Working Together to Safeguard Children 2018 lays out the shared responsibility between organisations and agencies to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children in a local area. Local organisations and agencies that work with children and families play a significant role when it comes to safeguarding children. The responsibility rests with the three safeguarding partners who have a shared and equal duty to make arrangements to work together. Full details of our local partnership arrangements can be found on our website here and are briefly described below.
LSCP Executive Group:
The LSCP Executive Group consists of the three statutory agencies that have equal and joint responsibilities for local safeguarding arrangements and ensuring that responsibilities under Working Together to Safeguard Children 2018 are discharged. They set and lead the strategic safeguarding vision, provide leadership across the city, and identify the LSCP priorities as required.
The three statutory agencies and representatives for the city are:
- Chief Superintendent - Leeds District Commander, West Yorkshire Police
- Director of Children and Families, Leeds City Council
- Director of Nursing and Quality, Leeds office of NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board.
The Executive also includes:
- LSCP Independent Chair
- LSCP Business Manager
- LSCP Legal Advisor
The 2022 Ofsted Inspecting Local Authority Children’s Services (ILACS) report identified that the city’s strategic partnerships are strong. It recognised that although there have been some professional challenges, these are resolved through the strength of relationships and restorative culture. As is often inevitable in large statutory organisations there are regular changes in senior leaders. The new statutory Executive leadership team is now in place and are resolute in their aim to maintain and maximise the strong relationships currently held.
During 2022 the LSCP Executive took the opportunity to have two dedicated face-to-face facilitation and coaching sessions from the National Multi-Agency Child Safeguarding Reform Facilitators. This time was used to consider the city’s current arrangements, reflect on some difficult leadership decisions and reconsider roles and responsibilities with the benefit of examples of good practice and experiences in other regions.
It is three years since the last set of changes were made to the city’s Children’s Safeguarding Partnership infrastructure and it is recognised how the policy direction is changing. The national facilitators, in their diagnosis of the sessions confirmed the arrangements in Leeds are good and advised against any whole scale change that could destabilise this.
As a result, the LSCP Executive have committed to ‘reset’ some of the safeguarding arrangements in collaboration with the wider children’s partnership.
Independent Chair
The Independent Chair provides important scrutiny of the local multi-agency safeguarding arrangements and the effectiveness of the safeguarding partnership, including providing assurances and recommendations on areas for improvement to the LSCP Executive through a variety of means including auditing, reviews, engaging with front line practice and seeking the voice of children, young people and families. Within the last year a significant part of this work has included:
- Reviewing arrangements where children are living in families where domestic abuse is a feature
- Instigating a review of the notification process of Serious Child Safeguarding Incidents (SCSIs) to the National Panel
- Chairing the Review Advisory Group which reviews cases under the criteria laid out in Working Together to Safeguard Children 2018 where children may have experienced serious harm
Leeds Children and Young People Partnership (LCYPP)
The LCYPP was developed to provide strategic leadership, vision, and drive delivery of the LSCP Annual Report priorities and the Leeds Children and Young People’s Plan. It brings together those agencies within the city working with children and families and is responsible for the oversight of both the safeguarding priorities set by the LSCP Executive and ensuring that core and statutory functions laid out in WTSC 2018 are delivered. This may be through its subgroups, standing / task and finish groups or making recommendations, as appropriate, to other strategic partnerships in Leeds.
The LCYPP are also responsible in driving priorities set within the Children and Young People’s Plan to ensure an integrated strategic join up between safeguarding and those wider factors which may impact on the lives of parents, carers, children and young people. Progress of the 5 outcomes and 11 priorities of the Leeds Children and Young Peoples Plan are also brought to this meeting for discussion, developing strategic links and scrutiny.
The LCYPP is co-chaired by Executive Board Member for Children, Families and Adult Social Care and the LSCP Independent Chair. Members of this group also include Chairs of the LSCP subgroups which encourages a more joined up organisational accountability and ownership of safeguarding across the work of the Partnership.
Partners are encouraged to bring forward agenda items, current themes across the city, challenges they face within multi-agency working and opportunities for stronger joint working. There is the expectation that when partners bring agenda items to the Leeds CYPP meeting, they submit a cover report outlining the key issues, how the item relates to the priorities of the Leeds Children and Young Peoples Plan, how children’s voices are heard and how the Partnership can support the work. Key themes and topics discussed and debated by the LCYPP over the past year have included:
- Domestic Abuse Routine Enquiry Review by Health
- Progress on the Maternity Strategy and Best Start Plan
- City wide Domestic Abuse Review
- Children and Families Covid 19 Transition Plan
- Revised 3As Plan
- Multi-agency Audit – Child in Need Plan
- Progress on the Futures in Mind Strategy
- Ofsted Inspection of Leeds Local Authority - Improvement Plan
- Independent National Review of Children’s Social Care
- Serious Child Safeguarding Incident (SCSI) notification review and partner SCSI Referral Form
Assurance has been provided on progress of these key areas along with a solution focussed partnership approach to challenges that are identified and presented.
The LSCP Sub-Groups which drive the work of the partnership are standing agenda items. The Sub-Group Chairs feedback key areas of work, aligned to partnership priorities and any issues that require partnership action. This provides additional scrutiny and challenge by partners on the work being undertaken within the Partnership.
As a child friendly city, the voice of children and young people is fundamental to how we shape and deliver services and to ensure inclusivity for the communities the Partnership serves. The voice of children is a standing agenda item in the LCYPP meeting to influence local or city-wide priorities and agendas, or where they make recommendations or advise decision makers. The city’s Voice and Influence team which is led by Leeds Children and Families Directorate ensure the Partnership hears and supports the represented voices of children and young people across the city. There are further opportunities in the LCYPP meeting to hear how our partners use the voice of children and young people to influence the services they provide, especially in those groups of children who may be unrepresented.
In 2023 the LSCP Performance Management Subgroup (PMSG) will undertake an audit of partner agencies compliance of Section 11 of the Children Act. There is a specific question calling for evidence of a culture of listening to children and taking account of their wishes and feelings. This is an opportunity to assess the effectiveness of how partners engage and listen to children when providing services. Furthermore, to explore how this informs the planning and delivery of those services.
Leeds Children and Young People Partnership Bi-annual Network Meeting
The Network Meetings were established in March 2022 and provide the opportunity for partners to come together to share and discuss safeguarding topics across the Partnership and to hear their views. Meetings are open to frontline practitioners, managers and agency safeguarding leads, and are themed around information identified from either the LCYPP meeting or directly from practitioners.
The first Bi-Annual meeting considered learning from recent LSCP review processes including Rapid Reviews and Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews (CSPRs). Discussions highlighted how the Third Sector often felt there to be a lack of understanding and urgency from some agencies when advocating the presenting risk to a child which often led to escalating concerns. This led to further promotion of the LSCP Concerns Resolution process to ensure practitioners understand how to escalate concerns in relation to the safety of a child.
The most recent Bi-annual meeting discussed the refresh of the Leeds Children and Young People’s Plan, considering the key proposed updates. Following on from the previous meeting it also considered the reoccurring theme of Professional Curiosity that has been highlighted from the most serious child safeguarding incidents. This was also another opportunity to explore the LSCP Concerns Resolution Process including practitioner challenges and barriers to implementing this.
The initial evaluation of the Bi-annual meeting indicated that:
- 80% of participants found the meeting useful, and the approach suitable for their needs as a practitioner.
- 93% of participants stated they would attend future meetings, although some participants indicated a shorter meeting would be preferable (meetings are currently 3 hours in length).
Participants indicated that going forward they would like to consider new policies and procedures, findings from national reviews, trends and responses within Leeds and the sharing of good practice. These will be taken forward through future Bi-annual meetings.
The Role of the Business Support Unit
The LSCP Business unit is commissioned by the LSCP Executive to support the city’s multi-agency safeguarding arrangements. This work includes:
- Ensuring that the responsibilities under Working Together to Safeguard Children 2018 are discharged fully across the city.
- Working with Chairs to support the facilitation and preparation of the LSCP Subgroups, LCYPP and Executive meetings and provide additional information, advice, and guidance.
- Supporting Rapid Reviews, CSPRs and child death reviews in line with national guidance and support the implementation of action plans and recommendations.
- Maintaining the LSCP Website, developing bulletins for practitioners, safeguarding campaigns for children and families, and the dissemination of learning across the partnership.
- Providing a comprehensive, responsive, and adaptable safeguarding training and development offer for practitioners across Leeds.
- Developing strong links with other West Yorkshire safeguarding partnerships to identify common themes and link up relevant work.
- Developing and updating multi-agency safeguarding policies and procedures both locally and regionally.
- Undertaking audits and quality assurance work to support learning and improvements.
- Identify any local or national challenges or opportunities for the Partnership and support the implementation of new ways of working.
- Supporting and encouraging a strong culture of child centred safeguarding arrangements for the city
- Working with other strategic partnerships in the city to identify opportunities for collaboration, cross cutting themes and reduce duplication of effort.
In January 2022, the LSCP Executive requested that the Business Unit was reviewed to ensure it continues to support the LSCP safeguarding structure and arrangements in Leeds in the most effective way. The outcome of this review has been presented to the Executive in November 2022 and will be completed by May 2023.
Funding Arrangements
The LSCP Executive have continued their commitment to funding the multi-agency safeguarding arrangements with additional funding from West Yorkshire Probation. This funding provides staffing and resources that are managed through the LSCP Business Unit