Safeguarding children and young people is everyone’s responsibility. All organisations that work with or come into contact with children should have safeguarding children policies and procedures to make sure that every child – regardless of their background or circumstances – is protected from harm.
Everyone who works with adults has a responsibility to keep children safe and should know how to spot signs of abuse and neglect in children and young people and how to respond appropriately to any concerns.
RELATED CHAPTER
RELEVANT INFORMATION
Working Together to Safeguard Children (Department for Education)
See also Leicester and the Leicestershire and Rutland Safeguarding Children Partnerships Procedures Manual
CONTENTS
The statutory guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children (Department for Education) provides the framework for multi-agency work to help, protect and promote the welfare of children.
Working Together to Safeguarding Children defines safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children as:
- providing help and support to meet the needs of children as soon as problems emerge;
- protecting children from maltreatment, whether that is within or outside the home, including online;
- preventing impairment of children’s mental and physical health or development;
- ensuring that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care;
- promoting the upbringing of children with their birth parents, or otherwise their
family network through a kinship care arrangement, whenever possible and where this is in the best interests of the children;
- taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes in line with the outcomes set out in the Children’s Social Care National Framework.
Working Together to Safeguard Children also highlights that:
- whenever staff are with supporting / working with adults, they should ask whether there are children in the family / household and take action to respond if there are signs that any children need help or protection from harm (see Section 2.1 Safeguarding children);
- adults who have mental health problems, misuse drugs or alcohol, are in a violent relationship, have complex needs or have learning difficulties are likely to benefit from parenting support (see Section 2.2 Early help).
2. Acting on Concerns
2.1 Safeguarding children
If a member of staff or volunteer working with an adult has concerns that a child is suffering or is likely to suffer significant harm, they should act on these concerns, either by sharing them with the safeguarding lead in their organisation or contacting children’s social care directly.
Where possible, the adult/s should be informed that the practitioner has concerns which they are going to share, but it is not necessary to seek consent to share information for the purposes of safeguarding or promoting the welfare of a child. Referrals can also be made without first informing parents or carers if doing so would place a child at risk.
It is important to recognise that where there are concerns than an adult is experiencing or at risk of abuse or neglect, any children in the same household are likely to be affected, or at risk too.
2.2 Early help
As well as being alert to safeguarding children concerns, staff and volunteers who work with adults have a key role in identifying children who could benefit from additional multi-agency support, called early help. Early help aims to improve a family’s resilience and outcomes and reduce the chance of a problem getting worse.
Children who could benefit from early help include those who:
- are a young carer;
- are bereaved;
- are at risk of being radicalised;
- are viewing problematic and / or inappropriate online content (for example, content linked to violence), or developing inappropriate relationships online;
- are living in challenging family circumstances, such as parental drug and alcohol misuse, mental health issues and / or domestic abuse;
- have a parent or carer in custody.
Unlike safeguarding children responses, early help is voluntary, and families must give their consent to receive the support and services offered. Requests for early help support are coordinated by children’s social care -see Leicester and the Leicestershire and Rutland Safeguarding Children Partnerships Procedures Manual for more information.
3. Young Carers
A young carer is a child or young person under the age of 18 who provides unpaid care for a relative who has disabilities, long-term physical illnesses, mental health difficulties and / or drug or alcohol issues.
Local authorities must carry out an assessment whenever it appears that a young carer has a need for support.
When an adult is receiving care and support services, any assessments carried out should always include discussions about children in the household to identify if they have caring responsibilities and whether they require support as a young carer. Information on children or young people who have caring responsibilities should be shared with children’s social care so they can receive an assessment and relevant support.
4. Opportunities for Joint Working
Although the local Safeguarding Adults Board (SAB) and Safeguarding Children Partnership have duties and responsibilities as a result of different legislation (Care Act 2014; Children Act 1989; Children Act 2004; Children and Social Work Act 2017), there are overlaps in the structures and processes they use and the organisations and professionals which are represented on both.
In addition, many of the key safeguarding issues span both children’s and adult safeguarding, including domestic abuse, forced marriage, female genital mutilation, cuckooing and county lines exploitation, modern slavery and radicalisation. Opportunities to develop joined up responses and share learning and best practice between children’s and adults’ services should therefore be identified,
