Leeds Safeguarding Children Partnership Meeting (formerly the Children and Young People Partnership (CYPP)

The LSCP Review Advisory Group (RAG) is made up of a senior representative from the three statutory partners, the independent scrutineer, a legal advisor and a representative from the LSCP Business Unit. The chairing arrangements for the group rotate between the three statutory partners on an annual basis. During 2025/26 the RAG was chaired by a senior representative from Children and Families services and in the latter part of the year, a Superintendent from West Yorkshire Police.

The group has overall responsibility for the serious child safeguarding review process in Leeds and meets quarterly. It has a key role in ensuring the identification of good practice and areas of learning with the objective of improving outcomes for children and young people and preventing future harm. They ensure that learning is communicated to all relevant groups of the LSCP for consideration and action and oversee progress.

The serious child safeguarding review activity and key learning from this year is outlined in the section 'LSCP Review Activity 2025/26'.

During 2025/26 the RAG undertook the following:

• Developed and launched a YouTube film -  An Introduction to the Review Advisory Group and Key Themes – for all practitioners which introduced and outlined the purpose of reviews, the roles of the RAG members and discussed key themes seen in review activity in respect of neglect, domestic abuse, child sexual abuse and exploitation
• RAG members came together for an in-person development day to reflect on current processes, strengths and areas for improvement with consideration of updated guidance from the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel on local child safeguarding practice reviews
• Implemented improvements to processes, quality and supported to provide increased visibility around safeguarding review(s) activity across the partnership, ensuring that learning from reviews is shared effectively and efficiently with agencies
• Developed a delivery approach to ensuring learning from Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews and Rapid Reviews are disseminated across the partnership with several in-person multi-agency seminars for practitioners, facilitated by the Independent Scrutineer, planned for 2026/27
• Reviewed the reporting format and adjusted to a simplified structure aligned to national requirements with an improved focus on learning and actions from Rapid Reviews
• Continued to meet throughout the year to discuss and agree if criteria were met in respect of notifications of Serious Child Safeguarding Incidents
• Considered the learning, recommendations and action resulting from national learning and themes from practice reviews including the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel annual report, It’s Silent, Race, racism and safeguarding children and the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel Learning Support and Capability Project.
   

The Audit and Review Group oversees the implementation of a multi-agency review and audit plan and receives summaries of key lessons from multi, and single agency audits conducted across the LSCP partnership. The group is also tasked to review relevant safeguarding data and advise the partnership of critical trends.

During 2025/26, the Audit and Review Group activity included:

• As part of the local action plan in response to the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel report, I wanted them all to notice: Protecting Children and Responding to Child Sexual Abuse within the Family Environment, a multi-agency audit to assess the quality of local multi-agency decision-making in response to concerns about child sexual abuse was undertaken in June 2025. The focus was on consistent threshold application, effective use of guidance and pathways, and clarity around decision-making processes. This audit was undertaken to evaluate the quality and appropriateness of strategy discussions, focusing on cases where sexual abuse was a suspected factor
• Received assurance via an audit undertaken by the Learning Access Service providing assurances regarding Elective Home Education and outlining local authority processes for tracking and monitoring pupils removed from roll at non-standard transition points or when a child is home educated
• Considered findings from an audit undertaken by the 0-19 service regarding multi-agency working with children subject to Child in Need planning. The audit included professional attendance at Child in Need meetings, planning and multi-agency working to ensure children’s needs were being met  
• Reviewed updates on audit findings and learning themes from JTAI activity nationally in respect of children who are victims domestic abuse (the JTAI theme from September 2024 to May 2025) and how these apply locally
• Reviewed the revised LSCP data framework which included data on contacts and the source, referrals, number of children on a Child in Need and Child Protection Plan and children looked after. The group have discussed additional data to inform a broader partnership perspective across the system

Throughout 2025/26 the Audit and Review group has been chaired by a Service Delivery Manager in Children and Families services with deputy chair arrangements being provided by the Integrated Care Board. New chairing arrangements for the group will be needed in 2026/27 and considered as part of a review of LSCP sub-groups and governance planned for 2026/27.  

Leeds has developed strong multi-agency arrangements to respond to child exploitation through its Multi-Agency Child Exploitation (MACE) arrangements. The Silver MACE group forms part of these arrangements, highlighting and responding to any challenges and opportunities which are in turn fed into the LSCP Executive, who are Gold MACE.

The group continues to be chaired by the Head of Crime and Safeguarding, Leeds District, West Yorkshire Police, with membership that includes health, education, the third sector, Children and Families services, Youth Justice and representatives from Safer Leeds.

During 2025/26 the Silver MACE undertook the following:

• Monitored data and intelligence provided by West Yorkshire Police and Children Services on the number of referrals and prevalence of exploitation types, trends, and demographics of the children identified
• Explored current arrangements in respect of the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) and opportunities to strengthen partnership input by providing clarity on first responder roles and responsibilities and introduction of a multi-agency decision panel 
• Initiated a review and refresh of the current MACE framework in response to recent reviews and learning identified to strengthen the partnership response to safeguarding children and disruption of perpetrators
• Invited education representatives to be a part of the Silver MACE group
• Coordinated a city-wide event on Child Exploitation which took place in February 2026 with a keynote from Professor Carlene Firmin, Director of the Global Centre for Contextual Safeguarding at Durham University as part of the work commissioned by the partnership to deliver an all-service diagnostic on the current Risk Outside the Home (ROTH) pathway. See Priority (3) - Safeguarding adolescents - serious youth violence and exploitation for more detailed information
• In response to the National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse by Baroness Casey published in June 2025, the Silver MACE have initiated an audit of a small number of child sexual exploitation (CSE) cases to understand practice around concerns related to child sexual exploitation where recorded number of assessments of CSE has fallen in Leeds, as it has nationally

For 2026/27, once concluded, the Silver MACE sub-group members will take forward the final recommendations and actions from partnership work with the Global Centre for Contextual Safeguarding, alongside a refresh of the current MACE framework and arrangements.  

The Learning and Development group continues to be chaired by the Head of Quality and Practice Improvement and Principal Social Worker, with membership from across the partnership. The group has the responsibility to ensure that learning from reviews undertaken locally and nationally is included within the partnership learning and development offer.

The multi-agency training offer has continued throughout the year and is referred to in the Multi-agency Training section with the addition of further learning and development opportunities provided with the annual West Yorkshire Safeguarding Week in June and the Leeds Safeguarding week in November.

During 2025/26, the Learning and Development Group has updated and finalised updates to the LSCP Learning and Improvement Framework to ensure simplified language and how learning is identified and disseminated throughout the partnership.

Members have supported the commissioning process for a dedicated training provider to deliver the partnership Working Together training on a monthly basis throughout the year. 
The group has commissioned a Task and Finish Group to explore how learning can be achieved by identifying positive multi-agency practice through the review of a case/s via an Appreciative Inquiry event. The case identified relates to neglect and is being taken forward by the Multi-Agency Neglect Project members. 

Planned for 2026/27, and in conjunction with the Review Advisory Group (RAG), learning themes from Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews and Rapid Reviews will be disseminated across the partnership with several in-person multi-agency seminars planned for practitioners to attend and facilitated by the Independent Scrutineer and the LSCP Business Unit. 

The Learning and Development group has experienced challenges in 2025/26 in ensuring consistent attendance from across the partnership. The recruitment of a partnership Learning and Development officer, focused on coordinating and improving multi-agency learning and development activity across the partnership, will provide a key function in supporting and coordinating the work of the group and expanding the current learning offer (both face to face and online) that the LSCP provides in 2026/27. 

The Policy and Practice group ensure a focus is maintained on practice improvement, incorporating policies, procedures and best practice guidance. During 2025/26 the group has continued to be chaired by the Deputy Chief Nurse of Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust, with senior representation from across partners.    

During 2025/26 the Policy and Practice Group (working in conjunction with the Multi-Agency Child Protection Steering Group (MACPSG)) have reviewed and updated several policies and procedures including Child Protection Medicals policy and Children with complex medical needs travelling outside the Local Authority guidance.

The group has contributed to activity as part of the local action plan in response to the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel report, I wanted them all to notice: Protecting Children and Responding to Child Sexual Abuse within the Family Environment and undertaken reflections in respect of current practice approaches in respect of the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel report, "It's Silent": Race, racism and safeguarding children

In addition to Leeds local policies and procedures, the LSCP has arrangements in place with the other five safeguarding children’s partnerships in West Yorkshire, to ensure there is consistency of procedures across this geographical footprint.

As part of the review of LSCP sub-groups and governance planned for 2026/27, the functions of the Policy and Practice Group and opportunities to align its workstreams and priorities with those of the Audit and Review Group will be considered. 
 

The Multi-Agency Child Protection Steering Group (MACPSG) is chaired by the ICB Head of Safeguarding/Designated Nurse for Safeguarding Children and Adults. The main purpose of the group’s work is to have oversight of multi-agency child protection processes and to contribute to the development of those processes whilst ensuring the sharing of good practice and areas for improvement.

During 2025/26 the MACSPG reviewed the LSCP Bruising in Non-independently Mobile Children Protocol to consider Leeds alignment with the four other West Yorkshire districts guidance. The group also reviewed and updated the Multi-Agency Processes for Children with Pressure Sores.

They implemented further action required to improve the routine inclusion of the Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) in attendance at strategy discussions from the local action plan in response to the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel report, I wanted them all to notice: Protecting Children and Responding to Child Sexual Abuse within the Family Environment.

As part of the review of LSCP sub-groups and governance planned for 2026/27, the functions of the MACPSG and opportunities to closely align its workstreams and priorities with that of other sub-groups will be considered.

During 2025/26 the Education Safeguarding Group (ESG) continued to be chaired (for the first part of the year) by the Executive Principle of a Local Academy Trust before chairing arrangements transferred to the Deputy Director of Student Life (Safeguarding, Wellbeing and Behaviour) at a further education setting.

Membership of the ESG is from a wide range of education establishments and key partners. More recently the Terms of Reference for the group has been reviewed to ensure that key representatives from all education settings are included and it has a clear purpose and function. The ESG has identified six key functions: 

• To seek assurance about the effectiveness of strategic and operational safeguarding arrangements in respect of the Education Sector
• To identify and explore emerging themes, priorities, risks and opportunities within the Education sector as part of the LSCP
• To develop and implement a SMART action/work plan to meet identified priorities and encompass the priorities of the LSCP
• To monitor progress and outcomes of the action/work plan and address any barriers
• To work with other LSCP groups and relevant strategic arrangements in the city

During the 2025/26 the ESG considered the use of Physical Restraints in education settings, considering what is safe, what expectations are and how supervision works. This was following concerns arising about the use of restraint at an academy in Leeds in April 2025. Assurance was provided to the LSCP Executive on this issue following a safeguarding audit of the site subject of the concerns and appropriate action taken.

The LSCP Best Practice Training document, which provides clarity and consistency in respect of training requirements for education settings across the city, was reviewed and updated.

In the coming year, the ESG will work to its six key functions as outlined in its refreshed Terms of Refence and develop and implement its SMART action plan of work to help meet and support the priorities of the LSCP. 

The Third Sector Safeguarding group is attended by representatives from organisations across the sector who are responsible or have an interest in safeguarding. Voluntary Action Leeds and LSCP Business Unit support these meetings.

Following the recent departure of the previous Chair, the Deputy Chair has taken on the Chair position. Recruitment is now underway to appoint a new Deputy Chair.

The purpose of this group is to ensure that third sector partners have a strong voice, acting as a conduit to sharing learning from LSCP safeguarding reviews and audit work, highlighting challenges or opportunities, and supporting the development of safeguarding practice.

The Third Sector Safeguarding Group continues to meet quarterly throughout the year with speakers and themes for meetings identified by members based on the current safeguarding climate, learning and the priorities identified by the LSCP.

The Third Sector are in a unique position to gather feedback from the children and young people that they support, and voice and influence of children and young people is now a standing item on the agenda. This means that best practice can be shared, not only within the sector but across the partnership.

The Care Collaborative group continues to develop, looking at the support/services that are available to Care Experienced, Care Leavers and those at risk of entering the care system.

Third sector partners continue to be members of other sub-groups offering their expertise to the various workstreams that take place across the LSCP.

The statutory child death review partners are the local authority and the ICB and the statutory responsibilities are set out in Working Together to Safeguard Children. To ensure that these statutory responsibilities are met in Leeds the Child Death Overview Panel (CDOP) and Neonatal Death Overview Panel (NDOP) are held regularly and include a wide representative of partners.

The death of any child is a tragedy. The role of the CDOP is to identify learning from the death of any child in Leeds. Each year the CDOP Annual Report provides a summary of learning from reviewing these deaths and recommendations for partners who can implement lessons the panel has learned from this process to prevent similar events occurring in the future.

The annual report summary, covering the period 2025/26, will be published and available on the LSCP website shortly.

During 2024/25, 73 deaths were reviewed by the CDOP and NDOP. Up to March 2025 there were 114 cases waiting review.

Of the deaths reviewed, contributory modifiable factors were identified in 36 cases (49%). In these instances, the factors were often overlapping and multiple. These factors can be directly or indirectly related to a death, others linked to circumstances in pregnancy that affected birth outcomes for the baby. These included:

• Maternal smoking, often in pregnancy, ten mothers
• Paternal smoking, seven fathers
• Factors in relation to access or provision of health service, six deaths
• Domestic abuse, four deaths
• Lack of supervision / neglect / abuse, four deaths
• Alcohol, four deaths
• Unmet emotional needs, three deaths
• Mould in the home, two deaths
• Drowning in rivers, two deaths
• High maternal body mass index (BMI), two deaths
• Co-sleeping, three deaths
• Substance use, two deaths
• Room too hot, one death
• Road traffic collision, one death
• Consanguinity, one death
• Murder, one death
• Home safety, one death

The report made a number of recommendations, which are:

• The Director of Public Health to ensure that women and families have good access to preconception health advice and maintain good work on smoking, healthy maternal weight, genetic awareness, mental health, drug and alcohol use, vaccination uptake, accident prevention and safe sleeping
• The Leeds Safeguarding Executive to run the Play Safe social media campaign, incorporating water safety, annually during summer; and the road safety team in Leeds City Council to continue to coordinate road safety and training by LCC and partners
• Children’s social care, 0-19 PHINS and Children Centres to support parents to meet their children’s needs and improve coordination of and increased access to a range of support services and resources to help meet the needs of families affected by alcohol, smoking and substance use. Sharing responsibility to provide integrated accessible and evidence-based support through Best Start Hubs, Family Hubs, Early Start and Family Help approaches to ensure more families and children receive appropriate care and support
• To work with housing colleagues to continue to raise awareness of the risks of and action to reduce the incidence of homes with mould and to ensure home safety messages are understood
• The Leeds CDOP and Neonatal Child Overview Panel to continue to work closely with health partners governance and safety processes to ensure lessons learned from child deaths are embedded in learning and practice

The Secure Settings Safeguarding group has continued to be chaired by Clinical Head of Portfolio and Nursing Professional Lead from Leeds Community Healthcare Trust (LCH), with membership including representatives from the secure settings in Leeds, as well as children and family services, West Yorkshire Police and health services. 

The secure settings in Leeds are:

• Wetherby Youth Offending Institute
• Adel Beck Children Home
• West Yorkshire Police Custody Suite

The group continues to monitor the safeguarding arrangements in three secure settings in Leeds providing oversight and challenge in relation to safeguarding. Inspection findings and progress with relevant action plans continue to be overseen by this group and areas of concern highlighted to the LSCP Executive.

This year the areas of work have included: 

• Seeking assurance and data on the safety and welfare of those young people from Leeds who are held in secure estates in other locations in country
• Reviewing an audit undertaken by Leeds Community Health and community paediatricians in Wetherby Youth Offender Institute (YOI) following an incident of concern which resulted in a Child Protection Medical being undertaken
• Considering the findings and undertook reflections in respect of the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel report, "It's Silent": Race, racism and safeguarding children and its recommendations
• Providing assurance to the LSCP Executive Group regarding use of PAVA spray (synthetic pepper spray) in Wetherby YOI 

Adel Beck Secure Children’s Home

Adel Beck is a secure children’s home (SCH), owned and operated by Leeds City Council and is approved by the Secretary of State to restrict children’s liberty. It accommodates up to 24 children and young people of different genders aged between 9 and17 years of age. It provides care for up to 14 children and young people placed by the Youth Custody Service and up to 10 children and young people subject to section 25 (welfare) of the Children Act 1989 who are placed by Local Authorities. The admission of children under 13 years of age on welfare grounds under section 25 requires the approval of the Secretary of State.

Adel Beck was subject to a full Ofsted inspection (this link goes to a pdf of the report on the Ofsted website) between the 20th and 22nd of January 2026. The inspection found that the overall experiences and progress of children and young people was good, taking into account their education and learning (good), children’s health (outstanding) and how well children are helped and protected (good). The effectiveness of leaders and managers at Adel Beck was assessed as good with the home providing effective services which meet the requirements. The home has been able to maintain a good rating since 2023. 

The inspection highlighted that children speak positively about the care that they receive in the home with staff demonstrating a strong understanding of each child’s individual needs which helps build positive and meaningful relationships. 

The use of restraint, single separation and managing children away from their peers is clearly documented and only used when necessary to ensure the safety of children and others. The inspection identified that children are physically held in line with regulations and only when the legal criteria are met. There is a strong emphasis on staff implementing safe physical restraint practices and Adel Beck has a Restraint Minimisation Strategy that keeps young people safe by using the least restrictive practices possible. 

Managers oversee all written logs and verify incidents of restraint by reviewing CCTV footage. Written records accurately reflect this footage. For some children, independent quality assurance reviews of physical restraints are carried out jointly with the local authority designated officer (LADO). This oversight reinforces the seriousness of physical restraint and other measures of control to staff and adds to the culture of transparency and professional growth to support staff confidence and competence. 

HMYOI Wetherby Inspection – October/November 2025

Wetherby is the largest young offender institution (YOI) in the country, holding children aged between 15 and 18 and includes provision for children convicted and on remand serving as a national resource for the most vulnerable children in prison and providing the highest levels of security due to some children’s risks. Wetherby YOI previously accepted girls however this is no longer the case.

Between the 27th of October and 6th of November 2025, HMYOI Wetherby was subject of an unannounced inspection by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons to follow up on progress since the last unannounced inspection, which took place in October- November 2024. The full report can be found as a PDF here on their website.

In respect of safeguarding, the expected outcomes for children in Wetherby are defined as: ‘The establishment promotes the welfare of children, particularly those most at risk, and protects them from all kinds of harm and neglect.’
The inspection noted that safeguarding procedures had improved since the last visit and highlighted:

• An increase in referrals from a broad range of sources, including children and their families, was driven by improved awareness of the safeguarding team across the establishment
• The onsite dedicated social work team, which consisted of four local authority social workers and a team manager, helped to triage every referral and saw every child who was the subject of a safeguarding investigation
• Most referrals were dealt with swiftly and those that met the threshold were referred to the local authority designated officer (LADO) within 24 hours. Records showed on a few occasions, mostly at weekends, some referrals exceeded the 24-hour limit
• Over 50 referrals had been escalated to strategy meetings by the local authority, and a further six had been fully investigated by the LADO in the previous 12 months
• The actions from these interventions were dealt with promptly and there were very few outstanding investigations. There were two weekly meetings; one every Monday to set and check actions form the previous week’s referrals, and one later in the week with the governor who checked progress and quality assured the triage process
• The LADO attended a quarterly meeting and provided independent scrutiny.

Despite these processes being in place, the inspection identified that children continued to have little confidence in them with only 20% identifying that they would report bullying or victimisation by other children and 48% that they would report it by staff.

The inspection identified that there had been progress in some areas since the inspection in 2023, significant weaknesses remained, particularly in safety and education. It noted:

• Levels of violence were high, and many incidents involved weapons. Although leaders had improved the recording and investigation of incidents, the prevalence of violence continued to undermine the safety of children and staff
• Relationships between staff and children were inconsistent. Leaders had invested in cultural change and introduced team leaders to improve visibility and support, but these efforts had not yet delivered the level of trust and engagement required to sustain a safe and respectful environment
• Purposeful activity remained a serious concern. Ofsted judged the quality of education, skills and work provision to be inadequate

There were strengths noted including resettlement work where it was identified that ‘Children benefited from a well-resourced resettlement team who worked collaboratively with other departments and the community. Release on temporary licence was used effectively to maintain family ties and support reintegration’.

Progress in addressing previous concerns was noted, albeit outcomes for children had not changed significantly since 2023. The recent reduction in population at Wetherby was identified as an opportunity for an increase in resources available per child and to ‘accelerate the pace of change and to address the long-running concerns; in particular, about safety and education’.

West Yorkshire Police custody suite 

Data from West Yorkshire Police, demonstrates that 89% of children detained in the last year, identified themselves as male, with 11% as female. 
In terms of age, the largest proportion were aged 16/17 years old, with the largest self-identifying their ethnicity as White. 

Table 1: Detainee age groups, last 12 months

Age	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17
Leeds	0.2%	0.4%	21.%	7.5%	12.4%	22.6%	26.5%	28.4%

Table 2: Self-defined Ethnicity*

	White	Asian	Black	Mixed	Other
Children Census 2021- Leeds	79.0%	9.7%	5.6%	3.4%	2.3%
Detainee self-defined ethnicity	66.9%	7.5%	10.1%	8.3%	1.1%

*Note that 6.1% of children arrested did not state their ethnicity. 

Restraints

West Yorkshire police have several methods of restraint which is available to them for use on those in custody. These include:  

• Handcuffing – a range of techniques involving rigid handcuffs
• Empty hand techniques – a range of techniques and restraints using hands e.g. Come along hold, goose neck
• Spit and bite guard – placed over the detainee’s head, with a clear panel at the front. Prevents the detainee spitting or biting
• Leg restraints – Velcro straps used to restrain the detainee’s legs
• Baton – an Asp style baton which may be used for several techniques
• Incapacitant spray – PAVA
• Taser – Officers undergo specialist training to carry and deploy this electrical device
• Safety pod – beanbag chair designed to minimise injuries during restraints
• Firearms – lethal force
• Police Dogs

There were 1016 children arrested in Leeds in the year, and the types of restraints used in custody at Leeds are outlined below:

Table 3: Types of force used in Leeds

Open hand technique	21
Prone restraint	5
Handcuffs	21
Total with one or more	31

The total number of children arrested in Leeds was 1016, which was a decrease of 15 since the previous year. 

CCTV signs are up at eye level around custody suites which ensures transparency through auditing and feedback of use of force incidents by custody services and an independent custody scrutiny panel who view use of force incidents and provide feedback to the force. The CCTV signs are also designed to be visible to detainees to provide reassurance and deterrent for any physical altercation.