This page contains details of the Northumberland safeguarding children board.
The Children Act 2004 requires every local authority to establish a local safeguarding children board (LSCB).
Chapter three of Working Together 2015 sets out the arrangements for each local safeguarding children board.
To understand what the Northumberland Safeguarding Children Board (NSCB) does and how you practitioners can be involved in our work please read our guide practitioners guide to NSCB.
Role and function of LSCB
The LSCB’s role is to coordinate local work to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and ensure the effectiveness of the member organisations’ work, individually and together.
The objectives of the LSCB are to:
- Develop and agree policies and procedures for safeguarding and promoting children’s welfare, consistent with Working Together To Safeguard Children (2015), including:
- action to be taken where there are concerns about a child’s welfare, including thresholds for intervention
- training of those working with children or in services affecting the children’s welfare
- recruitment and supervision of people working with children
- investigating allegations
- welfare of privately fostered children
- co-operation with neighbouring children’s social care services
- participate in planning services for children in the area
- communicate the need to safeguard and promote children’s welfare
- develop procedures to ensure a co-ordinated response to unexpected child deaths
- monitor the effectiveness of procedures to safeguard and promote children’s welfare
- undertake appropriate serious case reviews and ensure lessons are acted upon
- collect and analyse information about child deaths
There is a requirement for the LSCB to ensure appropriate links exist with secure settings and to be able to scrutinise the use of restraint, incidences and injuries.
Scope of the role
Working Together to Safeguard Children (2015) states the LSCB’s role includes the safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children in three broad areas:
- Activities affecting all children - aiming to identify and prevent maltreatment or impairment and ensuring children grow up in with safe and effective care.
- Work targeting particular groups - developing thresholds for working with families where the child comes within the definition of ‘children in need’ but isn’t suffering or likely to suffer significant harm. They safeguard the welfare of children potentially more vulnerable than others, perhaps because they are disabled, living away from home or in custody.
- Work to protect children who are suffering or likely to suffer significant harm, including children who are:
- abused and neglected within families, including those affected by domestic violence, substance misuse or mental ill health
- abused outside of the family by adults
- abused or neglected by professional carers where children are cared for away from home
- abused by other children
- sexually exploited
- committing abuse
- victims of crime
Any interventions should aim to help children to achieve all five Department for Education outcomes to have optimum life chances. The LSCB should check if this is the case in their evaluations.
Accountability
The LSCB is not accountable for the work of individuals and organisations safeguarding children.
Each board partner retains its own existing accountability guidelines for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children.
The LSCB does not have the power to direct other organisations.
Integration with other forums
Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children should be seen in a wider context and the LSCB’s work should reflect and contribute to the wider goals of improving the wellbeing of all children. The LSCB complements and is represented on the children’s trust board, although the two bodies should be chaired by different people.
Membership
Organisations designate named people as their LSCB member so there is a consistency and continuity in membership.
Members will be those with a strategic role in relation to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children.
They should be able to:
- speak for their organisation with authority
- commit their organisation on policy and practice matters
- hold their organisation to account
Members of the LSCB must include:
- children’s social care services
- adult social care services
- strategic health authority and primary care trusts
- NHS trusts and NHS foundation trusts
- police
- probation
- youth offending team
- connections
- CAFCASS
- any secure training centre
- any prison which ordinarily detains children
- two representatives of the local community (their role is described in 3.75 of WT 2010)
Schools should also be represented, which means taking steps to ensure the following are represented:
- the maintained school’s governing body
- the proprietor of a non-maintained special school
- the proprietor of a city technology college, a city college for the technology of the arts or an academy
- the governing body of a further education institution
Independent schools should also be included as appropriate (
paragraph 3.78 of WT 2010)
Other members may include:
- NSPCC
- faith groups
- state and independent schools
- further education colleges
- children’s centres
- GPs
- independent healthcare organisations
- voluntary and community sector organisations
- armed forces
- immigration services
The LSCB chair should be independent of local agencies.
The LSCB will make strategic links with other organisations and individuals, inviting them to join the board or contribute in some other way. These include:
- substance misuse services
- local MAPPA
- dental health services
- Crown Prosecution Service
- coroner
The LSCB need to draw on the work of key national organisations and liaise with them where necessary.
Structure
Each LSCB has a supporting structure. Terms of reference for each of the boards’ sub-groups are available through the LSCB websites.
Meeting dates
The NSCB meet six times per year. Meeting dates are set out as follows:
2016
2017
- 18 January
- 7 March
- 23 May
- 25 July
- 26 September
- 28 November
Northumberland safeguarding children board - minutes of meetings
The minutes of the Northumberland safeguarding children board (NSCB) meetings are recorded and scrutinised by multi-agency representatives, all members of the NSCB. The NSCB intend to provide information about local child protection issues, highlighting any endorsed decisions and objectives.
If you require further information about the NSCB minutes, or if you have any other queries, please email us:
safeguardingchildren@northumberland.gov.uk
Click on the links below to view our board meeting minutes:
NSCB meeting minutes 2016
Relationships between statutory bodies
Business plan & annual report
Annual report 2015-2016
The annual report for 2015-2016 sets out the activities, achievements and challenges for the Northumberland Safeguarding Children Board between April 2015 and March 2016. The report shows how partners have worked together to ensure children and young people are protected and how we have sought to support, lead and where necessary question in order to improve. The report also highlights areas of sustained performance and areas of improvement
Business plan 2016-19
The plan is split into two parts:
- Part 1 sets out why we have a safeguarding board, its purpose, main functions and who is involved and what can be expected for them. It also clearly states the priorities by which the board should be judged and held to account and how the board and its sub-committees will contribute to this.
- Part 2 is under development and will provide more detail around how the board will work to achieve its priorities involving a wider range of people, including children and young people. This part of the plan also provides the basis for how we will evaluate our performance as a safeguarding board and how we will provide scrutiny and challenge within a learning framework to all who are responsible for keeping children and young people as safe as possible.
Serious case reviews
Serious case reviews
There have been no serious case reviews in Northumberland within the last twelve months
Case reviews
Case reviews provide a valuable tool for learning and for improving practice and policy in relation to safeguarding children. One of the ways in which Northumberland Safeguarding Children Board will share information about case reviews is through the publication of leaflets that highlight lessons learned and set out implications for practice from key local, regional and national case reviews. The leaflets below have been produced by the serious case review panel to facilitate learning. It is recommended that they are discussed in team meetings and supervisions, where appropriate, to ensure they are embedded in front line practice.
Local
Reginal
National
While every effort has been made to protect the confidentiality of individuals involved in these cases, we ask that persons accessing these documents show due respect to the families concerned when reading and sharing content
LSCB contact