Safeguarding Children Partnership Newsletter October 2025

Edition 6: Autumn 2025

Safeguarding Children Partnership Board 02/10/2025
 
The October Board had a packed agenda which reflected the level of partnership activity since the last meeting in June 2025. It was also an opportunity to recognise and celebrate the fantastic work by the Partnership in delivering against the Safeguarding Children Partnership (SCP) priorities and core functions over the last year.

The Board welcomed Kim Greener-Jacklin, as the SCP Coordinator role – a fantastic addition to the SCP Team.

Key areas for discussion and consideration:

NEL SCP Performance Dashboard: The Board considered the latest dashboard which supports the SCP to understand the effectiveness of safeguarding arrangements. The dashboard is greatly informing the work of the Safeguarding Practice Learning and Development Group and the Safeguarding Performance Practice Assurance Group and SCP priority delivery groups. An example of how data is informing practice is the continued increase in the identification of children with sexual abuse factors at referral and for those on a child protection plan, which demonstrates greater awareness as a result of recent training and the development of the Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) toolkit.

SCP Local Arrangement Strategic Delivery Plan 2025/25:The Local Arrangements strategic delivery plan was reported to the Board and provided assurance of progress being made. The plan is informed by the analysis and findings from the SCP Annual Report 202/25 and the Local Arrangements 2025/26 which sets out the four SCP priorities and key areas of activity for the year. The four SCP priorities are to embed the neglect, child sexual abuse and early help strategies and to further develop the multi-agency approach to child exploitation.
Inspection Local Authority Children’s Services (ILACS): Ann Marie Matson provided feedback on the outcome of the Ofsted Inspection of Local Authority Children’s Services, which took place between in July 2025. Childrens Service’s were judged good overall, with an outstanding for the impact of leaders on social work practice with children and families. The outcome is a testament of the improvement and transformation journey across the partnership, and the impact on outcomes for our children, young people and families.
Partnership Achievement Award: The Board discussed the new partnership achievement award, which has been developed in order to capture and celebrate the fantastic practice across the partnership. Partner agencies were encouraged to nominate practitioners whose practice is creative, innovative and goes above and beyond. Both the nominator and the successful nominee will be invited to a Board where they will be presented with the award. If you would like to make a nomination, please scan the QR code

or go to https://forms.office.com/e/Y3gGSrimpE which will take you to the form. If you have any queries please email [email protected]

Voice and engagement: Voice and engagement is a standing agenda item at each Board meeting, and at the October Board, information was shared which demonstrated the breadth and range of activity across the partnership (from a children’s services, police and health perspective). Children’s Services presented the Voice and Engagement Annual Report 2024/25 and there was also a focus on the Adolescent Lifestyle Survey 2024 for secondary age children which is undertaken every three years.

Subgroup Progress:
Sub group chairs reported into the board, key highlights included:

• The Safeguarding Practice Thematic Strategic Group have reviewed and revised the neglect and child sexual abuse strategic delivery plans, and there is more clarity around the areas for partnership action in 2025/26
• The Early Help Strategic Group delivery plan is being reviewed to be more aligned to the local developments in response to the national reforms relating to the Families First Partnership Programme
• The Child Exploitation Strategic Group have reviewed the child exploitation delivery plan against the national audit of group based child sexual exploitation
• The Safeguarding Practice Learning and Development Group have revised the scrutiny and assurance work plan aligned to the scrutiny and assurance framework. The plan outlines planned line of sight practice audit activity aligned to the SCP priorities
  

Scrutiny and Assurance

A number of reports provided assurance to the SCP Board, as follows:

Schools Safeguarding Audit Report:
The annual audit provided assurance that safeguarding arrangements in educational establishments are effective. The audit format and arrangements were reviewed to ensure the format aligned with the Section 11 audit, and multi academy trust timescales. There was also an opportunity for schools to submit other iteration of audits to demonstrate assurance. As a result, the return rate improved greatly from 63% last year to 100%. The findings from the audit inform individual school responses, as well as key SCP functions including workforce development and training.

Learning and Practice:
A Line of Sight (LOS) Practice Audit Report was signed off by the Board, the findings of which will inform practice through the dissemination of a seven minute briefing practice learning summary.
Child Death Annual Report 2023/24:
A detailed summary of the findings of the report was received. The purpose of the local child death review process is to learn from the death of children in order to prevent further deaths in the future. While the number of child deaths remain low; a number of recommendations were made which related to preventative measures including training and awareness.
National Audit of Group Based Child Sexual Exploitation – Local Response:
The national audit undertaken by Baroness Louise Casey looking into Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) made twelve recommendations which the Government endorsed. An action plan providing a local response to a number recommendations was presented to the Board. This provides a local baseline and will inform the activity of the Child Exploitation Strategic Group National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse – GOV.UK .
Integrated Care Board (ICB) Update:
The ICB provided an update in respect of the ongoing changes as part of the ICB Blueprint, which sets out the core functions and strategic role of ICB’s. Although there was an initial suggestion of review and transfer, the statutory safeguarding responsibilities for children remain in place for ICB’s.

Communication and stakeholder engagement

The following activity has taken place as part of the SCP communication and engagement arrangements.

Childrens, Adults and the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) Sector Networking Event, 1st October 2025:

A Networking Event, which was jointly developed with the SCP, Adult Services and the VCSE sector, was held on the 1 October 2025 as part of ‘Making it Real’ which is a series of events designed to build stronger connections to support the voluntary and community sector to develop professional alliances with a focus on the wellbeing of children, young people and families.

The event was an opportunity for teams, agencies and organisations across children’s services, adult services and the VSCE sector to come together to network, promote the role and remit of their organisation and to signpost to available service provision for children and families.

There were 30 stalls, and attendance during the day from over 150 practitioners, which led to a number of potential opportunities and strengthening of partnership working.

Massive thanks to Nunny’s Farm for providing 50 tickets for partner agencies to go round the farm and meet the animals which was a fantastic opportunity to lean more about the great work they do.

The feedback received was excellent and will be used to inform future joint networking events. Headline feedback included:

Very informative and a great opportunity to network with other services and support the wider community.
Well organised, beneficial having so many different services involved, great to network.
I love the interactive elements. Will definitely attend again – fab!
Plenty of information on the services in the local area nearby.

SCP Procedures relaunch:
The NEL SCP communicated the planned transition from TRI-X supporting and hosting the SCP procedures to the management of the procedures by the SCP, which enables a lot more flexibility.

The procedures can be accessed via the SCP website Procedures and resources for professionals | NELC

Training
SCP Domestic Abuse Training
New Dates are available so please book your places now!
We offer a suite of Domestic Abuse training courses, all free of charge and facilitated by Women’s Aid North East Lincolnshire. This training is appropriate for those working in a paid or unpaid capacity with children, young people and families and will enable learners to learn more about domestic abuse, its effects and what to do if you are concerned about a family you are working with.

How to book:

NELC colleagues and maintained Schools: Please book through Academy-NEL via the Intranet
All other Organisations: Go to the SCP website here: Safeguarding children education and training | NELC and scroll down until you see the SCP Training and Education Programme and click on ‘View Courses and Book Upcoming Dates’. This will take you into the training brochure.
Select the course title from the contents page. This will take you through to the course page where you can select the date and then book through the Children and Families Learning Zone.

National Safeguarding Children Reforms

Helen Davis, Childrens Strategic Lead for Reforms updated the Board on the progress against the local development of the three pillars of the Families First Partnership Programme reforms which include; Family Group Decision Making (FGDM) , Family Help, and Multi-Agency Child Protection Teams (MACPTs).

Following the partner codesign event in September 2025, three deep dive sessions have been held, each one focusing on one of the pillars and facilitated by the three pillar leads.

A further session is being held in relation to family help to further progress the discussion, and there will be further engagement and codesign with partner agencies throughout the design period and through to implementation. Further details of the reforms can be found in the attached document The Families First Partnership (FFP) Programme Guide.

What Next?

• Leaders, managers and practitioners across the partnership workforce should up opportunities to be involved in discussion through the co-design period. Further details will be provided on how all partners can contribute through the Reforms Working Group communications. Should you have any questions or wish to share your thoughts, please email [email protected]
• Leaders, managers and practitioners across the partnership workforce should take the opportunity to access the SCP website which provides key resources including guidance, tools, learning from reviews and detail of education and training opportunities which all support multi agency practice North East Lincolnshire Safeguarding Children Partnership | NELC
• A further networking event will be held in March 2026, for which planning has commenced. The event will be in Immingham and will be jointly held between the SCP, Adult Services and the VCSE sector. The event will be another fantastic opportunity to network and to learn more about the remit and role of wider partner agencies. More details to follow.

We’d love to hear from you!
To help us improve how we support professionals across North East Lincolnshire, we’re inviting you to share your thoughts on SCP. Your feedback will help us strengthen communication, improve access to resources, and ensure our website and materials are helpful and relevant to your safeguarding work.

Contact us: If you have any queries around the SCP Board, local arrangements, or if you have any ideas as to what you’d like to see in the newsletter, please contact: [email protected]