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 November 2023

The Executive Summary Hello, and welcome to the Devon Safeguarding Children Partnership new quarterly newsletter! We’ll be using this space to set out the latest learnings from across the Partnership, to let you know about upcoming training opportunities, and to highlight the important news, updates and information that you need.  As this is our first edition, we’ll keep things relatively short and sweet, and we thought that there was only one place to start: the Partnership’s mission, aim and priorities.

Our mission and aim

The Partnership’s mission is that all children and young people in Devon should feel safe and be protected from harm.

To fulfil this mission, our aim is to make sure that children and families get the right support, in the right place at the right time.

This aim can only be delivered through successful multi-agency working. A central part of our work, then, will be prioritising collaboration and strengthening relationships across the Partnership. This is also where our priorities come in, as they give us the structure around which we shape our collaborative approach. 

Our priorities

Earlier this year, we agreed together to adopt the partnership priorities as developed by the Children’s Services Improvement Partnership Board. These are:

• Improving the outcomes of pre-birth services and support services for infants. 
• Improving partnership working in compliance with Working Together. 
• Improve the response to adolescent need through the development of multi-agency contextual safeguarding approaches.
• Improving the partnership response to domestic abuse to prevent harm to children.

Full details about all of these priority areas and the outcomes that we want to achieve is available on the Devon SCP website.

We know that we have amazing people working right across the partnership, and our thanks to all of you for your ongoing dedication to improving the lives of young people across the county. However, we also know that we can strengthen our collaborative approach. And by doing so, we will achieve the best possible outcomes for Devon’s children and families.

Roy Linden
Devon and Cornwall Police – Chief Superintendent and Chair of the Partnership Executive

Stuart Collins
Devon County Council – Director of Children's Services

Susan Masters
NHS Devon Integrated Care Board – Acting Chief Nurse

Information sharing

Information sharing is vital to improve outcomes for children and vulnerable people, protect their rights, deliver better and more efficient services and is sometimes essential to keep people safe.

This is an area of our work that we are looking to strengthen, so please be aware that the Devon SCP website has lots of advice and guidance about effective information sharing. Key to success are the 7 golden rules for information sharing.

7 golden rules for information sharing

1. GDPR is not a barrier
2. Be open and honest
3. Seek advice
4. Share with consent wherever possible
5. Always consider the safety and wellbeing
6. Necessary, proportionate, relevant, accurate, timely and secure.
7. Keep a record

Full details about the 7 golden rules, as well as further guidance and information, is available on the Devon SCP website.

Learning from reviews

The responsibility for learning lessons from serious child safeguarding incidents lies with the National Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel and safeguarding partners at a local level (local authorities, chief officers of police and integrated care boards).

Within Devon, the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Group (CSPRG) leads this work. Since April 2023, the group have conducted four rapid reviews, two of which were about physical harm in infants under 2 years old, one was about the neglect of a school aged child with complex physical and learning disabilities, and one was about a teenaged child who was at risk of child exploitation.

Rapid Reviews are not published across the country so to aid the sharing of learning from some rapid reviews, the Partnership produce Learning Briefings. As well as highlighting areas of good practice, the themes for learning have included issues with information sharing, professional curiosity and domestic abuse. 

SaFest 2023

SaFest, Devon's annual online safeguarding festival will be taking place from 20-24 November. The week-long schedule will be filled with fantastic key note speeches, workshops and lectures. A full schedule of events is available here.

The conference is free and is designed to facilitate professional networking and the sharing of good practice, all while taking a look at the latest research about working with young people in any safeguarding capacity. Safest is a virtual event facilitated by the Devon SCP and is open to colleagues across the professional network.

The booking form is now closed, but you can still email safeguardingelearning-mailbox@devon.gov.uk to enquire about remaining availability.

Training Opportunities

Next newsletter: February 2024

Contact us

The Devon SCP Business Team can be contacted on 01392 386067 or via the Devon SCP website.

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