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Welcome to the December edition of the Cumberland Safeguarding Children Partnership (CSCP) Newsletter.
Within this Newsletter, you will find useful information from across the partnership and from our partner agencies relating to Safeguarding, which is aimed to support Practitioners and Professionals in their role.
Cumbria Constabulary, with the support of the Local Authority, are updating their Missing Persons Policy and Procedures, in line with national guidance. Changes are due to go live from January 2026.
Both Cumberland and Westmorland & Furness Children Safeguarding Partnerships will be hosting sessions in January 2026, with target audiences for Care Providers and Designated Safeguarding Leads in Education Settings. You can find more information on this session here.
Cumberland
- Thursday 29 January 2026 (1.30pm to 3.30pm) - Wigton
To book your place on Cumberland's session, please click here
Westmorland & Furness
- Tuesday 20 January 2026 (10.00am to 12.00noon) - Kendal
To book you place on Westmorland & Furness's session, please click here
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Cumberland and Westmorland and Furness Partnerships are delivering two, face to face thematic learning events where the sessions will explore learning from both Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews and Local Learning Reviews in Cumbria.
Information on the sessions can be found below.
Cumberland
- Wednesday 4 February 2026 (1.30pm to 3.30pm) - Wigton Market Hall
You can book a place, please click here
Westmorland and Furness
- Tuesday 3 February 2026 (1.30pm to 3:30pm) - South Lakeland House, Kendal
You can book a place, please click here
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If you are a Child Exploitation Champion, you will be aware that a Network Meeting is taking place on Wednesday 28 January 2026, 10am – 12noon, at Wigton Market Hall.
We are really pleased to inform you that Jacqui McCann will be a guest speaker at the meeting. Jacqui has been working with, and supporting, children and young people impacted by exploitation for many years.
Jacqui runs her own training and consultancy business to support residential settings, schools, and other agencies who support children. Her specialist area is around exploitation and children who are deprived of their liberty. During the session, Jacqui will discuss the following:
- Current themes, risks and merging threats to our children and young people in terms of exploitation and coercion
- The complexities of the online world and how to manage this to maintain safety
- How we support children to be co-creators in safety and understanding around how to safeguard 'with' them, instead of 'to' them
- Explore the use of Deprivation of Liberty Orders, and how to manage a lot of this through the application of parenting (including online safety and monitoring)
If you are a Child Exploitation Champion, we would really encourage you to attend this Network Meeting, to hear Jacqui speak.
If you are not yet a Child Exploitation Champion, but you are interested in becoming one, please click on the following link to understand what the role involves and how to request to join the Network:
Cumberland Safeguarding Children Partnership Child Exploitation Champions Network
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Cumberland Council have published a Private Fostering Statement of Purpose, which is designed to meet the statutory requirement established by the National Minimum Standards for Private Fostering 2005, that the Local Authority has a written statement or plan, which sets out its duties and functions in relation to Private
Fostering and the ways in which they will be carried out.
To read the full Statement of Purpose, please click on the link below:
Private Fostering Statement of Purpose
You can also find a copy on the Private Fostering page on our website.
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We are delighted to be working with YGAM to offer a full programme of fully funded, CPD Certified, Gaming and Gambling Harm Prevention Workshops for foster carers, education professionals, youth workers, social care practitioners, and healthcare professionals.
The topics covered within the workshops include:
- Influences on young people
- Blurred lines between gaming and gambling
- How to spot the signs of harm
- Microtransaction
- Mental health and wellbeing
- Where to get help and support
Over a two week period, YGAM will be delivering a range of workshops for different professional groups, as shown below:
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 Attendance at these sessions is free and you are encouraged to book as soon as possible, as these sessions will be popular.
You can book your place in the following link:
Book your place on CSCP YGAM Training
For more information, please click on the link below:
Gaming and gambling harm workshops for CSCP - flyer
Safeguarding Week March 2026
The CSCP is delighted to inform you that we will be hosting a Safeguarding Week during w/c 9 March 2026.
During this week, a wide range of training will be delivered, which all Practitioners are welcome to attend, and we would encourage you to save the date in your diary.
More details will be provided in the new year.
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Cumberland Safeguarding Children Partnership have a range of training sessions on offer.
Please visit our training page on the website for all eLearning/face to face courses offered to professionals and volunteers working with children, young people and their families who live in Cumberland.
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Further Awareness of the Safeguarding Environment (formerly known as Safeguarding Level 2)
This training package bridges the gap between the online, Level 2 Safeguarding Training delivered via the CSCP’s Learning Management System, and the “Understanding the Levels of Need” (Level 3 Safeguarding Training) for Designated Safeguarding Leads.
The course is designed to help participants understand more about their safeguarding responsibilities, capturing the voice of the child, professional curiosity and how to make a referral. Along with providing participants with up to date information about general safeguarding topics, such as allegations against staff, domestic abuse, online safety and child exploitation.
This “Further Awareness of the Safeguarding Environment” Training can be completed by any professionals or practitioners who work directly with children and young people, whether this is frequent or infrequent.
Designated Safeguarding Leads and Deputy Designated Safeguarding Leads should complete this course before undertaking the “Understanding the Levels of Need” Training (Level 3 Safeguarding Training).
Understanding the Levels of Need (Formerly known as Safeguarding Level 3)
This course develops a common understanding of risk management and provides support to Designated Safeguarding Leads and Deputy Designated Safeguarding Leads, so they are clear about:
- the thresholds for access to services which support the actions needed to improve the outcomes for children
- understanding roles and responsibilities
- identifying exemplars of good practice
- individual responsibility when working with children, young people and families
- responsibility of different agencies; and
- the tools in place to support professionals in their role
Reflective Supervision in Education Settings
The aim of our Reflective Supervision in Education Settings training workshop is:
- To understand the importance and benefits of regular supervision
- To give participants the knowledge and tools to be able to undertake effective reflective supervision
- To consider the barriers to providing supervision and how to overcome them
- To share good practice
Impact Chronology
The CSCP are delivering training on Impact Chronology. The following session will be a face to face workshop and the aim of the session is to enable practitioners to develop skills in using Impact Chronologies.
How to Support Children & Families through Early Help - Signs of Wellbeing Training
The aim of this training is to increase knowledge and enable practitioners to work more effectively with children, young people and their families using Early Help, and identify needs early to give all children the opportunity to thrive and succeed.
Child Protection
The Department for Education (DfE) has launched a consultation on the creation of a new national body to improve child protection in England. The Child Protection Authority (CPA) will aim to provide national leadership and oversight, use data and intelligence to spot risks early, and advise on policy at local and national level. The consultation is seeking views on the CPA’s proposed functions, governance and interaction with existing bodies. Responses are invited from children and families with lived experience of the child protection system, frontline practitioners, local authorities, inspectorates, professional bodies, and voluntary, community and statutory organisations involved in safeguarding. The consultation closes on 5 March 2026.
Read the statement: Child protection
Find out more: Establishing the Child Protection Authority in England
Online Safety - Women and Girls
Ofcom has published new guidance setting out actions for technology companies to take to improve women and girls’ online safety. The guidance focuses on harms disproportionately affecting women and girls and highlights how these can inhibit their safety and participation in online spaces and normalise misogynistic attitudes and behaviours. The nine areas of action centre around taking responsibility, designing services to prevent harm and providing support to users. Actions include: ensure governance and accountability processes address online gender-based harms; conduct abusability evaluations and product testing; and enable users who experience online gender-based harms to make reports.
Read the guidance: Statement and guidance: a safer life online for women and girls
See also on NSPCC Learning: Preventing online harm and abuse
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Violence Against Women and Girls
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has launched its five-year strategy for tackling violence against women and girls (VAWG) in England and Wales. The strategy is centred around CPS priorities, setting out plans to increase casework quality when handling VAWG cases and increase trust in the CPS handling of VAWG cases. The CPS’s VAWG strategy includes crimes of child sexual abuse and exploitation; ‘honour’-based abuse, forced marriage, and child marriage; and female genital mutilation (FGM) and other harmful practices. Work will include: developing and rolling out new VAWG training modules for staff; reviewing and updating guidance on ‘honour’-based abuse and VAWG prosecution guidance; and piloting an improved service to all victims of crime who have their case charged by the CPS.
Read the news story: Complex layers of abuse provide a new prosecution challenge in tackling violence against women and girls (VAWG)
Read the strategy: Violence against women and girls strategy 2025-2030
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Harmful Sexual Behaviour
NSPCC Learning has published new information about the NSPCC’s Safe Home programme. Safe Home supports the parents and carers of children who have displayed harmful sexual behaviour (HSB). Practitioners work with parents and carers across 13 sessions to help them to: reflect upon and process what has happened; develop their understanding of appropriate, problematic and harmful sexual behaviour; learn the signs of sexual abuse; and create a personalised safety plan with practical steps to prevent or minimise risk of sexual harm to and from their child in the future. NSPCC Learning provides information about Safe Home’s development and evaluation, and the support available for organisations wanting to adopt, implement and deliver the programme in their local area.
Visit the page: Safe Home
See also on NSPCC Learning: Problematic and harmful sexual behaviour
Child Poverty
The UK government has announced the launch of a new strategy for reducing child poverty. The strategy brings together information about the action that the government has already taken, alongside new measures to increase family incomes, reduce essential costs and strengthen local services to try to address the root causes of child poverty and provide immediate support to families living in poverty. The aim is to lift an estimated 550,000 children out of poverty by 2030. The strategy is UK-wide, although some policies and measures apply to specific nations only. Alongside the strategy, there is a monitoring and evaluation framework and various supporting documents including research and analysis.
Read the press release: Over half a million children to be lifted out of poverty as government unveils historic child poverty strategy
Download the strategy and supporting documents: Child poverty strategy
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Family Hubs
The Department for Education and Department of Health and Social Care have published guidance to help local authorities in England prepare for the delivery of Best Start Family Hubs (BSFHs) from April 2026. BSFHs will provide support to all families with children aged 0-to-19-years-old. They will help families facing more complex challenges by helping to identify emerging problems and opportunities for early support. The guide includes: a framework to help identify appropriate BSFH sites, including prioritising access for disadvantaged families where possible; the definition of a BSFH and the core services expected to be available; and information on Best Start local plans and how these will interact with BSFH funding and neighbourhood health plans.
Download the guidance: Best Start Family Hubs and Healthy Babies: guidance for local authorities
To find information on Cumberland Family Hubs, you can access the information via their website: https://cumberlandfamilyhubs.org.uk/homepage
Child Abuse
The NSPCC has published a news story highlighting the risks that some children face at home during the Christmas holidays and how Childline can help. The news story explores findings from a YouGov survey analysing UK adults’ perceptions of the risks children could face at Christmas. Findings show one in eight adults have had concerns for the safety of a child they know over the festive period and two thirds believe children face an increased risk of abuse during the holidays. Concerns identified about abuse during this period included: financial pressures at home; substance misuse at home; and food insecurity.
Read the news story: Two thirds of UK adults believe the risk of children being abused increases over Christmas
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Cumberland Safeguarding Children Partnership would like to take this opportunity to 'Thank Everyone' for their support during the past year and to wish you all a 'Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year'.
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