September 2023

The August 2023 news page and previous news items are available by month of publication from the menu on the right.

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

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.

For any problems related to the portal contact worriedaboutachild@salford.gov.uk

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.

New 7 Minute Briefings

Cultural Consciousness 7MB

Learning from local and national reviews has highlighted that practitioners could do more to try to fully understand the impact of cultural identity on the daily lived experience of children. The SSCP recently published its Cultural Consciousness guidance and has now developed a 7 Minute Briefing to go alongside it.

Professional Curiosity 7MB

Learning from local case reviews in Salford tells us that sometimes we need to look beyond the surface of what is presented to us to find out what is really going on in a child or young person’s life. Asking the right questions even if you don’t feel comfortable doing so, being ready to listen to the answers and act on what you hear, can really make a difference to a child’s life. Find out more in this 7 Minute Briefing and watch this space for further resources.

Homelessness and Finances 7MB

The SSCP have developed a new 7MB based on the learning from a recent thematic audit about families who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. Find out more about how you can help families who are struggling with homelessness or financial issues by viewing this 7 Minute Briefing.

Click on the headings to access the 7 minute briefings or visit the 7 minute briefing web page for these and plain text versions.

Salford Child Sexual Abuse Strategy 2023 - 2026

The SSCP welcomes the publication of the Salford Child Sexual Abuse Strategy which sets out how the partnership intends to achieve specific improvements in respect of the work of all agencies who work with children and young people affected by CSA in Salford.

This strategy is aligned with the overall ambition for the Safeguarding Children Partnership and governance for the strategy which sits within the SSCP arrangements.  The priorities are:

• Preventing child sexual abuse
• Protecting children from child sexual abuse.
• Communications and engagement: improving information provided to parents, carers and the wider public about child sexual abuse.
• Listening and responding to the voice of children and young people.
• Safeguarding effectiveness.

The strategy and a short summary version can be downloaded from the links below and are also available on the SSCP policy and procedures web page:

• Salford Child Sexual Abuse Strategy 2023 - 2026
• Salford Child Sexual Abuse Strategy 2023 - 2026 - Summary Version

Private Fostering

We want to make sure all children and young people in Salford are safe and well looked after, and private fosterers are offered support with their caring responsibilities. So we need all staff to be aware of what private fostering is and how you can help.

Private fostering is when someone other than a parent or close relative is caring for a child under the age of 16 (or 18 if they are disabled) for 28 days or more. We ask that all staff either ask private foster carers they are aware of to contact the council, or contact the council themselves via the Bridge through Worried about a child.  The private foster carers can then be offered support to carry out their caring responsibilities.

Please contact the council’s Private Fostering Lead James Quinn at PrivateFostering@salford.gov.uk for further information and training for your services.

Themes from local case reviews

The SSCP has carried out many reviews into local multi-agency practice over the last few years. Analysis of the learning from these reviews reveals that there are seven themes that have occurred repeatedly. These are: Information sharing & communication, the role of males in families, statutory safeguarding processes, knife crime / adolescents, safeguarding babies under 1 / water safety, professional challenge & escalation, and cultural consciousness / professional curiosity. Read our new Recurring Themes 7 Minute Briefing which summarises these themes and links to further learning resources.  A Recurring Themes 7 Minute Briefing  plain text version is also available. These and other briefings can be found on the SSCP 7 Minute Briefings web page, as part of the 'Multi-agency Training' section.

Sign up for alerts with Greater Manchester Safeguarding Children Procedures

Did you know that all ten safeguarding partnerships in the GM region have an agreed set of multi-agency safeguarding children policies and procedures? Use the Contents page to scroll down and review the full list of policies. They are maintained and updated every six months in June and December by a company called TriX. You can sign up to be alerted about any updates and new policies by clicking on “register for updates” on the left-hand menu of the Contents page and simply adding your email address. If you have any new policies you wish to be included or amendments to old policies, please email sscp@salford.gov.uk in the first instance.

If you have a spare few minutes please answer seven questions about how useful you find the GM Procedures by clicking on this survey link

New Restorative Conferencing templates

All agencies who attend Restorative Conferences and are required to complete a report, can find new templates added to the Policy and procedures section of the SSCP website. The templates available for download include:

• Restorative conference report for initial case conference (2023)
• Restorative conference report for a review child protection case (2023)
• Restorative conferencing agenda (2023)

Suicide Prevention Day

World Suicide Prevention Day is on 10 September. It is an opportunity to raise awareness of suicide and the steps we can take to prevent it and help reduce the stigma surrounding it.  Research shows that talking honestly about suicide helps save lives. 

Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) England believe that suicide is preventable through education and intervention. They have created a resource to help people become more suicide aware. It gives advice on how to support someone experiencing suicide thoughts or behaviour.  For more information and resources visit the MHFA England webpage.

We know from speaking to young people in Salford that mental health is one of their top concerns.  The NSPCC provide information for professionals about Child Mental Health and Childline have useful information designed for young people and their mental health.

Report findings: School non-attendance of children with a social worker in the UK

The NSPCC have highlighted a report by Foundations, the new What Works Centre for Children and Families, on school non-attendance of children with a social worker in the UK. They describe how the review examines extent, risk factors and interventions. Findings include: children with social workers in the UK have higher exclusion rates than children without a social worker; placement type, gender, and school instability were identified as risk factors for non-attendance; and the research evidence for interventions improving school non-attendance was relatively weak. The report recommends that policymakers look at how to best support professionals on the ‘front line’ of school non-attendance.

For more NSPCC information on Education see the NSPCC web page Safeguarding and Child Protection in Schools.

Talking to Children about Sexual Abuse

Outspoken Ed have a useful web page to help parents talk to children about sex, bodies, consent and relationships.  They advocate that talking openly helps with safeguarding, improves mental health and strengthens the parent-child connection. Visit the 'Getting Parents Talking Openly' page for more information and support.

There is still time this month to catch a free webinar on 'speaking to children about sexual abuse' available through the CSA Centre.

Call for evidence - Impact of cost of living on young peoples mental health

The British Youth Council’s Youth Select Committee have launched a call for written evidence as part of their inquiry into the rising cost of living and its impact on young people’s health and wellbeing.

The inquiry is designed to allow young people to hear the views of a diverse range of people, to inform potential solutions.

Participation is open to the public and will also gather the views of experts in the field, including charities and businesses. 

Evidence is being collected via the Youth Select Committee webpage. The deadline is 08/09/2023.

If you would like to share with the SSCP what Salford children and families are saying about this issue please contact the Listening Hub at TheListeningHub@salford.gov.uk.

‘You can literally change a young person’s life’: an 18-year-old’s message for social workers - Community Care article

In the Community Care Inform’s podcast last month, they speak to 18-year-old Dan about his experiences as a young person placed in children’s homes and semi-independent accommodation.  Community Care describe how in the podcast Dan shares his perspective on how social workers and services worked with him from his early teenage years, and what he would have liked to have been different. He discusses how the system could be more genuinely ‘ambitious for children in care’, and the types of support that would have made his move into adulthood and employment easier.   Read the artcile and listen to the podcast via the Community Care webpage.

The SSCP is committed to hearing the views and voices of children, families and practitioners across Salford.  For more information visit the SSCP Listening Hub web page on how you can get involved.

The Hopeful Journey of Patience

The Hopeful Journey of Patience is a visual story aimed at helping young people seeking safety in the UK to feel less alone. The story was co-designed by young people taking part in Barnardo’s Triangles programme who came to the UK as unaccompanied children in search of sanctuary.

Triangles: Empowering young people through visual storytelling | Barnardo's (barnardos.org.uk)

SSCP Cultural Consciousness Guidance

Salford is growing and continues to change whilst becoming more ethnically and culturally diverse, and so it is important that our services continue to understand our communities so that we can continue to be inclusive by responding to different needs and experiences.

The Salford Safeguarding Children Partnership (SSCP) is committed to the Salford Equalities and Inclusion Strategy vision of making ‘Salford a fair and inclusive city where everyone has equal access to services and opportunities, and is included and represented in decisions that affect them’.

The SSCP Cultural Consciousness Guidance has been created by the SSCP in response to learning from local and national case reviews. Findings identified that racial, ethnic, and cultural identities are often central factors in the daily lives of children and families, particularly from minoritised communities and should therefore be given proper weight when exploring the lives of children and families in practice and in reviews.  The guidance provides information and opportunity to reflect on practice and assessment when working with children and families. This document along with other local guidance can be found on the Policies and procedures page of the SSCP website.

New SSCP training courses

Recognising and Responding to Neglect:  Improving outcomes for children in Salford

Date: Monday 25^th September 2023 (9.30am – 12 noon OR 1pm – 3.30pm)

The experience of neglect during childhood can have significant, long-lasting and pervasive consequences, affecting all aspects of a child’s development and their lives into adulthood. The event is relevant to a wide range of multi-agency professionals from both the children’s and adults workforce and will include a range of guest speakers from across the partnership. For more information and booking details visit Recognising and Responding to Neglect.

Communicating with Children & Young People 

Date: Thursday 12th October 2023 (09:30 - 4pm)

This full day course is designed to help practitioners consider how to better engage with children and young people, to capture their views and voices and to feel heard.  The course is a response to national and local findings which emphasise the need to listen to children and young people.  It is open to anyone who works with children and families in Salford or for children and family focused services.   

The course content will be focused on:

• why and how we listen to children and young people in Salford;
• how we engage with children whose first language is not English;
• why it is important to gather children’s voices where there might be complex and significant needs. 

Completion of the course should help practitioners feel more confident in working more creatively to gain views using a range of tools and techniques.

Booking is available through the online booking form.

Equality and Diversity Statement

Our vision is to make Salford a fair and inclusive city where everyone has an equal voice, access to services and opportunities, and are included and represented in decisions that affect them, irrespective of their age, disability status, ethnicity, faith, gender identity, sex, sexual orientation or socio-economic background.  Salford has a strong commitment to tackling inequality which is reflected in The Salford Way, a city-wide approach to ensure partners work together to build a fairer and more inclusive Salford for all.  A key part of this approach is the  Salford Equality Strategy our catalyst for change to ensure we work together to build a fairer and more inclusive Salford for all.

All partners of the SSCP are required to ensure that equality, diversity and inclusion are a thread through all our priorities/activity, as are the views and voices of young people.