London Safeguarding Children Award 2011: Winners announced
The London Family, Drug and Alcohol Court (FDAC) and a project to reduce violence in families are joint winners of the first London Safeguarding Children Award (above).
The FDAC was set up by Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust and the children’s charity Coram. It is commissioned and part-funded by Camden, Islington, Westminster and Hammersmith & Fulham councils, and aims to improve the outcomes of children whose parents misuse drugs or alcohol. The first of its kind in England and Wales, the FDACmotivates and encourages parents to tackle drug or alcohol misuse in cases where a local authority has issued care proceedings.
The other joint winner is the Non-Violent Resistance Project, which seeks to reduce violence in families by addressing destructive behaviour in children and adolescents. The Oxleas NHS Foundation Mental Health Trust in Bexley and Greenwich runs project through a series of parenting groups, which help parents and carers to overcome feelings of helplessness through support networks in and outside the home.
The accompanying Emerging Practice prize was won by Enfield's Parent Engagement Panels and Parent Champions, who work with mums and dads in the Congolese community to encourage them to get involved in decisions about the services in their area (below).
The winners were announced and presented with their awards at the London Safeguarding Children Board’s annual conference on 5 December. To find out more about the Award and each of the eight shortlisted projects, please follow the links below:
London Safeguarding Children Award 2011 - shortlisted projects
London Safeguarding Children Award 2011 - press release
Safeguarding children across culture and faith: new tools for London
On Monday 5 December, the London Safeguarding Children Board launched three new documents to help LSCBs promote a step-change in safeguarding London’s children living in minority ethnic, cultural or faith communities or groups, working together with local minority ethnic communities and faith groups and the frontline professionals who work with them.
The Pan London Safeguarding Children Minority Ethnic Culture and Faith Project 2010-2011 was an 18 month action-research project, which comprised three parts:
- Project work with minority ethnic, culture or faith communities / groups by 11 London LSCBs;
- Focus groups in London LSCBs to gather views on how to improve safeguarding for London’s children living in minority ethnic groups and communities;
- Interviews with London LSCBs, mapping activity and aspiration for stronger partnership work to safeguard children living in minority ethnic, culture or faith communities or groups.
The project had four primary outputs, which are available to download via the links below:
London C&F LSCB Strategy
To assist Local Safeguarding Children Boards to develop sound, effective and sustainable partnership working with local groups, communities and third sector agencies;
London C&F Training Toolkit
To ensure that professionals and voluntary groups have access to a wide range of resources, materials and background information to help them develop and design appropriate and sensitive training packages in relation to child protection in its broadest sense;
London C&F Practice Guidance
To assist clear insight and effective action to protect and promote the welfare of children living in circumstances which appear to be complex because their faith, culture, nationality and possibly recent history differs significantly from that of host nation children and families;
- Final project report
Drawing together learning from each of the individual LSCB projects, focus groups and interviews – to be published in April 2012.
London Board annual conference 2011
All presentations and related papers from the London Board's 2011 annual conference, held at the QEII conference centre on 5 December 2011, are available online at:
http://www.londonscb.gov.uk/diary/2011conference/
London cracks down on child trafficking
The London Safeguarding Children Board and Greater London Assembly held a joint event at City Hall on 1 November 2011, giving London an opportunity to take stock and consider what more needs to be done to raise awareness and further develop professional expertise in this area. Please follow the link below for a press release with further information on this event:
London cracks down on child trafficking
Barnardo’s update of Domestic Violence Matrix (DVRIM)
Following feedback taken by from the London LSCBc, the DVRIM has been updated and includes new indicators, such as the abuse through texting or social networking sites. It is also interactive, enabling anyone to use the matrix on their computer and store the information for each child or family in pdf format.
It is not necessary to have training on the DVRIM. However, there are undoubted advantages of training in that multi-agency professionals get the opportunity to meet and share their understanding and experiences of domestic abuse, develop a shared language and greater consistency when it comes to communicating intra and inter-agency about domestic abuse and the impact on a child.
The DVRIM was developed to assist in this process and is particularly useful for workers having first contact with adults, children and young people in universal services, at thresholds one and two. The DVRIM is being used to screen for domestic abuse by health visitors in Northern Ireland as well as being used there and here, by social care practitioners to ‘threshold’ individual cases. This echoes with recent government reports on the importance of early intervention and identification of children with additional needs who are living in families with domestic violence.
At the request of boroughs, Barnardo’s has developed a 2 day Train the Trainer programme on the Risk Identification Matrix which will equip already accredited trainers with the knowledge and understanding to run the multi-agency briefings. This will enable boroughs to continue to train on the matrix ‘in-house’ and set domestic abuse in the local context of their own practice.
Safeguarding Children abused through domestic violence appendix 1: Risk Identification Matrix
Section 11 audit process
The London Board has recently established a small multi-agency working group to look at the section 11 audit processes currently in use across London and attempt to develop a joint approach. The main driver for this work is to reach an agreed position for the various pan-London organisations which need to respond to more than one LSCB or work across more than one borough, which will be particularly important once the range of new cross-borough health arrangements are in place.
The working group, chaired by Alice Peatling from Havering Council, has now met twice, with representation from a number of LSCBs, the police, mental health and the London Ambulance Service, and has agreed the following approach:
- That the group would aim to produce a pan-London section 11 audit template, with some flexibility for local priorities to be added where necessary;
- That this template would be based on a mix of the model currently in use in Bexley, which was felt to be particularly strong on challenge, and the pan-London response already in use within the Met Police child abuse investigation command;
- That this would be accompanied by a guidance document, to include recommendations on frequency of audit (there was general agreement on biennial audits, timed consistently across London) and examples of good practice in actually carrying out the audit process..
The group will meet again in December to further refine the proposed template and begin drafting an accompanying guidance document, with a consultation period planned for early 2012.
Safeguarding children at London 2012
In August 2011, the London Safeguarding Children Board and London Councils commissioned a report to consider whether the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games will raise specific safeguarding children issues and, if so, the extent to which this will place an additional burden on London’s local authority children’s services.
The report (Safeguarding children during the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games: Scoping Study) has now been circulated to all London LSCBs, and makes a number of recommendations aimed towards mitigating any safeguarding children risks that may arise.
Representatives from the Olympic host boroughs met recently with senior officers from the Metropolitan Police to begin planning the more detailed operational response that will be put in place in response to these recommendations, with particular reference to children identified within the wider Olympic footprint. A full proposal will be circulated to all London LSCBs and partner agencies towards the end of November / early December 2011, and an information pack for LSCBs will follow in early 2012.
Members of the London Board’s Safe Games for Children training subgroup, led by Bernadette Boland (Ealing LSCB) and made up of four London LSCB training co-ordinators and volunteers from the Met Police, NSPCC, the Red Cross and Children and Families Across Borders (formerly International Social Services UK) have also now developed a training pack for volunteers. The pack has been developed to assist trainers when training POD managers, mentors and volunteers.
Four “train the trainer” sessions have also been arranged for those with responsibility for training, to be delivered free of charge at the Red Cross headquarters in Moorgate. These will take place on Monday 28 November 2011 and Friday 17 February 2012 (morning and afternoon), and can be booked through bolandb@ealing.gov.uk (subject to availability).
Finally, the London Board are continuing to speak to the London Organising Committee (LOCOG) and have spent time providing expert input to their own internal safeguarding policies.
London Board highlights 2010/11
Please follow the link below for a report on the London Board's work over the past financial year.
Safeguarding children in London: the role of councillors after the Munro Review
This joint London Councils / London SCB event, held on 15 June 2011, was an opportunity for London's elected members to look in detail at the findings of the Munro Review of Child Protection and consider the implications for local services. Attended by more than 50 members, including Leaders, Lead Members and backbench / opposition councillors, the session featured a number of presentations followed by a lively discussion, which will be written up into a formal report shortly. In the meantime, the agenda and presentations from the seminar are available to download from the links below:
Agenda - Safeguarding children in London: the role of councillors after the Munro Review
Jacky Tiotto - The Munro Review of Child Protection: key messages
Cheryl Coppell - London context and the role of elected members
Frankie Sulke - Sector-led improvement for children's services in London
London Regional Safeguarding Advisers - end of project case studies
The London Regional Safeguarding Advisers have now been in post since April 2010 and have spent much of the past year working with boroughs and partners across London, providing support and assistance with safeguarding issues and service developments. At the conclusion of each project, the adviser will work with the borough to complete an end of project case study to be shared online. These are now available to download at www.londonscb.gov.uk/london_regional_safeguarding_advisers/.
Competence Still Matters training framework
A working group of the London Board’s training subgroup has now updated Competence Matters, the London Board’s multi-agency training framework, in line with the 2010 reissue of Working Together to Safeguard Children. Please follow the link below to download a copy.
Competence Still Matters: safeguarding training for all employees and volunteers
The framework has been designed to assist all employers, voluntary organisations and LSCBs to meet the minimum requirements for the provision of safeguarding children training. It underpins the London Child Protection Procedures and provides a framework for single and multi-agency training to enable professionals, volunteers, agencies, organisations and services to acquire the skills and knowledge to work effectively within existing guidance and procedures for safeguarding children. It promotes consistency across the London boroughs for the delivery of such training whilst allowing for the degree of flexibility required to meet locally identified needs. Whilst the implementation of Competence Still Matters will not be mandatory, it represents a standard of good practice and will help LSCBs, Children’s Trusts and partner organisations fulfil their responsibilities as outlined in chapter 4 of Working Together to Safeguard Children (2010).
New ABE course for London
Over the past 9 months, a review has taken place of the JI and ABE course run jointly with the Metropolitan Police Child Abuse Command. This review took place as a response to concerns about the poor quality of interviews taking place with regards to child victims, as well as regular feedback from social workers attending the course who did not feel that enough time was given to the ABE part of the 2 week course - particularly when they had to successfully complete an assessed interview.
Please see below for two documents with further information on the course and the changes. The London Board’s training subgroup fed into the consultation process and the new course has now received formal endorsement from the main London Safeguarding Children Board and LSCB Chairs group.
ABE report for new course
Eligibility Criteria for ABE Foundation and Joint Child Abuse Investigative Skills Course
Improving local safeguarding outcomes - developing a strategic quality assurance framework to safeguard children
This London Board / LGID framework is aimed at strategic partnerships and individual organisations with safeguarding children responsibilities. It has been designed to help those with leadership, senior management or scrutiny responsibility for the safeguarding of children to gain a better understanding of how safe children are in their services and communities eg Directors of Children’s Services, Lead Members, NHS trust boards, Chief Executives, Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCBs), Children’s Trust Boards, senior management teams. The elements and principles of the framework can also be applied throughout all levels of all organisations that make a contribution to the safeguarding of children (including frontline practice) so that each level of the organisation can self-assess whether it is being effective in keeping children safe.
Improving local safeguarding outcomes - developing a strategic quality assurance framework to safeguard children
SCIE London pilots begin
The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) is working in collaboration with the London Safeguarding Children Board to pilot the SCIE Learning Together model for case reviews in seven London Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCBs). The pairs of Lead Reviewers from each LSCB will receive training and support from Dr. Sheila Fish and Sue Bairstow, over the course of the case review process. The London pilots benefit from the learning gained in the initial pilots in the North West of England. They will run concurrently with the ongoing pilots in the West Midlands.
The pilots will provide valuable evidence about how we might provide better opportunities for staff from across agencies to come together and reflect critically on their practice and draw out the organisational lessons gained. A Project Management Group chaired by London Regional Safeguarding Adviser Kay Bell will ensure that the learning is shared London-wide.
To learn more about the SCIE systems model click here: http://www.scie.org.uk/publications/learningtogether/index.asp
Safeguarding trafficked children
The London Safeguarding Children Board has launched a new set of guidance and assessment tools to help agencies identify and support children who have been trafficked, which are available to download from the trafficking pages of this website (www.londonscb.gov.uk/trafficking/). The guidelines aim to support social workers, teachers, police, health workers and other professionals who may come into contact with suspected victims of trafficking, and have been piloted extensively in a number of local authorities across London and the UK over the past 18 months. For a brief summary of this work, please follow the link below to download the supporting press release:
