Those who work with children/young people

Solihull LSCB Practitioner Forums

On 21st July 2011, Solihull LSCB held a Practitioners Forum to discuss The Munro Review of Children Protection.  The session included a presentation by the Safeguarding Children Business Manager and a discussion by the group.  A Pracitioners Forum was also held on 20th October 2011.

Guidance on distinguishing between sexually healthy, inappropriate and abusive behaviours in children and young people

The sexual behaviour of children and young people can be very difficult for those who work with or care for them to interpret and when appropriate response to in a timely and appropriate manner. This is of course particularly significant when trying to determine whether a particular behaviour may be considered healthy, inappropriate/problematic or even abusive.  Read more...

LSCB Conference Report Template

Working Together 2010 was issued in March of this year and requires that, professionals attending conference should provide a written report giving details of their involvement with the child and family. 

In order to assist with this requirement a template has been designed for agencies to use to provide information to conference. Download the conference template.

It is now the expectation that all agencies attending conference or when sending apologies will provide a written report to conference. This should be sent to the Child Protection conference chair 48 hours prior to conference at:

Child Protection and Reviewing Unit,
West Mall,
Chelmsley Wood Town Centre,
North Solihull.  B37 5TN.

Secure email cpru@solihullgcx.gov.uk

Fax : 0121 788 4394

All professionals providing reports must provide enough copies for everyone attending the conference to avoid delay in copying reports before conference.

Privately Fostered Children

More information about Privately Fostered Children can be found on our Private Fostering page.

Safeguarding Guidance for schools

Information for Schools on Safeguarding Guidance.

Guidance for Individuals Working with Children and Young People

What to do if you are worried a child is being abused publication

This document provides best practice guidance for those who work with children in order to safeguard their welfare. It also contains an appendix to help practitioners with the legal issues affecting the sharing of information.

The guidance also provides general information for anyone whose work brings them into contact with children and families, focusing particularly on those who work in social care, health, education and criminal justice services.

Working Together to Safeguard Children: A guide to inter-agency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, March 2010.

Access to the electronic version of this guidance can be found here.

Learning lessons from the case of Baby P

Information on the lessons learned from the case of Baby P

Learning lessons locally

The purpose of the Serious Case Review is to establish whether there are any lessons to be learnt about the way in which local professionals and organisations work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people and to identify what those lessons are, how they will be acted on and what needs to change.

Safeguarding Procedures

These procedures represent a revision of the former ACPC child protection procedures and were launched in May 2007. They are approved as the definitive guide, and provide a practice framework for all agencies and professionals/volunteers who work together to safeguard children and young people in Solihull.

The Solihull Safeguarding Trafficked Toolkit 2010 can be accessed here

ISA vetting & Barring Scheme

The new Vetting and Barring Scheme, involving the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA), will have a major impact on the recruitment and monitoring practices of people working or volunteering with children and young people as well as vulnerable adults. Solihull LSCB have also created a briefing note concerning the Vetting and Barring Scheme.

The Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) have issued a newsletter which details the remodelling of the Vetting and Barring scheme.

Safer Recruitment

All organizations and individuals, who work with children and young people, or who provide services to them, have a duty to safeguard children and young people, which is clearly stated in Working Together to Safeguard Children (2006).  

The Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC) “Recruiting Safely. Summary safer recruitment guidance helping to keep children and young people safe”  (CWDC 2009) is a summary of the safer recruitment guidance which is aimed at anyone responsible for, or involved in the recruitment of staff or volunteers in England, who will work with or provide services to children and young people.

The intention is to be helpful to the broadest range of organisations and support their efforts to make their recruitment practices and processes safe

Information Sharing Guidance

Information sharing is essential to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. It is important that practitioners understand when, why and how they should share information so that they can do so confidently and appropriately as part of their day-to-day practice.

Child Death Review Process

From April 2008 all LSCB’s have a statutory duty to hold a review whenever a Child dies. These are called ‘Child Death Reviews’
Solihull LSCB aims to ensure that by doing this there is a full understanding of what happened and of whether anything would help to prevent similar deaths in the future for other children in our area.

The Safe Network: Safeguarding children and young people

Run as a partnership between NSPCC and Children England, the Safe Network provides a website containing practical safeguarding information and advice for community and voluntary groups, as well as training events, a phone enquiry service, and community-based support through regional development managers and delivery partners.

Making the Link: Preventing unintentional injury

Making the Link is the Child Accident Prevention Trust’s networking and partnership site for senior practitioners and policymakers working in child accident prevention. It contains a free guide to partnership working in child injury prevention, case studies and the latest policy developments and statistics in this area. CAPT joined forces with Safe Network in early 2011.

Ten pitfalls and how to avoid them; what research tells us

The NSPCC have produced a concise and accessible summary of research relevant to the initial stages of assessment of the needs of children and young people.  It has been written primarily for local authority practitioners, undertaking statutory initial assessments and making sections 47 enquiries, but the material has broader relevance for the whole workforce.

For any practitioner,  tasked to make robust, evidence-based judgements in child welfare, that pay due regard to needs and risks, Ten pitfalls and how to avoid them offers invaluable advice.

We know risk must be managed on each and every occasion through careful consideration of both case-specific and research evidence.  This revised booklet offers practitioners an accessible guide to research evidence to support the second half of this equation.  Research-informed practice provides a useful counter balance to intuitive or gut reasoning. 

The guidance will be very useful for newly qualified practitioners, but will also serve as an aide-memoir for the more experienced.

Key messages are summarised for each pitfall followed by a list of critical questions for the reader, designed to promote critical thinking.  Also included is a set of critical questions for managers, designed to promote reflective as well as child-focused practice.

Centre for Excellence and Outcomes (C4EO)

The Centre for Excellence and Outcomes in Children and Young People's Services (C4EO) is an organisation, developed for the children's sector, from the children's sector. C4EO identifies and coordinates local, regional and national evidence of 'what works', to create a single and comprehensive picture of effective practice in delivering children's services. Using this information, C4EO offers support to local authorities and their Children's Trust partners, working with them to improve outcomes for children, young people and their families.C4EO have produced three research briefings on the topic of quality assurance for effective safeguarding practice. and can be accessed by clicking the links below:

• Briefing 1: Effective interventions where there are concerns about, or evidence of, a child suffering significant harm
• Briefing 2: What are the key questions for audit of child protection systems and decision-making
• Briefing 3: The oversight and review of cases in the light of changing circumstances and new information: how do people respond to new (and challenging) information?