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 2 April 2025
Hello!
It certainly feels that spring has finally sprung this week. This time of year is always so closely tied to the idea of renewal and new beginnings. And, while our core mission remains the same as ever, there are some important changes and new additions to be aware of.
First, we're delighted to welcome Dr. Taz Syed as our new Named Doctor for Safeguarding. With his passion and expertise, we know he’ll be a fantastic addition to the team. We also have a new Chair of our Executive group in Penny Smith. Penny, who is Chief Nurse for the ICB, takes over duties from Roy Linden today, and we are looking forward to working alongside Penny to further strengthen our partnership working. Roy will remain on the Executive as the Designated Safeguarding Partner for Police, and we thank him for his excellent work and commitment to this role.
We will shortly be looking for a new Independent Scrutineer too. Our Independent Scrutineer, Keith Perkin, has been in post since September 2022 but will be stepping down at the end of May. We will, therefore, shortly be advertising for someone to take his place, with adverts set to go out in April. In the meantime, if you would like to submit an expression of interest or you want further information, please email me on jackie.colby@devon.gov.uk.
Another important development is the introduction of our new Devon Domestic Abuse Alliance, which launched yesterday. The new service will take over from FearFree and aims to transform how people in the county access and receive domestic abuse support.
We are also continuing to improve how we address child neglect, and I'm pleased that the Making Sense of Child Neglect course on DeL is now part of the Devon SCP training programme. We will also be running our best practice events over the next three months. Additionally, we have recently published a learning briefing from our thematic review on child neglect, which I would encourage everyone to read.
At a national level, we are keeping an eye on two new pieces of legislation, the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill and Crime and Policing Bill, and what these will mean for our work. While we are currently in the process of making multi-agency recommendations on the back of the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel's "It's Silent": Race, racism and safeguarding children report.
Thank you for your dedication to keeping children and families safe.
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 Jackie Colby
Devon Safeguarding Children Partnership Team Manager
We are seeking practitioner views from across our partnership in relation to Conflict, Resolution and Challenge processes.
If you would like to share your experiences and suggestions around questioning, challenging, escalating decision making and dealing with professional differences, then please complete our conflict resolution survey
The survey will close at the end of 20 April 2025.
Addressing child neglect in Devon
Child neglect continues to be a significant focus of our current work. Between June 2024 and August 2024, three serious incidents of parental neglect causing harm to children were notified. Rapid Reviews were undertaken, and a Child Safeguarding Practice Review by independent author on these three incidents is now well under way. We are aiming to publish this on or before 31 July 2025. We previously published a learning briefing with initial findings from these incidents.
Additionally, in 2024 we revisited the Quality Assurance Group's 2020 thematic review on child neglect. This review aimed to assess progress and identify ongoing challenges, and we have recently published a learning briefing that provides a concise overview of the thematic review carried out on child neglect. Please be sure to read through this guidance and use it for your team meetings and supervision sessions.
Devon SCP’s multi-agency child neglect task and finish group has continued to meet to work together on a number of workstreams. We have recent finished drafting a new strategy, toolkit, and action plan, which will go to the Safeguarding Executives April meeting. Once approved, these will be published on the Devon SCP website.
Training on child neglect
The Making Sense of Child Neglect course on DeL is now part of the Devon SCP training programme, with one session per month. This is the key training you will need, but you can also enrol on our Tools to Assess Neglect course. Additionally, the Partnership are also running a multi-agency best practice event on child neglect across the next three months (see below).
Upcoming best practice events on child neglect
This in person event is aimed at multi-agency front-line practitioners and team managers who work with children and/or families. Sessions are open to all agencies and are taking place across the county. Full details about the best practice events are available here.
Please note that our Exeter is now fully booked. There are around 20 spaces left at each of the North and South Best Practice Events.
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Monday 28 April – County Hall, Exeter – FULL
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Monday 19 May – Ivybridge, South Devon
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Monday 2 June – Filleigh, North Devon
Book your place by using the multi-agency best practice events form.
For those who have already booked, places will be confirmed by email within the next week.
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Professional curiosity guidance for practitioners
Following recommendations from the Devon SCP thematic review on physical injuries to infants under 2, we have published multi-agency practice guidance on professional curiosity.
Help with our thematic reviews and Partnership meetings
The Partnership's thematic reviews are carried out by partners from across all agencies. If you are interested in getting involved in our thematic reviews, please get in touch with Kate Nightingale, Quality Assurance Lead, by emailing devonscp@devon.gov.uk.
On a similar note, members of the wider partnership (including Execs, providers, newly elected members etc.) are invited to come and observe partnership meetings to enhance understanding of the workings of the partnership. Again, if you would like to join, please email devonscp@devon.gov.uk.
Learning briefing on Adolescent Safety and Care
Last month we published a learning briefing about adolescent safety and care.
The briefing was published following a Rapid Review completed across January and February 2025. Rapid Reviews are usually not published. However, Devon SCP always endeavours to publish and widely share a learning briefing.
These can be used as a tool for practitioners and managers within their teams as a prompt for discussion about practice and what we can learn about working together more effectively, from local serious incidents.
You can find all of our learning briefings on our Safeguarding Practice Reviews page.
Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel
In March the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel published its latest report, "It's Silent": Race, racism and safeguarding children.
We are currently discussing this, and any multi-agency recommendations will be shared at the next Devon SCP Business Group in April. In February, our Education Safeguarding Executive attended a Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel round table event exploring the findings.
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Announcing the new Devon Domestic Abuse Service
On April 1 our new integrated Domestic Abuse Support Service, known as the Devon Domestic Abuse Alliance, launched.
The Alliance will provide services across Devon excluding Torbay and Plymouth and aims to transform how people in the county access and receive domestic abuse support. Access to the service will be through an integrated gateway that will then work with the person needing support in a way that works most effectively for them.
The main access details from 1 April are:
👉 Devon Domestic Abuse Alliance (DDAA)
📞 08082 816161
📧 hello@ddaa.org.uk
🖥️ https://ddaa.org.uk/ (a simple online referral form will be available here)
Please note that the current provider, FearFree, stopped taking the current domestic abuse service referrals on 31 March.
Full details about the new Devon Domestic Abuse Alliance are available on our website. This includes what will happen with any existing referrals and open cases.
Our Safeguarding Executive Chair
Roy Linden, our current Chair, stepped down on 31 March. Penny Smith, Chief Nurse for the ICB, will be taking on this role.
Our thanks to Roy for his excellent work and commitment to this role. Roy will remain on the Executive as the Designated Safeguarding Partner for Police.
Named Doctor for Safeguarding appointed
We are please to announce that Dr Taz Syed has been appointed as our new Named Doctor for Safeguarding.
Taz currently performs the same role for Essex and for Shropshire, and he will be with us for one and a half days a week. He is very keen to push forward any barriers that are highlighted by multi-agency partners in respect to GP and doctor engagement with the Partnership, as well as anything related to safeguarding/child protection in relation to GPs and practice. Welcome Taz!
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Independent Scrutineer
All Local Safeguarding Children Partnerships (LSCP) must contract an Independent Scrutineer (on a self employed basis) as part of the requirements of Working Together 2023.
Keith Perkin, who has been our Independent Scrutineer since September 2022, will be stepping down end of May 2025. We will, therefore, shortly be advertising for someone to take his place, with adverts set to go out in April. If you would like to submit an expression of interest or you want further information, please email jackie.colby@devon.gov.uk.
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.
Please refer to make sure that you have read and understood our information sharing policy. You might also like to look at the guide to information sharing on our website, which contains useful information and resources, including a PowerPoint of our latest consent and information sharing briefing, which we encourage you to use for training in your own agencies.
Social Care Reforms – Round Table Event
A series of round table events are taking place this year to discuss multi-agency child protection teams (MACPT), which are set out in the upcoming Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.
The Partnership Manager and Executives are attending these events to learn what steps pathfinder Local Authorities have taken and how these can be implemented in Devon. The Department for Education consultants at the round table event recognised that funding would be required for roll out in 26/27, but couldn’t confirm how much this would be and whether funding would be on-going for several years to support with this reform. We will provide further updates as and when we know more.
Crime and Policing Bill
Please be aware that the Crime and Policing Bill was introduced to Parliament in February 2025. It introduces and updates a range of measures relating to anti-social behaviour, violence, crime and exploitation. This includes violence against women and girls, serious violence and weapons-related violence, radicalisation and counter-terrorism, and exploitation (relevant to children and adults).
The Bill’s progress can be tracked through the UK Parliament website. We will provide a further update once the Bill has passed all the way through Parliament.
It Does Matter Campaign
The Devon Safeguarding Digest
The monthly Devon Safeguarding Digest provides a summary of the latest safeguarding news and developments with changes to local policy and opportunities to feed into future local policy change.
The Digest is published on the news page of our website in the first week of each month, and we will also distribute it to managers via email. You can view the latest editions below:
The NSPCC Repository
The national case review repository provides a single place to access and share learning at a local, regional and national level. Our colleagues in Torbay Safeguarding Children Partnership produce a monthly summary of each newly published review along with a link to the relevant report.
 Best practice events on child neglect
As set out above, we running a multi-agency best practice event on child neglect across the next three months. Full details about the best practice events are available here.
Awareness event – Violence against women and girls with a focus on stalking
The South Devon and Dartmoor Community Safety Partnership are running a free, bitesize awareness event on Thursday 3 April at 3pm to discuss violence against women and girls with a focus on stalking.
Please head to the Eventbrite site for full details and booking.
ICON training on DeL
The ICON programme aims to help prevent abusive head trauma by offering support to parents to help them cope with a crying baby.
To accompany this, we have created a short ICON training course that is available on DeL. If you work directly with families, this training would really benefit you.
SaFest 2025
SaFest is Devon’s annual online safeguarding festival, and this year’s edition will be taking place from 24-28 November 2025.
The programme of events and the booking link will be made available closer to the time, but you can register your interest by emailing safeguardingelearning-mailbox@devon.gov.uk.
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Training opportunities
Later this week (w/c 31 March) we will be publishing our annual training programme, so please keep an eye on the news pages of our website for the latest selection of key training opportunities coming up over the next few months. This will replace our regular quarterly training bulletin for this quarter.
Don't forget that we also have an extensive library of e-learning modules and video learning opportunities as well as our main training and events calendar.
Next newsletter: June 2025
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