Lead Practitioner
(Safeguarding) Briefing
Spring 2014
Key messages from Serious
Case Reviews (SCR’s)
Aims of today
• Look at updates from recent serious case
reviews
• Familiarise ourselves with the LSCB Website and
the SfYC Safeguarding website and resources
• Look in detail at a case study
• Look at the process of making a referral to Social
Care
• Complete a safeguarding recording form
• Look at how we can learn individually from SCR’s
• Discuss effective supervision
Reviewing other records you
already have
• Look at your accident/incidents at home
forms- Look for patterns/ trends on
children
• Keep them separately in a folder and
review regularly
Ofsted registered person
• The person/company/committee is
responsible for ensuring all
safeguarding measures are in place
• Invite the ‘chair’ or nominated
committee member to attend with you
to these briefings
Disclosure and Barring Service
(DBS) was CRB formerly
• https://www.gov.uk/government/organis
ations/disclosure-and-barringservice/about
• Look at the Website link above for full
and up to date information to ensure
you are meeting the standards
requirement
• Sign up for their regular email updates
What is a Serious Case Review
• As part of its ‘learning and improvement
framework’, HSCB ( Hampshire
Safeguarding Childrens Board)
undertakes reviews and audits of
practice to drive improvements to
safeguard and promote the welfare of
children, after a child death or after a
serious incident
Don’t forget!
• Hantsdirect Children’s services Department
Tel: 0845 603 5620
• Out of hours Tel: 0845 600 455
• Children’s Social Care Professional helpline
Tel : 01329 225379 (If you do NOT hear
anything back regarding their decisions…chase !)
• LADO (Local Authority Designated Officer)
Barbara Piddington or Mark Blackwell
Tel: 01962 876364 (Concerns of allegations
relating to a member of staff)
and don’t forget…
• LSCB :
http://www.hampshiresafeguardingchildren
board.org.uk/
• Serious case review examples can be
obtained from
http://www.nspcc.org.uk/Inform/informhub_
wda49931.html
• www.hants.gov.uk/child-protection
and also don’t forget …our SfYC
Safeguarding information
• http://www3.hants.gov.uk/childrensservices/childcare/providers/safeguardin
g-earlyyears.htm
• OR Services for Young Children
Website→You’re a childcare
provider→safeguarding→useful links
and documents→Model recording form
Positive changes made as a result of
learning lessons from SCR’s
• The Bruising Protocol
• Re-launching of Joint Working Protocol
• Extra training in SfYC
• Police have launched Central Referral
Unit
• Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub
(MASH)
4LSCB procedures and protocols
available for you to follow
• Bruising in children who are not independently
mobile protocol
• Safeguarding children and young people whose
parents / carers have problems with: mental
health, substance misuse, learning disability and
emotional or psychological distress
• Children exposed to domestic violence practice
guidance
4LSCB procedures and protocols
to follow cont.
• Missing, exploited & trafficked children protocols;
• Maternity Services and Children’s Services joint
working protocol to safeguard unborn babies.
• Child Death Overview Panel (CDOP) Rapid
Response Procedures
• E-Safety Protocol
Do we question parents with
‘sufficient curiosity’ ?
• Practitioners found reasons to believe
that unrealistic explanations (for bruises
for example) were plausible and didn’t
question themselves or others or act
with sufficient curiosity.
• Don’t just accept a reason, probe
directly if you have any doubt
Disconnection from the children
• Disconnection from the children themselves; not
paying attention to children’s emotional
development and not thinking about ‘what it’s
like to be a child living in that family’.
Consideration needs to be of all the other
children living in the family as well
• The ‘invisible child’ - the child being “lost” in the
considerations of professionals, and young
people who were kept out of sight; children who
chose not to, or were unable to, speak because
of disability, trauma or fear
Be mindful of males in the shadows
• Even if the father is not living in the child’s
home, his presence and his role in the
child’s life needs to be accounted for in
assessments. Lack of information coupled
with rigid thinking about fathers and father
figures as either “good” or “bad”, and also
a tendency at times to see fathers and
males as threatening, undermines the
foundation for informed decision making
about risk to the child.
Chaotic families
• Chaotic families lead to practitioners
becoming chaotic too, just reacting to
crises, rather than assessing, planning
and undertaking action in a calm and
measured way to maximise
effectiveness
Case Study Part .1. Jamie
• Read case study individually. Then, as
a group of 3 or 4 please discuss:
• – What are the potential issues for
Jamie?
• – What may be the cause of these
issues?
• – What could or should the pre-school
be doing?
Now Complete your Safeguarding
Recording Form!
• Details of concern. Add each concern in this
column as you would every time you see this
child in the setting
• Action you would take for each concern
• What you would expect the outcome to be from
you actions
• Add further actions you would take, and if not
related to key areas above
• Add date of your planned review
• Don’t forget if it is not written down, it didn’t
happen!
Case study part .2. Jamie
• Read case study individually. Then in
your small groups please discuss:
• – What are the concerns now?
• – Should anyone else be contacted?
• – How might concerns be addressed?
• – Are any procedures or protocols in
place which might help?
Feed back as whole group
• Think child
• Think family
• Early help -Use the CAF/Early help process to share
information and initiate a multi-agency response to
potential safeguarding concerns.
• Be confident around information sharing where early child
welfare concerns emerge.
• Seek support and supervision to discuss early concerns.
• Don’t assume that someone else knows what you know
and is dealing with it.
Lessons from ‘Jamie’
• Be mindful of fathers and male partners ‘in
the shadows’(Baby P and many others)
• The ‘toxic trio’ increases risk (Hampshire
Children R & S & many others)
• Talk to and challenge parents(Hampshire
child ES)
• Maintain a professional curiosity and cautious
scepticism
• Most SCRs relate to children in universal
services with no social services involvement
Lessons from ‘Jamie’ continued
• Don’t allow adult anger to deflect from a
child centred approach (Baby P and
many others)
• Ensure full sharing of information across
agencies (Hampshire Child Q and every
SCR ever written!)
• What is life really like for the child?
(Daniel Pelka - 2013)
Professional challenge
• Feel able to challenge each other around thresholds,
assessments and interventions.
• Listen and be open to challenge at all levels of the
organisation and across organisational boundaries and don’t
allow status to influence your ability to challenge and to accept
challenge.
• Escalate your concerns tenaciously. Keep the child as the
focus.
• Challenge your own thinking about a case and be open to
different views to avoid ‘fixed thinking’ or being ‘over optimistic’
about a case.
• Have the confidence to rigorously enquire into potential abuse.
• Seek peer support & supervision to reflect on your own
practice.
How you can make a
difference. Think about:
• 1) Can I make some changes to my
own practice?
• 2) Do I need to seek further support,
supervision or training?
• 3)Survey monkey …please complete!
• Thank you for attending our
session today