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Contents

1. Scope of the Role
2. Objectives
3. Accountability
4. Integration with Other Forums
5. Membership
6. Role of Elected Members and Non-Executive Directors
7. Ways of Working
8. Annual Business Plan
9. LSCB Annual Report
10. Monitoring and Inspection

1. Scope of the Role

Working Together to Safeguard Children (2010) states that the SCB role includes the safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children in three broad areas of activity:

• Firstly, activity that affects all children and aims to identify and prevent maltreatment or impairment of health and development, and ensure that children grow up in circumstances consistent with safe and effective care.  For example:
  • Mechanisms to identify abuse and neglect wherever they may occur;
  • Work to increase understanding of safeguarding children issues in the professional and wider community, promoting the message that safeguarding is everybody's responsibility;
  • Work to ensure that organisations working or in contact with children, operate recruitment and human resources practices that take account of the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children;
  • Monitoring the effectiveness of organisations' implementation of their duties under section 11 of the Children Act 2004;
  • Ensuring children know who they can contact when they have concerns about their own or others' safety and welfare;
  • Ensuring that adults (including those who are harming children) know who they can contact if they have a concern about a child or young person;
  • Work to prevent accidents and other injures and, where possible, deaths; and
  • Work to prevent and respond effectively to bullying.
• Secondly, proactive work that aims to target particular groups, including developing thresholds for working with children and families where the child comes within the definition of a Child in Need but is not suffering or likely to suffer Significant Harm and work to safeguard and promote the welfare of groups of children potentially more vulnerable than the general population, for example because they may be, children who have run away from home, children missing from school or childcare, disabled or living away from home or in the youth justice system including custody and children and young people affected by gangs.
• Thirdly, responsive work to protect children who are suffering or likely to suffer Significant Harm, including children who are
  
  • Abused and neglected within families including those affected as a result of domestic violence or substance misuse or parental mental ill health;
  • Abused outside of the family by adults known to them or by strangers;
  • Abused or neglected by professional carers whilst in an institution or anywhere else where children are cared for away from home;
  • Abused by other young people;
  • Abused through sexual exploitation;
  • Young victims of crime and;
  • Perpetrators of abuse

Where particular children are the subject of intervention, then that safeguarding work should aim to help them to achieve all five Every Child Matters outcomes to have optimum life chances.  It is within the remit of the SCB to check the extent to which this has been achieved as part of their monitoring and evaluation work.

2. Objectives

The core objectives of the Safeguarding Children Board (SCB) is to coordinate local work to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and to ensure the effectiveness of what the member organisations do individually and together.

Specific objectives of the SCB are to:

• Develop and agree inter-agency policies and procedures for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, consistent with Working Together to Safeguard Children (2010), including:
  1. the action to be taken where there are concerns about a child’s safety or welfare, including thresholds for intervention
  2. training of those working with children or in services affecting the safety and welfare of children
  3. recruitment and supervision of persons who work with children
  4. investigation of allegations concerning persons working with children
  5. the safety and welfare of privately fostered children
  6. cooperation with neighbouring children’s social care services authorities and their Board partners
• Participate in the planning of services for children in the local authority area
• Communicate the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of the child
• Develop procedures to ensure a coordinated response to unexpected child deaths
• Monitor the effectiveness of what is done to safeguard and promote the welfare of children - see Section 10, Monitoring and Inspection
• Undertake appropriate Serious Case Reviews and ensure lessons are understood and acted upon
• Collect and analyse information about child deaths

3. Accountability

Whilst the SCB has a role in coordinating and ensuring the effectiveness of local individuals’ and organisations’ work to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, it is not accountable for their operational work.

Each Board partner retains its own existing lines of accountability for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children by their services.

The SCB does not have the power to direct other organisations.

4. Integration with other Forums

It is important that safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is seen as part of the wider context of the Children's Strategic Partnerships and that LSCB policies, guidance and procedures such as these reflect and contribute to the wider goals of improving the wellbeing of all children.

The LSCB is a formal consultee during the development of the Children and Young People's Plan.

The LSCB complements the role of the Children's Trust Board and the LSCB should be represented on the Children's Trust Board although the two bodies should be chaired by different people.

The Children's Trust Board - drawing on support and challenge from the LSCB - will ensure that the Children and Young People's Plan reflects the strengths and weaknesses of safeguarding arrangements and practices in the area and what more needs to be done by each partner to improve safeguarding and promotion of welfare.

5. Membership

The SCB is made of organisations which will designate particular, named people as their SCB member so that there is a consistency and continuity in membership.

Members will be those with a strategic role in relation to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children within their organisation.  They should be able to:

• Speak for their organisation with authority
• Commit their organisation on policy and practice matters
• Hold their organisation to account

As well as the local authority with responsibility for Children and Young People’s Services, members of the SCB must include:

5.1 Statutory Members

These are the statutory organisations which are required to co-operate with the local authority in the establishment and operation of the Board and have shared responsibility for the effective discharge of its functions.  The Board partners are:

• District Councils in local government areas which have them
• The Chief Officer of Police for a police area any part of which falls within the area of the local authority
• The local Probation Board for area, any part of which falls within the area of the LA
• The Youth Offending Team for an area any part of which falls within the area of the local authority
• Strategic Health Authorities and Primary Care Trusts for an area any part of which falls within the area of the local authority;
• NHS Trusts and NHS Foundation Trusts all or most of whose hospitals or establishments and facilities are situated in the local authority area
• The Connexions Service providing services in any part of the area of the local authority
• CAFCASS (Children and Family Courts Advisory and Support Service)
• The governor or director of any Secure Training Centre in the area of the local authority; and
• The governor or director of any prison in the local authority area which ordinarily detains children.

The Local Authority should ensure that those responsible for adult social services functions are represented on the SCB, because of the importance of adult social care in safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. Similarly health organisations should ensure that adult health services and in particular adult mental health and adult disability services are represented on the SCB.

5.2 Other Members

The Local Authority should also secure the involvement of other relevant local organisations and the NSPCC where a representative is made available.

In addition, two representatives of the local community should be appointed as full LSCB members (their role is described in paragraph 3.75 of WT 2010) and the LSCB must also appoint representation from schools. This means taking steps to ensure that the following are represented: the governing body of a maintained school; the proprietor of a non-maintained special school; the proprietor of a city technology college, a city college for the technology of the arts or an Academy; and the governing body of a further education institution the main site of which is situated in the authority's area. Independent schools should also be included as appropriate (paragraph 3.78 of WT 2010).

LSCBs should engage with faith groups, children's centres, GPs, independent healthcare organisations, and voluntary and community sector organisations including bodies providing specialist care to children with severe disabilities and complex health needs.

In areas where they have significant local activity, the armed forces (in relation both to the families of Service men and women and those personnel that are under the age of 18),  the UK Border Agency should also be included.

Where the number or size of similar organisations precludes individual representation on the LSCB, for example in the case of schools or voluntary youth bodies, the Local Authority should seek to involve then through existing networks or forums, or by encouraging and developing suitable networks or forums to facilitate communication between organisations and with the LSCB.

5.3 Involvement of other agencies and groups

Each LSCB should make appropriate arrangements at a strategic management level to involve others in its work as needed. For example, there may be some organisations or individuals which are in theory represented by the statutory Board partners but which need to be engaged because of their particular role in service provision to children and families or role in public protection. There will be other organisations which the LSCB needs to link to, either through inviting them to join the LSCB or through some other mechanism. For example

• The Coronial Service
• Dental health services
• Domestic Violence Forums
• Drug and alcohol misuse services
• Drug Action Teams
• Housing, culture and leisure services
• Housing providers
• Local Authority legal services
• Local MAPPA;
• Local sports bodies and services
• Local Family Justice Council
• Sexual health services
• Crown Prosecution Service
• Witness Support Services.
• Local Criminal Justice Board
• Other health providers such as pharmacists
• Representatives of service users

Each LSCB will also need to draw on the work of key national organisations and liaise with them when necessary for example the new Child Exploitation and On-Line Protection Centre.

5.4  The Role of Members

The individual members of each LSCB have a duty as members to contribute to the effective work of the LSCB, for example, in making the LSCB assessment of performance as objective as possible, and in recommending or deciding upon the necessary steps to put right any problems. This should take precedence, if necessary, over their role as a representative of their organisation. Members of each LSCB should have a clear written statement of their roles and responsibilities.

5.5  Chair

It is the responsibility of the local authority, after consultation with the Board partners, to appoint the Chair.  The Chair should not be an Elected Member. It is presumed that the LSCB Chair will be independent of local agencies.

The Chair will be accountable to the local authority, via the Director of Children's Services, for the effectiveness of their work as LSCB Chair.

The Chair will have a crucial role in making certain that the SCB operates effectively and secures an independent voice for the SCB. He or she should be of sufficient standing and expertise to command the respect and support of all partners. The Chair should act objectively and distinguish their role as SCB chair from any day to day role for example, as an employee of the local authority.

6. Role of Elected Members and Non-Executive Directors

Local authority elected members and non-executive directors of other LSCB partners should not be members of a LSCB. Their role, through their membership of governance bodies such as the cabinet of the local authority or a scrutiny committee or a governance board, is to hold their organisation and its officers to account for their contribution to the effective functioning of the LSCB.

The Lead Member for Children's Services within the local authority will have a particular focus on how the local authority is fulfilling its responsibilities to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and will hold the Director of Children's Services to account for the work of the LSCB.

7. Ways of Working

The working practices of LSCB members will be considered locally with a view to securing effective operation of the LSCB functions and ensuring all member organisations are effectively engaged.

It may be appropriate for the LSCB to set up working groups or sub-groups, on a short-term or a standing basis to:

• Carry out specific tasks, for example: maintaining and updating procedures
• Provide specialist advice, for example: in respect of working with specific ethnic and cultural groups, or with disabled children and/or parents
• Bring together representatives of a sector to discuss relevant issues and to provide a contribution from that sector to SCB work, for example: schools, the voluntary and community sector, faith groups; and,
• Focus on defined geographical areas within the SCB boundaries.
• As a ‘core group’ or ‘executive group’ of SCB members, to undertake some day-to-day business by local agreement.

Each LSCB in the Consortium will establish local arrangements for working groups or sub-groups the details of which will be available on their respective websites.

All groups which are established by the LSCB should work to agreed terms of reference, with explicit lines of reporting, communication and accountability to the LSCB. This may take the form of a written constitution detailing a job description for all members and service level agreements between the LSCB, agencies and other partnerships. Chairs of sub-groups should be LSCB members.

Each LSCB should consider how to put in place arrangements to ascertain views of parents and carers and the wishes and feelings of children (including children who might not ordinary be heard) about the priorities and effectiveness of local safeguarding work, including issues of access to services and contact points for children to safeguard and promote welfare. The LSCB should also consider how children, parents and carers can be given a measure of choice and control in the development of services.

8. Annual Business Plan

Each SCB will produce an annual business plan setting out:

• A work programme for the following year to include measurable objectives
• Relevant management information of child protection activity in the previous year
• Progress against objectives established for the year ending

9. LSCB Annual Report

There is a requirement (under the Apprenticeship, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009) for the LSCB to produce and publish an annual report on the effectiveness of safeguarding in the local area, including the implementation of Serious Case Review action plans; and to send a copy to the Children's Trust Board in time to influence and contribute to the Children and Young Person's Plan.

10. Monitoring and Inspection

The LSCB's work to ensure the effectiveness of work to safeguard and promote the welfare of children by member organisations will be a peer review process, based on self-evaluation, performance indicators and a joint audit.  Its aim is to promote high standards of safeguarding work and to foster a culture of continuous improvement.  It will also identify and act on identified weaknesses in services.

Where it is found that a Board partner is not performing effectively in safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, and the LSCB is not convinced that any planned action to improve performance will be adequate, the LSCB chair or a member or employee designated by the chair should explain these concerns to those individuals and organisations that need to be aware of the failing and may be able to take action.

As part of the monitoring and evaluation function of the LSCB, there is a requirement for each LSCB to ensure appropriate links with any secure setting in its area and be able to scrutinise restraint techniques, the polices and protocols which surround the use of restraint, and incidences and injuries. LSCB's with a secure establishment(s) in its areas should report annually to the Youth Justice Board on how effectively the establishment(s) is managing use of restraint, the reports should be provided more frequently if there are concerns on the use of restraint. Consideration should be given to sharing the information with relevant inspectorates (HMIP and Ofsted. Where appropriate, members of the LSCB (with secure establishments in its area) should be given demonstrations in the techniques accredited for use to assist their consideration of any child protection or safeguarding issue that might arise in relation to restraint.

All incidents when restraint is used in custodial settings and in which results in an injury to a young person should be notified to, and subsequent action monitored, by the LSCB.

Individual services will be assessed through their own quality regimes.  Annual performance assessment of council children’s services (APA), by OFSTED, looks at the contribution of local authorities to outcomes for children, with an overall judgement supported by separate judgements on social care services for children and on education services. It draws on performance information, inspection evidence, other documents and self assessment. These inspectorates in their other work, plus other inspectorates such as the Healthcare Commission, and Her Majesty’s Inspectorates of Constabulary, Prisons, and Probation, will have as part of their remit considering the effectiveness of their agencies’ role in safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. The LSCB should draw on their work.

The LSCB will be able to feed its views about the quality of work to safeguard and promote the welfare of children into these processes.

The effectiveness of the LSCB itself should also form part of the judgement of the Inspectorates. This may be done, for example, by examining the quality of the LSCB’s planning and determining whether key objectives have been met. It will be for the Local Authority to lead in taking action, if intervention in the LSCB’s own processes is necessary.

End