Management Information Sheet

Working Together to Safeguard Children (2018) reflects the changes in legislation following the Children and Social Work Act 2017 and sets out provisions to replace Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCBs) with new flexible local safeguarding arrangements led by three safeguarding partners (local authorities, chief officers of police, and clinical commissioning groups). The Act places a duty on those partners to make arrangements to work together and with any relevant agencies for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children in their area.

As part of this transition locally, Norfolk Safeguarding Children Board will become the Norfolk Safeguarding Children Partnership. In line with statutory requirements, the Norfolk Safeguarding Children Partnership (NSCP) has submitted a plan to the DfE outlining what the local arrangements will look like. This plan will be fully implemented by 29 September 2019.

Click here to view the Plan and a Summary PowerPoint explaining the transition from NSCB to the new arrangements under the Norfolk Safeguarding Children Partnership.

You will see that the engagement of schools and other education settings is a priority for the NSCP. In order to achieve this Education Safeguarding Team is working with Educate Norfolk and representatives from the Further Education, Independent and Special School sector to:

1. Establish mechanisms to strengthen existing relationships ensuring the engagement of schools and key education stakeholders in recommendations and decision-making processes within the new MASA partnership; a function previously held by the Education Advisory Group.
2. Establish a system for ensuring the Partnership receives regular reports from Education Services so that it has a wide-ranging overview of the functions and priorities as well as a comprehensive dataset.
3. Review school representation in the Partnership to ensure there is consistent representation from the Primary, Secondary, Special and Independent Sector.
4. Support DSLs to establish DSL networks in the County where they do not already exist and recommend that there is a standing agenda item for feeding back any relevant information to and from the new Partnership Board.
5. Ensure key messages are disseminated to all schools through Educate Norfolk Leadership Events, training, management information sheets and termly newsletters.
6. Continue to seek assurance on schools safeguarding practice through the LA safeguarding self-review process.
7. Communicate with schools about the new Partnership arrangements during the Summer Term 2019 via Educate Norfolk Leadership Briefings and DSL training.

If you are currently part of a local Designated Safeguarding Lead Network or would like some support to develop one in your area, please contact Lucy Canning, Safeguarding Adviser to discuss: lucy.canning@norfolk.gov.uk.