Bedfordshire LSCB

Welcome to the Bedfordshire Local Safeguarding Children Board website.

We want to make sure that children and young people feel safe and cared for in Bedfordshire and hope that this website is useful to those who want to know more about the work of the Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB).

LSCBs have been established by the government to ensure that organisations work together effectively to safeguard children and promote their welfare. In Bedfordshire this includes social care services, education, health, the police, probation, the voluntary sector, youth offending team, Connexions, early years services as well as District councils and Yarlswood – in fact, any organisation providing services for children.

I hope that children and young people, families and communities will use the website as well as professionals working with children.

Laura Eades
Chair of Bedfordshire LSCB

What does the LSCB do?

Bedfordshire Local Safeguarding Children Board is an inter-agency forum for:

Coordinating the work done by the various agencies to safeguard children and promote their welfare, and
Ensuring that this work is carried out effectively

The LSCB's objectives and purpose.

The Children Act 2004 places a duty on children’s services to establish local boards and sets out the agencies that will be ‘Board partners’ on the LSCB. The Act also places a duty for the authority and Board partners to cooperate with each other.

Further guidance for the LSCB is set out in "Working Together to Safeguard Children: A guide to inter-agency working." This defines the LSCB as, “the key statutory mechanism for agreeing how the relevant organisations…will cooperate to safeguard and promote the welfare of children…and ensuring the effectiveness of what they do.”

The LSCB also has a role to contribute to the planning and delivery of children’s services through the Children And Young People’s Strategic Plan (CYPSP).

Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children means:

protecting children from maltreatment

preventing the impairment of children’s heath or development

ensuring that children are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care; and

undertaking that role so as to enable those children to have optimum life chances and enter adulthood successfully

The scope of this role falls into three broad areas of activity:

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

Mechanisms to identify abuse and neglect wherever they occur

Work to increase understanding of safeguarding children issues in the professional and wider community, promoting the message that safeguarding is everybody’s responsibility

Monitoring the effectiveness of organisations’ implementation of their duties under section 11 of the Children Act 2004 (arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of children)

Ensuring children know who they can contact when they have concerns about their own or other’s safety and welfare

Ensuring that adults know who they can contact if they have a concern about a child or young person

Proactive work that aims to target particular groups, for example:

Developing and evaluating thresholds and procedures for work with children and families where a child; has been identified as ‘in need’ under the Children Act 1989, but where the child is not suffering or at risk of suffering significant harm
Work to safeguard and promote the welfare of groups of children who are potentially more vulnerable than the general population, for example, children living away from home, children who have run away from home, children in custody, or disabled children
Responsive work to protect children who are suffering, or at risk of suffering harm, including:

Children abused and neglected within families, including those harmed in the context of domestic violence or as a consequence of substance misuse
Children abused outside families 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 young people
Young perpetrators of abuse; and

Accountability and governance

Although the LSCB’s role includes coordinating and ensuring the effectiveness of work done by member organisations to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people, it is not accountable for the operational work. This remains with the individual organisations and services. The LSCB does not have the power to direct other organisations.

The Strategic and Operations Board of the LSCB is chaired by an Independent Chair, Laura Eades.

The work of the LSCB has been divided between sub-groups, overseen by the Operations Board. The chairs of the sub-groups sit on the Operations Board.

The subgroups are:

Policy and Procedures - responsible for developing policies and procedures for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and ensuring they are compliant with national requirements.
Audit - responsible for monitoring the effectiveness of work done to safeguard and promote the welfare of children
Training Commissioning - will sit above the Training, Development and Implementation Group (TDIG) to commission, monitor and scrutinise the training on behalf of the LSCB. Representatives of agencies sitting on this group will be at a senior level, able to release resources and speak on behalf of their agency
Training & Development Implementation - responsible for undertaking an annual training and development needs analysis and delivering a programme of multi-agency training to meet the identified needs
Communications - responsible for developing and implementing the Communications strategy for the LSCB, including improving interagency communication, raising public awareness and working with local media
Serious Case Review Panel - responsible for reviewing cases where a child has died or has been seriously harmed in circumstances where abuse or neglect is know or suspected, and advising on the lessons that can be learned;
Child Death Overview Panel - (this becomes statutorily operational in April 2008), responsible for reviewing all deaths of children aged 0-18 years resident in Bedfordshire at the time of their death, to identify patterns or trends and consider how such deaths might be prevented in the future

I hope that this gives you some idea as to how the LSCB functions if you have any queries or questions please do not hesitate to contact us, for contact details see the contacts page.

Sally Stocker
Business Manager LSCB

What to do if you are worried about a child

LSCB News

New Elearning courses Courses offered by Bedford Borough and Central Bedfordshire Safeguarding Children Boards now include a NEW Introduction to Safeguarding course; A Safeguarding Young People course that is particularly suitable for those working in schools and a NEW Think Safe Be Safe Course for Young People aged 11-18 who themselves have a peer mentoring or similar role. We are continuing to offer the Core and Foundation options for Awareness of Child Abuse and Neglect. We know that there are certain aspects of family life that can make children more vulnerable and so we are offering a NEW Parental Mental Health course. Recent local and national events have highlighted the ways in which young people may be exploited and we therefore are offering a NEW Safeguarding Children from Abuse by Sexual Exploitation course that will help all those coming into contact to be aware of how Abuse by Sexual Exploitation can happen and how we can all work to prevent it. Our NEW Safeguarding Everyone course aims to raise awareness of this important aspect of work with children and families whatever the age or level of dependence of the client. Assessment of Risk is crucial to keeping vulnerable children and young people safe and a NEW course Risk Assessment in Safeguarding aims to assist workers to develop this concept and a balanced approach to safeguard child when carrying out assessments. We recognise that releasing workers and volunteers to attend training can be complicated and have an adverse impact when staff levels are low. E Learning can help to bridge the knowledge gap for these workers and volunteers without such an impact and we are pleased to be able to support our statutory partners as well as our independent and voluntary organisation colleagues by arranging access to these well developed and good quality distance learning materials. E-Learning package on Awareness of Child Abuse & Neglect E-Learning Safeguarding Children e-learning courses Get the knowledge you need to protect children and young people in Bedfordshire from harm or abuse. Sign up to our e-learning courses. The reality is there are children and young people in the Bedford Borough and Central Bedfordshire area today who may be at risk, or actually suffering child abuse. This includes neglect of children’s needs. All children need to be safe from harm or abuse. If it were your children you would want to make sure they were safe from harm or abuse. So, why not take the first step and learn about safeguarding children with our e-learning courses. Who needs this training? Bedford Borough and Central Bedfordshire Safeguarding Children Boards expect every worker, including volunteers, in contact with children to contribute to protecting them from harm. Your role (paid or volunteer) may bring you into contact with children, or you may work with them and their families, or with adults who may be parents or carers. This may be as an employee of an organisation like the council, the NHS, police, a school or children’s centre, or as a member of a voluntary or community organisation or a faith group. Course Structure The courses have a range of learning activities supported by graphics and animations. The awareness of child abuse & neglect courses covers many child protection issues. It explains the different types of abuse or neglect of a child, including Physical injury, Sexual abuse, Emotional abuse and neglect. It also tells you what you should do if you suspect a child is being harmed in any of these ways. Choose the training for you There are five levels of child abuse & neglect awareness e-learning courses to choose from. Choose the best one for you, depending on the degree of your involvement with children. • Introduction course for those people that work with children but where contact is limited; Site Agents, canteen staff, crossing patrols staff etc. • Foundation Level – Aimed at those people who have occasional contact with children; receptionists at Doctors Surgeries or Dentists etc. The course provides comprehensive information, as well as what to do if a child discloses. • Core Level – This course is suitable for frontline professionals and has the same content as the Foundation but with extra screens. • The Young People Course is based on the core version but is suitable for those working with young people in schools • Think Safe, Be Safe, Stay Safe is being offered that will be of use to those organisations that use peer mentors or similar roles in Scouting, Guiding and other activities. It is suitable for 11-18 year olds. You don’t need advanced computer skills to complete the course, just access to a computer and internet. This could be at work, home or your local library. It is possible to complete the course in about 2 hours, but you can choose to do it a bit at a time. Each stage you complete is saved until you’re ready to continue, so there’s no need to go back to the beginning each time you log on. If you have a particular or specialist interest and have already undertaken a basic awareness face to face or e-learning course then we also offer several other e – learning courses including: Safeguarding Children from Abuse by Sexual Exploitation; Risk Assessment in Safeguarding Children and Young People; Parental Mental health and Safeguarding Everyone Give it a try Do you want to see what this e-learning course looks like before making an application? Visit www.safeguardingchildrenea.co.uk Remember that we offer free and discounted courses so don’t sign up for the course on this website but via our website: www.bedfordshirelscb.org.uk How to sign up? To register for any of our courses please go the Bedford Borough and Central Bedfordshire Safeguarding Children website www.bedfordshirelscb.org.uk and then complete and submit the e-learning application form on our links page. We will send you an email with a link to the training, your username and password. If you wish to register multiple learners please either give us a call on 0300 300 6676 or send us an email on LSCB@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk Getting your certificate When you have finished the course you will be able to print out a certificate to show you have successfully completed the training. Cost Partner agencies in Bedford Borough and Central Bedfordshire will receive the e-learning courses free of charge as they have already contributed to the training function. We do charge for all independent agencies including Academies, GP surgeries, Dental Surgeries, and all for-profit organisations. The voluntary sector can access the training free of charge. Tell a friend or colleague Once you have completed the course why not tell a friend or colleague about the course and its benefits. Want to learn more? If you want to find out about other courses available from the Bedford Borough and Central Bedfordshire Safeguarding Children Boards please visit our website www.bedfordshirelscb.org.uk where you can find details of all our e-learning courses. Bedford Borough Safeguarding Children Board and Central Bedfordshire Safeguarding Children Board Unit 16 Stephenson Court Priory Business Park Bedford MK44 3WJ Tel: 0300 300 6676 Internal: 76676 Fax: 0300 300 8258 Email: LSCB@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk Domestic Violence Website This website provides advice, facts and information regarding support services to assist anyone wanting to flee domestic violence. www.bedsdv.org.uk Safeguarding Children and Inter-Agency 2 day training course - Future dates The next 2 day training course will be held on the following dates: 29th & 30th May 2012 - Bedford Golf Club, Great Denham (Closing date 13th April 2012) New date - 21st & 22nd June 2012 - Bedford Golf Club, Great Denham (closing date 3rd May 2012) 27th & 28th June 2012 - Dunstable Fire Station (Closing date 11th May) See training calender for future dates. This training is for people who work regularly with children and young people, and with adults who are parents or carers, and who may be asked to contribute to assessments of ‘children in need’. You will have responsibility to identify and act on concerns about maltreatment and need training on how to work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. Group B includes GPs, hospital and community health staff including health visitors, practice nurses, paediatricians, A&E staff and midwives. Family & Children’s centre workers, Children’s residential workers, teachers, education welfare officers, social workers, adult mental health and learning disability staff, probation officers, and many others. To be eligible for this course you must have undertaken awareness training (or similar) Closing date full all courses is 6 weeks prior to the course commencing. Complete and return the training application form in the training section to apply for a place. You must have a confirmed place to attend this training. New interactive, web-based version of Working Together to Safeguard Children (issued March 2010), created by tri.x childcare. An exact copy of the original, published by the DCSF (now The Department of Education) – with many interactive features. Go to the links page to access this web-based version. Introduction to Safeguarding Children - 17th May 2012 This course is for all those staff and volunteers who are in regular contact with children and young people, and with adults who are carers. These people are in a position to identify concerns about maltreatment, including those that may arise from using the common assessment framework (CAF). Venue - Dunstable Fire Station. Closing date: 30th March 2012. CAF - new contact details for Bedford Borough and Central Bedfordshire councils Bedford Borough Council CAF co-ordinator details: The telephone numbers for Bedford Borough CAF / MAAG are a follows 01234 276750 (44750) and 01234 718612 (47612). The email addresses are cafadmin@bedford.gov.uk and maagnorth@bedford.gov.uk Central Bedfordshire Council CAF/MAAG co-ordinator details: CAF Admin on 0300 300 8148 CAFadmin@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk maagmid@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk or maagsouth@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk NEW Parental Mental Illness and Safeguarding Children - 1 day course with prior Elearning course COURSE DATES 2011 - places very limited for all courses 3rd May 2012 @ Great Denham (closing date 19/03/2012) 23rd October 2012 @ Dunstable Fire Station (closing date 07/09/2012) Target Audience: Managers and practitioners from a range of professional settings who work with children, young people and families, as well as those who work with adults with parenting responsibilities, specifically members of the workforce (groups 3 and 4) who work predominantly with children, young people and/or their parents/carers and those who have particular responsibilities in relation to undertaking section 47 enquiries, and /or work with complex cases. Course Aims • Promote the confidence and skills of staff working in adult mental health and child welfare services. • Encourage more effective agency collaboration for the benefit of mentally ill parents and their children. Intended Learning Outcomes: By the end of this course, delegates should be able to: • Demonstrate increased knowledge and understanding of the inter-play between adult mental illness and the impact on child development. • Describe their role, in conjunction with that of professionals from partner agencies, in meeting the needs of families affected by mental illness. • Demonstrate increased skill and confidence in the process of assessment, planning and intervention for such children and families. Application process: To apply for a place on this course both you and your manager must complete, sign and submit the ‘LSCB Approved training application form’ , available through the LSCB training programme or on the Training page of this website before the course closing date. Domestic Abuse Training 1 day course - The Impact on Children & Young People training course Approximately 6238 Bedfordshire children witness domestic abuse each year Do you work regularly with children and young people, or adults who are parents or carers? Is domestic abuse a feature of your work? Do you need to know more about the IMPACT OF DOMESTIC ABUSE ON A CHILD OR YOUNG PERSON and what you can do? If you can answer YES to the questions above then this NEW multi agency LSCB course could be for you… The course aims to: • Outline the national and local context of domestic abuse in relation to safeguarding children • Raise your awareness of the impact of domestic abuse on children and young people • Assist you in assessing how parenting capacity is affected by domestic abuse • Consider ways of supporting children and young people who are living with or have lived with domestic abuse. Course dates: 13th June 2012 @ Great Denham (Closing date 27/04/12) 10th October 2012 @ Dunstable Fire Station (closing date 24/08/12) See flyer in the training section for booking details and costs. To book a place see complete the training application form found on the training pages. You must have a confirmed place to attend. NEW Safeguarding Refresher and Update - 1/2 day course dates If you work regularly with children and young people and adults who are parents or carers but have not undertaken any Safeguarding Children training for 2-3 years then this half day course could be for you. You will have previously trained to a minimum level of 'Basic Awareness. Ideally you will have previously undertaken a 2 day Safeguarding Chikldren course within your own Agency or with the LSCB. This half day course will update and refresh your knowledge and explore changes in practice in relation to keeping children safe. COURSE AIM: To update and refresh knowledge and explore changes in practice relating to keeping children safe in Bedfordshire. LEARNING OUTCOMES By the end of the training course participants will be able to : - Outline current legislation and practice guidance; - Discuss how this legislation and practice guidance can assist in the improved safeguarding of children and young people; - Consider the ways that risk to children is accurately assessed and responded to. Please book your place now as places are limited. Course Dates: 10th May 2012 9am-1pm @ The Bedford Golf Club, Great Denham (closing date 26th March) 26th September 2012 9am-1pm @ The Dunstable Fire Station (closing date 10th August) To book your place please complete the training application form on the training page. You must have a confirmed place to attend. Effective Interventions training - dates for 2012 Effective Interventions - Learning the Lessons 14th and 15th May 2012 (closing date 30th March 2012) @ The Dunstable Fire Station or 27th & 28th November 2012 (closing date 12th October) @ The Bedford Golf Club, Great Denham This course is suitable for practitioners responsible for undertaking child protection enquiries / investigations, Senior Practitioners in Integrated Teams, DTM’s, Health named Designated Nurses, Designated GP’s, Health Visiting Area Managers, LADO’s, Conference Review Managers and their Team Managers, Senior Education staff and Designated Teachers, and workers from similar posts within the voluntary sector. Aim • To enhance knowledge and skills and the ability to work together on the processes for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children in complex and challenging situations • To provide an opportunity for people to learn together and to explore professional dilemmas • Take and advise others on action to be taken to safeguard children in complex and challenging situations Child Death Overview Process Information Sessions Child Death Overview Process Would you like to know more about the Child Death Overview Process, emerging themes from the review of child deaths and your role if a baby/child known to you as a nurse, midwife, health visitor, health care professional or social worker dies either expectedly or unexpectedly? Aim of Session: Increase knowledge and awareness of the Child Death Overview Process and your role when a child known to you dies Learning Outcomes • Describe the purpose of the CDOP • Outline your role in response to unexpected deaths • Have an understanding of emerging themes • How these emerging themes will be integrated into your practice Dates of Information Sessions: Monday 23rd April 12.00-14.00 Monday 16th July 12.00-14.00 Monday 15th October 12.00-14.00 Venue: Unit 16 Stephenson Court Priory Business Park Bedford, MK44 3WJ For more information and to book a place please contact: Shirley Whiterod CDOP Manager on 01234 292955 or via e mail shirley.whiterod@bedfordshire.nhs.uk Sessions facilitated by CDOP Manager, Dr Salma Rehman, Lead Paediatrician for Child Death Overview Process in Bedford/Bedfordshire & Bedfordshire Police CAF Referral form for Central Bedfordshire Families Please note that Central Bedfordshire Council are now using the Every Child Matters CAF form. This form can be found on the CAF/MAAG page on this website. Please Note: From 1st May 2010, CAFs will only be accepted if they are on the new form, please download your CAF form from: http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/everychildmatters/resources-and-practice/TP00004/ Safeguarding Disabled Children - 23rd May 2012 New course This course is designed for anyone working with deaf and/or disabled children/young people. This group of children are particularly vulnerable to abuse and yet this abuse is very under-reported. Aim: Increase knowledge and awareness of the particular safeguarding responsibilities for all staff when providing services to deaf and disabled children, young people and families. By the end of the course the delegate will be able to:- 1. Define the term disability 2. Outline the legal framework relating to Children’s Rights, Disability Discrimination, Health and Education for deaf and disabled children, young people and their families 3. Discuss the impact of children’s disability(ies) on their siblings and families 4. Explain the reasons for deaf and disabled children’s increased vulnerability to all forms of abuse 5. Consider and respond to the professional challenges that may present when working with deaf and disabled children, young people and their families See flyer in the training section for more details. New 1/2 day course - Working in Core Groups If you are working with children and families and may be designated to: a) Attend multi agency core group meetings where you contribute to discussions of management of risk; b) As a core group member organise, co-ordinate, develop and modify the Child Protection plan for the vulnerable child/young person then this half day multi agency course is for YOU The course has been specifically commissioned to support frontline practitioners in all agencies to ensure that we work together in a spirit of open enquiry with clarity regarding roles and responsibilities to keep children and young people safe. 14th March 2012 9am-1pm @ The Forest Centre, Marston Moretaine (closing date 31/1/2012) New substance misuse 1/2 day course New 1/2 day course. Training dates: Substance misuse – ½ day course 25th April 2012 9am-1pm @ Bedford Golf Club, Great Denham (Closing date 9/3/12) 13th September 2012 9am-1pm @ Dunstable Fire Station, Brewers Hill Road, Dunstable (Closing date 1/8/12) LSCB new fax number The new fax number for the LSCB team is: 0300 300 8258 New training calender for 2012 Please see the training section for calender for 2012.

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