Local Safeguarding Children's Partnerships
The VKPP are delivering a significant project related to Local Safeguarding Children's Partnerships intended, through stronger cross agency leadership, to deliver local arrangements that ensure children and their families receive targeted services to meet their needs that are coordinated between and across agencies.
The work is designed to support Chief Officers, their delegates and senior tactical leaders to;
- Meet their enhanced responsibilities set out in the Children and Social Work Act 2017 and Working Together 2018
- Manage the transition from Local Safeguarding Children’s Boards to Local Safeguarding Children Partnerships
- Deliver against their responsibilities related to National and Local Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews (which have replaced Serious Case Reviews.)
- Ensure the work of Local Safeguarding Children’s Partnerships is linked to other strategic partnership work
The Police, as one of three Local Safeguarding Partners, along with their relevant agencies, are required to work better together to fix persistent, stubborn, repetitive issues in the local children’s safeguarding system. As system leaders, they should demonstrate they are prioritising, coordinating, and making decisions which progress local activities that really do benefit children, young people and families.
Through a VKPP Policing Facilitator for Safeguarding Children Reform, police leaders are being provided with tactical support and advice during the implementation period.
By systematic gathering of insight from police leaders in local practice, the project has been able to ensure commonly recurring themes are prioritised in the cross-government delivery plan to drive improvements in this area of work.
The project continues to focus on leadership, accountability and independent scrutiny of local arrangements.
Independent Scrutiny and Local Safeguarding Children Partnership Arrangements
This project was commissioned by the VKPP. Professor Jenny Pearce from the University of Bedfordshire Safer Young Lives Research Centre led the research with Iona Stratton (VKPP) as research assistant. Lorraine Parker (VKPP) was the Principal Investigator. Alison Thorpe from the Association of Safeguarding Partners (TASP) supported links with Local Safeguarding Children’s Partnerships, business managers, scrutineers and chairs.
The project provides a descriptive account of Independent Scrutiny in Local Safeguarding Children’s Partnerships (LSCPs) across England. It provides examples of who is scrutinising LSCP activity, giving some descriptions of what is being scrutinised and how.
Independent Scrutiny and Local Safeguarding Children Partnership Arrangements – August 2022
Child Safeguarding Arrangements Reform Briefing
The briefing here is intended to keep you up to date about the progress of post-implementation activity and includes initial reflections on the Artur Labinjo-Huges and Star Hobson practice reviews.