The WSCB is a multi-agency board from all agencies within the borough, both statutory and from the private and voluntary sector, working together to safeguard and promote the welfare of our children and young people.
Children and young people can only be safeguarded properly if everyone involved with them work effectively together. It is therefore everyone's responsibility to safeguard a child or young person and promote his/her welfare.
Therefore we all have an individual responsibility to ensure the safety of the children and young people we work with, irrespective of our specific role and day-to-day duties. Children can only be safeguarded properly if the key agencies and staff and volunteers within them work effectively together. This includes anyone who has contact with a child/young person, in whatever way, this may be through work, volunteering or in a personal capacity, i.e. friends, parents, carers, neighbours, teachers, preachers, etc. to ensure that all children/young people are kept safe and all their needs fully met. Examples of provision include:
Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is defined in Working Together as:
The WSCB will ensure that the statutory duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children is carried out in such a way as to improve the well-being of children in relation to the five outcomes set by the government for all children (being healthy, staying safe, enjoying and achieving, making a positive contribution and achieving economic well-being).
Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children includes protecting children from harm. Ensuring that work to protect children is properly co-ordinated and effective remains a key goal for our board, and the WSCB should not focus on their wider role of preventative work to avoid harm being suffered, if this core responsibility is not being met.
Previous Annual Review Reports
2010/11
"Working Together to Safeguard Children Guidance", published by the then Department for Children, Schools & Families (DCSF) in 2010, detailed and clarified the revised roles, remits and responsibilities of Local Safeguarding Children Boards vis-à-vis Children's Trust Boards. Whilst there are complementary responsibilities for both LSCBs and Children's Trust Boards in respect of promoting co-operation to improve the well-being of children across all five "Every Child Matters" outcomes, the respective roles are differentiated. In essence, the Children's Trust Board is responsible for delivering the wide range of safeguarding services through the co-ordinated multi-agency Trust partnership, whilst the LSCB will have a sharper and more defined focus in relation to analysing, assessing and ensuring the effectiveness of the safeguarding arrangements made by both individual agencies and the Trust partnership.
There must be a clear distinction between the roles and responsibilities of the LSCB and the Children's Trust Board, and there needs to be agreed local protocols between LSCBs and the Children's Trust Board to ensure that the LSCB is able to provide "robust challenge" and scrutinise effectively the work of the Children's Trust Board and partners. The LSCB and the Children's Trust Board are to be chaired by different people.
Working Together, 2010, sets out the expectation that the LSCB Annual Report should provide a comprehensive analysis of the effectiveness of local safeguarding arrangements. The report should challenge the work of the Children's Trust Board and its partners to ensure that necessary overarching structures, processes and culture are in place to ensure that children are fully safeguarded. The report should recognise achievements and the progress that has been made across the multi-agency partnership as well as providing a realistic assessment of the challenges that remain. The report is also expected to demonstrate the extent to which the functions of the LSCB (as set out in Working Together) are being effectively discharged.
It should be noted that the new Coalition Government has stated its intention to make future significant changes to Children's Trust Arrangements, and the Government has also set up a wide-ranging review of Child Protection arrangements, to be carried out by Professor Eileen Munro. Professor Munro's report and any legislative changes are anticipated in 2011.
This initial WSCB Annual Report includes:
- a description of the revised structures within Wandsworth in relation to safeguarding;
- the work of the WSCB, 2009/10;
- safeguarding priorities and areas for development for both the WSCB and the Children's Trust Board for 2010/11; and
- an assessment and analysis of current safeguarding arrangements within Wandsworth – both its strengths and areas for development.
There are inherent challenges in respect of this report in that:
- the WSCB has not previously spelt out to the Children's Trust those activities which the WSCB will be specifically analysing and assessing; and
- there has not been an ongoing dialogue between the WSCB and the Children and Young People's Board of the Children's Trust in respect of protocols between the WSCB and the Children's Trust and the processes for the analysis/assessment.
The report sets out proposals through which the WSCB will be analysing and assessing the safeguarding arrangements and activities of the Children's Trust Board in more detail over the next year.
WSCB Annual Report 2010/11
2009/10
This is the fourth Annual Report of the Wandsworth Safeguarding Children Board (WSCB), covering the period of 1st April 2009 to 31st March 2010. The report highlights the structure of the WSCB, outlining the strategic and operational dimensions, including the various multi-agency sub-groups, working groups and other safeguarding groups. The report summarises the achievements of the WSCB during 2009/10, as well as those achieved by multi-agency forums, which feed into and report to the WSCB on a regular basis. It outlines the key priorities for the WSCB for 2010/11.
For another year, the WSCB has continued to achieve a high standard of commitment and compliance with its safeguarding roles and responsibilities as defined within the Children Act 2004. The WSCB recognises the importance of its role to ensure, within the broader context of the Children's Trust Arrangements for improving the well-being of all children, the effectiveness of the arrangements made by individual agencies and organisations to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people. The role of the WSCB in scrutinising and monitoring the implementation of consistent safeguarding practice across all agencies has been reinforced in the revised Working Together to Safeguard Children (2010).
The WSCB remains committed to maintaining these standards in relation to multi-agency working to ensure that all children and young people are appropriately safeguarded and that their welfare is promoted.
WSCB Annual Report 2009/10
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2008/09
Every now and again the impact of a single incident leads to a major review of arrangements for keeping children safe. The death of Victoria Climbié was the driver for the "Every Child Matters" agenda and the more recent death of Baby Peter in Haringey lead to Lord Laming's review and the recent government response. The review confirmed that robust legislative, structural and policy foundations are in place and that the ECM reforms set the right direction. Lord Laming was equally clear that more needed to be done to ensure best practice is universally applied and that more support needed to be provided for the front line workforce.
Wandsworth Safeguarding Children Board is still relatively new. This annual report gives a flavour of the enormity of the agenda and the balance that must be struck between focusing on those most at risk and requiring protection and the broader safeguarding responsibilities which must also be addressed. It is difficult for the report to do justice to the twin requirements of establishing strong multi-agency working underpinned by practical procedures and policies and the professional challenge which must exist across agencies to secure the safety of children and young people. Nonetheless this is what the WSCB has achieved. Good professional dialogue and practice is being supported by excellent multi-agency working. This is a good foundation from which to progress but much still needs to be done and 2009/10 is likely to be a busy one.
Paul Robinson
Chair of Wandsworth Safeguarding Children Board
WSCB Annual Report 2008/09
2007/08
Please click here to access the WSCB's Annual Report 2007/08.
Appendis 1 - Flowchart of WSCB Structure
Appendix 2a & 2b - Membership Executive & Main WSCB
Appendix 3 - Budget 2007/08
2006/07
The Chair of the Wandsworth Safeguarding Children Board, who is also the Chief Executive and Director of Administration of the Council, completed his annual review report on the progress on safeguarding children and young people in Wandsworth and the work of the Wandsworth Safeguarding Children Board.
Annual Review Report 2006/07
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