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6 September 2024

Hello!  Welcome to the latest edition of our quarterly newsletter. It's been a busy few months since we last wrote to you, and there have been a few important changes in that time. First, I'm thrilled to share that I have been offered and have accepted the role of Partnership Manager. For those of you who don't know me, I'm Jackie Colby, and I've been the joint acting Partnership Manager alongside Kate Nightingale since April 2023. From 1 November, I will be taking on this position permanently. Until this point, Kate and I will continue to job-share the role of Partnership Manager. My journey with the Partnership began in 2012. In addition to my current role as joint acting Partnership Manager, I have also served as the Workforce Lead from March 2019. So, it's safe to say I already have a very good idea of how the Partnership works and where we need to improve. Below in this newsletter you'll find an important update from the Devon Improvement Partnership Board, which has more details about some of the areas we're looking to develop. I recognise that many practitioners in Devon, especially those in the voluntary, independent, and private sectors – including sports and faith groups – are not fully aware of the role of Devon SCP and have limited engagement with us. So, over the next few months, we aim to address this by fostering greater involvement and communication with all partners. This, in turn, should help us to achieve our shared priorities.    Working Together I'm keen to stress that the Partnership is not just a handful of individuals scattered across organisations around Devon. The Partnership is all of us acting together, as one, to safeguard children and young people. Whether you work for Devon County Council, Devon and Cornwall Police, NHS Devon Integrated Care Board, or any of our other partner agencies, if you work with children and young people, you are an integral part of the Devon SCP. You are not just a cog in the machine, you are the machine itself. This is, fundamentally, what Working Together 2023 is all about. As professionals, we have a collective and individual responsibility to work co-operatively across sectors and agencies to safeguard children and young people.  So, it is important that you know and understand the Partnership's mission, aim and priorities. Our current priorities are: Improving the outcomes of pre-birth services and support services for infants. Enhancing partnership working in compliance with 'Working Together' guidelines. Developing multi-agency contextual safeguarding approaches to better respond to adolescent needs. Strengthening the partnership response to domestic abuse to prevent harm to children. These priorities reflect the Devon SCP's commitment to multi-agency collaboration and set the focus for where we are currently looking to improve to practice. For your information, we are also currently working to revise our Safeguarding Arrangements in line with Working Together 2023, while our Annual Report is currently in draft form. These will be published over the next few months, and we will let you know as soon as these are available. Finally, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank my job-share partner, Kate, for all of her contributions to the Partnership, as well as the support, challenge, and advice she has provided to me and everyone involved. Kate will be returning to her substantive role as Quality Assurance Lead for the Partnership and is excited to be able to have the time again to re-engage with all things quality assurance.  Thank you everyone for your valuable work. Let's keep working together to ensure that all children and young people in Devon feel safe and are protected from harm.

Jackie Colby
Devon Safeguarding Children Partnership Team Manager

Addressing Child Neglect in Devon

In recent months there have been three rapid reviews in Devon that have brought to light critical issues surrounding child neglect. These cases underscore the importance of vigilance, multi-agency collaboration, and proactive intervention to safeguard vulnerable children.

An overview of the initial findings and learning from these three reviews is available on the Devon SCP website. Please be aware that a separate learning brief will be published once we have finished the review process. 

Separately, we have been conducting a thematic review into neglect. The findings from this will be published by the end of October.

Physical Harm to Infants Under 2

Earlier this year we conducted a thematic review of the safeguarding of infants aged 0-2 years, and a summary of the review's findings was published on our website.

We are currently finalising the full report and associated learning briefing, and will ensure that these are sent to all partners once the review has been signed off by the Executive.

Upcoming Best Practice Event

In response to this thematic, we are hosting a half-day best practice event on enhancing multiagency collaboration to prevent physical harm to infants under 2. Two timeslots are available, either the morning of 11 November or the afternoon or 13 November, so be sure to save the date!  Booking details and the event plan are to follow. We will let you know these details are soon as they are confirmed.

The Devon Improvement Partnership Board

Over the past 20 months, our Executive Delegated Safeguarding Partners (DSPs) have collaborated closely and extensively with the multi-agency Devon Improvement Partnership Board to help identify areas for improvement and to make changes accordingly.

Here is a summary of what we've achieved so far and why we've taken these steps.

Quality Assurance and Governance

By providing regular updates and reports to the Improvement Board, we can avoid duplicative efforts related to multi-agency reviews and quality assurance. This collaboration helps maintain a strong focus on safeguarding and child protection.

Strategic Planning and Reporting

Joint work on detailed reports and strategic plans can enhance multi-agency working through improved communication and enables us to discuss progress, challenges, action plans, and impact ensuring we are all aligned in our efforts to improve child safeguarding practices.

Collaborative Initiatives

The Devon SCP and the Improvement Board have worked together on various initiatives, including implementing the requirements within Working Together 2023, refocusing the scope and remit of the Partnership, and ensuring that we are aware of what our agencies need to improve. This enables children and families to get the right support, in the right place, at the right time.

As mentioned above, we are aiming to foster greater involvement and communication with partners over the coming months. And to kick this off, we are facilitating a set of multi-agency learning events in September. These sessions will provide a greater multi-agency understanding of thresholds, duties and family rights for family safeguarding as well as hearing the views of our multi-agency partners in respect of the way we work together. A full list of these multi-agency learning events is available on the Devon SCP website. Please email safeguardingelearning-mailbox@devon.gov.uk to book your place.

We are also very keen to hear the views of our multi-agency partners and would like to incorporate some of your success stories into our newsletter going forward. If you would like to contribute, please email devonscp@devon.gov.uk.

Devon's new Safe and Healthy Sexual Behaviour Forum

In case you missed it, Devon’s new Safe and Healthy Sexual Behaviour Forum launched over the summer. The forum is a multi-agency/service community initiative to address the concern of reactive or harmful sexual behaviour for children and young people.

Full details about the Forum and how to access it are available on the Devon Safeguarding Children Partnership website.

New specialist adolescent service, Links, launches

Devon's new specialist adolescent service, Links, launched on 1 September.

The new service is formed following the merger of two of Devon's specialist adolescent services – REACH and YIT.

Links will be a specialist adolescent service that will support children, young people and families where there are identified risks outside the home. The new service will combine the expertise of practitioners working in the fields of exploitation, anti-social behaviour and missing persons. 

Further information about how to refer to Links will follow over the next few weeks. If you have any general questions about Links, please contact Lisa Colombi.

Changes to reporting Critical Incidents in schools and educational settings

Please be aware that the process for reporting a Critical Incident impacting a school or educational setting in Devon will be changing from 4 September 2024 onwards.

If a school or educational setting has experienced a Critical Incident, it is important that the Local Authority are notified immediately so that any relevant support can be coordinated and put in place as soon as possible.

When reporting a Critical Incident impacting a school or educational setting, please download and complete the Critical Incident Form and send it to Children’s Social Care ‘Front Door’ (MASH) mailbox: multiagencysafeguardinghubsecure-mailbox@devon.gov.uk.

If you require an urgent response, please telephone MASH on 0345 155 1071. Outside normal working hours please contact 0345 6000 388.

More details about Critical Incidents is available here.

Save the date!

We have some important events for your dairies, so please be sure to save these dates!

👉 Multi-agency learning events in September
We have virtual workshops taking place on 10, 11 and 12 September, while we will be hosting and in-person event at County Hall on 30 September. These session are to provide a greater multi-agency understanding of thresholds, duties and family rights for family safeguarding and to explore the way we work together. Full details and booking available on the Devon SCP website.  

👉 Child Exploitation Conference The Child Exploitation Conference will be taking place on 23 October at Sandy Park from 9.30am-4pm. The booking form and programme are available on the Devon SCP website.   👉 Best practice event on preventing physical harm to infants under 2 We are hosting a half-day best practice event on enhancing multiagency collaboration to prevent physical harm to infants under 2. This event will take place in Exeter, and two timeslots are available: either the morning of 11 November or the afternoon or 13 November. We will communicate booking details and the event plan soon.   👉 SaFest Devon's annual online safeguarding festival, will be taking place from 25-29 November. We will release the SaFest programme and booking form closer to the date, but if you're interested in joining, you can email safeguardingelearning-mailbox@devon.gov.uk.

Training opportunities

Next newsletter: 6 December 2024

Contact us

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

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