Luton Safeguarding Children Partnership

Working Together 2023 sets out requirements for new collaborative working arrangements for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and families which will lead to improved outcomes and experiences. The arrangements in Luton are named the Luton Safeguarding Children Partnership (LSCP).

The Luton Safeguarding Children Partnership Multi-Agency Safeguarding Arrangements (MASA) were implemented in September 2019 and revised in June 2023. These are currently under review in the light of the revised requirements within Working Together 2023. 

The MASA sets out the arrangements for safeguarding partners to work together with other agencies to identify and respond to the needs of children in Luton, and the three safeguarding partners Luton Borough Council, Bedfordshire Police and the Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes Integrated Care Board (BLMK ICB) have equal and joint responsibility for local safeguarding arrangements.

With the requirements of the Children and Social Work Act 2017 the responsibility for ensuring that Child Death Reviews are carried out when a child dies will be the responsibility of the local authorities and BLMK ICB, please see this statement from Bedfordshire ICB (Word).

Effective Support Strategy for children and young people in Luton.

A function of the Luton Safeguarding Children Partnership (BBSCP) is to consider whether to conduct a Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review (CSPR) after a child has died or is seriously harmed as a result of abuse or neglect who’s usual residence is within the Local Authority area.

The Child Safeguarding Practice Panel Review Guidance for Safeguarding Partners and Pan Bedfordshire Interagency Child Protection Procedures set out the arrangements that are in place to respond to these reviews and what happens once a notification of a serious incident is made to the LSCP under Chapter 2, Working Together 2023. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65803fe31c0c2a000d18cf40/Working_together_to_safeguard_children_2023_-_statutory_guidance.pdf 

The purpose of reviews of serious child safeguarding cases, at both local and national level, is to identify system and practice improvements to be made to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. Reviews seek to prevent or reduce the risk of recurrence of similar incidents. They are not conducted to hold individuals, organisations or agencies to account.

‘Serious child safeguarding cases’ are those in which:

• Abuse or neglect of a child is known or suspected
• The child has died or been seriously harmed

Working Together to Safeguard Children (2018) states that serious harm includes (but is not limited to) serious and/or long-term impairment of a child’s mental health or intellectual, emotional, social or behavioural development. It should also cover impairment of physical health. This is not an exhaustive list. When making decisions, judgement should be exercised in cases where impairment is likely to be long-term, even if this is not immediately certain. Even if a child recovers, including from a one-off incident, serious harm may still have occurred.

Meeting the criteria does not mean that BBSCP must automatically carry out a local child safeguarding practice review. Locally it is for the Case Review Group, on behalf of the BBSCP, to determine whether a review is appropriate, taking into account that the overall purpose of a review is to identify improvements to practice.

CSPRs will be published on this website to enable the sharing of learning across the children’s workforce. All reports are anonymised for publication.

Where a local authority in England knows or suspects that a child has been abused or neglected, the local authority must notify the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel (the Panel) if:

• the child dies or is seriously harmed in the local authority's area; or
• while normally resident in the local authority's area, the child dies or is seriously harmed outside England.

The duty to notify serious child safeguarding events to the Panel rests with the local authority. Information on the process to be followed using the Child Incident Notification System can be found on GOV.UK.

The local authority must notify the Panel of any event that meets the criteria within 5 working days of becoming aware that the incident has occurred. The local authority should also report the event to the safeguarding partners in their area (and in other areas if appropriate) within 5 working days. Where the child was Looked After, the local authority must also notify the Secretary of State and Ofsted that they have died, regardless of whether abuse or neglect is known or suspected.

Each agency must have arrangements for identifying cases where the agency considers that criteria for either a local or national CSPRs may be met (see sections 4 and 8). It is important that any practitioner is able to discuss a case with their agency Case Review Group representative if they think a CSPR may be required.

The Case Review Group representative should notify the LSCP Business Unit of a referral and confirm this in writing within 48 hours using the referral form.

The LSCP Business Unit will request agency information to assist in the Rapid Review of the case. Locally the three Safeguarding Partners have ultimate responsibility for deciding whether to conduct a local review or not. The Independent Chair/Scrutineer will also be informed to allow independent scrutiny of the decision making process.

Please see the Pan Bedfordshire Serious Incident Notification & Rapid Review Process flow chart for further information.

A case may be referred by the local Child Death Overview Panel to the Case Review Group that appear to meet the criteria and which they consider is likely to have important lessons for multi-agency working.

Any partner agency may refer a case to the Case Review Group if they believe that there are important lessons for multi-agency working to be learned from the case.

The Case Review Group has several functions and tasks delegated to it. In summary, the Case Review Group will coordinate the following inter-related activity:

• Making recommendations to the three Safeguarding Partners as to: - whether a CSPR should be carried out and the methodology to be used. Or whether a CSPR should not be carried out but another type of review should be undertaken and the methodology to be used, or - whether other action should be taken by the LSCP.
• Commissioning CSPRs, positive learning review or other types of reviews on behalf of the LSCP.
• Monitoring partner agency and the BBSCP’s action plans following the publication of a CSPR or completion of another type of review.
• Using the learning from local and national CSPRs to inform policy, practice and the LSCP learning and development programme.

Child Lena: In 2019, Luton Safeguarding Children Partnership commissioned a Child Safeguarding Practice Review to consider the serious harm experienced by Lena through, sexual and criminal exploitation. The review has been published and can be found here: 

Child Safeguarding Practice Review Lena

Following the LSCP signing off this Review the learning and recommendations were addressed by the partnership and monitored by their Case Review Group. In addition to the activity referenced in the report and within the action plan there have been a number of new processes and structures related to child sexual exploitation put in place. These include a weekly Missing and Child Exploitation (MACE) multi-agency coordination meeting, MAGpan to support those identified as being at risk from gang or group association and a Youth Partnership Service to address those young people at risk of coming into the criminal justice system.

Thematic Child Safeguarding Practice Review regarding Serious Youth Violence was commissioned by LSCP and can be found here:

Thematic Review

This review consider the multi-agency response to four young males who had been involved in serious youth violence and gang association. Three of the young males had received stabbing injuries as a result of their involvement in serious youth violence, and not all off them were known to youth offending or children's social care prior to these events. The cases of these young people have provided a lens through which to consider current service responses, informing a wider case audit of young people identified as vulnerable or at risk of SYV.

Following the LSCP signing off this Review the learning and recommendations have and are being addressed by the partnership and monitored by their Case Review Group.

Examples how the LSCP and partners are working together to address all forms of exploitation and the risks posed to children in Luton:

• Pan Bedfordshire Exploitation and Missing Strategic group and their Violence and Exploitation Strategy and Action Plan.
• Child Exploitation and Missing Reduction Group.
• Luton Contextual Safeguarding Meetings (MAGPan and MACE).
• Work of the Violence Exploitation and Reduction Unit (VERU) and their Bedfordshire Against Violence and Exploitation (BAVEX) Campaign.
• There is collective responsibility for disruption and action within the partnership.
• Close work between partners and the Bedfordshire Police Boson and Public Protection Teams.   
• The use of the Pan Beds Multi-Agency Information form to provide the Police with information to build a picture of exploitation and other issues.  
• Proactive use of National Referral Mechanism.  

The NSPCC hold the National Case Review Repository which provides a single place for published case reviews to make it easier to access and share learning at a local, regional and national level.

The NSPCC has put together a series of themed briefing documents highlighting the learning from published reviews. Each briefing focuses on a different topic, pulling together key risk factors and practice recommendations to help practitioners understand and act upon the learning.