YSS Conference May 2014

Worcestershire Young Carers

A Safeguarding Matter?

Issues to be covered• What is safeguarding?

• What does the Board do?

• What are the Board’s priorities?

• Are young carers a safeguarding matter?

What is safeguarding?

The action we take to promote the welfare of children and protect them

from harm (Working Together guidance 2013)

Definition:•Protecting children from maltreatment

•Preventing impairment of children’s health or development

•Ensuring that children are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care

•Taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes

What does the Board do?

Key statutory mechanism for agreeing how partner organisations

will co-operate to safeguard and promote the welfare of children,

and for ensuring the effectiveness of what they do

Vision statement

All children and young people in Worcestershire are safe and thriving

• Membership – Strategic senior managers who can speak with authority, commit their organisation on policy and practice matters, and hold their organisation to account

• Range of statutory functions eg SCRs; child deaths; communicate/raise awareness; develop thresholds, policies and procedures; monitor and evaluate effectiveness; seek assurance about accessibility and quality of training; and produce/publish an annual report on effectiveness

In Summary, Boards:• Co-ordinate and ensure the effectiveness of what is

done by each person or body represented on the Board to safeguard and promote children’s welfare

• No power to direct - collective responsibility

• Independent - powerful position

• Multi-agency funding

• Totally reliant upon effective partnership working

Key issues:• Consider all children (universal services),

those with additional or complex needs, and those with critical/acute needs

• The world of child protection includes recognition of increasing family stresses/ complex safeguarding issues; expanding demand for services; era of austerity; and a diverse range of providers with different philosophies

What are the Board’s priorities?1. Robust safeguarding practice• Core Work e.g. victims of physical/sexual abuse;

neglect; emotional abuse; vulnerable disabled; and preventable child deaths/injuries

• Development Priorities ie domestic abuse, mental ill health, substance abuse, and all forms of exploitation

2. Evidenced partnership effectiveness eg user feedback, links with other partnerships,

assess effectiveness

3. Improvement through learning• Learning from eg serious case reviews, audits• Demonstrate effectiveness of training

Are young carers a safeguarding matter?

• Definition: Preventing impairment of children’s development; and ensuring that children are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of effective care; and taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes

• Priority group: Improvement through learning priority: Serious case reviews

• Early help: Young carers potentially need early help - statutory function to assess effectiveness• Vision: Thriving