Management Information Sheet

On 30 September the Norfolk Safeguarding Children Board (NSCB) published three Serious Case Reviews; Cases M, N and O. L David Ashcroft, Chair of the NSCB, said: "The key role of a strong safeguarding board is to ensure that all agencies are working together effectively to safeguard children. This means scrutinising Multi-Agency working and looking at opportunities to improve practice and share learning.

For this reason we have revisited the cases of some families to ensure that no opportunity has been lost to look for ways to improve practice and protect children. This has resulted in these three reviews, which have been jointly published to allow us to look at any shared themes and messages which can be used to strengthen practice.

In all three of the cases published, the families were experiencing a range of issues including reports of domestic violence, mental health problems, special educational needs, neglect and abuse.

It is clear that efforts were made to help all of these families, to support parenting and to try to keep them together. However, there was often a reluctance for parents to engage with those trying to help them and we must not lose sight of the fact that it was the parents of these children who were ultimately responsible for the abuse and neglect that they suffered.

However, these cases happened at a time when Multi-Agency services for children in the county were not working effectively, as evidenced by external judgements from Ofsted. Opportunities were lost to protect the children in each of these cases because of a lack of professional challenge, poor supervision of staff, challenging workloads and often a greater focus on the adults than the children and for this we apologise on behalf of the agencies involved.

The themes that have emerged here are seen in serious case reviews across the country and are areas that the NSCB and its members have been working intensively to address.

Norfolk has come a long way in the last two years - there has been investment in frontline social work, much improved leadership and a strong emphasis on professionals challenging one another to ensure that the right decisions are made for children.

By working with Prof Eileen Munro, to develop the Signs of Safety approach to working with families in Norfolk, there is a much greater focus on working collaboratively with families to help them understand how to keep their children safe.

The NSCB is determined to share and closely monitor the actions arising from these reports so that all agencies across the county act on the recommendations and continue to improve practice for Norfolk's most vulnerable children."

What do we need to do?

We strongly encourage all schools to read through the reports and consider current practice in light of the learning. The reports and PowerPoint briefings to cascade to staff are available from the NSCB website.

The NSCB has planned a series of locality workshops to launch the revised Threshold Guide. Feedback from Multi-Agency partners has helped shape the change of direction from viewing thresholds as barriers and the move towards seeing thresholds as vantage points from where we can assess needs jointly. Looking ahead, the strategic direction for the understanding and application of thresholds is very much built around having the right conversations to ensure we provide the right services at the right time. It is recommended that Designated Safeguarding Leads book a place at an event that is being held in their locality. Further information is available in the attached flyer.

Resolving Professional Disagreements

One theme emerging from these reviews and other Multi-Agency learning is the need for robust arrangements for professional challenge in the best interest of children. The Resolving Professional Disagreements Policy has been developed to assist and guide all practitioners working with children and young people in Norfolk in finding a resolution when they have a professional disagreement in relation to the safeguarding of children and young people. All Designated Safeguarding Leads should have due regard to this process when working with other agencies.