On this page: About the Board What does safeguarding mean? Flowchart of WSCB Structure Dates of WSCB meetings Previous Annual Reports About the BoardThe 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. What is safeguarding? 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. Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is defined as:
Child protection is part of safeguarding and promoting welfare. It refers to the activity that is undertaken to protect specific children who are suffering, or at risk of suffering, significant harm. (Working Together to Safeguard Children, Chapter 1, p. 35) 'Safeguarding' includes all children and it is EVERYONE's responsibility to safeguarding children and young people. We all have a safeguarding responsibility, whether you work directly or indirectly with children and young people or with adults who are parents or carers of children and young people. Role of Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) The Board leads on developing policies and procedures in relation to:
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:
What does safeguarding mean?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. Dates for WSCB MeetingsMain WSCB
Executive Board
Previous Annual Review Reports2009/10 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. 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
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 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. |
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