Safeguarding Children Board Briefing on Changes to Working Together 2013

Working Together to Safeguard Children March 2015

Introduction

This short briefing note provides information about the newly published suite of documents relating to the safeguarding of children and promotion of their welfare. These are:

  • Working Together to Safeguard Children March 2015 - Following consultation the government has updated and replaced the current statutory guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children revised and published in 2013. (Response to WT consultation)
  • Keeping Children Safe in Education 2015 (Section 1 of Keeping Children Safe in Education2015)
  • What to do if you are worried – revised guidance for all professionals to use if they are worried a child may be being abused
  • Information Sharing Guidance 2015 – revised guidance on information sharing for all professionals, and
  • Working Together guides for young people and younger children

All are available on the WSCB website –

Summary and Context

The Government consulted recently on revisions to Working Together 2013 and Safeguarding Children in Education 2014. The guidance published has however had a range of other changes added, some just minor points of detail and others quite significant. Working Together is significantly longer, clearer and stronger in terms of the statutory nature of the guidance for all partner agencies. In addition it includes significant additions in relation to clarification of responsibilities and accountabilities, young carers, assessments of children with disabilities, timescales, Prevent, CSE and FGM. It is also updated to take account of recent legislation including the SEND reforms, and recent organisational changes to probation services and NHSE. It is helpfully clear in places about the central importance of working with and seeking children’s wishes and feelings.

It retains the 2 key principles:

  • Safeguarding is everybody’s responsibility
  • A child-centred approach

In addition it reinforces in several places the responsibilities of LSCB’s as opposed to Local Authorities and their partners.

The major revisions to WTTSC 2015 include changes to:

  1. the referral of allegations against those who work with children;
  2. notifiable incidents involving the care of a child; and
  3. the definition of serious harm for the purposes of serious case reviews.

The two revised guidance documents on information sharing and what to do are both welcome additions to the basic material that organisations should ensure are available to all staff in their organisation, and part of their induction information for new staff.

The revised guidance on Keeping Children Safe in Education is helpful,as it is much clearer than the previous version, and is unequivocal about the central responsibilities of ALL education settings to keep children safe and promote their welfare. This is reinforced by the new version of WTTSC 2015, which sets out beyond any reasonable doubt exactly what the responsibilities of schools and colleges of all types are.

Changes for the LSCB

The key major changes related to child deaths and SCR’s

Notifiable incidents involving the care of a child

There has been an addition to Chapter 4 ‘Notifiable Incidents’. This is because local authorities were unclear both about the requirement to notify and what constitutes a notifiable incident. During the consultation it was proposed to clarify the guidance and place it within Working Together. This has now been added as per below. March 2015 (from page 74)
A section on Notifiable Incidents has been added.
A notifiable incident is an incident involving the care of a child which meets any of the following criteria:
a child has died (including cases of suspected suicide), and abuse or neglect is known or suspected;
a child has been seriously harmed and abuse or neglect is known or suspected
a looked after child has died (including cases where abuse or neglect is not known or suspected) ; or
a child in a regulated setting or service has died (including cases where abuse or neglect is not known or suspected)
The local authority should report any incident that meets the above criteria to Ofsted and the relevant LSCB or LSCBs promptly, and within five working days of becoming aware that the incident has occurred.
For the avoidance of doubt, if an incident meets the criteria for a Serious Case Review then it will also meet the criteria for a notifiable incident (above).
There will, however, be notifiable incidents that do not proceed through to Serious Case Review.

Child death reviews:

Child death reviews: Revised wording on what constitutes a modifiable death and wording which considers the involvement of families in the child death review process
2013 Definition of preventable child deaths / 2015 Definition of preventable child deaths
For the purpose of producing aggregate national data, this guidance defines preventable child deaths as those in which modifiable factors may have contributed to the death.
OLD These factors are defined as those which, by means of nationally or locally achievable interventions, could be modified to reduce the risk of future child deaths. / For the purpose of producing aggregate national data, this guidance defines preventable child deaths as those in which modifiable factors may have contributed to the death.
NEW These are factors defined as those, where, if actions could be taken through national or local interventions, the risk of future child deaths could be reduced.

The definition of serious harm for the purposes of serious case reviews.

Working Together 2015 now provides a definition of ‘seriously harmed’. There were concerns –flagged by the national panel that some LSCBs were failing to make appropriate decisions on what constituted serious harm. It is also hoped the new wording will help support local authority decision-making when determining whether to notify an incident.

To note - Some respondents to the consultation had asked for clarification about the ‘and’. Working Together 2015 has not changed and it is not explicitly stated that there should be a causal link between the child’s death or injury, and abuse or neglect [as stated in 2006 and 2010]. It still remains for LSCBs to decide whether it is appropriate to undertake an SCR, and the SCR panel is in place to review those decisions.

(2) For the purposes of paragraph (1) (e) a serious case is one where:
(a) abuse or neglect of a child is known or suspected; and
(b) either— (i) the child has died; or (ii) the child has been seriously harmed and there is cause for concern as to the way in which the authority, their Board partners or other relevant persons have worked together to safeguard the child.
March 2015 (page 76)
“Seriously harmed” in the context of paragraph 18 below and regulation 5(2)(b)(ii) above includes, but is not limited to, cases where the child has sustained, as a result of abuse or neglect, any or all of the following:
potentially life-threatening injury;
serious and/or likely long-term impairment of physical or mental health or physical, intellectual, emotional, social or behavioural development.

This definition is not exhaustive. In addition, even if a child recovers, this does not mean that serious harm cannot have occurred. LSCBs should ensure that their considerations on whether serious harm has occurred are informed by available research evidence.

In addition

LSCB functions - WT 2015 reinforces the LSCB roles of coordination and challenge. This is clearer overall in the Guidance.
The application of the JSNA - The expectation that the LSCB should use the JSNA assessment of the needs of vulnerable children to help them understand prevalence of abuse and neglect and inform the shaping of service provision.
Early Help –The guidance sets out a requirement for LSCB’s to agree with the LA and its partners the levels for different types of assessment and services to be delivered. This must include services for CYP who have been or may be sexually exploited, subject to FGM or have been or may be radicalised. It also sets out in more detail what a threshold document should include when published.
Local protocols for assessment- the guidance clarifies that local authorities with their partners should develop and publish local protocols for assessment (covering a range of forms of assessment) but that whilst the LA should lead these developments they must be agreed with the relevant LSCB
Allegations against people who work with children – whilst the guidance clarifies that the provision of a LADO service is the LA’s responsibility, not the LSCB’s, the LSCB is required to ensure there are clear policies in place for dealing with allegations
Advice to the LSCB- the guidance sets out those frontline professional roles that an LSCB must seek advice on or have sitting on the LSCB to provide advice but adds in a requirement to include a professional from any agency which has delegated social care functions, and the expectation that they should also be able to draw on advice from those appointed to support local authorities to move out of intervention
The Annual Report and CSE assessments- the LSCB is now required to undertake regular assessments on the effectiveness of board partner’s responses to CSE and include the outcome in the Annual Report. This should include how agencies have used their data to promote service improvement for vulnerable CYP and families including CSE.

Other significant changes

The referral of allegations against those who work with children;

The proposal was that allegations against people who work with children should be routed through children’s social care, so that they are dealt with alongside child welfare concerns in a coordinated manner, e.g MASH. It was proposed that the person(s) dealing with allegations against staff must be qualified social workers. Sets out the requirements in terms of

New guidance no longer refers to ‘LADO’s’ but says ‘Local authorities should have designated a particular officer, or team of officers (either as part of multi-agency arrangements or otherwise)’. All new appointees to LADO should be qualified social workers, unless an existing LADO moving between authorities. Changes to LADO
March 2013 / March 2015
County level and unitary local authorities should have a Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) to be involved in the management and oversight of individual cases.
The LADO should provide advice and guidance to employers and voluntary organisations, liaising with the police and other agencies and monitoring the progress of cases to ensure that they are dealt with as quickly as possible, consistent with a thorough and fair process;
Any allegation should be reported immediately to a senior manager within the organisation. The LADO should also be informed within one working day of all allegations that come to an employer’s attention or that are made directly to the police; and
If an organisation removes an individual (paid worker or unpaid volunteer) from work such as looking after children (or would have, had the person not left first) because the person poses a risk of harm to children, the organisation must make a referral to the Disclosure and Barring Service. It is an offence to fail to make a referral without good reason. / Local authorities should have designated a particular officer, or team of officers (either as part of multi-agency arrangements or otherwise), to be involved in the management and oversight of allegations against people that work with children.
Any such officer, or team of officers, should be sufficiently qualified and experienced to be able to fulfil this role effectively, for example qualified social workers. Any new appointments to such a role, other than current or former designated officers moving between local authorities, should be qualified social workers.

Additional changes to WT2015 (Detail)

Whistleblowing Set out new expectation that all organisations that have safeguarding responsibilities must have internal whistleblowing policies in place, which are integrated into training and codes of conduct page 53
[organisations should have in place] clear whistleblowing procedures, which reflect the principles in Sir Robert Francis’s Freedom to Speak Up review and are suitably referenced in staff training and codes of conduct, and a culture that enables issues about safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children to be addressed.
Information sharing – Updated to refer to new information sharing advice
2013 Information Sharing page 15 / 2015 Information Sharing page 17
Information Sharing: Guidance for practitioners and managers (2008) supports frontline practitioners, working in child or adult services, who have to make decisions about sharing personal information on a case by case basis.
The guidance can be used to supplement local guidance and encourage good practice in information sharing. / Information Sharing: Advice for practitioners providing safeguarding services to children, young people, parents and carers (2015) Supports front line practitioners, working in child or adult services, who have to make decisions about sharing personal information on a case by case basis.
The advice includes the seven golden rules for
sharing information effectively and can be used to supplement local guidance and encourage good practice in information sharing.
Referral – WT2015 states thatany professionals with concerns about a child’s welfare should make a referral to local authority children’s social care, and follow it up if they are not satisfied with the response. This could (without strong reinforcement of local threshold guidance) result in unhelpful increases in referrals when early help could be a more effective response
The expectations of Children and Young People: - On page 9 children’s wishes are set out and provide a valuable baseline for all professionals to apply in their work. These need to be built into the induction and staff practice standards in all partner agencies to be effectively applied
Young Carers and Parent Carers – WT2015 includes the new duties to assess young carers and parent carers, as introduced in the Children and Families Act 2014 and the Care Act 2014. Page 97 – 98
Statutory and other related assessments – this has had added to it the requirements on local authorities and their partners arising from new and existing legislation relating to children with disabilities, young carers and adult carers and new counter terrorism legislation
Special Educational Needs / Educational Health and Care Plans include guidance with the new SEN provisions following the Children and Families Act 2014. Page 94.
Child protection for foreign national children WT2015 includes change to reflect the publication of new guidance on Working with foreign authorities on child protection cases and care orders
(published July 2014). Page 23
Children returning home from care WT2015 makes explicit the requirements and expectations for continued assessment, planning, support and review for children who return home where this is both planned and unplanned. See flowchart on Page 51.
Probation WT215 Reflects the structural changes to probation under the Transforming Rehabilitation Programme and the findings of HM Inspectorate of Probation thematic inspection on protecting children. Page 60.
Channel panels WT2015 reflects duties set out in the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015
regarding Channel panels, due to come in to force on12 April 2015. Page 19.
Schools WT2015 clarifies that the guidance applies in its entirety to all schools, including independent schools, academies and free schools, who all have duties in relation to safeguarding and
promoting the welfare of pupils, consistent with Keeping Children Safe in Education.
Public Health: Page 9 reinforces the role of the Director of Public Health and the JSNA and the responsibility of the LSCB to use the assessment of the needs of vulnerable children to help them understand prevalence which in turn will help shape services

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