From Herefordshire Safeguarding Boards and Partnerships
Information Resources for Herefordshire
Welcome to the fifteenth Information Bulletin from Herefordshire Safeguarding Boards and Partnerships of 2021. We will continue to publish regular updates with safeguarding related information for professionals in Herefordshire, as well as Covid19 information.
Please consider disseminating across your organisations and networks.
If you have been forwarded this information you can sign up to receive future bulletins.
Book now for Practitioner Forum: 15/09/21
Learning from Case Reviews for Children, Adults and Domestic Homicide
The next event in our popular series of Practitioner Forums will take place on Wednesday 15th September from 2.00 to 4.30pm. This free event will focus on learning from recent Safeguarding Children Practice Reviews, Safeguarding Adults Reviews, and Domestic Homicide Reviews, both in Herefordshire and nationally.
Participants will hear from expert speakers on a range of themes found in the case reviews. Topics will include:
Hoarding and self-neglect
Head trauma and safe sleeping
Rural isolation and elder abuse
Findings from the national Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel
The Forum will be held virtually using Microsoft Teams and is aimed at front-line practitioners from a wide range of partner organisations. Participants will come together to understand and reflect on the findings of these reviews, and to take action to improve the lives of children, adults and families in Herefordshire.
The No Wrong Door Project that work with young people in Hereford have sent through this programme of activities for this summer.
If you can't see the programme below (some email accounts automatically block all images) you may have to right click and then click 'download images' in your email.
Herefordshire Safeguarding Children Partnership Autumn Summit - Date confirmed
We have a confirmed date for our next HSCP Summit which is being held on Thursday 30th September from 2.00 to 4.00pm.
More details and information about how to book will be included in future bulletins.
The Summit, targeted at strategic leaders and senior managers of agencies working with children & families in Herefordshire will have the following objectives:
For the 3 Statutory Partners (West Mercia Police, Herefordshire & Worcestershire Clinical Commissioning Group and Herefordshire Council) to engage with the wider Safeguarding Partnership
To update the Partnership on the development of the Strategic Plan and review of the new arrangements
To brief the Partnership on current priorities / key areas of work
To provide all agencies with opportunity for input, engagement and ownership in the work of the Partnership
More than 100,000 visit the Knife Angel at Hereford Cathedral
Many of you will have seen the Knife Angel, which came to Hereford during June and July. In the 28 days that it was here an amazing 102,000 people visited it outside Hereford Cathedral.
Along with the events and educational workshops that were organised, one very positive impact was the weapon amnesty that resulted in nearly 300 surrendered knives and two guns being handed in, all of which are now removed from our streets. This can only help create safer communities.
Thank you to the more than 200 volunteers and the many individuals and organisations large and small that gave their time or money to help this project succeed
The Knife Angel is a stunning 27ft, 3.5 ton, sculpture of an angel made out of 100,000 confiscated knives received from 43 Police Forces across the UK.
The Herefordshire Safeguarding Children Partnership’s Executive Support Group is looking for new members.
The Herefordshire Safeguarding Children Partnership (HSCP) is a statutory body established under the new arrangements of Working Together to Safeguard Children 2018. The HSCP is led by three Safeguarding Partners: Herefordshire Council’s Children’s Services; NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire Clinical Commissioning Group and West Mercia Police.
The partners conducted a review of the safeguarding arrangements that they put in place in September 2019. The review was informed by feedback from a range of partner agencies and reported in October 2020.
One of the important messages arising from the review was the need for statutory partners to improve their communication and engagement with wider partners (referred to as relevant partners in Working Together 2018). Statutory partners recognise that this will need to be achieved in a number of ways including a planned programme of practitioner forums and summits with clarity regarding the target audience for these events. (Further information will follow on forthcoming events) and an informative and accessible website.
In response to the review findings, a sub group known as the Executive Support Group, has been established. Its purpose is to improve the governance and co-ordination of work to deliver HSCP statutory functions and strategic priorities. This group has begun to meet and as a result, HSCP has recently published its strategic and business plans.
From September onwards, statutory partners want to widen the membership of this group to include relevant partners as a way of strengthening wider engagement and communication and also to enable relevant partners to contribute their expertise and ideas. A discussion will take place in August as to which relevant agencies can best support the work of the group and in the meantime, if you wish to express your interest in becoming a member of the Executive Support Group, please email admin.sbu@herefordshire.gov.uk
Discussions have also taken place with colleagues in the early years and education sectors about how existing forums and relationships can be used to further develop engagement with these sectors.
New neighborhood website from West Mercia Police
West Mercia Police has recently invested in a new “Neighbourhood Matters” website to replace the old Community Messaging Service, which was discontinued last year.
It allows users to access lots of useful information including:
· Information from their Safer Neighbourhood Team
· Crime alerts
· Details of ongoing incidents
· Witness appeals for the area you live in
· Information about drop in sessions and events
· Surveys and the opportunity to provide feedback
Exploitation and Vulnerability Training - available to all from West Mercia Police
West Mercia Police, with funding from the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner, deliver Multi-Agency Exploitation and Vulnerability Training and this training is available through the Partnership Team every month. Bookings can be made via https://www.herefordshirecpd.co.uk/
In addition to this, if you’d like Vicki Ridgewell and Team to deliver the Exploitation and Vulnerability training specifically in your organisation please contact Vicki directly via email on vicki.ridgewell@westmercia.pnn.police.uk
The course is designed for all agencies and businesses including those in the voluntary and community sector.
Safeguarding Children, Young People and Vulnerable Adults is everybody’s responsibility. This course aims to raise awareness of:
Vulnerability
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)
Organised Crime Groups (OCGs) / Gangs
Modern Day Slavery
Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE)/consent
Criminal Exploitation (CE)
Victim blaming language
National Referral Mechanism (NRM)
Pathways / Diversionary Tactics / Sharing of Intelligence
At the end of the course, it is intended that attendees will have a clear understanding of:
Types of Criminal Exploitation & Modern Day Slavery
Factors to support YP in vulnerable situations
Adverse Childhood Experiences
National Referral Mechanism and how to raise concerns
Personal, professional accountability and responsibility
Information sharing
The importance of documentation and record keeping
The use of non-victim blaming language
How to Respond, Record and Report concerns
The agencies / services that people can be signposted to
Free Signs of Safety Training for professionals who work with children
Herefordshire Council are running virtual Signs of Safety courses for multi-agency professionals, to improve how we all work with children and young people as partners.
This is an essential course for professionals who work with children and young people in Herefordshire. It aims to provide the background on the Signs of Safety approach in children’s social care and enables candidates to think through how they can use the Signs of Safety/Wellbeing/Success model in their every-day work, or when they are working alongside children’s social care. Herefordshire Council is adopting Signs of Safety as its core practice model for children’s social care.
Signs of Safety is a relationship-grounded, safety-organised approach to child protection practice, created by researching what works for professionals and families in building meaningful safety for vulnerable and at-risk children.
This training will explain Signs of Safety as a practice framework and introduce professionals to the tools, language and approach when working with children and families across the spectrum of Early Help to care experienced young people.
The course is open to all multi-agency professionals in Herefordshire. All courses are virtual via Microsoft Teams and delegates must attend both days.
The course dates and times are as follows:
5 & 6 August, 9.15am – 4.30pm Only 1 place available
6 & 7 September, 9.15am – 4.30pm
12 & 13 October, 9.15am – 4.30pm FULLY BOOKED
18 October & 1 November, 9.15am – 4.30pm
19 October & 2 November, 9.15am – 4.30pm
26 & 27 October, 9.15am – 4.30pm
Visit https://www.herefordshirecpd.co.uk/ to book your place. Remember that any log in details for the old CPD Online system will not work on the new site so a new account must be created.
Herefordshire Safeguarding Children Partnership is currently undertaking a thematic audit on the local response to peer on peer abuse and as part of this are eager to understand both what frontline practitioners understand and what they might need to improve their knowledge.
Could you please spare just 5 minutes to complete the survey which can be found by following this link.
For information, all responses are anonymous
Herefordshire Multi-Agency Safeguarding Children Courses for August
All courses are open to practitioners and volunteers based in Herefordshire who work and support children, and support adults with care and support needs
Right Help Right Time Thursday 19 August 2021 (1:00pm - 3:30pm)
This course is for those who work and volunteer with children and families at all levels working in statutory, public, voluntary and independent sectors in Herefordshire.
Right Help Right Time is a framework for providing effective support for children, young people and families – making a difference. This training session is intended to enable practitioners:
To make decisions about how best to respond to the needs of children, young people and families;
To give families access to the right help at the right time;
To provide children and families with access to the most appropriate services for their needs
Early Help Assessment Support & Guidance Wednesday 25 August 2021 (9.30am - 12.30pm)
A chance for practitioners to receive support to write an early help assessment via the Portal. Q&A's and practical support will be delivered via the Microsoft Teams session. The session will be in 2 parts: Part 1: Background info and practical know-how, 1 hour 'off-line' activity, Part 2: feedback from the activity. Participants will receive the calendar invite with a link to the Teams meeting and will also be sent course material 1-2 days prior to the training.
Audience: Senior Managers/safeguarding leads, Safeguarding prevent leads, people that work with children and vulnerable adults, health workers, teachers and head teachers, frontline practitioners and educational settings, early years safeguarding lead, children’s multi-agency workforce.
Book now via links above or go straight to our new website to see the full range of training available. Remember that any log in details for the old CPD Online system will not work on the new site so a new account must be created.
New Updated Course - Working Together to Safeguard Children
We are pleased to announce that the Working Together to Safeguard Children Course will commence in October and the course will run via Microsoft teams every month.
Course dates:
27 October 2021
23 November 2021
06 December 2021
25 January 2022
23 February 2022
30 March 2022
Booking for this course is open from Monday 9th August.
COVID-19 vaccinations for Herefordshire residents
For the latest information and updates about Covid-19 vaccinations in Herefordshire visit the Herefordshire Council website.
