Aim

1.1 The aim of this document is to:

• Assist decision making when there are concerns about the safety or welfare of a child.
• Set out the procedures that should be followed when a child has been identified as at risk of harm.
• Give guidance to assist practice.

1.2 It is designed for managers and practitioners in all agencies who work with vulnerable children and is published by the Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB). 

Context

1.3 The overall national context for this document is set out in Fig. 1 overleaf. The contents of this document are consistent with government guidance set out in Working Together to Safeguard Children (2006). Working Together provides detailed information about all aspects of safeguarding children and can be accessed via the LSCB website.  www.cambslscb.org.uk and follow the link to Peterborough Safeguarding Children Board

1.4 This document also draws on lessons from local case reviews and current literature relating to safeguarding practice

1.5 The Children Act 2004 requires each Local Authority to establish a Local Safeguarding Children Board as the key statutory mechanism for agreeing how organisations in each local authority will co-operate to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and ensure that practice is effective. Agencies that are members of the LSCB are identified in the back of this document, as an appendix.

1.6 The regulations governing Local Safeguarding Children Boards [ The Local Safeguarding Children Board Regulations 2006.  Statutory Instrument 2006 No. 90 ] identify the functions of the LSCB. The first function is to develop policies and procedures for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children in the area of the authority, including policies and procedures in relation to:

• The action to be taken where there are concerns about a child’s safety, including thresholds for intervention.
• Training of persons who work with children or in services affecting the safety and welfare of children.
• Recruitment and supervision of persons who work with children.
• Investigations and allegations concerning persons who work with children.
• Safety and welfare of children who are privately fostered.
• Co-operation with neighbouring children’s services authorities and their Board partners.

1.7 These procedures cover all of the above and are endorsed and published by the LSCB.  It is expected that member agencies will ensure that all relevant staff have access to this document and comply with it.

1.8  In some instances, the topics above will also be covered by more detailed local protocols. These will be available, and kept up to date on the LSCB website and staff should consult this as necessary.

Fig 1

How to use this document 

1.9 This document is intended to help all staff working with children and families act in a way which is most likely to promote the welfare and safety of a children. It sets out procedures that should be followed at key stages of work with children and families.

1.10 The contents of each chapter are set out under the following headings:

• Procedures. These are based on statutory guidance, endorsed by the LSCB and therefore should be followed unless there are exceptional reasons for not doing so.  Where procedures are not followed the reason for this should be recorded in the agency records.
• Practice guidance. This to assist practitioners in making sound professional judgements.

Supplementary documents

1.11  Additional documents which have informed these procedures and are published by government departments can be accessed via the LSCB website. They are:

• What to do if you are worried a child has been abused (Department of Health 2003)
• Working Together to Safeguard Children (DFES 2006)
• Safeguarding Children in Whom Illness is Fabricated or Induced (Department of Health 2002)
• Children Abused Through Prostitution (Department of Health & Home Office 2000)
• Information sharing practice guidance
• Safeguarding Children in Education 2004
• Safer Recruitment & Selection in Education Settings (2005)
• Dealing with Allegations of Abuse Against Teachers and Other Staff (2005)
• Procedures for Managing allegations against people who work with children (Working Together 2006 Appendix 5)
• Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) guidance (Home Office 2003)
• Framework for the Assessment of |Children in Need and their Families (DoH 2000)

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