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Working Together to Safeguard Children is the main government document for agencies working with children and families in England. It has recently been revised with a new edition published in March 2010.
Working Together sets out how organisations and individuals should work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people in accordance with the Children Act 1989 and the Children Act 2004.
Part 1 of the document is issued as statutory guidance. Practitioners and agencies will have different responsibilities that apply to different areas of the guidance and should consult the preface for a fuller explanation of their statutory duties. Part 2 of the document is issued as non-statutory practice guidance.
The document sets out how organisations and individuals should work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. It is addressed to practitioners and front line managers who have particular responsibilities for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, and to senior and operational managers, in organisations.
Working Together to Safeguard Children has the following content:
Part 1: Statutory Guidance
Chapter 1 – Introduction: working together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and families
Chapter 2 – Roles and responsibilities
Chapter 3 – Local Safeguarding Children Boards
Chapter 4 – Training, development and supervision for inter-agency working
Chapter 5 – Managing individual cases where there are concerns about a child’s safety and welfare
Chapter 6 – Supplementary guidance on safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children
Chapter 7 – Child death review processes
Chapter 8 – Serious case reviews
Part 2: Non-statutory practice guidance
Chapter 9 – Lessons from research
Chapter 10 – Implementing the principles on working with children and their families
Chapter 11 – Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children who may be particularly vulnerable
Chapter 12 – Managing individuals who pose a risk of harm to children
Appendices
Changes to Working Together to Safeguard Children
Some of the changes in the new edition of Working Together to Safeguard Children include the following.
- The importance of keeping the child in focus is re-emphasised, particularly ascertaining the wishes and feelings of children and young people before making decisions to protect them
- The definition of children at risk now includes young people at risk of harm from community based violence such as gang, group and knife crime
- The requirement for LSCBs to produce and publish an annual report on the effectiveness of safeguarding in the local area
- The appointment of two representatives of the local community as lay members to each LSCB
- Statutory representation on the LSCB of schools
- The Children’s Trust Board should work with the LSCB to ensure that local arrangements for use of the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) are clearly distinguished from the need to refer a child to children’s social care services
- Children who might require protection now includes;
- children abused through sexual exploitation
- children affected by parental mental ill health
- young victims of crime
- A new function for the LSCB to monitor safeguarding performance by all partners through a peer review process, self evaluation process, data and self audits
- Research indicates that where LSCBs manage inter-agency training this is highly effective.
- Initial assessment timescale changes to 10 working days
- Greater emphasis on the importance of good analysis
- A new section on the abuse of disabled children reflecting, “Safeguarding Disabled Children- Practice Guidance”, DCSF 2009
- Clarification of the responsibilities of LSCBs in respect of child deaths
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