July 2025

Published Case Review - 'Yvonne'

Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review (LCSPR), known as ‘Yvonne’, was published on Salford Safeguarding Children Partnership website on Monday 14th July 2025. This involves the death of an eight-year-old child and her mother. It is likely that there will be media interest in this case, and we are mindful that our workforce and community will be upset by seeing this information. Many practitioners from across Partner agencies were directly involved with the family. Please seek the support of your manager during this upsetting time.

Co-Production in Action: Parents and Professionals Collaborate to Shape the Future of the Thriving Families Tool

On Friday 27th June, the Salford Safeguarding Children’s Partnership hosted a vibrant co-production session with the Parents for Positive Change group and a range of professionals. The focus of the session was a collaborative review of the Thriving Families Tool, with the aim of shaping a refreshed version that is more engaging, accessible, and better captures the voices of children and young people.

The session was well attended, with representation from both parents and practitioners from key agencies. Attendees brought energy, insight, and a shared commitment to improving outcomes for families across Salford. Feedback on the initial draft of the tool was both positive and constructive, highlighting opportunities to simplify language, enhance visual appeal, and ensure the tool reflects the lived experiences of families, whilst capturing strengths and areas for development.

This collaborative approach is a key step in ensuring that the redesigned Thriving Families Tool is not only fit for purpose but also co-owned by the people who use it. The Partnership extends its thanks to all who participated and looks forward to sharing the next iteration of the tool in the coming months.

Don't forget to book on to the next Recognising and Responding to Neglect Conference on 25th September 2025 and find out more.

Space to Think: Reflective Practice Launch

Findings from reviews in Salford highlight the need for multi-agency professionals to have dedicated reflective spaces, particularly outside statutory processes. National reviews also emphasise the importance the importance of professionals needing the space and support to reflect on their practice to make better decisions for children and families

The SSCP in Salford has created the guidance on Space to Think: Reflective Practice aimed at shifting from a compliance-driven approach to one that values professional expertise, continuous learning, and multi-agency collaboration in a supportive environment.

If you not had chance to attend the two briefings we've already delivered, book a place on the next briefing on 17th September. There was also targeted session for Children's Social Care delivered on 1st July 2025.

The approach will be useful for any practitioner and manager who would benefit fro

m a multi-agency reflective space particularly: ​

  • In situations where professionals feel ‘stuck’ or unclear about the systems, processes or decisions being made
  • Where you are wanting a reflective space to think about what might be needed or helpful for a child, young person and their family.
  • Wanting a safe and supportive space to think about what you and your colleagues may need help or support with, to improve practice including what might be needed or helpful for a child, young person, their family and the support network.
  • Reflection and debrief following a significant event to enable a safe space to process the event with other multi-agency colleagues encouraging self-care of yourself and others to support future planning.

Don’t Ignore Domestic Abuse – P4PC Leads Powerful New Campaign

P4PC are a group of parents and carers from in and around Salford who have all had involvement with Children's Services, for lots of different reasons and want to work together with the Safeguarding Partnership, to make positive changes across all services.

Domestic Abuse is an issue which many group members are passionate about addressing. As a result P4PC collaborated with the Local Authority Communications Team to inform a campaign to encourage people to call the Police if they hear or witness a neighbour experiencing domestic abuse. The 'Don't Ignore Domestic Abuse' campaign features stick figures to show domestic abuse can affect anyone, any gender, any age and any background.The council took their ideas and developed the campaign, which will be displayed on outdoor digital boards, social media and feature on an ad van throughout July 2025. 

Summer Water Safety

Drowning Prevention Week (DPW) is one of the largest summer water safety campaigns across the UK and Ireland.

Drowning Prevention Week (DPW) is the Royal Life Saving Society UK's biggest campaign of the year, targeting families, carers, teachers and instructors of children aged five to fifteen years old with the aim of educating them about water safety.

No child should drown, and with the right water safety education – such as knowledge of the Water Safety Code – accidental drownings are preventable. Drowning Prevention Week is deliberately timed ahead of the school summer holidays when children spend more time outdoors and when vital water safety skills can help keep children safe.

Please help spread the word and encourage everyone to have the water safety conversation with children. which is critical in raising awareness and encouraging the public to enjoy water safely. 

Find out more: https://www.rlss.org.uk/Listing/Category/drowning-prevention-week-campa…

Read the 7 minute briefings on: Water Safety  and Water Safety for adolescents

Working Together

Read the Working Together to Safeguard Children report

Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023 has been updated with an illustrated guide, an animated video and details of a toolkit for children, young people and their families, and practitioners working with them.

The illustrated "Children and Young Person’s Guide to Working Together to Safeguard Children" explains how adults (such as teachers, social workers, doctors, and police) work together to keep children safe from harm. It describes what safeguarding means, who is responsible, and what happens if someone is worried about a child.

The guide highlights the importance of listening to children, making sure they are involved in decisions, and ensuring their views are taken seriously. It also explains what children can expect from professionals, including being treated with respect, being kept informed, and having their rights protected.

It covers:

  • What safeguarding is and why it matters.
  • How children should be listened to, respected, and involved in decisions affecting them.
  • What happens when children or families need extra help (early help, safeguarding, and child protection).
  • How schools, sports clubs, and community groups all play a role in noticing problems and offering support.
  • Real-life examples (like Alfie’s and Zara’s stories) show how early help, and safeguarding can make a big difference.

The guide also explains children's rights, how information about them is shared, and what to expect during safeguarding processes like child protection conferences.

Why should schools share the illustrated guide with children and parents?

  • Raises Awareness: It helps children understand what safeguarding means and that it’s normal and important for adults to work together to keep them safe.
  • Empowers Children: Children learn they have rights — to be listened to, respected, protected, and involved in decisions about their care.
  • Encourages Trust: It builds trust between children and adults by showing that safeguarding is about care, not punishment.
  • Promotes Early Help-Seeking: If children recognise that support is available early, they are more likely to speak up if they feel unsafe or worried.
  • Explains Processes Clearly: It demystifies what happens when concerns are raised, making safeguarding feel less scary and confusing.

Sports Welfare and Safeguarding 

GM Moving are committed to supporting safe, inclusive, and responsible sports environments. Free training and workshops sessions designed for coaches, volunteers, staff, and parents involved in youth and adult sport are available.

Mental Health and Counselling Service Update

Check out latest updates from Kooth.com and Qwell.io, online mental health and counselling services.

Emotional Health Service Directory Update

The Salford Thrive Directory has been updated. The Directory has been developed to support anyone working or volunteering with children and young people. The directory will help you access useful information about different types of resources and services that are available to support children and young people's social, emotional health and well-being and to provide guidance when making a referral into services. For any queries about the directory please email EHWB@salford.gov.uk

Exploitation, Cuckooing and NRM

#LookCloser is a national campaign run by The Children’s Society, the British Transport Police and the National County Lines Coordination Centre. It helps protect children and young people from abuse by encouraging everyone to get to know the signs and what to do when they spot them.

Any child can be exploited and exploitation can happen anywhere. It can be easier to spot in public places like parks, supermarkets or transport but it happens online too. We all have a part to play in helping keep young people safe. If we learn to #LookCloser and take action when we're worried, we can stop this abuse from happening. For more information visit #LookCloser To Spot Exploitation | The Children's Society

If you have identified someone who could potentially be a victim of modern slavery think NRM! The NRM is the UK’s mechanism to identify, assess and support potential victims of modern slavery. Watch this video from the National County Lines Coordination Centre for a clear explanation of the NRM.

'

Please watch the short video that has been adapted for Salford and share it with your teams / colleagues. It explains how criminals target people who may be vulnerable in some way, take over their homes and use them for criminal activity such as dealing drugs or storing weapons. It explains who may be at increased risk and what sorts of things to look out for and it’s only 3 minutes long.

Listening Hub Updates

Your input matters - The SSCP needs to ensure that all its partner organisations are fulfilling their statutory safeguarding children duties as outlined in the Government publication Working Together 2023 and Section 11 of the Children Act 2004. As part of this and our ongoing commitment to safeguarding children and young people, we are conducting our survey of safeguarding practitioners which takes place every 2 years. We are reaching out to professionals whose work directly or indirectly impacts the safety and well-being of children, to share your insights and experiences. Please take a few minutes to complete the Section 11 Practitioners Survey.

Your responses will:

  • Help identify strengths and gaps in current safeguarding practices
  • Inform future training and support
  • Contribute to a safer environment for children and young people across our community

The survey should take no more than 10 minutes to complete and will remain open until Friday 18th July 2025.

The Listening Hub is committed to ensuring Salford remains a regional leader in co-production. For a full summary read the Listening Hub Forum Highlights Summary Sheet.

Cared for Children

Take a look at the brilliant piece of work that GMYN have completed with our Salford care leavers: a comic called Hear My Voice. It has been featured in ITV news and the radio. Read and watch the article on the New comic book that reveals the lived experiences of Salford children in foster care | ITV News Granada

You can also view and order copies of 'Hear My Voice from GMYN

Don't forget to book on to the upcoming training session on 'Supporting Cared for Children and Care Leavers' in October 2025 available on the SSCP Training Programme | Salford Safeguarding Children Partnership

A 100% of delegates who attended the course reported feeling strongly confident or confident in their ability embed the learning into their practice

7 minute Briefings and Case Review updates

Reflect: on the learning also spotlighted in the CSPR Panel annual report and the NSPCC Recently published case reviews including the national case review collection- Updated case reviews added this month featuring issues including sibling sexual abuse, suicide, neglect identification & intersectionality. emotional abuse, child neglect, cultural competency, and children who have disabilities.

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;

You will also find these new briefings and tools from the SSAB useful.

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  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.

Calls to Action: National/Local Updates and Learning

Group- based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse

The Home Office has published an independent audit on group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA) in England and Wales. The review, led by Baroness Casey, looks at the scale, nature and characteristics of group-based CSEA, drivers of this type of offending, and the local and national response. Reviewers assessed a range of national and local data and reports, as well as meeting with survivors, police, local authorities and other organisations and individuals. The report sets out 12 recommendations including changes to the law around rape and the launch of a national police operation and national inquiry into child sexual exploitation in England and Wales. A government response has been published accepting all 12 recommendations.

Read the report: National audit on group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse  
Read the government’s response: Government response to the national audit on group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse report  
Read the NSPCC Learning CASPAR briefing: Summary of the National audit on group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse

'Its Silent': Race, Racism and Safeguarding Children

The latest report from the National Child Safeguarding Review Panel on Race, racism and safeguarding children was published on 11 March 2025. It examines the impact of race, ethnicity and culture on multi-agency practice where children have suffered serious harm or died. It raises questions about how and why issues about race, racism and ethnicity remain so marginalised, understated and under-explored in safeguarding reviews and suggests that there is a need for a sea change in how we address issues about race, culture and ethnicity in safeguarding practice.

  1. There is silence around talking about race and racism. We need to activate conversations that not only ask why there are silences but, crucially, activates our safeguarding responsibilities to think about how we might need to work differently to address the myriad ways in which race, racism and bias affect how we help and protect this group of children.
  2. Leaders and practitioners need to develop their capacity to understand and use intersectional approaches to better address the safeguarding need of Black, Asian and Mixed Heritage children. An intersectional approach takes account of how social identities related to race and racism, gender, poverty and class overlap and are woven together.
  3. The report seeks to increase system learning by sharing examples of good practice and addressing where critical questions are avoided, evaded and side-stepped. It states that leaders have a crucial role in naming these issues and taking ownership of professional responsibilities to recognise and address race, racism and bias in safeguarding practice.

There is also a short briefing note for child protection professionals that summarises the key learning points from the independent Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel’s report on race, racism and child safeguarding. Read the practitioner Briefing Note - 'It's silent': Race, racism and child protection

The SSCP will aim to respond to any new learning. Don't forget to familiarise yourself with the SSCP Cultural Consciousness Guidance and embed this into your practice and organisation.

You can access briefings from the National Child Safeguarding Review Panel by emailing sscp@salford.gov.uk

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

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, 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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