News

February 2025

Previous news items are available by month of publication from the news tab.

Salford Safeguarding Children Partnership circulate monthly E-Bulletins; if you would like to be included on the distribution list, email sscp@salford.gov.uk.

Safeguarding in Housing

February brings the launch of the new safeguarding in housing webpages which have been designed to provide safeguarding information in the context of housing for our partners, professionals and the public including;

  • The role of housing in safeguarding
  • Safeguarding and housing in Salford
  • Local Authority safeguarding teams
  • Salford City Council Housing Services and safeguarding
  • Registered Providers and safeguarding
  • Privately rented sector and safeguarding
  • Information for partners and professionals (Housing Awareness Pack / list of useful resources)

The information and resources are designed to help in identifying and responding to safeguarding issues  where you may need assistance from a housing provider or services, however People & Communities Safeguarding Team are here to help if you’re unsure who to contact in housing with your queries or for more complex case discussions.

The offer of attending team meetings/inputs to promote these new web pages if this would be useful, please get in touch peoplecommunitiessafeguarding@salford.gov.uk  (please allow 3 working days for a response)

7 minute Briefings and Case Review updates

The SSCP produces 7 minute briefings to offer insights from case reviews and themed learning, along with challenge questions for agencies, teams, and individuals to reflect on and consider in their practice.The briefings can be used in a variety of ways:

 7 minute briefing for the Equality Act 2010
  • Individuals can use the briefing independently for their own learning and development and share with others.
  • Teams/Managers encourage circulation and use for information and development and share learning amongst their team i.e. team meetings, supervision, peer support to reflect and improve practice and systems.
  • Use at a structured event during training and/or briefing sessions to complement overall learning and development

New and updated 7 Minute Briefings include;

Reflect: on the learning also spotlighted in the CSPR Panel annual report and the NSPCC national case review collection- Eight case reviews have been added this month featuring issues including sibling sexual abuse, suicide, neglect identification and intersectionality.

Developing Professional Curiosity

In partnership between the SSCP and the Salford Safeguarding Adults Board (SSAB) we have produced some joint webpages with information on professional curiosity which contains links to various resources including a short animation. Please take some time to look at these resources and share them with your teams / colleagues. They are still being developed so if you have any comments or suggestions, please let us know by emailing  michelle.hulme@salford.gov.uk or shahanara.begum@salford.gov.uk

Think Family 


A number of reviews have highlighted the need for professionals to adopt a ‘Think Family’ approach to working with families. Please read the 7-Minute Briefing or plain text version including the Think Child - Think Adult - Think Family Guidance and please share and discuss it with your teams. Both documents can be found on the new joint Think Family webpages.

Cultural Consciousness

As Salford continues to become more ethnically and culturally diverse, we need to be aware of and proactive about equality, diversity and inclusion so that we can ensure that our city is a fair, respectful and supportive environment for everyone.

In response to reviews, Salford Safeguarding Children's Partnership has been developed Cultural Consciousness Guidance to support practitioners to be culturally aware and conscious in their practice. This contains information on intersectionality and the social graces framework. This guidance can also be used by practitioners working with children, young people, adults and their families.

Campaigns and Calls to Action

 

Hate Crime Awareness Week (3-7 February)

A hate crime incident is an offence committed against a person or property that is motivated by an offender's hatred of someone because of their:

  • race, colour, ethnic origin, nationality or national origins
  • religion
  • gender identity
  • sexual orientation
  • disability
  • alternative sub-culture (for example, goth or rocker)

Find out further information including how to report a hate crime on Hate crime, Salford City Council

View the Hate Crime Plan - Greater Manchester Combined Authority

 

Further Resources and Materials for National Hate Crime Week

Children's Mental Health Week ( 3-7 February)

The NSPCC has published a news story for Children’s Mental Health Week encouraging young people who are experiencing anxiety to reach out. The story reveals that in the first six months of 2024/25, Childline delivered over 6,600 online and phone counselling sessions related to anxiety, representing 24% of all counselling sessions about mental health and wellbeing. The article provides advice for children who may be struggling with anxiety and includes tips to share with parents to help them support their child.   

International Zero Tolerance Day for FGM

International Zero Tolerance Day for FGM is marked on 6th February 2025. Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)

  • is child abuse 
  • is violation of women’s rights
  • can have many immediate and long-term health consequences

Multi agency working is the most effective way of managing FGM. Multi-agency training is available Monday 24th February 2025.  Please click here to book your place

The Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) Assessment Toolkit with accompanying guidance supports multi-agency assessment of FGM, The aim of the toolkit is to;

  • support sensitive discussion with those who have experienced or may be at risk of FGM
  • strengthen multi-agency assessment, decision making and signposting of those who have experienced or may be at risk of FGM
  • avoid survivors being repeatedly questioned regarding their experiencing thereby preventing further trauma
  • provide robust information to inform decision making at Bridge
  • assist in determining the level of risk and ensure cases managed at the appropriate threshold

Professionals are encouraged to submit the appropriate assessment tool alongside referrals made to Bridge to assist in screening and decision-making process and store a copy on records

The guidance available on the SSCP website Female Genital Mutilation page includes pathways for both adults and children, a 7-minute briefing and information regarding support services including Lotus HUB  and Guardian Project

Sexual Abuse and Sexual Violence Awareness 

"Victims and survivors of intra-familial child sexual abuse can and do recover from their abuse, especially when supported by professionals who are trained to best support them and their families" (CSA Centre)

The SSCP has created a CSA repository of training, resources and information in response to feedback from Salford professionals . We are calling for your action to ensure all practitioners, managers and leaders access and share this resource Child Sexual Abuse | Salford Safeguarding Children Partnership across your workforce and with children, young people, parents/carers and community members.

I wanted them all to notice: Protecting children and responding to child sexual abuse within the family environment

Neurodiversity Celebration Week

This year (March 17-23) we have access to more panel discussions than ever before, with inspirational speakers from a range of backgrounds and professions. The discussions will all be focussing on key neurodiversity topics, and aim to educate while inspiring conversations about neurodiversity. All events are free of charge and open to all. Sign up to as many events as you like and share with your networks, so we can all join together in celebrating different minds! 

You can also access the Mental Capacity Act and neurodivergent people in contact with the CJS Tickets, Wed 5 Mar 2025 at 11:30 | Eventbrite

National/Local Updates and Learning

Learning Disability and Autism

The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism is named after Oliver McGowan, whose death shone a light on the need for health and social care staff to have better training. The Health and Care Act 2022 introduced a statutory requirement that regulated service providers must ensure their staff receive learning disability and autism training appropriate to their role.     

The Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training on Learning Disability and Autism is the government’s preferred and recommended training for health and social care staff.

Access this course on E-Learning Courses | Salford Safeguarding Children Partnership 

Forced Marriage

The Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) has developed a forced marriage e-learning package for professionals. The modules aim to enable professionals to recognise the warning signs of forced marriage and ensure that the appropriate action is taken to help protect and support all those at risk. 

Access this course on E-Learning Courses | Salford Safeguarding Children Partnership 

Multi-agency Working and Information Sharing

NSPCC Learning has published a suite of resources exploring how safeguarding professionals can successfully work together and share information within and between agencies. The resources include: an evidence snapshot summarising findings from research published between 2014 and 2023 about multi-agency working and information sharing in children’s social work; a series of practice points designed to help social workers focus on the actions that support good multi-agency working and information sharing; and three expert insight films. The resources highlight the importance of multi-agency working and information sharing in achieving the best outcomes for children and their families.

Read the evidence snapshot: Effective multi-agency working and information sharing: evidence snapshot  
Read the practice points: What helps to support effective multi-agency working and information sharing?  
Watch the films: Multi-agency working and information sharing: expert insights 

Keeping Children Safe in Education

The government’s recently published policy paper Keeping children safe, helping families thrive DfE November 2024 sets out important measures to strengthen the role of education within multi-agency safeguarding arrangements. The policy paper contains important information about proposed legislative changes to the child safeguarding system. This is important for senior leaders and professionals across all agencies. Reforms include,

  • Legislative change to strengthen the role of education within multi-agency safeguarding partnerships.
  • Creating local registers of children in elective home education and a new duty on parents where, if their child is subject to a child protection enquiry, or on a child protection plan, they will need local authority consent to home educate that child.
  • Improving the accountability and oversight of providers of multiple residential children’s homes.
  • Introducing a Single Unique Identifier (which has also been referred to in the past as a ‘consistent child identifier’) to bring together data on children’s interactions with different services.
  • Improving data sharing by introducing a new duty that provides absolute clarity on the legal basis to share information for the purposes of safeguarding children.

Keeping children safe, helping families thrive

Keeping children safe, helping families thrive outlines the government’s commitment to keeping families together and children safe.

It also outlines a commitment to support children to live in family settings where children cannot remain at home, including through kinship or foster care, rather than residential care.

Alongside this, the statement sets out ambitions to fix the broken care market, and ensure the system is working effectively for vulnerable children and families.

Right Care Right Person

Right Care, Right Person (RCRP) is a new approach to dealing with calls to the police from people with issues to which policing is not always the best agency to help. This could be where there are concerns for a person’s welfare linked to such issues as mental health, medical or social care needs where a police response isn’t always appropriate.

This new approach is about getting the right person with the right skills, training and experience to provide the best support for that individual.

Now with the new launch of RCRP, the police call handler will signpost callers to other more suited agencies where appropriate. Here in Greater Manchester, this could be Greater Manchester Mental Health, North West Ambulance Service or a service in their local authority. This approach will enable police officers to have more time to fight, prevent and reduce crime, harm, and anti-social behaviour; investigate and solve crime, and keep people and communities safe.

Get the right care from the right person

Self Care: Trauma Responsive Workforce

Whatever you have planned following the holiday period, try and make time to pause, reflect and take care of yourself.

Alongside support, supervision and services available to us in our organisations to support you and your colleagues, you should also prioritise taking better care of yourself and pay attention to what you need.

The following information and resources have been identified to support the wellbeing of our people and teams in the workplace including how we look after ourselves.

WorkWell in Salford

WorkWell is a free offer designed to support people with health conditions or disabilities whether a mental health or physical health concern such as a musculoskeletal (MSK) condition. The experienced WorkWell team will help you stay in work or return to work if you are employed, self-employed or recently unemployed and facing health related challenges to either remain in work or return to work. This includes: 

  • a personal assessment to understand the best support for your needs
  • tailored plans to address your physical and mental wellbeing
  • access to local health services, wellbeing activities, and community support
  • careers advice and guidance to help you progress in your current job or explore new opportunities
  • tailored support from a dedicated Work and Health Coach

For more information visit WorkWell (Health and Work Support)

 

Information and learning on a variety of subject matters related to safeguarding children and adults, can also be accessed through the SSCP Training Programme, 7 minute briefings, learning from Practice Reviews and the SSCP YouTube Channel.

All enquiries concerning the welfare or safety of a child or requests for information MUST BE SENT DIRECTLY to the Bridge Partnership.

The Bridge Partnership can be contacted on 0161 603 4500. All referrals and requests for support must be completed on the online referral form. The Bridge Partnership is available Monday to Friday 8.30am - 4.30pm. If you need to speak to someone outside these times, please contact the Emergency Duty Team (EDT) on 0161 794 8888. If a child is in immediate danger of being harmed or is home alone, call the police on 999.

If you are worried about an adult - Report abuse or neglect by telephone on: 0161 206 0604. For further information visit the Safeguarding adults page on the Salford City Council website.

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