The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Safeguarding Partnership Board (Cambridgeshire County Council, Peterborough City Council, Cambridgeshire Constabulary and the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group), are responsible for ensuring that children, young people and adults at risk of harm, neglect and exploitation across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough receive the help and protection that they need.
Safeguarding is ‘everybody’s business’ whether you are an organisation, frontline practitioner, or an individual member of our communities.
Any person can be at risk of harm or abuse, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity or religion.
An Independent Scrutineer, Dr Russell Wate QPM, leads the partnership and ensures accountability and transparency in delivering these safeguarding arrangements.
As a partnership we will work to:
- Prevent abuse and neglect from happening
- Promote wellbeing and safety
- Effectively respond quickly to reports of abuse and neglect
- Hold our partners and other agencies to account for undertaking this duty and scrutinise safeguarding actions and outcomes
The safeguarding arrangements for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough can be read here
The Legislation Underpinning the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Safeguarding Partnership Board
Children and Young People
Working Together to Safeguard Children (2018), states that the three statutory safeguarding partners, as defined under the Children Act 2004 (as amended by the Children and Social Work Act, 2017) as the: Local Authority, Chief Officer of Police, and Clinical Commissioning Groups, must work together with relevant agencies to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. This replaces legislation for Local Authorities to have Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCBs).
The three statutory partners have a shared and equal duty to make arrangements to work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children in a local area.
Adults at Risk
The Care Act 2014 also established the need to have Safeguarding Adult Boards in each local authority area. The Act confirmed that the three statutory safeguarding partners should be; Local Authority, Chief Officer of Police, and Clinical Commissioning Groups.
Safeguarding Adults Boards are responsible for coordinating and ensuring the effectiveness of what partners and relevant agencies does to help protect adults with care and support needs from abuse or neglect
Governance Structure & Subgroups
The Executive Safeguarding Partnership Board is the overarching countywide governance board for both the children’s and adults safeguarding agenda. The Executive Safeguarding Partnership Board is a high level, strategic board that will primarily focus on safeguarding systems performance and resourcing. This Board will have the statutory accountability for safeguarding in both local authority areas.
Two Safeguarding Partnership Boards (one for adults and one for children) sit below the Executive Safeguarding Partnership Board and are responsible for progressing the Executive Safeguarding Partnerships Board’s business priorities through the business plan. They will authorise the policy, process, strategy and guidance required to support the Executive Safeguarding Partnership Board priorities and effective safeguarding. The two Safeguarding Partnership Boards will scrutinise, challenge and maintain an overview of the state of children’s and adults safeguarding in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.
There are two consultation and development forums (one for adults and one for children’s) who are responsible for securing the “voice” of practitioners and ensuring that learning is used to inform and improve practice.
It will carry out this role within the meeting or by identifying responsible individuals as required. These groups have wider partner membership to include probation, health providers, education, voluntary sector, faith communities and housing.
There are two Quality and Effectiveness Groups (QEG), (one for adults and for children) which scrutinises safeguarding effectiveness and co-ordinates improvement activity. This takes place through scrutiny of quality assurance activity (both single and multi-agency), performance management information and overseeing of action plans. The QEG will regularly report to the Executive Safeguarding Partnership Board and the two Safeguarding Partnership Boards on what is working well and where there are areas of improvement.
The Safeguarding Adults Review Group (SAR), is responsible for commissioning the undertaking of Safeguarding Adults Reviews (SARs), on behalf of the Safeguarding Partnership as and when required under No Secrets (2000) and the Care Act 2014.
The group commission and oversee the completion of the SAR process, working with involved professionals from start to finish, communicating with service users and families and commissioning the author of the final SAR report before developing action plans as a result of recommendations made in terms of practice by the independent author.
In addition to this role, the group may undertake reviews that does not meet the requirement for a SAR, with a view to gathering further learning that can be shared and disseminated amongst members of the Safeguarding Partnership.
The group undertakes reviews of cases where there is a serious cause for concern as to the way in which the Authority, their Board partners or other relevant persons have worked together to safeguard the child; and to advise on lessons that can be learnt.
The group will also identify and manage Multi-Agency Reviews of cases which do not meet the statutory Child Safeguarding Practice Review criteria but can provide valuable information about how organisations are working together and identify improvements.
Reviews all child deaths up to the age of 18, excluding those babies who are stillborn and planned terminations of pregnancy carried out within the law by collating information on each child. The panel determine whether the death was deemed preventable, had modifiable factors that may have contributed to the death and makes recommendations to the Safeguarding Partners, or other relevant bodies, promptly so that action can be taken to prevent future such deaths where possible.
Annual Report
The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Safeguarding Adults Partnership Board and the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Safeguarding Children Partnership Board both hold a statutory responsibility to produce an annual report into the effectiveness and quality of multi-agency safeguarding practice and lessons from Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews and Safeguarding Adult Reviews.
Working Together (2018) states that
In order to bring transparency for children, families and all practitioners about the activity undertaken, the safeguarding partners must publish a report at least once in every 12-month period. The report must set out what they have done as a result of the arrangements, including on child safeguarding practice reviews, and how effective these arrangements have been in practice.
The Report should also include:
- evidence of the impact of the work of the safeguarding partners and relevant agencies, including training, on outcomes for children and families from early help to looked-after children and care leavers
- an analysis of any areas where there has been little or no evidence of progress on agreed priorities
- a record of decisions and actions taken by the partners in the report’s period (or planned to be taken) to implement the recommendations of any local and national child safeguarding practice reviews, including any resulting improvements
- ways in which the partners have sought and utilised feedback from children and families to inform their work and influence service provision
- a review of the use of restraint within a secure establishment within the local area
The Care Act 2014 states that
As soon as is feasible after the end of each financial year, an SAB must publish a report on—
- what it has done during that year to achieve its objective,
- what it has done during that year to implement its strategy,
- what each member has done during that year to implement the strategy,
- the findings of the reviews arranged by it under section 44 (safeguarding adults reviews) which have concluded in that year (whether or not they began in that year),
- the reviews arranged by it under that section which are ongoing at the end of that year (whether or not they began in that year),
- what it has done during that year to implement the findings of reviews arranged by it under that section, and
- where it decides during that year not to implement a finding of a review arranged by it under that section, the reasons for its decision.
The SAB must send a copy of the report to—
- the chief executive and the leader of the local authority which established the SAB,
- the local policing body the whole or part of whose area is in the local authority’s area,
- the Local Healthwatch organisation for the local authority’s area, and
- the chair of the Health and Wellbeing Board for that area.
- “Local policing body” has the meaning given by section 101 of the Police Act 1996.
