Welcome to our newsletter for practitioners that work with children and families in Leeds. This newsletter provides you with helpful information to support and improve your practice.
How curious are you about being curious?
Learning from local and national reviews tells us that there is always scope for practitioners to look more closely beyond what they see, to keep children safer. Here at the LSCP Business Unit, we have taken up that message in what has been an exciting piece of work alongside practitioners. Adopting a ‘you said, we did’ approach, we have taken the findings of our recent survey which explored what you said would help you to be more professionally curious, developing a resource pack to encourage and support you to reflect on how curious you are, and how you could be more curious. This resource includes:
- Clear, relatable sections explaining the behaviours of professionally curious practice
- Tools and prompts for use in real scenarios
- A visual infographic
- Elements that can be incorporated into team meetings, supervision, or organisational training
Curious and want to find out more? Take a look at the new Professional Curiosity resource.
Information for new starters
Whether you’re brand new to safeguarding or joining us from another area, beginning a role that involves working with children is both exciting and deeply important. To support you in getting off to the best possible start we’ve created a dedicated New Starter page, your one stop introduction to safeguarding practice in Leeds. Designed for anyone working with children, young people, or families across the city. It brings together the core information every practitioner needs right from day one.
If you’re responsible for recruiting or managing staff, make sure to link to this information within your organisation’s induction pack.
New Safer Sleep guidance launching for Leeds Early Years Providers
During Safer Sleep Week (9-15th March), Public Health will be launching new safer sleep guidance specifically for early years providers.
This new resource will provide clear, practical advice to support you in reviewing policies, strengthening procedures, and ensuring staff confidence and consistency in safer sleep practice. Consistent safer sleep practice across all environments where babies sleep is essential. Early years providers play a crucial role in modelling best practice and offering reassurance to families.
Ahead of the launch, we encourage you to begin preparing by:
- Reviewing your current sleep policy and risk assessments
- Identifying any training needs - training available to book here Every Sleep a Safe Sleep Multi-Agency Training for Early Years providers - Universe
- Considering how safer sleep practice is monitored in your setting
- Planning how you will communicate any updates to parents and carers
For a copy of the guidance contact: sally.goodwinmills@leeds.gov.uk
‘Protecting all vulnerable babies better’
National review into the death of baby Victoria Marten
The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel has published its national review into the death of baby Victoria Marten. The review focusses on preventing harm and improving protection for all vulnerable unborn babies and infants.
Key findings and recommendations:
- Earlier and stronger pre-birth safeguarding, including more detailed national guidance on safeguarding vulnerable unborn babies and infants and situations where a pregnancy is concealed or disclosed late
- The importance of trauma-informed practice to help reach families who do not engage with services, recognising that avoidance of services often reflects grief and mistrust rather than deliberate refusal
- Better engagement with and support for parents before and after child removal, to help break cycles of harm and reduce repeat risk
- A preventative ‘Think Family’ approach, bringing together adult and children’s services to provide a holistic view and identify issues that affect the whole family unit
- Stronger links between children’s social care and offender management services, especially when serious sex offenders are parents or carers
- Clearer arrangements when families move across geographical boundaries, including the need for formal information transfer processes, shared chronologies and defined safeguarding responsibility
A briefing note for practitioners is available as a pdf on the Panel's website.
LSCP Training - New dates for 2026
New dates have been added to our training offer. Book your place today!
Introduction to safeguarding children and young people
Online introductory training for people who are in regular contact with children and young people either directly, through work with their families / carers or through the setting in which they work.
This is seen as a minimum requirement for all people working within settings which work with or have regular contact with children and young people.
- Tuesday 14 April 2026, 9am to 3.15pm
- Tuesday 21 April 2026, 9am to 3.15pm
- Wednesday 29 April 2026, 9am to 3.15pm
Working Together to safeguard children and young people
This online multi-agency course is for any member of staff who is considered to be a lead professional for safeguarding or may be involved in multi-agency approaches to safeguarding children and young people in their organisation. This may include undertaking s47 (child abuse) enquiries, working with complex cases, or those who would regularly attend Initial Child Protection Conferences.
- Tuesday 24 March 2026, 9.00am to 3.30pm
- Tuesday 5 May 2026, 9.00am to 3.30pm
Safeguarding children and young people refresher training
This course provides an update of safeguarding practice, legislation and messages over the last three years. It considers these from both local and national perspectives and covers information such as definitions, raising concerns with Children’s Social Work Services, legislation and key messages from Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews.
Book your place
Training for trainers
A multi-agency training day to enable organisations to deliver the LSCP Introduction to Safeguarding Children and Young People session in-house.
- Tuesday 12 May 2026, 9.15am to 4.15pm
CSE hasn't gone away
Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) remains one of the most serious safeguarding challenges facing children and young people today. Although awareness and professional practice have advanced significantly over recent years, exploitation has not diminished it has adapted. Offenders increasingly operate within online environments, social media platforms, gaming communities, and peer networks, making their methods more hidden, complex, and harder to detect through traditional approaches.
For practitioners working across social care, education, health, policing, and the voluntary sector, staying ahead of these emerging patterns is essential. This briefing provides an up-to-date, evidence informed understanding of what CSE looks like right now, not what it looked like five years ago.
Attendees will gain:
- Insight into current trends and methods of exploitation, including online and peer facilitated grooming.
- Clarity on evolving risk indicators, helping practitioners identify concerns earlier and with greater confidence.
- Awareness of new and emerging threats, including shifts in offender behaviour and children’s digital vulnerabilities.
- Strengthened multi agency practice, exploring how effective information sharing, partnership working, and professional curiosity remain critical to disrupting harm.
This session is designed to enhance professional judgement, deepen safeguarding expertise, and support practitioners to respond proactively in a rapidly changing landscape of exploitation.
- Thursday 12 March 2026, 9.30am to 10.30am
Urban street gangs & emerging groups and Serious organised Crime ( SOC ) threats across Leeds
The session aims to increase the knowledge of existing urban streets gangs and emerging groups and provide a better understanding of the risks, threats and harms that are posed.
- Friday 30 April 2026, 11:00 to 12:30
- Friday 3 July 2026, 11:00 to 12:30
- Friday 9 October 2026, 11:00 to 12:30
- Friday 4 December 2026, 11:00 to 12:30
This briefing session is aimed at practitioners that work with young people involved or at risk of serious youth violence.
Delivered by Sgt Katie Earnshaw, DS Frankie Morgan supported by Bev Yearwood (Leeds City Council), Sgt Mark Rothery (West Yorkshire Police) for Q + A session.
The session will be delivered over MS Teams.
To register your place email: beverley.yearwood@leeds.gov.uk
Learning Access Service - Supporting children into education
As a child friendly city, Leeds is keen to ensure that all children, whatever their circumstances, have the very best opportunity to access the very best education. The Leeds Learning Access Service has that vision at the very core of its work, not least for those children whose parents elect to educate them at home.
This session will provide an overview on the Learning Access Service, with a focus on understanding the local authority's responsibilities and structure of the team.
- Thursday 26 March 2026 at 10:00 to 11:00am
Save to your favourites
Professional Curiosity resource – Your handy resource helping you to be professionally curious
What do we mean by Risks Outside the Home? - An overview on contextual safeguarding
Dates for your diary
9 - 15 March, Safer Sleep Week
18 March, CSE Awareness Day
2 - 7 April, World Autism Week