Updated Chapters | |
Chapter Title | Details |
Safe Use of the Internet, Social Media and Photographs | This chapter has been refreshed and additional links added in Further Information. |
Female Genital Mutilation | A new section has been added on Other Harmful Practices. The Health and Care Act 2022 has made it illegal to carry out, offer or aid and abet virginity testing or hymenoplasty in any part of the UK. It is also illegal for UK nationals and residents to do these things outside the UK. Information has also been added on Breast Flattening which is an offence as set out in CPS So-Called Honour-Based Abuse Legal Guidance. |
Leadership and Management | Section 2.2, Appointment of Managerhas been updated in line with updated Ofsted Guidance – Social Care Common Inspection Framework: Children’s Homes. |
Staffing and Safe Recruitment | New sections have been added in to Section 2, Safe Recruitment and Employment Checks, on Prospective Staff Spending Time in the Home and Carrying Out Interviews, in line with updated Ofsted guidance. A link has been added to information on DBS Digital Identity Verification Guidance. |
Next update: October 2024 |
Updated Chapters | |
Chapter Title | Details |
Health Care Assessments and Plans | Information in relation to allergies has been added into Section 2, Health Care Plans. |
Provision and Preparation of Meals | Information in relation to allergies has been added into Section 1, Responsibility and Risk Assessments. |
First Aid, Home Remedies and Medication | A new Section 2, Allergies has been added. |
Allegations Against Staff | This chapter has been amended in line with revised Keeping Children Safe in Education. A new Section 2, The Difference Between an Allegation of Harm and a Concern has also been added. |
Staffing and Safe Recruitment | This chapter has been amended in line with revised statutory guidance Keeping Children Safe in Education. Information has been added to note that Keeping Children Safe in Education provides that copies of a curriculum vitae should only be accepted alongside an application form as a curriculum vitae on its own may not provide adequate information. Information in relation to online searches has also been added. |
New Chapters and Features | |
Chapter Title | Details |
Supporting Children and Young People with Disabilities | This chapter has been added. |
Updated Chapters | |
Chapter Title | Details |
Case Recording | This chapter has been updated in relation to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. |
Positive Relationships and Behaviour Management | This chapter has been updated to incorporate Ofsted feedback. Information has been added into Sections 2, Positive Behaviour Support, Section 6, Risk Assessment and Section 9, Recording and Reporting. |
Use of Restraint and Physical Interventions | This chapter has been updated to incorporate Ofsted feedback. Added into Section 4, Staff Training ‘This training will be refreshed on an annual basis’. Added into Section 12, Recording and Management Review, information on holding a restorative conversation with the child following physical intervention or restraint. |
Searching Children/Bedrooms | This chapter has been updated. |
Self Harm and Suicidal Behaviour | This chapter has been amended to include a link to Self-harm: Assessment, Management and Preventing Recurrence NICE Guidance in the Further Information section. |
Staffing and Safe Recruitment | This chapter has been updated in line with Guidance: Children’s Homes – Recruiting Staff (Ofsted). |
Updated Chapters | |
Chapter Title | Details |
Providing Personalised Care | This chapter has been updated and should be re-read. |
Case Recording | This chapter has been updated and should be re-read. |
Contact with Parents/Carers/Siblings and Others | Section 3, Supervised Contact has been updated to reflect a finding by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman that the supervisor's observations of the contact must be clearly recorded in the child's record and shared with the parents within 3 months of the visit. |
Safe Use of the Internet, Social Media and Photographs | This chapter has been updated and should be re-read. |
Advocacy and Independent Visitors and Independent Reviewing Officers | This chapter has been updated and should be re-read. |
Education | This chapter has been updated and should be re-read. |
Leisure and Activities | This chapter has been updated and should be re-read. |
Health and Wellbeing, Health Notifications and Access to Services | This chapter has been updated and should be re-read. |
Smoking and Alcohol | This chapter has been refreshed. |
Positive Relationships and Behaviour Management | This chapter has been updated and should be re-read. |
Use of Restraint and Physical Interventions | This chapter has been updated and should be re-read. |
Safeguarding Children and Young People and Referring Safeguarding Concerns | This chapter has been updated and should be re-read. |
Allegations Against Staff | KCSIE highlights the importance of sharing and responding to any concerns, about the behaviour of an adult who works with children, no matter how small. This chapter has been revised to also consider low level concerns, with a new section added in relation to the differences between an ‘allegation’ and a concern. |
Surveillance and Monitoring | This chapter has been updated and should be re-read. |
Staffing and Safe Recruitment | This chapter has been updated and should be re-read. |
Placements and Admissions | This chapter has been updated to note the importance of a child’s belonging’s being transferred in appropriate luggage and to add a link to the NYAS ‘My Things Matter’ Report – support and respect care-experienced children and their belongings when they move. (See Section 3, Planning). |
Care and Placement Planning | This chapter has been updated and should be re-read. |
Looked After Reviews and Disruption Meetings | This chapter has been updated and should be re-read. |
Moving to Another Placement | This chapter has been updated to add a link to the NYAS ‘My Things Matter’ Report – support and respect care-experienced children and their belongings when they move. (See Section 2, Arrangements for the transfer to Another Home). |
New Chapters and Features | |
Chapter Title | Details |
Equality and Diversity | This chapter has been added to the manual. |
Health and Safety | This chapter has been added to the manual. |
Female Genital Mutilation | This chapter has been added to the manual. |
Consultation and Participation | This chapter has been added to the manual. |
Leadership and Management | This chapter has been added to the manual. |
Risk Assessment and Planning | This chapter has been added to the manual. |
Recording and Reporting of Accidents | This chapter has been added to the manual. |
Updated Chapters | |
Chapter Title | Details |
Staying in Touch, the Safe Use of the Internet, Social Media and Taking Photographs | A link has been added in Further Information to the NSPCC Report Remove Tool and the UK Council for Internet Safety (UKCIS) Digital Passport. |
Education | This chapter has been substantially updated and should be re-read. |
Countering Bullying and Peer Abuse | This chapter has been substantially updated and should be re-read. |
Placements and Admissions | This chapter has been substantially updated and should be re-read. |
Updated Chapters | |
Chapter Title | Details |
Residential Child Care - Key Principles | This chapter has been refreshed. |
Information Sharing | This guidance has been reviewed and updated throughout to reflect updated advice on information sharing contained in the statutory guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children. |
Advocacy and Independent Visitors | This chapter has been updated. |
Staff Qualifications and Employment Checks | A note has been added regarding the checks which employers must carry out to ensure that any person applying to work in the home has the right to work in the UK. See Section 3, Safe Recruitment and Employment Checks. |
New Chapters and Features | |
Chapter Title | Details |
Child Criminal Exploitation and County Lines | This chapter has been added. |
Updated Chapters | |
Chapter Title | Details |
Education | This chapter has been to updated reflect changes from the revised Working Together to Safeguard Children. |
Blood Borne Viruses (BBVs) | This chapter has been given a general refresh throughout |
Recognising Abuse and Neglect | This chapter has been updated to reflect changes from the revised Working Together to Safeguard Children. |
Referring Safeguarding Concerns | This chapter has been updated to reflect changes from the revised Working Together to Safeguard Children. |
Allegations Against Staff | A fourth bullet point has been added into Section 1, Introduction to reflect the revised guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children. The new bullet point means this procedure now also covers situations where an individual has behaved or may have behaved in a way that indicates they may not be suitable to work with children. This is to capture concerns around transferable risk; for example where a person who works in the home is involved in a domestic abuse incident and this may have implications for their suitability to work with children. |
Preparation for Leaving Care | A link has been added in Relevant Guidance to the Joint Housing Protocols for Care Leavers: good practice advice (DfE and MHCLG). |
New Chapters and Features | |
Chapter Title | Details |
Surveillance and Monitoring | This chapter has been added to the manual. |
Updated Chapters | |
Chapter Title | Details |
Allegations Against Staff | This chapter has been reviewed throughout and updated as required. |
Notification of Serious Events | This procedure has been updated to reflect the latest Ofsted guidance for social care providers on the types of incident which they consider to be serious, and which therefore will require notification to the regulatory authority. |
Staff Qualifications and Employment Checks | This chapter has been reviewed throughout and updated as required to reflect the Ofsted Inspection Guidance for Children’s Homes – Qualifications of Managers and Staff, and Ofsted Disclosure and Barring Service: Guidance for Children's Social Care Providers and Managers. |
Updated Chapters | |
Chapter Title | Details |
Statement of Purpose | Wenlock House Statement of Purpose has been added and The Elms & The Steeples have been updated. |
Notification of Serious Events | This procedure, which sets out which agencies and individuals should be notified when a serious event occurs in relation to a child living in a Children’s Home has been updated to reflect revised guidance issued by Ofsted in August 2019. The revised guidance sought to clarify what is meant by a ‘serious event’ with the aim of reducing the overall number of notifications made to Ofsted, and in particular reducing the number of repeat notifications made as a result of submitting additional / updated information. |
Updated Chapters | |
Chapter Title | Details |
Statement of Purpose | This Statement of Purpose has been updated. |
Information Sharing | This guidance has been reviewed and updated throughout to reflect Working Together to Safeguard Children (2018) and the revised DfE Information Sharing Advice for Practitioners Providing Safeguarding Services to Children, Young People, Parents and Carers. |
Recognising Abuse and Neglect | Section 6, Sexual Abuse and Section 8, Bullying (including On-line / Cyberbullying) have been reviewed and completely updated. |
Safeguarding Children and Young People from Sexual Exploitation | Links have been added to resources for practitioners working with children who have been, or are at risk of, Child Sexual Exploitation published by Barnardos and Research in Practice. |
Notification of Serious Events | This chapter has been updated. |
Care and Placement Plans Guidance | This guidance has been reviewed throughout and updated as required. Information in relation to Pathway Plans has been updated to reflect that care leavers can request support from local authorities up to the age of 25 years. |
Moving to Another Placement | This guidance has been reviewed throughout and updated as required. Section 2, Arrangements for the Transfer to Another Home has been updated to include a note on the actions placing authorities are required to undertake if a young person is moving from the home into an unregulated placement. |
New Chapters and Features | |
Chapter Title | Details |
Statement of Purpose - The Elms | This has been added to the manual. |
Updated Chapters | |
Chapter Title | Details |
Education | This chapter has been updated to reflect amendments introduced by the Children and Social Work Act 2017. These changes relate to the status of ‘previously looked after children’. A previously looked-after child is one who is no longer looked after in England and Wales because they are the subject of an Adoption, Special Guardianship or Child Arrangements Order which includes arrangements relating to with whom the child is to live, or when the child is to live with any person, or has been adopted from ‘state care’ outside England and Wales. A new Section 5, Safeguarding in School has been incorporated. |
Updated Chapters | |
Chapter Title | Details |
Residential Child Care – Key Principles | Section 3, Achieving the Key Principles has been updated to reflect the General Data Protection Regulations and Data Protection Act 2018, and explains that children in residential care should be helped to understand the types of personal information which is kept in their case records, what it is used for, who it will be shared with and how long it will be kept for. The child’s right to access their case record should also be explained to them. |
Children’s Guide | This section has been updated following publication of the General Data Protection Regulations and Data Protection Act 2018 to recommend that Children’s Guides contain information for children and young people on the data / records which the home keeps on them, as well as explaining the right of children and young people to access their case file. |
Information Sharing and Confidentiality | This guidance has been reviewed and updated following publication of the General Data Protection Regulations and Data Protection Act 2018. |
Case Recording | This guidance has been reviewed and updated following publication of the General Data Protection Regulations and Data Protection Act 2018. |
Access to Records | This guidance has been reviewed and updated following publication of the General Data Protection Regulations and Data Protection Act 2018. |
Health Care Assessments and Plans | Section 1, Health Care Assessments has been updated with regard to consent to medical treatment. |
Smoking and Alcohol | This chapter has been extensively updated and should be read throughout. |
Preparation for Leaving Care | This chapter has been substantially updated and should be re-read. |