LSCB Essentials
Newsletter for Partners and the Community
Issue: 01. October
Central Bedfordshire
Safeguarding Children Board
Contents:
Item:
1. Foreword by Alan Caton OBE, LSCB Independent Chair
2. Launch of our new Central Bedfordshire website
3. Current training opportunities and future direction
4. Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation in
Rotherham 1997 – 2013
5. Multi –Agency Audits
6. 2013 – 2014 annual report
7. Private fostering
8. Neglect guidance
9. Child Death Overview Panel
If you are concerned for the welfare of a child please contact the Central Bedfordshire Council Access and Referral Team. They are available from
8:45am to 5:15pm Monday to Friday: Telephone number 0300 300 8585. You can also contact the NSPCC on 0808 800 5000 24 hours a day. If you
think a child is in immediate danger, call the police on 999.
Contact Details:
Item:
1.
A word from the Chair
Alan Caton OBE, LSCB Independent Chair
I am very pleased to have this opportunity to introduce myself as the
new independent chair of Central Bedfordshire Safeguarding Children
Board. My background has been in policing, having served with the
Suffolk Constabulary for 30 years. The last 5 years of my police career
saw me head up the department responsible for managing child abuse
investigations, domestic abuse, vulnerable adult investigations as well
as coordinating the constabulary’s response to missing people, HBA,
forced marriage and child sexual exploitation. During this time I have
gained a wide experience of partnership working, which is crucial when
comes to looking at the way all agencies work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of
children and young people. I have extensive experience of Safeguarding Children Boards having
sat as a full member on the Suffolk Board since 2009 and chairing a number of the LSCB sub
groups. In addition, I am also the independent chair for the Islington Safeguarding Children Board.
Tel:0300 300 6455
LSCB@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk
Since my appointment I have spent some time in Central Bedfordshire and have seen that there is
a strong commitment from all agencies to partnership working in the county, and a very good
understanding of the benefits of early intervention and prevention in relation to safeguarding. I
believe this a key foundation stone of effective practice and will be a high priority for the CBSCB in
the year ahead.
My role as Independent Chair is to keep the Board focused on two key tasks: to co-ordinate the
efforts of all the agencies represented on the board to achieve effective safeguarding, and to
ensure that children and young people are being successfully safeguarded within the wider
partnership. This means we must have good information about what is happening within services,
that thresholds are right, that the quality of the safeguarding practice is good, and, most
importantly, that we can see good outcomes are being achieved for all children and young people.
It means we will ensure the child or young person, their views and their needs, are kept at the
centre of our work.
One of the roles of the Board will be to ensure that we are in touch with what is happening on the
ground, and that services employ good quality casework and care planning, good inter-agency
communication and co-operation, along with a focus on positive outcomes. Every agency has a
representative on the Board, so please use your link with the Board to let us know if there are
improvements we could make in our training provision, policies and procedures, or in other support
activities which could improve safeguarding practice.
At our last meeting in September we were pleased to welcome the following new members onto
the Board:
• Dr Sanhita Chakrabarti, Assistant Director of Public Health, Core Public Health Team Bedford
Borough and Central Bedfordshire Councils;
• Patricia Reid –Director of Nursing, Luton and Dunstable University Hospital
• Sarah Mortimer, Assistant Principal Community & Academic Learning, Central Bedfordshire
College
I look forward to working with you on this challenging agenda over the coming months and driving
forward the strength of safeguarding practice in Central Bedfordshire.
2.
Central Bedfordshire Safeguarding Children Board has launched a new website. Please subscribe
the website to receive regular updates and do get in touch if you have any feedback on the
website or you would like to see something added to it.
Anne McGinley
CBSCB Administrator
Telephone: 0300 300 6455
Email: anne.mcginley@centralbedfordshire.
gov.uk
3.
Training and development opportunities
The BBSCB & CBSCB Training Unit aims to provide high quality multi agency training events that
meet local needs within available resources. Over 96% of those who attend tell us that they are
completely or mostly satisfied with our courses. These learning and development opportunities are
open to all workers and volunteers who come into direct contact with children and families. Please
visit www.centralbedscpd.co.uk to register.
Follow the links for the next available dates for the following LSCB courses, get more details and
book your place:
‘WORKING TOGETHER’ Module 1 (a 1 day course) and ‘WORKING TOGETHER’ Module 2 (a 1
day course) –these Modules (replacing the previous Safeguarding Children and Inter Agency
Working 2 day Course) are running monthly from September with extra dates and evening and
Saturday sessions planned for November onwards.
Safeguarding Disabled Children - 1 day course 15th October - specifically focussing on how to
recognise abuse and respond to the challenge of working closely with parents and carers where
the disabled child is our principal concern.
The following Light Bite (2 hours) sessions will be held in the Board Room at Bedford Hospital.
Further dates will be arranged according to demand:
Safer Sleeping - 23rd October 2014 2.15 pm -4pm To help all those working with parents, carers
and professionals to ensure that babies are sleeping safely so that the risks of sudden unexpected
death are minimised.
Fabricated and Induced Illness - 14th November 2014 2pm -4pm To ensure that Fabricated and
Induced Illness (FII) in babies and children is recognised promptly and action taken to ensure that
such babies and children are protected from harm.
Our most vulnerable children are often living in very challenging circumstances and at increased
risk of harm or exploitation. Teen and Dating Violence, Impact of Parental Mental Health on
Email:
Eileen.moran@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk
Telephone: 0300 300 6676
Booking details: www.centralbedscpd.co.uk
children, Impact of Domestic Abuse and Impact of Parental Substance Misuse specialist courses
are available to help you increase your knowledge and further improve your safeguarding practice.
‘Child centred Practice when working with resistant families’ A highly rated and most beneficial 1
day course with 100% positive feedback, aims to enable and support key personnel to explore the
challenge of maintaining child centred practice whilst working with resistant families. There will
also be a follow up half day Embedded Practice for those who have already attended the I day
course (at least 6-8 weeks previously).
We try to get the best possible multi-agency mix for each course, so although we make
every effort is made to give you the date you request, we do sometimes re-allocate
delegates. Confirmation of your place and the date for the course is only made when you
receive written confirmation from us.
4.
Child Sexual Exploitation - An Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation in Rotherham
(1997 – 2013).
A report has been published into child sexual exploitation in Rotherham. It estimates that
approximately 1400 children were sexually exploited between 1997 and 2013. In over a third of
cases, children were already known to children's services due to child protection and neglect
concerns
The LSCB in conjunction with its partners and other Local LSCB colleagues are currently
reviewing its processes and procedures in order to ensure that they meet best practice standards.
Please keep up to date with on issues and news by visiting the CSE section of our new website
where you will find a set of Frequently Asked Questions for profesionals. And register for Half
day Briefing events on the theme of Child Sexual Exploitation are confirmed for the 27th
November
5.
Multi-agency audits
The LSCB completed a multi – agency audit of cases on 3 October which will help us understand
our practice in relation to our LSCB priorities which are:



Marc Kahn. CBSCB Business Manager.
Tel: 0300 300 6426
e-mail:
marc.kahn@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk
Ensure children and families have faster, easier access to early help and safeguarding
support through the delivery of a multi-agency support hub (MASH);
Ensure the effectiveness of safeguarding support for children living with domestic abuse,
adult mental health problems and/or substance misuse (toxic trio)
Ensure the effectiveness of the strategy to deal with child sexual exploitation
The cases put forward by partners will be looking at the following key lines of enquiry:
•
•
•
•
The quality and timeliness of information sharing including core group work.
Professional awareness of thresholds and referral process.
Is the voice of the child evident?
Timeliness and effectiveness of interventions
The current audit is a pilot and is designed to provide evidence of the safeguarding work
undertaken by partners in a multi – agency setting. The key lessons learned will be fed back to all
stakeholders via training, newsletters and briefing sessions.
6.
2013 – 2014 Annual Report
The publication of an annual report summarising the work of the Central Bedfordshire
Safeguarding Children Board and assessing the state of safeguarding across the partnership is a
requirement of the statutory framework within which Safeguarding Boards work.
The annual report should provide rigorous and transparent assessment of performance and
effectiveness of local services. It should identify weak areas, causes, remedial action; lessons
learned from reviews; and income and expenditure.
Marc Kahn. CBSCB Business Manager.
Tel: 0300 300 6426
e-mail:
marc.kahn@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk
The Statutory functions of the LSCB are set out in Section 14 of the Children Act 2004 as:
 to coordinate what is done by each person or body represented on the Board for the
purposes of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children in the area; and
 to ensure the effectiveness of what is done by each such person or body for those
purposes.
7.
Private fostering
Recent Ofsted inspections of LSCBs have highlighted the issue of private fostering. LSCBs have
been criticised for not being sighted on these issues and for not having asked partners to raise
awareness about the issue.
For example, below is a recent recommendation in an Ofsted report:
“Ensure that more privately fostered children and young people are identified and supporting by
promoting awareness of private fostering”.
Our performance in this area is good as our rate of current private fostering agreements at 12.24
per 100,000 is better than statistical neighbour averages (6.66) and just lower than the national
average (14.09).
But we still need everyone to be aware of these issues and promote awareness in your
organisations and through your communication channels with the wider public. For further
information please see Private Fostering web pages.
Fostering Duty
Tel: 0300 300 8181
8.
Neglect Guidance
Guidance has been produced because it is recognised that neglect is a complex and multifaceted
issue, which can often be difficult for professionals to address effectively. In order to work together
successfully agencies need to have a shared understanding of neglect and the best way to effect
change. It is intended to facilitate good interagency work, so that all those involved can play an
effective role to improve outcomes for children. The below hyperlink is to the neglect policy.
You can access free e-learning on a number of areas including neglect.
9.
Child Death Overview Panel
Child death overview panels (CDOPs) are responsible for reviewing information on all unexpected
child deaths. They record preventable child deaths and make recommendations to ensure that
similar deaths are prevented in the future. CDOPs are made up of representatives from social
care, and the police as well as coroners, paediatricians and other partners.
Although CDOPs investigate deaths after the fact, they have a major role to play in accident
prevention. The aim is to ensure that measures are put in place to ensure that the preventable
deaths uncovered by the CDOPs do not happen again.
CDOPs main functions are:
 Collating and analysing information about child deaths, which then feeds into wider area
strategies.
 Putting procedures in place to coordinate the response to serious matters. They work
closely with the LSCBs.
The Child Death Overview Panel produces an annual report and newsletter which can be viewed.
CDOP also runs briefings which you can book onto.
For help with e-learning please contact
Anne Brockbank in the LSCB Training Unit.
Telephone: 0300 300 6676
Email:
anne.brockbank@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk
Shirley Whiterod
CDOP manager
Telephone: 01525 864430
Email:
Shirley.whiterod@bedfordshireccg.nhs.uk