This is the first newsletter from the Coventry Safeguarding
Children Board. I became Chair of the Board in September and since then we have
refocused our attention on safeguarding across the range, for children and
young people. We are charged both with protecting children and young people
from harm and with making their lives better and happier. This newsletter tells you something about
what the many different organisations in Coventry are doing together to make
life better for Coventry’s children and young people.
In future it will also look at issues and problems for
children and young people and what more can be done by all of us to help solve
some of those.
At its meetings, the Board has been listening to Coventry children,
young people and young parents to find out what works to make their lives
better and make them feel safer. These are some of the things we have been
told.
A teenage parent who had been in care told us that having an
experienced, mature health professional who stayed on the case consistently,
listened to her and really knew about childcare and parenting, had helped to
turn her into an effective parent.
Young people from a Coventry secondary school with multiple
serious difficulties told us how having a school safeguarding support worker
who really stuck with them, even when they were in hospital for instance,
helped them to weather their personal storms and get their lives back on track.
These cases tell us just how much good, committed workers
who stick with troubled young people are valued and what a difference they make
to young lives.
Young parents whose children had previously been taken into
care had help and support from a Children’s Centre and from social care. They
were given the chance to learn how children develop and how to be effective
parents. They told us how this had changed their lives and those of their
children who then came home.
Primary school children told us they feared for their
safety. The police now visit all
Coventry schools twice termly to reassure children.
These success stories show how lives can be changed when
health services, social care, schools, the police and others work together
well. We are collecting these Coventry
success stories to learn from them and in this newsletter you can read and
learn from some more.
Janet Mokades
Independent Chair, Coventry Safeguarding Children Board
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Liz’s story
Agencies involved: Probation, Fry Housing
Trust, Springboard and SureStart
Liz and her four children were referred to Springboard after
she moved into a women’s refuge in order to leave a home situation involving
domestic violence perpetrated by Liz’s brother.
Liz moved into rented accommodation with her children as she
started with Springboard. She felt this
gave her a fresh start, with the chance to move away from a damaging social
circle of friends that were using her for her money and to stay with her.
After she moved away, Liz found that life was less
stressful; she could manage her money better and spend more quality time with
her children.
Liz worked with Springboard and attended both one on one and
group sessions at her local SureStart centre. Both she and her children enjoyed
these sessions, and Liz loved being able to watch her children play and see how
this benefited their lives.
With Springboard, Liz developed a plan for her future,
including how she could fulfil her desire to work with other women who have
been victims of domestic violence. She has now applied for a voluntary position
at Coventry Refuge Centre for Women and her children have settled into school
and nursery.
In February, members of the Coventry Safeguarding Children Board got together with members of the Warwickshire Board to look at improving communication and joint working across borders. There was a very good turnout with representatives of all the key services such as schools, hospitals, social care, probation, the two councils and others. We discussed what currently works well and what doesn’t and fixed on some things that we thought we could improve.
Information sharing was one. We agreed that some staff were uncertain of what to do when asked to share information and afraid of doing the wrong thing. So we agreed to produce short, clear guidance on a pocket sized laminated card. These cards are being printed and will soon be distributed. If you are interested in receiving the cards, please email your full details to coventrylscb@coventry.gov.uk. We hope that they will help people to share information quickly and appropriately whenever a child is at risk.
People doing the same jobs in Coventry and Warwickshire often have different titles and the areas covered by various services such as health or the police are not always clear to people on both sides of the border. This can cause delays and difficulties so we also agreed at the event that the Warwickshire Board would produce a map and contacts list showing who is responsible for what in which area. This work is under-way.
These two initiatives will help people to work together more effectively across the borders to keep children safe. Participants felt that the event had been fruitful and agreed that the two Boards should continue to communicate and work together and that we would hold more joint events in the future.
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Coventry LSCB held an oversubscribed lunchtime seminar to hear about the development of Coventry FDAC (Family Drug and Alcohol Court) and the experiences of mums in Coventry who have had repeated removals of their children.
FDAC is a new approach, working with parents with substance misuse, helping them to be better parents and enabling families to stay together. In return for intensive support parents commit to ensuring that children are safe in their care.
Attendees also heard a summary of research of the experience of Coventry mums. These highlighted areas where professionals and organisations can support mums who told us about the importance of trust, time to listen and a respectful relationship.
Agencies will work together making the most of diverse skills, to transform the lives of children, young people and families.
The FDAC pilot aims to launch 1st October 2015.
Contact Beverley Barnett - Jones for more information.
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During the last 12 months, Coventry Safeguarding Children
Board has worked to improve relationships with Voluntary Sector, establishing
links with Voluntary Action Coventry.
The Voluntary sector is represented on three
key boards:
- Coventry Improvement Board
- Community Safety Partnership
- CSCB
This connectivity provides a
setting to strengthen and increase effective communication across the voluntary
and statutory sector on the essential priority of Safeguarding Coventry Children.
The CSCB acknowledges that the voluntary sector are often
better placed within the locality and communities to recognise diverse needs, to tackle the impact of inequality, discrimination and
social exclusion on childrens lives, to
promote and advocate for children through improved partnership working, acting early and providing specialist
assessment and interventions .
Recognising the role of the voluntary sector working with
vulnerable children and their families the board is committed to supporting the
Coventry Children & Young People – Voluntary Sector Network forum.
Children and Young People Voluntary sector forum has brought
together key statutory and voluntary sector people to promote cross-sector
working on safeguarding children & young people, hosting workshops to present, inform and debate on a range of multi-agency collaboration i.e. Safeguarding
Children Board, Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH), working with Thresholds
to support a dialogue to ensure referrals into Children’s Social Care are made
and responded to protect and identify needs of vulnerable children. The forum
plan for the year includes presentations and debate on Child Sexual
Exploitation Prevention and Early Help.
Through the forum the childrens voluntary sector have
provided case studies that evidence the richness of improving outcomes for
children, and have engaged in a pilot staff survey focused on safeguarding as
part of the CSCB quality assurance priority.
As you may be aware the Coventry Safeguarding Team have recently relocated offices.
As we had settled in we felt as if there was something missing, the office seemed bare and empty. We felt like we needed colour in order to make people feel welcome to our new office.
St John Fisher Primary School came to our aid and offered to help by creating several pieces of art work for our office.
The theme for their art
work was ‘What makes them feel safe and happy?’
We would like to say thank you to the Head teacher, Denise Mooney and all the talented children for the fantastic pieces of work they have created for us.
Everyone is welcome to view the art work in the Safeguarding
Board's Office located in Civic Centre 1, Room 123.
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The
Coventry Safeguarding Children Board is very keen to establish the views of the
whole workforce about safeguarding children in our City. The
Effectiveness and Quality sub group has therefore developed a short
questionnaire.
The
survey is for all staff who are involved in work with children in Coventry as
we are keen to gain a wide insight into safeguarding across the City. The
questionnaire will take a maximum of 10 minutes to complete. Results will
be analysed and fed back to the Coventry Safeguarding Children’s Board in
September 2015.
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