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The Cumberland Safeguarding Children Partnership and Westmorland and Furness Safeguarding Children Partnership were implemented on 1 April 2025 and provide the multi-agency safeguarding arrangements across each of their respective local authority areas.
 Both Partnerships have published their Safeguarding Arrangements in accordance with Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023 guidance. Each partnership document explains how the statutory safeguarding partners will fulfill their statutory responsibilities to safeguard children and young people within each of the geographical areas.
The published arrangements can be accessed here.
A new Business Team has been appointed to manage the new Westmorland and Furness Safeguarding Children Partnership. Hayley Clarke takes up the role as Safeguarding Children Partnership Manager and Jenna Lodge as Partnership and Improvement Officer.
The previous Cumbria Safeguarding Children Partnership Business Team remain and will manage the new Cumberland Safeguarding Children Partnership. Steph Smithson remains as Partnership and Improvement Manager and Charlotte Astill as Partnership and Improvement Officer.
If you have any questions or queries and you are:
What does this mean for me and my organisation?
Training
Training will continue to be accessed via the Learning Zone: https://cumbriasafeguardingchildren.co.uk/learning-zone-0
Policy and Procedures
All practitioners in Cumbria will continue to follow the current Pan-Cumbria procedures and access them via the Cumbria manual: https://cumbriascp.trixonline.co.uk/
We are currently reviewing all policies and procedures and each partnership will launch new manuals in early 2026.
Concerns about a Child
The process will remain the same and information on each local authority’s process is here: https://cumbriasafeguardingchildren.co.uk/report-concern-about-child
Early/Family Help
The process will remain the same and information on Early/Family Help is here: https://cumbriasafeguardingchildren.co.uk/early-help
Practitioner Forums
We will continue to run the Practitioner Forums in the current format, whilst each partnership reviews how they engage with practitioners in their area.
Access to Website
We will continue to share the current Cumbria website for a number of months, whilst both partnerships develop new websites.
Partnership Comms, Newsletters and 5 Minute Briefings
For an initial 3 month period, comms will continue to be published via the CSCP mailing list.
We encourage you to sign up for the new mailing list for your respective safeguarding partnership. For some professionals it may be relevant for you to sign up to both.
To sign up to these mailing lists please click on the links below.
Cumberland: https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/UKCUMBERLAND/subscriber/new?topic_id=UKCUMBERLAND_112
Westmorland and Furness: https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/UKWFC/subscriber/new?topic_id=UKWFC_84
For Cumberland Practitioners only
Since the launch of the new Cumberland Single Contact Form in November 2024, the Cumberland Safeguarding Hub have been accepting referrals using both the new and old versions of the Single Contact Form, as part of a transition period.
However, as of Thursday 1 June 2025, Cumberland Safeguarding Hub will only accept the new version of the Single Contact Form, which can be found on the CSCP Website: here.
As a reminder, within the new Single Contact Form, there are three different types of referrals that can be sent to the Cumberland Safeguarding Hub:
- Referrals from a professional who works with children, young people and families, who as concerns about a child or is seeking Family Help support.
- Referrals from an adult (member of the public) with concerns about a child.
- Referrals from a child with concerns.
What does this mean for me?
If you have saved a link to the old version of the Single Contact Form as a favourite on your computer, please delete this and refer to the CSCP website for the most up to date version (here), as the old version will no longer be accepted by the Cumberland Safeguarding Hub from Thursday 1 June 2025.
If you have any questions or queries in relation to this change, please do not hesitate to contact the Cumberland Safeguarding Hub via email: safeguardinghub.fax@cumbria.gov.uk.
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A reminder of the new ‘Partner Services’ area which was launched on Cumbria Constabulary’s website on 5 March to improve the sharing of non-urgent information by partner agencies.
The new partners forms include:
- Arrest request
- Report a missing person
- Make an interview request
- Community Partnership Intelligence
- Request Police help with a Mental Health Assessment
- Request a registered owner check for an abandoned vehicle
The new partner forms will provide a structured and detailed set of questions to ensure that the essential information required is gathered at the outset. The forms will improve data quality and triage the information to the Constabulary’s appropriate internal departments (if required) or be actioned for deployment.
The new forms are for the sharing of non-urgent information by partner agencies, if you want to report a crime then please do that using our online crime reporting service or by calling 101, or 999 in an emergency.
Please make sure to update any internal intranet sites/material you may have with the instructions above on the sharing of non-urgent information with Cumbria Constabulary.
Cumbria Constabulary's Command and Control room will be unable to take any information via email with effect from Monday 10 March
Guidance on one of the new forms - ‘Partners Community Intelligence’ and how you can access it can be found here.
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From 1 April, Harrogate and District NHS Foundation (HDFT) Trust became the new providers of the 0-19 Healthy Child Programme in Cumberland and Westmorland & Furness.
Commissioned by Public Health in Cumberland and Westmorland & Furness, HDFT are the largest provider of children’s public health services in the UK and bring with them strong leadership, clinical excellence, evidence-based and prevention-focused care. The 0-19 Healthy Child Programme workforce will work closely with the Family Hubs in Cumberland and Westmorland & Furness and in homes, schools and other community settings delivering essential health visiting and 5-19 public health services to children, young people and families in local communities.
The service is working hard to ensure there is no disruption to the service provided for our children and families. There will, however, be changes in systems, processes and communications and the service will be working closely with all partner services to inform them early on of any changes and minimise disruption.
Both council areas look forward to building on this new service, as we continue to work together as key partners in the delivery of services to children, young people and their families.
HDFT’s new 0-19 Health Service can be contacted using the following details:
From 1 April, Harrogate and District NHS Foundation (HDFT) Trust became the new providers of the 0-19 Healthy Child Programme in Cumberland and Westmorland & Furness.
Cumberland
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Westmorland and Furness
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As Westmorland and Furness begin to expand their service offer and look at the rollout of the Family Hub model across the South Lakeland and Eden areas, gaining the views and input from their members, stakeholders, partners and colleagues is a critical first step and they want your voices to be heard.
An online survey is now available to ensure a full group of members, stakeholders, partners and colleagues have the opportunity to help them understand current services and how their future Family Hub model should be shaped to meet the needs of children, families and young people of Westmorland and Furness.
We would like to ask for your help in 3 ways:
Westmorland and Furness Family Hubs - Stakeholder Event (Development a model for Westmorland and Furness
For updates from the Family Hub Teams in your area, follow them on Facebook
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The CSCP are delivering an array of training sessions. Please review below the current training being delivered either face to face or via teams.
Please also visit our learning zone on our website for all our eLearning courses offered to professionals and volunteers working with children/young people and their families who live in Cumbria.
Important Information - As of 1 April 2025, the Cumbria Safeguarding Children Partnership (CSCP) has ceased to exist. This means there are two Safeguarding Partnerships for Cumbria - one based in the Cumberland area and one in the Westmorland and Furness area. Therefore, please see below training dates for each council area.
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Safeguarding Level 3
Safeguarding in Practice - Working Together to Safeguard Children - Multi-agency approach to safeguard, protect and promote the welfare of children. The course is designed for Designated Safeguarding Leads (DSL's) only.
This training is part of a programme of learning events that practitioners and professionals, working with children, can access to support their learning at level 3.
Cumberland
- Tuesday 20 May (9.30am to 12.30pm) - Wigton
- Wednesday 4 June (9.30am to 12.30pm) - Carlisle
- Wednesday 18 June (6.30pm to 8.30pm) - Wigton (Session 1 of 2)*
- Monday 23 June (1.30pm to 4.30pm) - Carlisle
- Wednesday 2 June (6.30pm to 8.30pm) - Wigton (Session 2 of 2)*
- Thursday 3 July (9.30am to 12.30pm) - Wigton
- Wednesday 16 July (1.30pm to 4.30pm) - Wigton
- Tuesday 12 August (9.30am to 12.30pm) - Wigton
- Thursday 11 September (1.30pm to 4.30pm) - Carlisle
* All delegates must attend both Session 1 and Session 2
Westmorland and Furness
- Thursday 15 May (9.30am to 12.30pm) - Penrith
- Thursday 26 June (1.30pm to 4.30pm) - Barrow
- Wednesday 17 September (9.30am to 12.30pm) - Kendal
To book your place, please email CSCP.Training@cumbria.gov.uk
Child Exploitation
The CSCP recommend that anyone working with children should complete Child Exploitation (CE) Level 1 eLearning as mandatory training. Click here to access the training.
Those practitioners who work more closely with children and young people and are involved in their safety planning should complete Child Exploitation (CE) Level 2 training.
Cumberland
- Tuesday 15 July (2pm to 5pm) - Carlisle
- Thursday 13 November (10am to 1pm) - Wigton
Westmorland and Furness
- Tuesday 1 July (10am to 1pm) - Barrow
To book your place, please email CSCP.Training@cumbria.gov.uk
Trauma, Exploitation and Offending - recording of session
On National Child Exploitation Day, Tuesday 18 March 2025, the CSCP hosted an insightful Trauma, Exploitation and Offending session with Sosa Henkoma, in partnership with Dignifi. The session was open to anyone who was interested in finding out more about trauma, exploitation and offending.
If you would like to watch the session, please click on the following link
YouTube video - CSCP Trauma, Exploitation and Offending Session - 18 March 2025
Cumbria Safeguarding Adults Board (CSAB) are offering a new and additional learning opportunity on 'Prevent' Awareness Raising.
Prevent is a national programme that aims to stop people from becoming terrorists or supporting terrorism. It works to ensure that people who are susceptible to radicalisation are offered appropriate interventions, and communities are protected against radicalising influences. You can access the Government guidance about the Prevent Strategy here.
This session will raise awareness of issues pertinent to the Cumbria area in relation to key risk issues for children and vulnerable adults.
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Friday 16 May 2025 (12pm to 12:30pm) - via Microsoft Teams
Please click here to book your free place via Eventbrite.
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Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel
NSPCC Learning has published a Learning from case reviews briefing on housing. It summarises the key issues and learning for improved practice for housing services and providers from a sample of case reviews published between 2020 and 2023. The briefing highlights that housing professionals need to: understand their responsibility to recognise and respond to safeguarding and child protection concerns, even if the accommodation itself poses no issues; work effectively with other agencies and actively share their knowledge about families; and consider the needs of the whole family and the role of the local area in meeting those needs.
Read the briefing: Housing: learning from case reviews
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Children face a number of barriers in communicating about sexual abuse, such as feelings of fear, shame, guilt and responsibility, not having the language to communicate their concerns, or not recognising what has happened to them as abuse. It is the job of the adults around them to learn how to listen, understand and support them.
The CSA Centre have updated their 'Communicating with Children' guide to give anyone working with children accessible guidance in talking about concerns of child sexual abuse, including where children are unable to verbally communicate their experiences. It shows professionals how to speak with children who use a variety of communication styles, including neurodivergent children, disabled children, and children whose first language is not English.
Download Communicating with Children guide here
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Ofcom has published the final version of its Protection of Children Codes and Guidance which will apply to providers of online services and platforms likely to be used by UK children. The child safety measures, designed to help protect children and young people from harmful content online, will require relevant providers of online services to complete and record children’s risk assessments by 24 July 2025. From 25 July 2025, they should apply the safety measures set out in Ofcom’s Codes to mitigate these risks. The safety measures include: safer feeds, with algorithms configured to filter out harmful content from children; effective age checks; and all sites and apps must have processes in place to review, assess and quickly tackle harmful content when they become aware of it. If companies fail to comply with their duties under the Online Safety Act, Ofcom has the power to impose fines and in serious cases, can apply for a court order to prevent the site or app from being available in the UK. There are five volumes setting out Ofcom’s decisions, together with a number of regulatory documents and guidance.
Read the news story: New rules for a safer generation of children online
Access the publications: Statement: protecting children from harms online
See also on NSPCC Learning: Online harms: protecting children and young people
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