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Safer Sleep for Babies Free training from the Lullaby Trust on safer sleep for babies is taking place on 21st May and 5th July.  Please click here for more information about the training and how to book a place. The training is in conjunction with the launch of the Safer Sleeping Risk Assessment Tool which supports practitioners to identify risks associated with unsafe sleeping.  The tool was developed by the Nottingham City and Nottinghamshire Safeguarding Children Boards. There is also a self-directed learning session which has also been developed to help practitioners learn about what guidance to give carers to ensure they are  putting babies to sleep safely  Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)   the risk factors for SIDS The Safer Sleep Risk Assessment Tool and the self-directed learning session can be accessed by clicking here.

Appropriate Language Guidance Guidance has been developed to help professionals to use appropriate language when communicating about children and young people who are experiencing child sexual exploitation or criminal exploitation.  Language implying that the child or young person is complicit in any way, or responsible for the crimes that have happened or may happen to them, must be avoided.  The guidance provides lots of suggestions of how to express concerns and describe what the child or young person is experiencing that avoid any suggestion that the child is to blame. Please click here to access the guidance document.

Learning from Multi-Agency Review Child L

The Nottingham City Safeguarding Children Board (NCSCB) has recently issued a briefing note in response to the learning from a multi-agency learning review. The aim of the briefing note is to share key learning across the NCSCB partnership to inform frontline practitioners of the issues identified by the review and learning that can be applied to improve practice.

Key learning points include:

• Meaningful engagement with families, including having difficult conversations
• Effective responses to anonymous referrals
• Collaborative working with housing providers

 Please download the Child L briefing note from here.

Every Colleague Matters  Excellence in Safeguarding Practice The Safeguarding Board was delighted to team up again with Nottingham City Council colleagues to develop a series of ‘Excellence in Safeguarding’ sessions over a one week period from 12 – 16 February.  The sessions were open to everyone who works with children, families, and adults in Nottingham.   358 places were attended on the face-to-face sessions during the week long event and 98% of respondents to the evaluation rated the session as either good or excellent.  Attendees commented about how positive they had found the sessions - a couple of examples of these can be seen to the right. If you attended any sessions, please share the learning with your colleagues.

Signs of Safety - workshops available!! Places are available on the free Signs of Safety sessions taking place on 30th April and 20th June.  The aim of the session is to provide colleagues with an introduction to the Signs of Safety approach and explore how it is being used in safeguarding practice in Nottingham City. To find out more and book a place on a session, please click here.

Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (SEND) Reforms

The Children and Families Act 2014 introduced a series of reforms relating to special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Part 3 of the Act places duties on local authorities and other services in the local area in relation to both children and young people with disabilities and those with special educational needs (SEN) and their families.

A leaflet has been produced containing a summary of what the reforms are, what the reforms mean for the children's workforce and information on how we will be inspected for effectiveness in identifying and meeting the needs of children and young people who have SEND.

Please click here to access the leaflet on the SEND Reforms.

Multi-Agency Audits

Since the last NCSCB newsletter, the Quality Assurance and Audit subgroup have completed several multi agency audits. We wanted to take this opportunity through the newsletter to share some of the findings. Audits have included:

• Children subject to a Special Guardianship Order (SGO)
• Intrafamilial sexual abuse referrals
• Child sexual exploitation (CSE) assessment / toolkit compliance
• Children who go missing
• Children experiencing neglect

The audits have identified some specific and more generalised learning that we wanted to share.

What is working well?

• The voice of the child / young person remains a strong consistent feature
• Positive progress in relation to the quality of SGO assessments being undertaken.
• CSE toolkit assessments are routinely being completed where risks have been identified.
• The locally agreed response and procedure in relation to children who go missing is being implemented consistently.
• Evidence of the use and effectiveness of the consultation forum and edge of care panel. Social workers can take cases to the consultation forum when they need support finding ways to understand and progress a case. 
• Evidence of the use and effectiveness of the edge of care panel.  Social workers can take cases to the edge of care panel to access support, resources and interventions to help families to remain together.

 Areas for development? 

• It is essential for therapeutic support to be identified for children and young people e.g. following sexual abuse. This must form part of their support plan.
• The importance of ensuring ongoing support through a co-ordinated plan for families where an SGO has been obtained.
• The audits also identified a need for increased awareness in relation to SGOs within the wider workforce. An information summary sheet on SGOs can be downloaded here.
• Continuous review and development of multi-agency plans to ensure there is a focus on good outcomes for children.
• Effectively working with the complexity of neglect and understanding the long-term impact on children. Please click here to access the Neglect Practice Guidance
• When working with neglect, sustainable change must be evidenced before consideration for multi-agency plans to end. 
• Consistent involvement of adult services where appropriate, for example probation, GPs, adult mental health services.