Working in Partnership to Safeguard Children and Young People 2024

Emeritus Professor Harriet Ward CBE, Honorary Research Fellow, The Rees Centre, Department of Education, University of Oxford, (CONFIRMED)

• Government update: outlining key policy and guidance on improving partnership working to safeguard children
• Understanding and communicating reporting mechanisms and procedures to establish clear policies for staff to raise safeguarding concerns
• Working in partnership with children and their families: taking a child-centred approach to safeguarding
• Developing a cross service, co-ordinated approach to safeguarding children to ensure practitioners collaborate effectively

Senior Representative, Department for Education (CONFIRMED)

• Strategies to co-produce and implement integrated child safeguarding plans and policies
• Sharing data and best practice on child safeguarding to improve integrated safeguarding efforts across services
• Evaluating the progress of multi-agency plans to ensure safeguarding policies are updated and reflect latest requirements
• Collaborating with local services to raise awareness of child abuse and signpost helplines in the community
• Developing multi-agency initiatives to effectively report the signs of child abuse and enable early intervention

Vijay Patel, Head of Safeguarding, Social Care Institute for Excellence (CONFIRMED)

Olly Clark, t/DCI National UCOL Coordinator, National Police Chiefs’ Council

• Sensitively engaging with children and young people to address extra-familial harm or threats that they face
• Developing strong local partnerships to share information and intelligence to help facilitate early intervention
• Allocating clear roles across local partnerships to establish accountability and ensure children do not fall through the gaps
• Co-producing resources and initiatives with parents and carers to involve them in the safety planning for their children at risk
• Upskilling and training staff to build trusted relationships with vulnerable children and respond to extra-familiar harm

Harry Dixon, Engagement and Participation Worker, Lincolnshire Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust (CONFIRMED)

• Research into the impact that the cost-of-living crisis is having on the risk of children experiencing child criminal exploitation and child sexual exploitation.
• Looking into the combination between the cost-of-living crisis and school holidays in exacerbating children’s vulnerability.
• Setting out what needs to be done to better respond to children experiencing child criminal exploitation and child sexual exploitation.

Jess Edwards, Senior Policy Advisor – Childhood Harms, Barnardo’s (CONFIRMED)

• Involving children in the co-production of services to ensure mental health and wellbeing support is centred around the child
• Creating a single point of contact for children to easily access mental health suppor

Owen Salem, Operational Support Officer, YouthFed (CONFIRMED)

• Developing an early help strategy to provide preventative services to vulnerable children
• Co-ordinating early help services to maximise the efficiency of child safeguarding and improve outcomes for children
• Offer early support to children and their families at the earliest point of need to prevent escalation
• Prevent and reduce the escalation of incidents within each locality area through strong partnership working and best use of resources
• Promote equality and increase awareness about access to provisions
• Identify gaps in service provisions because of emerging needs and trends and support one another to address these
• Build upon partnership working and collaborative learning

Katie Jeeves, Community Partner, Early Help Team, Central Bedfordshire Council (CONFIRMED)

This session will provide you with the opportunity to discuss the main challenges you face in establishing accessible reporting systems with senior colleagues from across the public sector. You are encouraged to share your experiences, strategies and initiatives.

• Understand why children with SEND can be more vulnerable to abuse
• Providing alternative non-verbal methods of communication to encourage children to communicate with staff when help is needed
• Making sure children and young people have opportunities to express their views and opinions
• Working in partnership with parents to build close relationships and offer support when their child is in need
• Training staff and professionals working with children with SEND to spot the signs of abuse and neglect

Dawn Ferdinand, Headteacher, The Willow Primary School and Broadwaters’ Children’s Centre (CONFIRMED)

• Guidance on educating children and building awareness of online dangers including grooming, cyber bulling and exploitation
• Engaging children in regular open conversations about their online activity to help them know what to do when coming across harmful content
• Recognising the signs that a child is experiencing or at risk of experiencing abuse online to provide early intervention
• Signposting young people, families and professionals to resources that will advice and support on numerous issues relating to online harm prevention and reduction

Erica Thornton, CEO, Breck Foundation (CONFIRMED)

*programme subject to change without notice