Safeguarding Children Newsletter

August 2020
 

Dorset Council’s Child Advice and Duty Service has been extended. It now includes an Early Help Hub and a Multi-agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH). It provides a single point of contact and acts as a ‘front door’ for all safeguarding concerns and early help referrals.
 
The changes began on the 1 July and will allow the council and partner agencies to work together more efficiently by gathering information in one place to inform decision making.  It will allow closer working relationships to identify the right level of support, assessment and intervention required to manage risk, meet children and their family’s needs and avoid unnecessary escalation.  Important work done in the community by link workers, such as early help workers in schools, will continue.
 
The changes will ensure that the council and partners agencies meet the two key principles of effective safeguarding as defined by Working Together 2018. The first is that safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility and for services to be effective each professional and organisation should play their full part. The second is that we must have a child-centred approach. This means that for services to be effective they should be based on a clear understanding of the needs and views of children.
 
If you are concerned about a child, contact the Child Advice and Duty Service on: Tel: 01305228866

For contact details and more information on how to report concerns visit our website
 

 
There is now one phone number and one email address for all new contacts and referrals into BCP Children’s Services.
 
If you have concerns about the safety or welfare of children and young people or if you require support in agreeing an Early Help offer, the Children’s Services First Response Hub is the first point of contact for everyone, providing access to all services for children and families living in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.
 
For contact details and more information on how to report concerns visit our website

This is my second blog as the Independent Chair and Scrutineer of the Pan-Dorset Safeguarding Children Partnership (PDSCP).  The focus for my July blog is how we can best collaborate to combat the exploitation of our children and young people.

 

With the support of multi-agency partners, BCP Children’s Services has refocussed existing resources to create a new Complex Safeguarding Service.
 
For cases that are open to Children’s Social Care:  please contact the named Social Worker
 
For all new referrals: please use the normal Children’s Services First Response Hub Inter-agency Referral Form 
 
For further information about the Complex Safeguarding Service: please contact Tim Nelson, Service Manager at tim.nelson@bcpcouncil.gov.uk  or telephone: 07714 440028 

Private fostering is when a child under the age of 16 (under 18 if they are disabled) is cared for by someone who is not their parent or a ‘close relative’.

This is a private arrangement made between a parent and a carer for 28 days or more.

To help us keep children safe and support families, all parents and private foster carers must notify their relevant council if they are looking after someone else’s child.  If not, they miss out on essential welfare checks for the children, plus other support services.
 

For more information take a look at our website

 

YGAM is a national education charity who have launched a new FREE 90 minute webinar aimed at practitioners working directly with young people to gain a better understanding of the potential harms of Gaming & Gambling. This is becoming somewhat of a “hot topic” especially as students start to return to school.
 
Topics covered include: 

For more information or to book a space on one of the free training sessions, please visit their website.       

 

The Children’s Society looks at why the COVID-19 pandemic means families need reassurance and support, and what professionals can do.
 
This briefing explores the challenges that adolescents and their parents face during the Covid-19 pandemic. It offers advice for professionals on how to reduce the likelihood of neglect occurring and includes recommendations for national and local decision makers around prevention and responses to adolescent neglect.

Due to Coronavirus, the Pan-Dorset SCP have taken the decision in line with Government advice that all classroom training will be cancelled until 1st November 2020.   This may be extended, if necessary, in line with future government guidance.

In the meantime, we have listed a range of external online safeguarding awareness courses on our website whilst we work towards providing virtual multi-agency training which we hope to start in the near future and also look at reinstating some face to face training.

For those of you that have had an existing booking cancelled, we will be contacting you direct to offer you a place on our virtual learning platform when this is available.   Please do not book onto a future course – we will contact you with details of new dates which will ONLY be available to you.

If you have any queries, you can contact the Training Team on: 
pan-dorsetscptraining@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk

The Engaging Families Toolkit aims to provide guidance and support across all levels of intervention from early help and targeted services through to statutory services. The toolkit builds on research and evidence-based practice which is known to work in effectively engaging families in offers of support.  It provides guidance in recognising, understanding and responding to difficult to engage and risky behaviours which may be encountered when working with children, young people and their families.
 
The toolkit also includes a Family Engagement Risk Assessment tool which  provides an evidential basis on which to proceed and justify decisions and actions to ensure the wellbeing and or protection of the child/ren is not compromised due to the lack of engagement.

If you have any information you would like to share in future newsletters, please contact the team at pan-dorsetscp@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk