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Contents

1. Role and Functions
2. Scope of the Role
3. Accountability
4. Integration with Other Forums
5. Membership
6. Structure
7. Annual Business Plan
8. Annual Report
9. Media Interest in Child Abuse

1. Role and Functions

The overall role of the SSCB is to coordinate local work to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and to ensure the effectiveness of what the member organisations do individually and together.

The SSCB will contribute to the delivery and commissioning of services through the Children and Young Peoples Plan and the Children and Young People's Strategic Partnership arrangements.

Specific objectives of the SCB are to:

• Develop and agree inter-agency policies and procedures for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, consistent with Working Together to Safeguard Children, including:
  1. the action to be taken where there are concerns about a child’s safety or welfare, including thresholds for intervention
  2. training of those working with children or in services affecting the safety and welfare of children
  3. recruitment and supervision of persons who work with children
  4. investigation of allegations concerning persons working with children
  5. the safety and welfare of privately fostered children
  6. cooperation with neighbouring children’s social care services authorities and their Board partners
• Participate in the planning and commissioning of services for children in the local authority area
• Communicate the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of the child
• Develop procedures to ensure a coordinated response to unexpected child deaths
• Monitor the effectiveness of what is done to safeguard and promote the welfare of children
• Undertake appropriate Serious Case Reviews and ensure lessons are understood and acted upon

As part of the Monitoring and Evaluation Function of the SCB, there is a requirement for the SCB to ensure appropriate links exist with any secure settings in its area and to be able to scrutinise the use of restraint, and incidences and injuries.

2. Scope of the Role

Working Together to Safeguard Children (2010) states that the SSCB’s role includes the safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children in three broad areas of activity:

Firstly, activity that affects all children and aims to identify and prevent maltreatment or impairment of health and development, and ensure that children grow up in circumstances consistent with safe and effective care. For example:

• Mechanisms to identify abuse and neglect wherever they may occur;
• Work to increase understanding of safeguarding children issues in the professional and wider community, promoting the message that safeguarding is everybody's responsibility;
• Work to ensure that organisations working or in contact with children, operate recruitment and human resources practices that take account of the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children;
• Monitoring the effectiveness of organisations' implementation of their duties under section 11 of the Children Act 2004;
• Ensuring children know who they can contact when they have concerns about their own or others' safety and welfare;
• Ensuring that adults (including those who are harming children) know who they can contact if they have a concern about a child or young person;
• Work to prevent accidents and other injuries and, where possible, deaths; and
• Work to prevent and respond effectively to bullying.

Secondly, pro active work that aims to target particular groups. For example:

• Developing thresholds for working with children and families where the child comes within the definition of a Child in Need but is not suffering or likely to suffer Significant Harm
  
  and
• Work to safeguard and promote the welfare of groups of children potentially more vulnerable than the general population, for example children living away from home, children who have run away from home, children missing from school or childcare, children in the youth justice system including custody, disabled children and children and young people affected by gang.

Thirdly, responsive work to protect children who are suffering or likely to suffer Significant Harm, including.

• Children abused and neglected within families including those harmed in the context of domestic abuse, or as a consequence of the impact of substance misuse or of parental mental ill health;
• Children abused outside of the family by adults known to them;  
• Children abused and neglected by professional carers within institutional settings or anywhere else where children are cared for away from home;
• Children abused by strangers;
• Children abused by other  children or young people;
• Children abused through sexual exploitation:
• Young perpetrators of abuse; and 
• Young victims of crime

Where particular children are the subject of intervention, then that safeguarding work should aim to help them to achieve all five outcomes to have optimum life chances. It is within the remit of the SCB to check the extent to which this has been achieved as part of their monitoring and evaluation work.

3. Accountability

Whilst the SSCB has a role in coordinating and ensuring the effectiveness of local individuals’ and organisations’ work to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, it is not accountable for their operational work.

Each Board partner retains its own existing lines of accountability for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children by their services.

The SSCB does not have the power to direct other organisations.

4. Integration with Other Forums

It is important that safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is seen as part of the wider context of the Children’s Strategic Partnership and that the SSCB’s policies, guidance and procedures such as these, reflect and contribute to the wider goals of improving the wellbeing of all children.

The SSCB is a formal consultee during the development of the Children and Young Peoples Plan.

The responsibilities of the SSCB are complementary to but independent from those of the Children's Trust to ensure the effectiveness of the arrangements made by wider partnership and individual agencies to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. The SSCB in general does not commission or deliver services to children, young people and their families.

There should be agreed local protocols between the SSCB and Children's Trust Board to ensure the SSCB is able to challenge and scrutinise effectively the work of the Children's Trust Board and partners.

To achieve the quality of local activity and the ability to challenge organisations, different people should chair the SSCB and Children's Trust Board

Working in partnership, the SSCB and the Children's Trust Board should work together to produce a clear and strategic approach in understanding children, young people and families' needs and improve, reshape and develop effective specialist services.

The SSCB annual report will provide information for the Children's Trust Board to develop and review the Children and Young People's Plan and show in the plan how they intend to respond to issues raised by the SSCB. Also see: Section 8, Annual Report.

5. Membership

The SCB is made of organisations which will designate particular, named people as their SCB member so that 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 within their organisation. They should be able to:

• Speak for their organisation with authority
• Commit their organisation on police and practice matters
• Hold their organisation to account

Members of the SCB must include:

• Children’s Social Care Services
• Adults’ Social Care Services
• District Councils
• Strategic Health Authority and Primary Care Trusts
• NHS Trusts and NHS Foundation trusts
• Police
• Probation
• Youth Offending Team
• Connexions
• CAFCASS
• Any Secure training Centre
• Any prison which ordinarily detains children
• Two representatives of the local community
• Representation from schools (i.e. representatives of the governing body of a maintained school; 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; and the governing body of a further education institution the main site of which is situated in the authority's area. Representation of independent schools should also be included as appropriate)

Other members may include:

• NSPCC
• Faith groups
• State and Independent Schools
• Further Education Colleges
• Children’s Centres
• GP’s
• Independent Health care organisations
• Voluntary and Community Sector Organisations
• Armed Forces

In addition, the SCB will make strategic links with other organisations and individuals, for example Drug Action Teams, the local MAPPA, dental health services, the Crown prosecution Service, either through inviting them to join the Board or through some other mechanism.

The belief is that the SCB Chair will be independent of local agencies.

6. Structure

To assist the SCB with its objectives the SCB has a supporting structure which is represented diagrammatically below:

New Diagram to follow

Terms of Reference for each of the groups are available through the SCB web site.

7. Annual Business Plan

The SSCB produces an annual business plan setting out:

• A work programme for the following year to include measurable objectives
• Relevant management information child protection activity in the previous year
• Progress against objectives established for the year ending

The plan derives from and contributes to the framework of the local Children and Young People’s strategic plan. It includes material submitted by a lead officer that quantifies the number of children who have been identified as at risk, where a multi-agency planning meeting has been convened or a Section 47 Enquiry initiated.

Senior managers in the SSCB constituent agencies endorse the business plan.

8. Annual Report

This is a new section for June 2010

The SSCB is required to produce and publish an annual report with a copy sent to the Children's Trust Board to influence and contribute to the Children and Young Person's Plan.

Through the annual report the SSCB will provide a comprehensive analysis of safeguarding in its area. The report should challenge the work of the Children's Trust Board and its partners to ensure that necessary overarching structures, processes and culture are put in place to ensure that children are fully safeguarded.

The Children's Trust Board will draw on the advice and evidence in the SSCB annual report to inform the development and review of the local Children and Young People's Plan, and should show in the Plan how they intend to respond to issues raised by the SSCB.

9. Media Interest in Child Abuse

It is the responsibility of senior managers in each agency, and the Surrey Safeguarding Children Board (SSCB) Chair to anticipate media interest in the death or serious injury of a child, or in the investigation of organised abuse by Children’s Social Care Services and the Police.

The SSCB Chair, together with the relevant senior managers in liaison with their press officers, must consult to formulate and agree any prepared press releases and make the necessary arrangements.

It is their duty to ensure that all staff undertaking enquiries, are aware of the agreed response to approaches by media representatives, and are enabled to proceed with their work without excessive public pressure and exposure.

End