Introduction

The Wood Review of 2016, led to an amendment of The Children’s Act 2004, resulting in the removal of the statutory requirement of local authorities to have a Local Safeguarding Children Board and placed the responsibility for safeguarding equally with local authorities namely children and family services, police and health (Clinical Commissioning Groups). Working Together to Safeguard Children 2018 places a duty on the three agencies to work in partnership and to define the local multi-agency safeguarding arrangements. It also places a duty on other partner agencies to co-operate with the new arrangements. This creates greater opportunities and a culture to work as partners in the interest of safeguarding the most vulnerable children and young people across Leeds. The vision is for local areas to decide on how this should work in practice with an aim for this work to be underpinned by partnership working.

The new arrangements require the Leeds Safeguarding Children Partnership (LSCP) Executive and appointed LSCP Chair to publish an annual report on the effectiveness of child safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children in the local area. Therefore, this report aims to provide a rigorous and transparent assessment of the performance and effectiveness of local services. It also aims to identify areas of weakness; the causes of those weaknesses and any proposals and actions being taken to ensure improvements. Finally, this report also includes an account of progress made in implementing actions from reviews, lessons and the sharing of learning, from the front line, that have been undertaken within the reporting period.

This annual report is a retrospective look at the work of the LSCP for 2019/20 and will also include progress and analysis of the effectiveness of the first 12 months of the new safeguarding arrangements under Working Together to Safeguard Children 2018. Therefore, unless stated otherwise, data reported is for April 2019 to March 2020.  However, reporting and analysis may extend to August 2020 to cover the first 12 months of the new arrangements.