Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) and Approved Premises Used for Managing Offenders in the Community

From: Meera Spillett - Deputy Director,
Prevention, Early Intervention & Specialist Services
On behalf of MAPPA SMB

The Home Secretary has requested that education establishments in particular are made aware of the location of Approved Premises. This will ensure that all child protection measures are supported by vigilance from such establishments, particularly if they are in close proximity to Approved Premises. Children's Service Department leads for MAPPA have been tasked specifically to ensure that head teachers of schools and nurseries, leaders of playgroups and managers of Early Years or Surestart centres are fully briefed about MAPPA and about the location of Approved Premises in their neighbourhoods. Annex A (attached) sets out the background to MAPPA and Approved Premises.

In Norfolk there is one such Approved Premise. Head teachers of schools, education establishments and groups within a mile radius of this Approved Premise in Norwich, have already been contacted.

Your MAPPA lead contacts (details below) will be able to provide more advice if you have any further enquiries or if you need advice on how to respond to concerns raised by parents, governors or neighbours of schools, nurseries or Early Years centres.

Disclosure of information about individuals
The provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998 specifically preclude the routine disclosure of information about individuals, including offenders, to third parties. You will also wish to note, however, that there are arrangements in place which allow for the disclosure, by the police, of information about individual offenders where this is deemed necessary for risk management reasons and where disclosure has been endorsed within MAPPA. On rare occasions, this may mean that you receive information about a specific individual. In such instances you will be supported via the MAPPA, to enable you to consider, within the overall context of local child protection policies, how this information should be communicated to your staff, parents and carers.

Future Arrangements
The area MAPPA Strategic Management Board (SMB) will be addressing all of these issues further to review the information sharing arrangements for education providers and consider what further action can be taken.

Contact Points
If you have further queries or questions you can contact Grace Cheese, Education Officer-Child Protection, Children's Services, Tel: 01603 223473 or Pip Coker, Norfolk Probation Service Tel: 01603 220100 (MAPPA contact) for more information.

If at any point you are approached by the media you are advised to direct them to Norfolk County Council Communications press office Tel: 01603 222973 or 222716

Annex A