The Children & Social Work Act, and ‘Working Together’ Update
DfE are announcing funding of £400k for 10 successful bids from Early Adopters. They are focussing on the following areas of interest regarding new arrangements:
- funding - joint arrangements across partners
- local practice reviews and links to the national Panel
- involvement of schools
- how the larger footprint for Child Death Reviews will work
- independent scrutiny – what it will cover and how it can be undertaken
SCRs/Safeguarding Practice Review – interviews for National Panel members are now underway. The Association has written to ask for an early meeting with the new Chair, Edward Timpson, in order to explore how future arrangements will work.
Transition arrangements will be required to bridge the gap between the current national Panel and future arrangements, in order to be assured that Serious Case Reviews will continue to be commissioned and generate learning on appropriate cases before the new Practice Reviews start.
No standard Outcomes Framework will be provided for the new arrangements
The timetable for implementation of the CSW Act now expects Working Together publication in the “summer” :
- Regulations laid before Parliament – debate and approval now being processed, since Parliament returned from recess, 16th April 2018 onwards
- 12 months following WT publication - LSCBs/MASAs to have developed and published their arrangements after agreement between the three statutory partners and independent scrutiny of the Plan
- Implementation of new arrangements within 3 months – late 2019
- DfE will not judge each new arrangement and there will be no dedicated inspection of arrangements
Your views on the Act/Guidance - If you have contacted or lobbied your MPs to inform them of your views, please consider informing AILC so that we can collate views nationally. Here is our regular reminder of the requirement to continue to comply with existing legislation and guidance:
“LSCBs must continue to undertake their statutory functions, as they are legally required to do, until the new safeguarding arrangements are in place.” DfE 2017
AILC Charting LSCB Changes Across the Country
LSCBs have been looking at the information AILC has uploaded on ‘Early Adopters’ in ‘Resources’.
There are still limited changes to structures across the country - the most common type of changes amongst the 17 LSCBs for which AILC has uploaded information are footprint/partial merging with other LSCBs, streamlining of groups and partial merging of some functions with adults.
AILC’s Policy Adviser and Chair attended a day each of BASPCAN’s national congress this month. David Ashcroft presented on the changes taking place in England, in a session where neighbouring countries provided perspectives on their developments. We will be circulating further details of this in next month’s Newsletter. The fragmentation and potential inconsistency of arrangements in England was in stark contrast to the greater sense of common purpose and clear leadership that was evident in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, where national and local work appears better coordinated and driven by a shared sense of being ambitious for outcomes for children.
AILC have also been asked to present their perspective on the changes at a Westminster seminar on Policy Changes of the CSW Act – feedback will be provided in the next Newsletter. David Ashcroft will be chairing a further event in July reviewing the national developments.
Business Managers and Chairs. Thank you to those who have shared their changes – others, please do not hesitate to share your local ideas and developments with Sarah Webb at policy@lscbchairs.org.uk or call to discuss on 07880 209788.
News from LSCB Areas - Hackney SCR, Bolton Information Sharing and Durham Procedures Updates
Hackney LSCB has published a serious case review to learn lessons from the Chadrack Mbala-Mulo case. The review report has important messages for LSCBs, schools and other local agencies about safeguarding and acting promptly when a child is unexpectedly absent from school. The report is availablehere.
Bolton LSCB have been praised by the Childrens Commissioner for an information sharing system across health and the council about vulnerable children. The project links up databases of councils with NHS organisations so that if a child under the care or supervision of a social worker attends an unscheduled care setting such as an A&E or walk in centre, the IT system alerts nurses that they are dealing with a vulnerable child and automatically sends a notification to the child's social worker. Click here to access.
Durham LSCB has created a Briefing listing the updates to their procedures including Modern Slavery and CSE – see this alongside over a hundred other recent example polices by clicking in AILC’s website in ‘Resources’ / ‘Effective Safeguarding Partnerships’.
AILC’s New Analysis of Ofsted Reports of LSCBs – Press Release this week
The ‘AILC Review of Ofsted’s LSCB Inspection Reports 2018’ was published and press released this week. This is the seventh and final report covering the lessons learned about the effectiveness of LSCBs. We now have a comprehensive picture of how LSCBs have developed and improved. It covers the latest analysis of Ofsted's inspection judgements, and the themes identified, together with comments made regarding LSCB Chairs, and what ‘Good’ looks like across three years of reports. We have set out how Boards have demonstrated their delivery against the Key Propositions set out by the Association as the building blocks for better outcomes and successful partnership working. You can access the report by clicking on ‘Resources / Ofsted Analysis’.
A Date for your Diaries – Your national AILC Conference 28-29 November 2018
We hope you have put this date in your diary now. The first conference planning meeting is being held this week, following which we will be asking Chairs and Business Managers if they would like to input to the content and focus of the programme. We anticipate that the conference will be held at a critical time for the development of wider partnership engagement with safeguarding and we are already looking at how we can ensure strong involvement for partners, as well as providing dedicated time for chairs and business managers to meet and support each other. Meanwhile, please contact Sarah Webb on policy@lscbchairs.org.uk if you have any views or questions.
Your AILC Membership
We are pleased to see so many Chairs and LSCBs renewing their membership this year. Your support is essential to the continuing viability of the Association.
Chairs, please note, if you have not paid your membership fees by the end of April, your access will be suspended, and you will no longer be on the distribution list for this Newsletter.
Board/Business Managers similarly, if you have not notified us of your intention to renew your Partnership Agreement, you will no longer receive this newsletter. Please also note, if you have not confirmed your intention to renew you may already be experiencing access problems to Members content. To reinstate access to all content (including the Early Adopters information) please let us know you are renewing, and confirm your requirements for invoicing (for example, if a Purchase Order is required by your finance department) to Alison on manager@lscbchairs.org.uk
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