1. Wirral Safeguarding Children Board
Statutory Responsibilities
and
Partner Induction
David Robbins WSCB Manager

2. The Wirral Safeguarding Children Board
• Statutory basis of LSCB’s
• Statutory responsibilities of LSCB’s
• Organisational & Committee structure of the WSCB and resourcing
• Key activities, priorities and Ofsted improvement
• Responsibilities of WSCB members

3. 1. Statutory basis of LSCB’s
WSCB Annual Report

4. Statutory basis of LSCB’s
Section 14 of the Children Act 2004 sets out the objectives of LSCBs, which are:
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
(b) to ensure the effectiveness of what is done by each
such person or body for those purposes.
WSCB operates as an independent multi-agency body under the direction of an independent chair (Maggie Atkinson) and is not subordinate to any other body
Effectiveness of LSCB’s tested by Ofsted

5. 2. Statutory responsibilities of LSCB’s
WSCB Threshold Document

6. Statutory responsibilities of LSCB’s
The key functions of safeguarding boards are set out in the 2006 regulations:
Developing multi-agency policies and procedures for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children (including policies and procedures relating to training, safer recruitment, managing allegations and private fostering)
Communicating to persons and bodies in the area of the authority the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and raising awareness of safeguarding
Monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of what is done by partners to safeguard and promote the welfare of children
Participate in the planning of services
Undertake Serious Case Reviews and advise partners of lessons to be learned (learning and improvement framework)

7. 3. Organisational & Committee Structure, and resourcing of the LSCB
CSE Awareness Raising Day

8. Structure of WSCB and sub committees
WSCB meets 6x a year. Committees vary from monthly, bi monthly or quarterly (approx 100 mtgs a year)

9. Resourcing of the WSCB
Working Together 2015 states that all safeguarding board partner agencies have an obligation to provide LSCB’s with reliable resources, including finance
Unhelpfully no national funding formula in place
Staffing costs are highest cost for the WSCB (75%)
Securing sustainable long term funding remains a challenge for the WSCB (and most LSCB’s)

10. Income and expenditure
Staffing
190,035
Training
27,131
Serious Case Reviews
Room Hire
Included in training
Operating Costs/ General expenses
34,994
Total
252,160
Income
LA Children’s Services
123,100
CAFCASS
550
Merseyside Police
12,500
Health
31,800
Probation Service
16,100
Schools Budget
30,000
224,050
Income and expenditure

11. 4. Key Activities, Priorities and Improvement
CSE Poster Produced by a Wirral Young Person who is Looked After

12. Key WSCB Activities Section 11/175
Duty on organisations to comply with annual safeguarding audit. Over 200 agencies participated in (205 in 2016, 192 in 2015,). Audits completed online
Audits reveal safeguarding arrangements on average are compliant with expectations of the safeguarding board
Learning from Case Reviews
Learning review undertaken on forced marriage case, critical incident undertaken on case with neglect and domestic abuse
Learning disseminated through training, briefings, posters, leaflets, website and updates
Annual Report
Annual Report and Business Plan published October

14. Key WSCB Activities Child Death Overview Panel (CDOP)
Statutory Responsibility
31 Child deaths in Wirral. All reviewed and learning published
Safer Sleep campaign including training and resources supported
Policies and Procedures
80+ multi-agency policies and procedures
Safeguarding Training
20 courses (over 70 sessions) delivered to over 1000 professionals
Evaluation reports and 7 minute briefings published
e-learning courses rolled out (virtual college)

15. Key WSCB Activities Auditing Practice audits completed by WSCB
Audits include neglect, thresholds, parental mental health, quality of CP plans, CAF and TAF plans, CSE re-referrals
Local Authority Designated Officer for Allegations (LADO)
281 allegations reported. Physical abuse (62%) and sexual abuse (18%) main categories
LADO awareness raising undertaken, managing allegations training delivered, revised procedure, posters and leaflets
CAF and TAF Quality Assurance
QA group, monthly auditing, quarterly reports

16. Brief overview of LADO Role
Signpost to guidance out to all schools and policy on WSCB website

17. Ofsted Review of the Effectiveness of the WSCB
Ofsted inspected children’s services and reviewed the effectiveness of the WSCB in July 2016
Both children’s services and the WSCB were judged to be inadequate 19 recommendations for improvement were made to the LA and 7 were made for the WSCB. Including;
Review of governance; independence, influence and challenge; sighted on needs of privately fostered children and those placed in Wirral; notifications of serious incidents; accurate performance information; review of auditing
WSCB has developed an improvement plan and progress is reviewed at each WSCB meeting and through an improvement board and quarterly monitoring visits

18. WSCB Business Plan for 2016-18
Priority One – Children in need of help and protection are identified and responded to at the earliest opportunity by services effectively working together
Implementation of the Supporting Families Enhancing Futures model of working with families
Measurement of the impact of services
Understanding and application of thresholds and use of assessment tools
Data and auditing demonstrates how safe children and young people are
Voice and feedback from young people and families assesses and informs the commissioning of services

19. Priority Two - Children are protected from sexual exploitation by a skilled workforce, and the wider community is equipped to understand and respond to concerns
Children Services professionals and wider workforce have a good understanding of signs, symptoms and impact of CSE and are aware of when and how to report concerns
Multi-agency lead officers identified in every partner agency, and the workforce is competent and confident to respond to CSE and agencies demonstrate effectiveness of response
Children at risk of CSE are identified at the earliest opportunity and victims are supported for as long as is needed
Perpetrators are identified, pursued and successfully prosecuted

20. Priority Three - Children and Young People who are Looked After, including those placed in Wirral by other Local Authorities are supported by agencies who effectively work together to keep them safe
Establish a Care Home Governance group under the auspices of the safeguarding board
Children and young people who are subject to Private Fostering arrangements and their families are well supported and safeguarded
Children and young people placed in Wirral by other local authorities are aware of the ‘local offer’ and support is provided to make sure they are safeguarding
Children and young people currently living in Wirral whilst their immigration or asylum status is determined have access to services and are safeguarded

21. Priority Four - Through its effective governance and relationships with influential forums and groups the Wirral Safeguarding Children Board ensures all partner agencies meet the needs of Children and Young people
The WSCB develops clear improvement action plan which positively influences the governance and functioning of the safeguarding board
The WSCB is prepared for the implementation of the forthcoming Children and Social Care Act
The WSCB can demonstrate, through its work with other influential bodies a clear and smart approach to the commissioning of services
The WSCB actively supports the Council led partnership 2020 vision and can evidence the positive impact on and improved outcomes for children and young people

22. Priority Five -The Wirral Safeguarding Children Board discharges all of its statutory duties and ensures the effectiveness of arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people
The WSCB devises an improvement plan to address the 7 recommendations made in the Ofsted review of the effectiveness of the WSCB
Work is completed through the Board and committees and other groups established to ensure actions derived from the recommendations are completed
The improvement plan is reviewed and challenged at each full meeting of the WSCB and the multi-agency improvement board
The WSCB demonstrates full progress against all the actions within 18 months

23. 5. Responsibilities of WSCB Members
WSCB multi-agency Neglect Strategy and multi-agency Domestic Abuse Strategy

24. Responsibilities of WSCB Members
Job Role Purpose:
To share responsibility with other members of the WSCB to work together as an inter-agency partnership to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people, in accordance with government legislation and guidance.
Where members belong to a partner agency they should be able to:
Speak for their organisation with authority
Commit their organisation on policy and practice matters
Hold their organisation to account.

25. Where members are representing educational establishments, independent health care organisations, voluntary, community or faith sector organisations, members should be able to:
Communicate formally with other similar organisations about the work of the WSCB
Champion safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people informally both in their own establishment and in their contact with other similar establishments or organisations

26. Objectives of WSCB Members
To ensure there is an effective means of communication about the work of the WSCB within each agency
To ensure that Wirral WSCB is adequately resourced
To provide the WSCB with management information so that the WSCB can ensure the effectiveness of inter-agency safeguarding work
To develop and evaluate the impact of inter-agency safeguarding procedures, practice guidance and protocols
To develop and evaluate the impact of multi-agency training in safeguarding and child protection
To contribute to the development of the work of the WSCB

27. The 16 responsibilities of individual WSCB members
To be accountable to the Chair of Wirral WSCB in respect of the work of the Board
- To ensure that agency contributions, both financial and ‘in kind’, are sufficient to enable the Board to function effectively
To attend and contribute to all Board meetings
To attend and contribute to all WSCB events, as requested
- To co-ordinate the timely dissemination of information within
own agency, and to consult agency staff on pertinent issues
To represent own agency’s views with authority
To promote good safeguarding practice within own agency and to monitor and evaluate their compliance with WSCB policies and procedures

28. To be aware of, and bring to the attention of the Board, any national or local developments or any changes to agency requirements which might impact on the delivery of services
To prepare adequately for meetings, by reading minutes and associated papers and to contribute to debate and decisions
To complete any actions within agreed timescales
To accept shared responsibility for the development and satisfactory completion of the WSCB Annual Report and Business Plan, and for the development of policies and procedures both for the WSCB and own agency
To attend at least one multi-agency training session every year

29. To participate in agreed frontline activity observations
To ensure ‘home’ agency compliance with requests for information to support the Section 11 and Section 175 safeguarding audits
To report to a senior accountable person within own organisation on the organisations performance in relation to WSCB activities
To work with own agency to ensure that there is an appropriate response to requests for Case Review chronologies and information for multi-agency audits

30. Induction End of Presentation Wirral Safeguarding Children Board
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