committee

 

 

TASP has provision for 12 trustees. Over the next few months, the current trustees will be working on plans for developing the Association, consolidating our recent progress and exploring new ways of providing value to members while attracting a wider range of partners

TASP Webinars and MeetingSphere

TASP has run 12 webinars since April and intends to continue them into 2021. You can check out the topics covered on our website www.theasp.org.uk/webinars. If you are a member of TASP, you can also view the recordings, download the presentations given and read the reports created out of attendee Q&A and discussion on our website.

The way that TASP webinars work delivering engagement and providing feedback is beginning to receive recognition as an effective way of conducting consultations with safeguarding partners. The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel and the National Police Chiefs Council have both recently used the TASP methodology to help them communicate with stakeholders with a view to improve forward planning.

Those of you who have attended the TASP webinars have also commented on the way that we gather material through our use of the interactive tool MeetingSphere. If you would like to know how you can make use of this technology in your work or if you have an idea for a webinar, please contact [email protected].

Sir Alan Wood's Review - Phase 2

On 7th July Sir Alan Wood sent a phase one report to the DfE of his review findings in relation to the changes to multi-agency arrangements for safeguarding children, which have taken place since June 2019.  His phase two report is likely to be completed at the end of 2020.

On 2nd November 180 TASP members and other guests joined Sir Alan for a webinar where we explored issues concerning:

Items we have been asked for and are planning for:

• Structure
• Leadership 
  
• Impact on Practice
• Independent Scrutiny
• And under a catch all of any other issues
  
  • The role of business managers
  • The financing of multi-agency arrangements
  • Benchmarking and inspection (or arrangements)

We are hoping that Sir Alan will join us again in 2021 to share his final report and discuss with him the next steps.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse (IICSA)

 Recently IICSA published its reports into the Anglican Church and the Catholic Church.  Both reports explore the issue of mandatory reporting and we might expect some recommendations from IICSA concerning that later on. In relation to the Anglican Church there is a recommendation that information sharing agreements with local statutory agencies are put formally in place. This will clearly impact local partnerships

The Whyte Review

A review into sexual and emotional abuse in British Gymnastics led by Anne Whyte QC   has begun and will report next year. With the input of Quinton Newcombe (a criminal barrister working on this), we hope to run a webinar on this in 2021.

The Domestic Abuse Bill

The Domestic Abuse Bill is about to have its second reading in the House of Lords.

Its aims are to:

• Create a statutory definition of domestic abuse, emphasising that domestic abuse is not just physical violence, but can also be emotional, coercive or controlling, and economic abuse.
• Establish in law the office of Domestic Abuse Commissioner and set out the Commissioner’s functions and powers.
• Provide for a new Domestic Abuse Protection Notice and Domestic Abuse Protection Order.
• Place a duty on local authorities in England to provide support to victims of domestic abuse and their children in refuges and other safe accommodation.
• Prohibit perpetrators of abuse from cross-examining their victims in person in the civil and family courts in England and Wales.
• Create a statutory presumption that victims of domestic abuse are eligible for special measures in the criminal, civil and family courts.
• Clarify by restating in statute law the general proposition that a person may not consent to the infliction of serious harm and, by extension, is unable to consent to their own death.
• Extend the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the criminal courts in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to further violent and sexual offences.
• Enable domestic abuse offenders to be subject to polygraph testing as a condition of their licence following their release from custody.
• Place the guidance supporting the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (“Clare’s law”) on a statutory footing.
• Provide that all eligible homeless victims of domestic abuse automatically have ‘priority need’ for homelessness assistance.
• Ensure that where a local authority, for reasons connected with domestic abuse, grants a new secure tenancy to a social tenant who had or has a secure lifetime or assured tenancy (other than an assured shorthold tenancy) this must be a secure lifetime tenancy

This will offer many new protections for domestic abuse victims and their families. It will also create new obligations for Local Authorities. Interestingly, at the moment, most of those responsibilities fall on upper tier authorities, so in London the Greater London Authority rather than the 32 boroughs will have much of the new responsibility arising from the Bill.

The second reading in the House of Lords may see this challenged.

Data on Children in the Child Protection System

 

On 26th November data was published on children in need, children looked after and children in the child protection system. You can view it here.

 

Barnardo's Launches Specialist

A helpline supporting vulnerable Black, Asian and minority ethnic children and families, who have been hardest hit by the COVID-19 crisis, has recently been launched by Barnardo’s.

The helpline offers therapeutic support and through its live webchat facility offers a lifeline to communities struggling to deal with issues such as sickness and bereavement and rising hate crime due to the pandemic, on top of entrenched existing inequalities, including poverty, financial hardship and health problems.

Thank you from TASP

Thank you to all colleagues who have supported TASP this year. We hope to see many of you at our webinars in 2021.

We regularly receive and scan for information and news that we think will be helpful for partnerships. You can often find further information on the website and we will try to signpost this whenever we can. The things we include in the newsletter are guided by direct relevance, topicality and contributions and suggestions from members and TASP supporters. Inclusion and any commentary should not be seen as a direct endorsement but rather to help you have a look and make up your own minds.

We would really welcome contributions, especially if you have a story you would like to share that others would benefit from. Drop us an email and we can discuss how to include this at [email protected]

Please phone the Association on 07880 209 788 if you would like any help at all, or email Alison at [email protected] if you have queries.

Advertising with TASP Paid advertisements appear in TASP publications, including print and other digital formats including links to third party sites. TASP does not endorse or evaluate the advertised product, service, or company, nor any claims made by an advertisement. Advertising does not influence editorial decisions or content. TASP reserves the right to refuse, reject, or cancel any advertisement for any reason at any time without liability. TASP does not accept any responsibility or liability for the content of those advertisements and sites and the offerings made by third parties.

You can advertise your services with us by getting in touch with Alison at [email protected].

This month, Me Learning are advertising with us to promote their safeguarding training. Please see the details below.

Advertising with TASP

 

 

Safeguarding training which mirrors the virtual way individuals choose to interact with the world today

 

By Anne Clayton from Me Learning   [email protected]

Many are calling it the silent pandemic – the steep rise in safeguarding cases now emerging as a result of the long months of Covid-19. Whether it is the number of missing vulnerable children, a rise in reports of abuse, neglect and harm, or staggering statistics relating to vulnerable adults, unfortunately however hard you look at the data for 2020, none make particularly pleasant reading.

Which is why, despite the growing pressures of the day job, it is more important than ever to prioritise how you equip your workforce with the skills and the knowledge they will need for the challenges of the year ahead. Like so many other things, the commissioning of safeguarding training has been less straightforward than usual lately. Many training plans have been abandoned because of social distancing and lockdowns, often leaving managers resorting to Zoom and other DIY training methods to try to keep their people up to date.

So, what many organisations are now exploring is the use of digital online learning as an alternative to classroom and blended training. This is a field which Me Learning has been specialising in for over a decade, so we are not newcomers to this thinking, or to your sector. We have plenty of experience of working with clients in health and social care both before and during the pandemic and helping them make the switch to high quality digital learning.

Me Learning already has comprehensive digital safeguarding learning, developed with and for those working in local authorities, health and education, with licences available online. We have recently updated all our safeguarding refresher modules to reflect the challenges faced by the safeguarding workforce during the pandemic.

 

 

Visit the Me Learning shop to view the courses available  

Me Learning has over 14 years’ experience working with public sector organisations, large and small and we are on the main public sector frameworks. We are ISO9001, ISO27001 and Cyber Security Essentials accredited, so you can be sure your security is in safe hands.

Our digital learning and systems are easy to use. Our learning works across desktop, tablet and mobile and our systems give administrators visibility on progress. This enables learners to schedule training around shift patterns and the many other priorities you face. We appreciate that you may have limited time and budget, but your people’s training really matters. Digital learning is up to 50% more cost-effective than traditional training methods. For more information, please contact me via email at [email protected]

 

 

 

 

 

 

Newsletter - Spring 2020

Welcome to our latest newsletter. The risks posed by COVID 19 are having a significant impact on us all, Situations like this gives cause for all to stop and think about our vulnerability. As well as the part we all play in facing up to such challenges whether on a personal, professional or collective level. This is of course not a new challenge for safeguarding partners given their role in protecting children and young people. Safeguarding partnerships are generally about getting the best from the efforts people make, to protect people and try to prevent or change the circumstances that can give rise to harm. Although the characteristics of a possible epidemic or pandemic might differ in some ways, the emergent response highlights the value of effective arrangements for working together and reminds us that such efforts represent steps made in good faith and the best use of intelligence and experience. The commonality probably rests in where we find ourselves in promoting hope in the face of fear.

Recently there was an interesting letter in the Times, following a leading article responding to what needs to be done to improve how we protect children. The author of the letter made a powerful point, which parallels with our response to COVID 19, that we could well improve our understanding of why abuse happens, particularly child sexual abuse, and therefore ensure that prevention is more effective. Although time and resources can work against achieving a coherent narrative and approach to how we understand and can recognise those who present a risk to children at a local or a national level.

We must surely look to provide further investment in pulling together research and experience if we are to shift from our often reactive approach?  Too often local partnerships are trapped in trying to keep up and meet with diverse and often moving expectations, (not to mention debates as to currency and worth), that they are not able to achieve the level of presentation and engagement that the current response to COVID 19 appears to be achieving. There must be merit in galvanising the public and professional response to threats that by their very nature undermine or raise questions about that which we tend to take for granted.

In this newsletter we bring to your attention a number of key recent publications, which serve to inform how partners and partnerships continue to shape their vision and versions of local arrangements. There are further details about our conference in June and we are pleased to have signed up some interesting key speakers and workshops, which we intend will help and promote with the continued transition between the former and the new arrangements. TASP will also be looking to work with Sir Alan Wood in the second phase of his review. 

Requests for members including renewals are being sent out, and as we move into the first full year of TASP we need to build on the commitments made by partnerships this year. Importantly we are launching membership for a range of other partnerships and safeguarding partners who are charged with promoting joint working focused on safeguarding, across the private and voluntary sector. We are also in discussion with other important organisations who may want to join TASP in creating a learning network that share and promotes the values and experiences that arise from safeguarding governance arrangements and practice.

Richard Burrows

TASP News

TASP Conference - Strengthening Safeguarding Partnerships: sharing the learning from the journey so far. 

The inaugural annual conference of the newly formed TASP will be held on 24th and 25th June, 2020. This will be the first opportunity to for all lead safeguarding partners to reflect nationally on the impact of the reforms suggested by Alan Wood, and later embedded in the Children and Social Work Act (2017) and in Working Together to Safeguard Children (2018). The conference will give participants an opportunity to hear the latest thinking from high profile national figures and to engage in practical workshops addressing the key challenges facing the new partnerships. Topics covered will include: the role of the three lead safeguarding children partners; the National Panel; the function of independent scrutiny; reporting to local and national bodies, and engaging with children, young people and families. The conference is a unique opportunity to network with your fellow professionals and leaders who are addressing shared national challenges and to ensure you are up-to-date with recent developments.

As situation develops with COVID19 we are actively looking at a number of options but we do want to emphasise we are committed to making the conference happen this year, subject to changing government guidance. We will of course, keep you all up to date, as decisions are made. 

TASP Membership Renewal - Your membership renewal requests will be distributed this week. The letter will include details on rates and flexibility for new Partnership structures as well as how to ensure your renewal is seamless. We hope you will be able to support TASP for a further year and look forward to your responses.

 TASP Trustee Position - You are able to view our Charity Status here. Our Constitution allows for up to twelve trustees and requires us to have a minimum of three; which we want to achieve as soon as we can, we currently have two. We are keen to ensure that our Trustee Board is diverse in make up; both professionally and demographically.

If you would like to be a trustee or have someone you would like to recommend please contact Chris Miller on [email protected] for a conversation. 

Review of New Arrangements - TASP have agreed to support Sir Alan Wood in the second phase of his work – more detail to follow!

Widening the TASP Network – we are currently liaising with a range of national organisations, who have an interest in safeguarding and partnerships, to explore how we can collaborate and create a broad learning network.

National News

New Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children appointed - Vicky Ford MP was elected to the Chelmsford seat in 2017 and was previously an MEP. She has briefly held roles in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Department for International Development. She has a background in commerce and finance. She has spoken in Parliament debates on a number of issues relating to children and young people. She is the fifth person to hold this office in five years.

Ofsted Annual Report 2018-2019 was published in January 2019. This met with a number of responses, including LGA  and ADCS.

Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel - We have no news yet as to when the chair will be replaced, but they have just announced their publication of the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel’s Annual Report and First National Review. Their annual report highlights patterns in practice they have gleaned from the 538 rapid reviews notified to the Panel since it was established in July 2018. From this analysis, teenagers and infants appear most at-risk of death and serious harm in the context of abuse and neglect. This worrying trend is something that they want to analyse further. Adolescents at risk of criminal exploitation is the focus of their first national review. "It Was Hard to Escape: Safeguarding Children at Risk from Criminal Exploitation", examines 21 cases where children died or were seriously harmed, in which criminal exploitation was a factor. The review identifies areas of innovative good practice and contains recommendations at local and national level. Despite a good level of awareness of the dangers of co-sleeping, the Panel has still seen a high level of sudden unexpected deaths of babies in the context of abuse and neglect. The national review into this issue is expected in Spring 2020.

A new report by the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel, calls for improvements to the safeguarding system. 

Headlines Relating to Issues Partnerships are Likely to be Interested in:

• Home Schooling - Northamptonshire have published a case review which provides further evidence that this is an issue that needs to be addressed
• Unregulated Care Homes have been featured by BBC News and Ministers have pledged to introduce a ban on the use of these types of placements for under 16’s
• Many partnerships are embracing Police led developments regarding Violence Reduction strategies some of which are embracing domestic abuse and driving forward learning from Operation Encompass

 

Spotlight on... Some Significant New Publications

 Child Sexual Abuse Centre has just published its Typology of CSA Offending as a part of their ongoing research programme. This is an interesting and helpful contribution to better understanding child sexual abuse in a familial setting, and encourages us to look at patterns of behaviour as opposed to focusing on the characteristics of either the offender or the victim. The research report is intended to be looked at in the context of the parallel work undertaken by the CSA team looking at Perpetration. The aim of the research is to inform practice, and help those who are responsible for policy and practice develop a stronger understanding of CSA in order to better address the complexity, dynamics and different presentations of this form of abuse, which as we know is often under reported.

 The Early Intervention Foundation have just published a report “Adverse Childhood Experiences: What we Know and Don’t Know and What Should Happen Next”. Increasingly when partnerships focus on early intervention and approaches that unify and provide focus across agencies ACE comes up. It seems to divide opinions between those who feel it has the potential to be a game changer and those who are somewhat doubtful about its value as a strategic means of improving how we tackle abuse and neglect within a preventative and early help focused approach. The report provides a welcome and comprehensive overview, and constructively provides evidence and direction for how the potential of ACE can play a role. The report, in our view, will help local discussions that seek to determine whether and if so how best to invest in this sort of approach.

Research in Practice (RiP) have published the Complexity & Challenge: A Triennial Analysis of Serious Case Reviews 2014-2017 with resources to support the application of learning into practice. Analysing 368 serious case reviews, relating to incidents between 1 April 2014 and 31 March 2017, this is the sixth consecutive analysis of serious case reviews by this research team; together these reports cover 14 years from 2003-2017. Developed in collaboration with Research in Practice, University of East Anglia Centre for Research on Children and Families and the University of Warwick, the resources support the application of learning from the Department for Education Report. 

A Helpful Publication given the Leadership Arrangements for Safeguarding - Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) has published a thematic report following inspections of the child protection work of police forces in England and Wales. The report includes evidence from 64 inspections, and considers the ways in which the police service, its safeguarding partners and the government need to adapt and respond in order to meet the challenges they face. Recommendations to Government include: the development of a national early help and prevention strategy to address the root causes of harm for vulnerable children; and a review of the unnecessary detention of children. Recommendations to chief constables include taking steps to reduce the unnecessary criminalisation of children.

Keeping Children Safe in Education - Government is consulting on revisions to ensure more of a focus on vulnerable children. The Department for Education (DfE) is consulting on proposed revisions to the Keeping Children Safe in Education statutory guidance which sets out what schools and colleges should do and the legal duties with which they must comply to keep children safe in England. A table of substantive changes is included in Annexe G and include: changes to the role of Designated Safeguarding Leads in schools so that they have a greater focus on improving the academic achievement of children on the edge of care; and managing allegations of abuse against staff. The consultation also includes the Sexual violence and sexual harassment between children in schools and colleges advice, which sets out what governing bodies and proprietors should be doing to ensure reports of child-on-child sexual violence and sexual harassment are managed appropriately.

Barnado's has published a report looking at the hidden impact of domestic abuse on children and young people in areas including: mental health; child development; harmful sexual behaviour; future cycles of abuse and youth offending. Published ahead of the Domestic Abuse Bill, the report makes recommendations including: that the Domestic Abuse Bill explicitly recognises the impact of this crime on children; that domestic abuse and coercive control are referenced as a key risk to children’s health and wellbeing and changes should be made to legislation to offer statutory support to child victims of domestic abuse.

CO-VID-19 Guidance for social or community care and residential settings on COVID-19.

Suggestions for spotlight items are welcomed. They need to demonstrate a direct relevance to current arrangements and issues, in order to highlight and contribute to local and national dialogue. Please email Alison at [email protected]

Items we have been asked for and are planning for:

• Emerging learning from annual reports
• Pen pictures of partnerships
• A day in the life of --- Independent Scrutineer--- Business Manager --- Statutory Partner
• The future of multi-agency training
• Unified Single Review Pilot in Wales
• Moving from SCR’s to CSPR’s

Spotlight on ... Gender Identity

We know that partners and partnerships are committed to issues of equality and diversity, so we though it would be helpful have a look at the issues and challenges around gender identity as this might impact on partnerships as they review or develop their position.

It is of course a complicated, complex and potentially controversial matter, but as many press reports highlight it is an issue that is increasingly important to some young people, their parents and carers. Therefore it is also important that partners as they represent and are responsible for services and measures to safeguard children will want to address.

The guide produced by Action for Children provides a useful introduction.

We also know aside from the complex issues around access to and consent for help, therapy and treatment for transgender young people, that being brave to be different can make people a target for bullying, so it is most likely that local policies will address this.

Much of the recent press coverage and related academic articles confirm that this is a difficult and highly politicised area, this probably means that partnerships will want and need to review where they are in respect to the range of issues it reflects, as well as more generally to the fact that we know that LGBT and TG people are more likely to be vulnerable and may not always recognise the traditional approach and gateway to safeguarding support as being for them.

If you have any experience or resources you would like to share then let us know.

From an internet search, we found these:

Havering Safeguarding Children – Transgender Guidance

Warwickshire Transgender Toolkit

News From...

Ofsted held their regular consultation and communication event with interested agencies in late February 2020. TASP were invited to attend. We did and were able to contribute thoughts to the impending review of Children in the Care System. This is to be extensive and wide ranging and may mirror the relatively recent Scottish Review.

There is currently a consultation exercise on unregulated placements; with a closing date of 18^th April. We urge members to contribute.

Unregulated placements will be the subject of the next focused inspection.

The next JTAI will deal with the subject of early help and early intervention.

We regularly receive and scan for information and news that we think will be helpful for partnerships. You can often find further information on the website and we will try to signpost this whenever we can. The things we include in the newsletter are guided by direct relevance, topicality and contributions and suggestions from members and TASP supporters. Inclusion and any commentary should not be seen as a direct endorsement but rather to help you have a look and make up your own minds.

We would really welcome contributions, especially if you have a story you would like to share that others would benefit from. Drop us an email and we can discuss how to include this at [email protected].

Please phone the Association on 07880 209 788 if you would like any help at all, or email Frankie at [email protected] if you have queries or comments.

With best wishes,

Richard Burrows

 TASP Chair

 www.lscbchairs.org.uk

 Association Phone 07880 209788

 

 

 

 

Speaking up for those involved in Safeguarding and Working for children and the vulnerable

 

Newsletter - Winter 2020

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to our winter letter. TASP is now 12 months old and we face the start of a new year in a very different position from how we might have imagined things to be last autumn.

Covid has brought a myriad of professional problems for those involved in all areas of child protection but it has also encouraged and accelerated innovation. It is hard to see how recent progress and increased uptake in digital communications will not significantly change working styles forever. The challenge for us all will be to make sure that more efficient working methods don’t compromise the safeguarding of the vulnerable.

The substantial retreat of professionals from the service user’s living space makes sense to prevent run away infections but once Covid’s threat has subsided we need to have a clear-eyed look at what the overall impact of care at a distance has been.  

TASP was at the forefront of discovering what was happening in the early stages of Covid through our Spring webinars, where we explored the challenges facing safeguarding partners. Two of our trustees have written an article for the Journal of Children’s Services on the observations and issues arising from these webinars. This will soon be available at the Journal of Children’s Services. We will include a further link on publication.

All our Webinars are recorded. We publish these on our website along with the slide presentations and full reports on dialogue generated during Q&A and breakout meetings during the session by attendees. These are available for download to TASP Members. To review all topics, take a look at our website at www.theasp.org.uk/webinars

TASP Journey

The aim of the Trustees has been to establish our organisation as a significant voice for safeguarding and to make known the important role that partnerships play in keeping children and the vulnerable safe.   We also want to be a place where those involved in safeguarding can find a community of people with a range of linked experiences, who are prepared to share their expertise and contribute to learning and improvement in safeguarding. We want their opinion to be sought and their knowledge respected.

For us to reach that point we feel we need to attract at least 50% of England’s safeguarding partnerships as members. We are pleased that we have made steady progress towards this goal and now 60 partnerships (out of 131 in England) are members.

The starting point for TASP was the changes made to the former LSCB arrangements, so our efforts are, for now, focused on this significant transition. However, we are exploring with non-statutory safeguarding bodies how they might contribute to and be supported by TASP. To that end we have appointed some new trustees who will help us extend our reach. TASP also collaborates with other groups and bodies who share similar objectives such as the Safeguarding Adults Board Chairs network and the Association of Child Protection Professionals (AoCPP).

TASP TRUSTEES

We are delighted to announce that we have increased our trustee body through the appointment of the following trustees, and you can see from their brief biographies how they will add to the knowledge, expertise and influence of TASP.

 Deborah Hodes is a Consultant Community Paediatrician and lead paediatrician at the Lighthouse, Camden. Deborah studied medicine at the Royal London Hospital and trained in paediatrics. Her first consultant post was in Hackney until she moved to UCLH in 2003; she was designated doctor for safeguarding in the London Borough of Camden from 2014 for six years. Deborah is a fellow of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and has an active role there. Her expertise lies safeguarding children, and in particular child sexual abuse and female genital mutilation.

 

 

Nazir Afzal was Chief Crown Prosecutor for North West England and most recently was the chief executive of the country’s police and crime commissioners. He has many current senior roles. He is a member of the Independent Press Standards Organisations, is advisor to the Welsh Government on gender-based violence and is the independent member of the Oxfam Safeguarding and Ethics Committee

 

 

TASP has provision for 12 trustees. Over the next few months, the current trustees will be working on plans for developing the Association, consolidating our recent progress and exploring new ways of providing value to members while attracting a wider range of partners

TASP Webinars and MeetingSphere

TASP has run 12 webinars since April and intends to continue them into 2021. You can check out the topics covered on our website www.theasp.org.uk/webinars. If you are a member of TASP, you can also view the recordings, download the presentations given and read the reports created out of attendee Q&A and discussion on our website.

The way that TASP webinars work delivering engagement and providing feedback is beginning to receive recognition as an effective way of conducting consultations with safeguarding partners. The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel and the National Police Chiefs Council have both recently used the TASP methodology to help them communicate with stakeholders with a view to improve forward planning.

Those of you who have attended the TASP webinars have also commented on the way that we gather material through our use of the interactive tool MeetingSphere. If you would like to know how you can make use of this technology in your work or if you have an idea for a webinar, please contact [email protected].

Sir Alan Wood's Review - Phase 2

On 7th July Sir Alan Wood sent a phase one report to the DfE of his review findings in relation to the changes to multi-agency arrangements for safeguarding children, which have taken place since June 2019.  His phase two report is likely to be completed at the end of 2020.

On 2nd November 180 TASP members and other guests joined Sir Alan for a webinar where we explored issues concerning:

Items we have been asked for and are planning for:

• Structure
• Leadership 
  
• Impact on Practice
• Independent Scrutiny
• And under a catch all of any other issues
  
  • The role of business managers
  • The financing of multi-agency arrangements
  • Benchmarking and inspection (or arrangements)

We are hoping that Sir Alan will join us again in 2021 to share his final report and discuss with him the next steps.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse (IICSA)

 Recently IICSA published its reports into the Anglican Church and the Catholic Church.  Both reports explore the issue of mandatory reporting and we might expect some recommendations from IICSA concerning that later on. In relation to the Anglican Church there is a recommendation that information sharing agreements with local statutory agencies are put formally in place. This will clearly impact local partnerships

The Whyte Review

A review into sexual and emotional abuse in British Gymnastics led by Anne Whyte QC   has begun and will report next year. With the input of Quinton Newcombe (a criminal barrister working on this), we hope to run a webinar on this in 2021.

The Domestic Abuse Bill

The Domestic Abuse Bill is about to have its second reading in the House of Lords.

Its aims are to:

• Create a statutory definition of domestic abuse, emphasising that domestic abuse is not just physical violence, but can also be emotional, coercive or controlling, and economic abuse.
• Establish in law the office of Domestic Abuse Commissioner and set out the Commissioner’s functions and powers.
• Provide for a new Domestic Abuse Protection Notice and Domestic Abuse Protection Order.
• Place a duty on local authorities in England to provide support to victims of domestic abuse and their children in refuges and other safe accommodation.
• Prohibit perpetrators of abuse from cross-examining their victims in person in the civil and family courts in England and Wales.
• Create a statutory presumption that victims of domestic abuse are eligible for special measures in the criminal, civil and family courts.
• Clarify by restating in statute law the general proposition that a person may not consent to the infliction of serious harm and, by extension, is unable to consent to their own death.
• Extend the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the criminal courts in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to further violent and sexual offences.
• Enable domestic abuse offenders to be subject to polygraph testing as a condition of their licence following their release from custody.
• Place the guidance supporting the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (“Clare’s law”) on a statutory footing.
• Provide that all eligible homeless victims of domestic abuse automatically have ‘priority need’ for homelessness assistance.
• Ensure that where a local authority, for reasons connected with domestic abuse, grants a new secure tenancy to a social tenant who had or has a secure lifetime or assured tenancy (other than an assured shorthold tenancy) this must be a secure lifetime tenancy

This will offer many new protections for domestic abuse victims and their families. It will also create new obligations for Local Authorities. Interestingly, at the moment, most of those responsibilities fall on upper tier authorities, so in London the Greater London Authority rather than the 32 boroughs will have much of the new responsibility arising from the Bill.

The second reading in the House of Lords may see this challenged.

Data on Children in the Child Protection System

 

On 26th November data was published on children in need, children looked after and children in the child protection system. You can view it here.

 

Barnardo's Launches Specialist

A helpline supporting vulnerable Black, Asian and minority ethnic children and families, who have been hardest hit by the COVID-19 crisis, has recently been launched by Barnardo’s.

The helpline offers therapeutic support and through its live webchat facility offers a lifeline to communities struggling to deal with issues such as sickness and bereavement and rising hate crime due to the pandemic, on top of entrenched existing inequalities, including poverty, financial hardship and health problems.

Thank you from TASP

Thank you to all colleagues who have supported TASP this year. We hope to see many of you at our webinars in 2021.

We regularly receive and scan for information and news that we think will be helpful for partnerships. You can often find further information on the website and we will try to signpost this whenever we can. The things we include in the newsletter are guided by direct relevance, topicality and contributions and suggestions from members and TASP supporters. Inclusion and any commentary should not be seen as a direct endorsement but rather to help you have a look and make up your own minds.

We would really welcome contributions, especially if you have a story you would like to share that others would benefit from. Drop us an email and we can discuss how to include this at [email protected]

Please phone the Association on 07880 209 788 if you would like any help at all, or email Alison at [email protected] if you have queries.

Advertising with TASP Paid advertisements appear in TASP publications, including print and other digital formats including links to third party sites. TASP does not endorse or evaluate the advertised product, service, or company, nor any claims made by an advertisement. Advertising does not influence editorial decisions or content. TASP reserves the right to refuse, reject, or cancel any advertisement for any reason at any time without liability. TASP does not accept any responsibility or liability for the content of those advertisements and sites and the offerings made by third parties.

You can advertise your services with us by getting in touch with Alison at [email protected].

This month, Me Learning are advertising with us to promote their safeguarding training. Please see the details below.

Newsletter – Summer 2021

 

Introduction

TASP is now more than a year old, and we are preparing for its first Annual General Meeting of members in September. At it we will be able to reflect with you on how our first year of activity has gone and where we want TASP to go. Our ambition has always been to be an association that has a significant majority of statutory safeguarding partnerships as members, while reaching out to other bodies who have safeguarding duties and concerns.

 

We want to be large enough to have a voice that is compelling to government while at the same time remaining available to our members. We want what we do to align with your needs and aspirations, and we are always looking for feedback on how we can do what we do better.  

 

TASP News

 

Annual General Meeting

We are holding our first AGM on 16^th September at 4.30pm. The agenda, our annual report, our accounts, and the biographies of those wishing to stand for election as trustees will be on our website soon – click here for all the details www.theasp.org.uk/AGM

 

We are delighted that our trustee Nazir Afzal (recently a desert island discs castaway) will be delivering a keynote speech for us. He will be available for some questions and answers after his address.

 

Please join us as we meet on zoom. Contribute to the future activities and stewardship of the association by participating in the discussion and by voting for our new trustees or, better still; stand for election as trustee. Nomination forms need to be returned by 12^th August. There is still time to nominate! All details and forms can be found on our website www.theasp.org.uk/AGM

 

Membership

We now have 83 (out of 131) statutory safeguarding partnerships as members and we are delighted that we also have as members, colleagues from the Channel Islands, the Ministry of Defence and now from the third sector.

We are working on developing our individual member offer and we now have one person as a member in their own right. Over the next 12 months we want to become an association that is relevant and available to a wide range of individuals, who have safeguarding responsibilities, where for whatever reason they cannot be a member through a corporate body.

We understand that membership may not be appropriate for some bodies, so we are continuing to explore other ways of working together, to strengthen the focus on the critical role safeguarding partnership arrangements play.

Request from Members

Creating Multi-Agency Datasets

Kent Local Safeguarding Partnership are seeking support from any business managers or analysts on creating comprehensive, up-to-date multi-agency datasets. Colleagues who may be able to offer strategies to achieving this are asked to contact [email protected] to set up a possible discussion. We are aware this is a struggle for many colleagues, and we will also be adding this to the agenda of the next Business Managers Network meeting which takes place on 13^th September 2021 at 4pm. Make sure you register your intention to join the meeting here www.theasp.org.uk/BMNetwork (there are links to all meetings this year).

Regional Support Groups

If you are either part of a regional support group for Business Managers and/or Independent Scrutineers, please could you email Alison at [email protected] to provide details of the group and a contact for the group? We get requests from colleagues, from time to time, wishing to tap into regional groups and we will then be able to point people in the right direction.

TASP Webinars

We are looking forward to reinstating our Webinars in the Autumn and are pleased to announce that our recent Webinar Planning survey was well received. ALL the topics proposed gained interest and we will work towards covering these topics over the next 6 months. Child Suicide and Key Messages from the National Panel came joint tops. We are in conversation with the National Panel and we will pick up discussions on Child Suicide and other topics going forward. All providing a strong indicative Programme for the Fall. We are pleased to confirm that a number of other topics have also been suggested and we will continue to consult colleagues.

A reminder, our Webinars take place on the 4^th Monday of each month (unless otherwise advertised), so please do put the autumn dates in your diaries!

• 27 September 2021
• 25 October 2021
• 22 November 2021

Don’t forget, TASP members can also log into our website at any time and watch the recorded webinar sessions, if they were unable to attend. www.theasp.org.uk/webinars

Recruitment & Vacancy Opportunities

Remember that TASP advertise vacancy opportunities on our website. There is a current vacancy for a Safeguarding Partnership Coordinator in Havering and a number of other vacancies are in planning at the moment – to check vacancies go to www.theasp.org.uk/vacancies

DfE advertising a National Child Safeguarding Facilitator role with a Local Government Focus. The Department is looking for an individual who understands and has experience of the workings of local government and in particular multi-agency safeguarding for children at a senior level, to work in partnership with national facilitators for police and health in supporting and challenging local safeguarding children's partnerships.

The individual will be required to support the local government response to the safeguarding partners reform work and the development of existing national policy to improve safeguarding outcomes for children and young people. To follow this notice  click here.  

Podcasts planned with King’s College, London

Further to the research completed by King’s College, London “Protecting Children at a Distance: A multi-agency investigation of child safeguarding and protection responses during Covid-19” we are working with KCL to produce some Podcasts where we host a discussion with the key leads on a set of themed topics to see what their take is. We are looking for some Member volunteers to help with this. The topics will be covering:

• Safeguarding Partnerships & Multi-Agency Working
• Communication (and IT)
• Education
• Looked After Children

The intention is having a three-way conversation with the leads from the KCL team from each theme, with an expert from each area and joined by a volunteer. If you are interested in joining in with these recorded discussions, please email [email protected]. We would only require an hour or two of your time and the actual podcasts themselves will only be 5-10 minutes long.  We will be scheduling these in September.

National News

 

The Case for Change

You will all be familiar with the review into children social care being led by Josh MacAlister. Its first report was published in June 2021 and can be found here

You still have till 13^th August to submit feedback, and you can access the means of doing so through the link above. There is a wide range of news blog posts and other items available to see on the Review’s Website  

We are hopeful that Josh MacAlister or some of his team will join us at a webinar in the Autumn.

Child Sex Abuse

The CSA centre in June published its latest findings on the scale and nature of CSA in the UK. With the range of reports emanating from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse, the not-so-distant revelations from various sporting associations and the continuing momentum that has built up around “Everyone’s Invited” this is a timely report that lays bare some important data on this subject.

Government’s Initiatives on Schooling for Children at Risk

Keeping Children Safe in Education. (KCSIE) new version published. Reflecting the recent Ofsted report re “Everyone’s Invited” the revised version KCSIE comes into force in September. This is likely to present significant opportunities and challenges for colleges and schools as it sets some new expectations which are also likely to be looked at inspections. The report can be found here.

Colleagues will also be aware of the recent directive from the Department of Education to Statutory Partners setting an expectation that Partnerships will be in a position to account for and assess safeguarding arrangements across schools and colleges in their area.

“We would particularly like to draw your attention to Ofsted’s specific recommendation for safeguarding partners: ‘to review work to improve engagement with schools of all types in their local area, tailoring their approach to what their analysis (produced in partnership with schools/colleges and wider safeguarding partners) indicates are the risks to children and young people in their local area’. We are therefore reiterating Minister Ford’s oral statement request that all safeguarding partners review how they work with all their schools and colleges locally (including academies and independent schools) by October half-term and set out what your offer of support to schools and colleges is.”

The Alternative Provision (AP) Specialist Taskforce

Pupils in AP are particularly at risk of involvement in serious violence and criminal exploitation. A new approach to tackling these issues is proposed via a pilot which is part of the work on AP reform which focuses on around twenty serious violence hotspots. Its intention is to improve how AP can work with local partners to provide expertise across the whole school system.

The AP Specialist Taskforces have used the Government’s Shared Outcomes Fund to pilot and evaluate the impact of co-locating specialists in AP. These professionals will be drawn from across health, education, social care, youth services and youth justice providing wraparound support for these vulnerable young people. 

SAFE (Support, Attend, Fulfil, Exceed) Taskforces

Under The Beating Crime Plan these taskforces will be established to work through mainstream schools to help young people at risk of involvement in serious violence to re-engage in education.  Details here.

The DfE which is leading on these initiatives will hold one or more briefings in the Autumn.

MPs Call for a register of home educated children.

On the theme of education, partners down the years have voiced their concerns about the ease with which children who are home educated slip through the safeguarding net. Well, MPs on the Parliamentary Education committee have gone further than we have seen before in asking for government action in this area. See here

 Serious Incident Notifications

The data on these were published in June. They show an overall increase over the previous reporting period, a particular increase in cases relating to children under one and 42% of notifications relate to child deaths. Data can be found here.

Ofsted Inspection Frequency

Ofsted is reviewing the frequency with which it inspects children services and have opened a consultation on this; which closes 20^th August. Details here.

Department for Education Updates its LAIT tool

The DfE have updated their Local Authority Interactive Tool (LAIT) to provide easy access to a wide range of data related to children and young people sourced from various departments across government. They have an instruction manual here  (which is worth a read, so that you don’t get into any Password Protected and Macro Enabled issues) and the Tool itself can be found here.

Spotlight on... Annual Reports

Annual Reports (Also known as Yearly Reports!)

Partnerships will be finishing their annual reports currently. In May the National CPSR Panel and the What Works Centre published its review on the previous annual reports. Its findings may help partnerships as they prepare to go to press over the next few weeks. Click here to see the report.

Many Congratulations

 

Finally, Many Congratulations

Many of you will have read of Carlene Firmin’s appointment as professor at Durham University. Carlene pioneered new approaches to understanding extra familial risks to teenage children and the phrase contextual safeguarding, unknown a decade ago, is now heard in every safeguarding partnership in the country. TASP congratulates Carlene and hopes that the association we have had with her, and her work will continue and once established she will join us for a webinar in early 2022.

News From...

 

We regularly receive and scan for information and news that we think will be helpful for partnerships. You can often find further information on the website and we will try to signpost this whenever we can. The things we include in the newsletter are guided by direct relevance, topicality and contributions and suggestions from members and TASP supporters. Inclusion and any commentary should not be seen as a direct endorsement but rather to help you have a look and make up your own minds.

We would really welcome contributions, especially if you have a story you would like to share that others would benefit from. Drop us an email and we can discuss how to include this at [email protected]

Please phone the Association on 07880 209 788 if you would like any help at all, or email Alison at [email protected] if you have queries.

 

Newsletter – Summer 2021

 

Introduction

TASP is now more than a year old, and we are preparing for its first Annual General Meeting of members in September. At it we will be able to reflect with you on how our first year of activity has gone and where we want TASP to go. Our ambition has always been to be an association that has a significant majority of statutory safeguarding partnerships as members, while reaching out to other bodies who have safeguarding duties and concerns.

 

We want to be large enough to have a voice that is compelling to government while at the same time remaining available to our members. We want what we do to align with your needs and aspirations, and we are always looking for feedback on how we can do what we do better.  

 

TASP News

 

Annual General Meeting

We are holding our first AGM on 16^th September at 4.30pm. The agenda, our annual report, our accounts, and the biographies of those wishing to stand for election as trustees will be on our website soon – click here for all the details www.theasp.org.uk/AGM

 

We are delighted that our trustee Nazir Afzal (recently a desert island discs castaway) will be delivering a keynote speech for us. He will be available for some questions and answers after his address.

 

Please join us as we meet on zoom. Contribute to the future activities and stewardship of the association by participating in the discussion and by voting for our new trustees or, better still; stand for election as trustee. Nomination forms need to be returned by 12^th August. There is still time to nominate! All details and forms can be found on our website www.theasp.org.uk/AGM

 

Membership

We now have 83 (out of 131) statutory safeguarding partnerships as members and we are delighted that we also have as members, colleagues from the Channel Islands, the Ministry of Defence and now from the third sector.

We are working on developing our individual member offer and we now have one person as a member in their own right. Over the next 12 months we want to become an association that is relevant and available to a wide range of individuals, who have safeguarding responsibilities, where for whatever reason they cannot be a member through a corporate body.

We understand that membership may not be appropriate for some bodies, so we are continuing to explore other ways of working together, to strengthen the focus on the critical role safeguarding partnership arrangements play.

Request from Members

Creating Multi-Agency Datasets

Kent Local Safeguarding Partnership are seeking support from any business managers or analysts on creating comprehensive, up-to-date multi-agency datasets. Colleagues who may be able to offer strategies to achieving this are asked to contact [email protected] to set up a possible discussion. We are aware this is a struggle for many colleagues, and we will also be adding this to the agenda of the next Business Managers Network meeting which takes place on 13^th September 2021 at 4pm. Make sure you register your intention to join the meeting here www.theasp.org.uk/BMNetwork (there are links to all meetings this year).

Regional Support Groups

If you are either part of a regional support group for Business Managers and/or Independent Scrutineers, please could you email Alison at [email protected] to provide details of the group and a contact for the group? We get requests from colleagues, from time to time, wishing to tap into regional groups and we will then be able to point people in the right direction.

TASP Webinars

We are looking forward to reinstating our Webinars in the Autumn and are pleased to announce that our recent Webinar Planning survey was well received. ALL the topics proposed gained interest and we will work towards covering these topics over the next 6 months. Child Suicide and Key Messages from the National Panel came joint tops. We are in conversation with the National Panel and we will pick up discussions on Child Suicide and other topics going forward. All providing a strong indicative Programme for the Fall. We are pleased to confirm that a number of other topics have also been suggested and we will continue to consult colleagues.

A reminder, our Webinars take place on the 4^th Monday of each month (unless otherwise advertised), so please do put the autumn dates in your diaries!

• 27 September 2021
• 25 October 2021
• 22 November 2021

Don’t forget, TASP members can also log into our website at any time and watch the recorded webinar sessions, if they were unable to attend. www.theasp.org.uk/webinars

Recruitment & Vacancy Opportunities

Remember that TASP advertise vacancy opportunities on our website. There is a current vacancy for a Safeguarding Partnership Coordinator in Havering and a number of other vacancies are in planning at the moment – to check vacancies go to www.theasp.org.uk/vacancies

DfE advertising a National Child Safeguarding Facilitator role with a Local Government Focus. The Department is looking for an individual who understands and has experience of the workings of local government and in particular multi-agency safeguarding for children at a senior level, to work in partnership with national facilitators for police and health in supporting and challenging local safeguarding children's partnerships.

The individual will be required to support the local government response to the safeguarding partners reform work and the development of existing national policy to improve safeguarding outcomes for children and young people. To follow this notice  click here.  

Podcasts planned with King’s College, London

Further to the research completed by King’s College, London “Protecting Children at a Distance: A multi-agency investigation of child safeguarding and protection responses during Covid-19” we are working with KCL to produce some Podcasts where we host a discussion with the key leads on a set of themed topics to see what their take is. We are looking for some Member volunteers to help with this. The topics will be covering:

• Safeguarding Partnerships & Multi-Agency Working
• Communication (and IT)
• Education
• Looked After Children

The intention is having a three-way conversation with the leads from the KCL team from each theme, with an expert from each area and joined by a volunteer. If you are interested in joining in with these recorded discussions, please email [email protected]. We would only require an hour or two of your time and the actual podcasts themselves will only be 5-10 minutes long.  We will be scheduling these in September.

National News

 

The Case for Change

You will all be familiar with the review into children social care being led by Josh MacAlister. Its first report was published in June 2021 and can be found here

You still have till 13^th August to submit feedback, and you can access the means of doing so through the link above. There is a wide range of news blog posts and other items available to see on the Review’s Website  

We are hopeful that Josh MacAlister or some of his team will join us at a webinar in the Autumn.

Child Sex Abuse

The CSA centre in June published its latest findings on the scale and nature of CSA in the UK. With the range of reports emanating from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse, the not-so-distant revelations from various sporting associations and the continuing momentum that has built up around “Everyone’s Invited” this is a timely report that lays bare some important data on this subject.

Government’s Initiatives on Schooling for Children at Risk

Keeping Children Safe in Education. (KCSIE) new version published. Reflecting the recent Ofsted report re “Everyone’s Invited” the revised version KCSIE comes into force in September. This is likely to present significant opportunities and challenges for colleges and schools as it sets some new expectations which are also likely to be looked at inspections. The report can be found here.

Colleagues will also be aware of the recent directive from the Department of Education to Statutory Partners setting an expectation that Partnerships will be in a position to account for and assess safeguarding arrangements across schools and colleges in their area.

“We would particularly like to draw your attention to Ofsted’s specific recommendation for safeguarding partners: ‘to review work to improve engagement with schools of all types in their local area, tailoring their approach to what their analysis (produced in partnership with schools/colleges and wider safeguarding partners) indicates are the risks to children and young people in their local area’. We are therefore reiterating Minister Ford’s oral statement request that all safeguarding partners review how they work with all their schools and colleges locally (including academies and independent schools) by October half-term and set out what your offer of support to schools and colleges is.”

The Alternative Provision (AP) Specialist Taskforce

Pupils in AP are particularly at risk of involvement in serious violence and criminal exploitation. A new approach to tackling these issues is proposed via a pilot which is part of the work on AP reform which focuses on around twenty serious violence hotspots. Its intention is to improve how AP can work with local partners to provide expertise across the whole school system.

The AP Specialist Taskforces have used the Government’s Shared Outcomes Fund to pilot and evaluate the impact of co-locating specialists in AP. These professionals will be drawn from across health, education, social care, youth services and youth justice providing wraparound support for these vulnerable young people. 

SAFE (Support, Attend, Fulfil, Exceed) Taskforces

Under The Beating Crime Plan these taskforces will be established to work through mainstream schools to help young people at risk of involvement in serious violence to re-engage in education.  Details here.

The DfE which is leading on these initiatives will hold one or more briefings in the Autumn.

MPs Call for a register of home educated children.

On the theme of education, partners down the years have voiced their concerns about the ease with which children who are home educated slip through the safeguarding net. Well, MPs on the Parliamentary Education committee have gone further than we have seen before in asking for government action in this area. See here

 Serious Incident Notifications

The data on these were published in June. They show an overall increase over the previous reporting period, a particular increase in cases relating to children under one and 42% of notifications relate to child deaths. Data can be found here.

Ofsted Inspection Frequency

Ofsted is reviewing the frequency with which it inspects children services and have opened a consultation on this; which closes 20^th August. Details here.

Department for Education Updates its LAIT tool

The DfE have updated their Local Authority Interactive Tool (LAIT) to provide easy access to a wide range of data related to children and young people sourced from various departments across government. They have an instruction manual here  (which is worth a read, so that you don’t get into any Password Protected and Macro Enabled issues) and the Tool itself can be found here.

Spotlight on... Annual Reports

Annual Reports (Also known as Yearly Reports!)

Partnerships will be finishing their annual reports currently. In May the National CPSR Panel and the What Works Centre published its review on the previous annual reports. Its findings may help partnerships as they prepare to go to press over the next few weeks. Click here to see the report.

Many Congratulations

 

Finally, Many Congratulations

Many of you will have read of Carlene Firmin’s appointment as professor at Durham University. Carlene pioneered new approaches to understanding extra familial risks to teenage children and the phrase contextual safeguarding, unknown a decade ago, is now heard in every safeguarding partnership in the country. TASP congratulates Carlene and hopes that the association we have had with her, and her work will continue and once established she will join us for a webinar in early 2022.

News From...

 

We regularly receive and scan for information and news that we think will be helpful for partnerships. You can often find further information on the website and we will try to signpost this whenever we can. The things we include in the newsletter are guided by direct relevance, topicality and contributions and suggestions from members and TASP supporters. Inclusion and any commentary should not be seen as a direct endorsement but rather to help you have a look and make up your own minds.

We would really welcome contributions, especially if you have a story you would like to share that others would benefit from. Drop us an email and we can discuss how to include this at [email protected]

Please phone the Association on 07880 209 788 if you would like any help at all, or email Alison at [email protected] if you have queries.

 

Newsletter – Spring 2022

 

Introduction

Welcome to our Spring Newsletter. The Trustees’ vision for TASP has been to make us a National Voice for Safeguarding. To achieve that end we believe that we need to have a majority of local authority safeguarding partnerships as members. We also want to encourage to join individuals and organisations whose interest is in improving and developing safeguarding systems and professional knowledge.

 

Since our inception in 2019 we have steadily built our membership base and in 2021-22 we reached 78 out of 137 partnerships (61%) and a further 9 members from British Crown Dependencies, the armed forces and some individual members, working groups and charities who are not able to access membership through partnerships. Regionally local partnership membership looks as follows:  

 

REGION	MEMBERS	TOTAL	%
Yorkshire & Humber	12	14	86%
North West	6	21	29%
North East	4	10	40%
West Midlands	12	14	86%
East Midlands	5	8	63%
East of England	8	11	73%
Greater London	18	30	60%
South West	3	12	25%
South East	10	17	59%

 

If you are one of our members, we do hope that you are renewing your membership and if you are not a member please consider joining.

 

We have been particularly successful in certain areas by being able to agree a regional deal for membership and we would really like to encourage other partnerships to also benefit from this, taking our standard subscription of £1500 for a partnership down below £1000 for many. To be able to do this, we need commitment from regional groups to renew (or join) together at one point in time.  We need good levels of support if we are to continue to grow our influence. Our popular monthly webinars connect us to you and you to issues of importance in safeguarding. They are made possible through our membership income. Please contact Alison ([email protected]) for more details.

The following months are going to be busy months for Safeguarding Partnerships and other bodies and individuals involved in the business of keeping children safe. This newsletter indicates some of the changes to policy, legislation and practice that we can expect to see emerge over the next few months.

We have developed a good network of contacts over the past year in central Government and beyond and we ask them to help us throw light on many of the topics highlighted below.

We hope to see as many of you as possible at our monthly webinars.  Do sign up now and do, also let us know what you would like to see covered. Details of the next two events are below and you can always check to see the latest webinars by going to our webinar page. It’s your Association and we want it to meet your needs.  (Suggestions to Alison at [email protected])

 

WEBINARS

 

Webinar 27 - Monday, May 23rd 4:00pm to 5:15pm

Making sense of risk and protective factors in safeguarding through the prism of Intersectionality

 

Professor Claudia Bernard will join us to discuss the implications for practice for Children and Families, for Adult Services and in Mental Health. We will invite colleagues to consider the application of Intersectionality in their work and in their local partnerships.

 

Register for Webinar 27 Here

 

Webinar 28: Thursday, June 23rd 4:00pm to 5:15pm

Special Event with the Archbishop’s Council

Information sharing with National Church Institutions

 

The Church of England and the Church in Wales are responding to the findings of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse - Anglican Church Report.  This includes the requirement for both Churches to ensure that information-sharing protocols are in place at a local level between different church bodies and statutory partners. 

 

To support this work, the Church of England’s National Safeguarding Team are launching their key stakeholder engagement with TASP on 23 June at 4pm to 5:15pm.  This is an additional event for TASP, outside of the core Webinar programme and TASP are supporting the Church of England in this work. This event will introduce IICSA’s recommendation, the options available to achieve the same, added value of the work and how, with Local Partnerships, the recommendation can be fulfilled.

 

Register for Webinar 28 Here

 

Webinar 29: Date TBC

Article 39 - Children's Rights in Institutional Settings

 

Carolyne Willow, Founder Director of Article 39, a charity fighting for the rights of children living in state and privately-run institutions and Martin Barrow, campaigning journalist and editor of Week in Care join us to discuss the issues and challenges in placing children in settings where they are not able to live with family members or foster carers and the inequalities in in care standards.   

Reservation links to be set up shortly

 

National News

 

Working Together Revision

We have received the following information from the DfE in relation to future revisions to WT18

“The Department for Education wants to inform you of their plan to update the Working Together to Safeguard Children (2018) statutory guidance. They intend to do this in two phases. Phase One will consist of a small number of factual updates, including changes to reflect the proposed statutory Integrated Care Systems planned for July 2022. Phase Two will be a more substantive update, requiring a public consultation. The Department for Education will continue to provide further updates on the process in due course. Working Together can be found at: Working together to safeguard children - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)”

Social Care Review

This was launched in January 2021. It is due to report in the next few weeks. It has recently published the results of the engagement work it has done with adults, who care for children involved in the child protection system and also the results of the engagement work it has done with the children’s workforce. These can be found:

 

Adults involved in the CP system

https://childrenssocialcare.independent-review.uk/wp- content/uploads/2022/03/IRCSC_Adult_Engagement_Summay_V_29.03.22.pdf

Children’s Workforce

https://childrenssocialcare.independent-review.uk/wp- content/uploads/2022/03/IRCSC_Workforce_Engagement_Summary_V_29.03.22_2.pdf

If you missed the results of the engagement work undertaken with children, published in October you can revisit that here.

 

https://childrenssocialcare.independent-review.uk/wp- content/uploads/2021/10/IRCSC_Engagement_Summary_October_V_28.10.21.pdf

 

The State of Our Children’s Homes

 

The Competition and Markets Authority recently published the results of their market study of children’s homes and foster placements. Such were the disturbing results that its Chief Executive said, “The UK has sleepwalked into a dysfunctional children’s social care market.”  This may be an area that Safeguarding Partnerships and Scrutineers need to be more curious about.

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/childrens-social-care-market-study-final-report

 

 

County Lines Matters

Recently the former Children’s Commissioner published a report warning that thousands of teenagers are ending up in care and at risk from exploitation because their families aren’t getting the support they need:

 

'Supporting families to keep teenagers safe from gangs, exploitation and abuse’

 https://thecommissiononyounglives.co.uk/the-commission-on-young-lives-publishes-new-report-a-new- partnership-with-families-supporting-families-to-keep-teenagers-safe-from-gangs-exploitation-and-abuse/

 

Additionally, you may find this blog useful. It has been published from “Experts bv Experience” member, Chris Wild on how County Lines Drug Gangs prey on children in care.

‘Children in care are being pulled in to do the dirty work on County Lines’

https://childrenssocialcare.independent-review.uk/children-in-care-are-being-pulled-in-to-do-the-dirty-work-on-county-lines/

 

A New Preventative Duty

The new duty for local partners to conduct homicide reviews where a knife or other offensive weapon is used has been heralded for some time. In late March the Government published a fact sheet detailing how these reviews will be conducted.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/police-crime-sentencing-and-courts-bill-2021-factsheets/police-crime-sentencing-and-courts-bill-2021-homicide-reviews-factsheet.

Summary report from Office for Health Improvement and Disparities

The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities have published a summary report on Integrated Care Systems to explain what Integrated Care Boards and Integrated Care Partnerships are, and what the Health and Care Act means in practice for babies, children, young people and their families.  It also explains commitments made by the government in the Houses of Parliament and sets out the next steps the government will be taking to implement the Act.

The report is available on the TASP website – www.theasp.org.uk/news

TASP News

Request from Members

Homes for Ukraine Scheme

Kent Safeguarding Multi-Agency Partnership are concerned about the safeguarding risks in relation to the Homes for Ukraine scheme and they are wishing to gauge what other Safeguarding Partnerships are doing in terms of logistics and best practice/risk management that we could all learn from. We have pulled together a very short survey which we would be really grateful for your input! We will keep it open until 20^th May, to give those who may be away on holiday a chance to also dip in and answer the questions. It will literally take a few minutes to complete.

Homes for Ukraine Scheme Survey

 

Recruitment & Vacancy Opportunities

Remember that TASP advertise vacancy opportunities on our website. This includes vacancy positions within the partnership as well as Chairs and Scrutineers.

Advertise your Author/Reviewer posts here!

We have also launched a new section in our Vacancy offer where you can promote any work for Authors and Reviewers of CSPRs, Domestic Homicide, Safeguarding Adults or Learning Disability Mortality Reviewers.  They will be promoted here

There are a few vacancies currently being promoted.

• Essex Partnership are recruiting a Project Officer
• Buckinghamshire are recruiting for a joint Independent Chair for the Children’s Partnership and the Adult Board
• Leicester's & Leicestershire and Rutland’s Safeguarding Adults Boards are recruiting a joint chair

For full details check our vacancies page  www.theasp.org.uk/vacancies

News From...

We regularly receive and scan for information and news that we think will be helpful for partnerships. You can often find further information on the website, and we will try to signpost this whenever we can. The things we include in the newsletter are guided by direct relevance, topicality and contributions and suggestions from members and TASP supporters. Inclusion and any commentary should not be seen as a direct endorsement but rather to help you have a look and make up your own minds.

We would really welcome contributions, especially if you have a story you would like to share that others would benefit from. Drop us an email and we can discuss how to include this at [email protected]

Please phone the Association on 07880 209 788 if you would like any help at all, or email Alison at [email protected] if you have queries.

Newsletter – Summer 2023

 

Greetings to all members and supporters of TASP! It is with excitement that we bring to you the long-awaited return of our newsletter.  In this newsletter we aim to keep you informed about our latest progress, share inspiring stories, and foster a sense of camaraderie among all members as we continue our journey together. Since our last newsletter we have broken new ground in a number of ways:

Collaboration on Research Project

Our joint research project to evaluate the effectiveness of multi-agency child safeguarding reforms is well underway. The two-year study has been given almost £500,000 funding from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and is being led by academics at King’s College London and the University of Bedfordshire’s Safer Young Lives Research Centre (SYLRC). To ensure a collaborative approach a number of other partners were invited to help including TASP and for the next two years Alison Thorpe (our business manager) will be helping to manage the project. The Big Survey will be the next step and we hope you will all be able to support us with this endeavor.

As an association (when we were still AILC) we helped with DfE and other roundtables to respond to the Wood report  and to help shape the legislation that brought in the current arrangements, so it is good, four years later, to be involved in the first comprehensive evaluation of the impact of those reforms.

Podcasts

We have recently launched our first podcast. Following a highly successful webinar on the teenage brain we decided to ask John Coleman of the University of Bedfordshire to go into more detail on his research into and his observations on teenage development. The way that young people grow and mature being an obvious component to consider to ensure a good safeguarding strategy.

 

 

Partners on Board

In order to be the recognised voice for safeguarding it has always been our ambition to have as members 75% of local safeguarding children partnerships. We have grown our numbers steadily since 2019 and now we have 72%!

We continue to offer regional proposals to achieve the target and hope, if you are not members already, supporting our cause.

 

TASP Interactive Map

Members can see a breakdown of Partnerships nationally by looking at our Interactive Map. The map has layers which can illustrate Partnerships, Local Authority Areas, ICB Areas and Police Areas. You can also zoom in and select ANY partnership and see a breakdown about that partnership, whether they are a member of TASP and a link to their website. We hope to add further data to this map in the future. Supporting TASP will assist in this development.

You can view the map here when logged in

 

If you are one of our members, we do hope that you are renewing your membership and if you are not a member please consider joining.

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IICSA Changemakers

TASP is one of 64 organisations that have come together to ensure that the findings of the IICSA enquiry are responded to in a meaningful way by Central Government; particularly where the IICSA challenge requires government action. These organisations have for the purpose of this campaign have called themselves the IICSA changemakers. We wrote to the Prime Minister on 21st  April and on 17th July he replied.  Both letter and response can be downloaded below.

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Working Together Consultation

Most members will know that the DfE have published a draft of the revision to WT and that responses to their consultation on the new arrangements need to be received by  6th September. Consultation here

Working Together in relation to Multi-Agency arrangements

There are some important changes to the sections dealing with Multi-Agency Safeguarding Arrangements. You can see these here

The Big Listen Survey

 52 Local Authorities contributed to The Big Listen Survey, the results of which were published on 24th July.
 
It involved children social workers responding to a survey that examined the rewards and stresses of their job. It found a high degree of optimism about their role in keeping families safe and together but a high degree of concern about workloads. There was concern about discrimination and racism experienced by minority ethnic staff. A report on this survey can be accessed here.

 

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Social Worker Numbers

 The most recent report on social work numbers , the use of agency staff , and vacancies is here.

 

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Child Q

 In June The City and Hackney CSP published a report detailing progress against the recommendations in the original report. Its findings originally and its conclusions in this follow up extend well beyond The City and Hackney. It can be accessed here.
 
 

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Removing Police Officers from Schools and the Police Response

 The Runnymede Trust researched the role of police officers in schools and recommended that they be withdrawn (see here)
 
The National Police Chiefs Council responded to that suggestion on their website
 

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Safeguarding and Children’s Mental Health

In November 2022 ADCS published a light touch review of the pressures placed on children’s social care by the increased incidence of child and adolescent mental ill health. It highlighted the shortage of Tier 4 beds in particular and provided some thoughts on how to manage the situation
 

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FFC Pathfinder & the Family Network Pilot

(27 July 2023)

DfE announced details of the local areas that have agreed to take part in the FFC pathfinder and the Family Network pilot.  They have set out the key updates and background below and further details are available on our GOV.UK page here.

Families First for Children pathfinder and Family Network pilot announcement  - Key updates

• Dorset, Lincolnshire and Wolverhampton are the first three local areas chosen to deliver our Families First for Children pathfinder programme. This programme will lay the foundations for a reform of children’s social care, by testing new approaches for family help, child protection, multi-agency safeguarding arrangements and making greater use of family networks. It will make sure that welcome, effective and targeted early help is available for families to help them overcome challenges, stay together where possible and act skilfully and decisively to protect vulnerable children when needed.
• A second wave of local areas is expected to launch in spring 2024. Areas can apply to join and details on the criteria and process will be made available later this year. 
• Brighton and Hove, Sunderland, Gateshead, Telford and Wrekin, Staffordshire, Hartlepool and Hammersmith and Fulham have been chosen to test Family Network pilots to find transformative ways to involve wider family members in supporting parents so that children can stay at home.  
• Mutual Ventures with Innovation Unit have been successful in an open procurement process to support local delivery areas in both the Families First for Children pathfinder and Family Network pilot. The programme will also be independently evaluated. We will collect and share learning as it emerges from the programmes with the wider sector so that all local areas can be supported to move in the direction of our reforms.

Background 
 
The Government published the implementation strategy and consultation, Stable Homes, Built on Love, in February 2023. It sets out a once-in-a-generation, system-wide, transformation programme for children’s social care.  
 
As part of this they committed £45 million to the Families First for Children pathfinder and the Family Network pilot. Through these programmes they will work with a selected number of local areas to design and test reforms and provide a vision for the future of children’s social care in England. They intend to work closely with the local authority, key partners including health, police, education, and the voluntary and community sector, and most importantly local communities to design and test reform. They will do this using a ‘test-and-learn’ approach with ongoing independent evaluation. This will all ensure the reforms work on the ground for the people that use them and will provide them with the necessary detail and evidence to inform further work in this area.   
 
The Families First for Children pathfinder will bring about reforms to family help, child protection, multi-agency safeguarding arrangements and unlocking the potential of family networks. They will provide a vision of a future system where families can be supported in a new, flexible way and develop a stronger multi-agency and expert child protection response.  
 
The Family Network pilot prioritises family-led solutions by increasing the use of family group decision making and piloting the introduction of Family Network Support Packages. Family Network Support Packages will look at how to unlock barriers to family networks in providing support for children to stay safely at home, through financial and other practical means. While this element of reform will also be included in the pathfinder, the objective of running a standalone pilot is to understand the impact of this policy and build an evidence base by testing the reform in isolation.  
 
The ambition is that both programmes will be examples of national government working with local government, organisations and communities in close partnership to deliver better outcomes for children and families. This Government states that it is deeply appreciative of the local areas that have agreed to work with us in spearheading our ambitious reform programme. At the same time, they will be sharing learning with the wider sector so that all local areas are supported to move in the direction of our reforms.

Remembering a Life: Fran Pearson

It is with enormous sadness, that I report of the sudden passing of a dear friend and colleague, Fran Pearson.  Fran was a great supporter of both AILC and TASP and led the Adult Safeguarding Network (from 2019 to 2021).
 
Fran will be hugely missed by her Adult Boards in Brent, Newham & Tower Hamlets and by other Boards which she has chaired alongside insightful national work on safeguarding adults and children, as well as by our whole safeguarding community.  A virtual condolence book will be set up in due course and colleagues will be able to make contributions. Sian Walker-McAllister, the current joint chair of the Adult Safeguarding Network, is arranging this and we will be in touch with further details shortly. 

Request for help from Kent Safeguarding Children Multi-Agency Partnership (KSCMP)

Kent are currently working on recommendations from a Local Safeguarding Children Practice Review.
 
One of the recommendations is linked to interpreters, particularly around the selection of interpreters, how information is fully and properly translated and that the voice of the child is appropriately represented at all meetings, assessments and plans.  As part of  the recommendation we need to see if other local authorities / partnerships have completed work in this area and to seek good examples from other local authorities that work with a range of communities where English is not their first language. 

If any safeguarding partnerships have done any work like this, or have examples of good practice / learning etc. please can you email Trudi Godfrey at [email protected]. Trudi can share this back with TASP and we will also add this to our Effectiveness Resources on the site.

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Your Views

 If you would like to contribute a short article to the newsletter, do a podcast or suggest a subject for our webinars , then we would be very keen to hear from you.

Please phone the Association on 07880 209 788 if you would like any help at all, or email Alison at [email protected] if you have queries.