“Welcome to the September edition of the CSCP newsletter, which opens with a huge thank you to all of you involved in tackling Serious Youth Violence in Coventry. The JTAI that took place earlier this year recognised your efforts and good work.
The newsletter also provides timely updates on learning from reviews, opportunities for training, and updates on key issues including Elective Home Education, sextortion and loan sharks.
There is also a hugely important message about identifying and supporting young carers.
As always, thank you for what you do.”
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Coventry Safeguarding Children’s Partnership was subject to a Joint Targeted Area inspection in relation to Serious Youth Violence in Coventry between 18 - 22 March 2024. This is where inspectors from Ofsted, The Care Quality Commission, His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, and His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation visit an area to evaluate the effectiveness of the multi-agency partnership in relation to a particular theme, in this case serious youth violence and/ or criminal exploitation.
Inspectors found that, Children at risk of criminal exploitation and serious youth violence are safer as a result of the effective partnership work undertaken by both statutory services and the third sector to reduce risks in places and spaces as well as for individual young people in Coventry. Mature partnership arrangements are in place’. The full report has now been published and practitioners can view it here: Serious Youth Violence (ofsted.gov.uk)
The Safeguarding Partners would like to thank practitioners across the city for all of the work that you do every day working with children and young people in this area of highly complex practice.
Coventry Safeguarding Children Partnership are pleased to feature our Autumn Training Programme. Please view our Training Brochure 2024-2025.
The Autumn season will showcase training such as:
- Safeguarding Children Affected by Domestic Abuse
- Holding Difficult Conversations with Children and Parents
- Right Help, Right Time
- Child Sexual Abuse Awareness
- Drug & Alcohol Awareness Workshops
- Trauma-Informed Workshops
Charges may apply depending on the course and organisation**
To book you place please contact cscptraining@coventry.gov.uk
A common practice theme identified during Safeguarding Practice Reviews and multi-agency audits is that professionals are often not aware of the role of the father/male in the home, any risks they may pose or the strengths that they can provide to the family.
Assessments and interventions tend to focus on mother’s role as primary carer with limited engagement with father or any other significant males within the family. A review by the National Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel called ‘The Myth of Invisible Men’ indicated that “fathers remain hidden, unassessed and unengaged”.
Although the focus must remain on the child, identifying the significant people in the child’s life from the outset and adopting a ‘Whole Family’, holistic approach is important to achieving improved outcomes for children and young people. Effective engagement and relationship building with parents is more likely to result in sustained change for all family members and it is therefore essential to seek the views of fathers and significant males within the family home and ensure they are involved in assessments, planning and intervention.
View the video presentation "The Myth of Invisible Men" for further information.
Did you know that the West Midlands jointly produce Child Protection procedures?
This ensures that practitioners working across the West Midlands have them in a single space ensuring that you will be able to work with children and families in a consistent way. Of course, sometimes there are local differences in the way that local areas respond to the needs of children , such as in terms of threshold documents, and these are clearly highlighted in the procedures.
These procedures can be viewed at the West Midlands Procedures website.
Are you or someone you know looking after someone that needs your help with daily tasks?
If you think you might be a young carer or know someone who is – please get in touch with Young Carers Trust.
Young Carers are people aged between 5 and 18 years old who have a responsibility for looking after a person who has any of the following:
- A disability
- A long term illness
- A mental health illness
- An addiction to drugs or alcohol
The person you care for could even be your mum, dad, brother, sister, grandparent or even a close friend. As a Young Carer you may help out with some of the following:
- Shopping
- Cooking
- Cleaning
- Making sure the person you care for takes their medication
- Listening to the person you care for
- Taking care of siblings
Whether you need a chat, information, advice or want to get involved with our group and activities, we are here to help and support you!
If you think you might be a young carer or just want to find out more about our work, please get in touch - we look forward to meeting you!
Contact us:
Email: youngcarers@carerstrusthofe.org.uk
Telephone: 024 7663 2972
or visit our website Young Carers.
Coventry Safeguarding Children Partnership are looking for groups in Coventry to attend and speak with child and young people directly about safeguarding and living in Coventry.
We are committed to hearing children’s voices and understanding their views and feelings on living in the City and their knowledge of safeguarding. These sessions are FREE of charge and we will attend your group/organisation directly.
For more information please contact: coventrycscp@coventry.gov.uk
Coventry Safeguarding Children Partnership has created a ‘One-Minute-Guide’ on the topic of Sextortion. Issues around sextortion have been seen in the media recently. This One-Minute-Guide will give you a basic understanding of signs and indicators and where we can voice our concerns.
Please view our Sextortion One-Minute-Guide
This briefing on Safeguarding Children in Elective Home Education from the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel (the Panel) is part of an ongoing series of publications to share information arising from work undertaken by the Panel with safeguarding partners and others involved in child protection.
The briefing explores common themes and patterns identified across reviews and highlights practice issues raised by safeguarding partners from across England.
The Panel supports the right of parents to educate their children at home, however, the Panel are of the view that there are some children within this cohort who will require the attention of safeguarding agencies because they are at risk of harm and may not be visible to services.
The briefing considers the following:
- The legislative context and the role of statutory agencies.
- Evidence about children who are home educated and suffer harm and abuse, including the relevance of why some parents choose to home educate their children.
- What we can learn from analysis of rapid reviews and from local child safeguarding practice reviews about the risk of harm factors for children who are home educated.
- What actions might need to be taken at a local and national level to help protect this group of children from harm and abuse.
Further information can be found at Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel
If you are working with someone at risk of losing their home, you can refer them to the Housing options Service at Coventry City Council. Where possible, we will work with them to prevent them from losing their home or help them to secure alternative accommodation. Outcomes are best when people are referred at the earliest stage possible, before things get worse.
Depending on where you work, you may also have a duty to refer to the local authority if you are aware that someone may be at risk of homelessness.
Find out more at our webpage
Loan sharks operate illegally, without the correct permissions from the Financial Conduct Authority. These criminals usually appear friendly at first but quickly trap their borrowers into spiralling debt. Many lenders will resort to the most extreme and callous methods to enforce repayment including threats, violence and intimidation. Paperwork is rarely offered so victims are often in the dark as to how much they are actually paying. Exorbitant extra amounts and interest are added at random- the highest interest seen by an illegal lender was equivalent to 131,000% APR. In some cases, the loan sharks have been known to take items as security including passports, driving licences or even bank or post office cards with the PIN in order to withdraw directly from borrowers’ accounts. The Illegal Money Lending team investigates, arrests and prosecutes loan sharks.
You can report a suspected loan shark on the team’s 24/7 helpline 0300 555 2222 or chat to us via our website - Stop Loan Sharks
The team offers free flyers/posters for your organisation as well as training. The training ensures that your staff know how to respond to service users who may be in debt and struggling. To request a training session or promotional items contact Christopher.connor@birmingham.gov.uk
We need your help!
The Illegal Money Lending Team are running a project in response to reports that loans are being advertised on supermarket/post office/community noticeboards.
The cards we have seen do not comply with credit advertising requirements and may even belong to unauthorised lenders.
We are asking people to keep an eye out for postcards advertising loans on noticeboards. If you spot any please take a photo of the advert and a note of where and when you saw it. This information, and the photo, can be submitted to Report A Loan Shark. You can leave your details if you wish, but that is entirely up to you; you can choose to send the information anonymously. We will look at all reports and take the appropriate action.
Website: www.coventry.gov.uk/cscp
X: @covCSCPandCSAB
Facebook: Coventry Safeguarding Board and Partnership
Instagram: Coventry_lscb
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