Tameside Safeguarding Framework

Appendix 1 - Roles and Responsibilities

1. Introduction
2. Statutory Duties
3. Shared Responsibilities
4. Recruitment
5. Training
6. Tameside Children and Young People Strategic Partnership
7. Tameside Council’s Children’s Social Care
8. Schools & Further Education Institutions
   - Designated Members of Staff in Schools and FE Institutions
   - Education Welfare Officers (EWOs)
   - School Governors and Governing Bodies
9. Housing authorities and registered social landlords
10. Services provided by Tameside Connexions
11. Tameside Council’s Adult Social Care
12. Tameside Adult Safeguarding Partnership
13. Health Services in Tameside
14. Tameside and Glossop Primary Care Trust
    - Designated and Named Practitioners
    - Health Visitors
    - School Nurses
    - Dental Practitioners and Dental Care Practitioners (DCPs)
    - Other Health Practitioners
    - Independent sector
15. Tameside & Glossop Acute Services NHS Trust
    - Paediatricians
    - Accident & Emergency
    - In-Patient and Out-Patient Services
    - Maternity Services
16. Ambulance Trusts and NHS Direct sites
17. Universal health services - general practitioners, the primary health care team, practice employed staff and school nurses
18. Pennine Care NHS Trust
    - Child and Adolescent Mental health Services (CAMHS)
    - Adult Mental Health Services
    - Visiting of Psychiatric Patients by Children
    - Alcohol and Drug Services
19. Greater Manchester Police
    - GMP Public Protection Investigation Unit
20. Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS)
21. Greater Manchester Probation services
22. Youth Offending Team (YOT)
23. Tameside Council’s Cultural and Customer Services (including sport and leisure)
24. Youth Services
25. Childcare Services
26. The Voluntary and Private Sector
    - Voluntary Agencies and Private Sector Providers
    - NSPCC
    - Sports Clubs
    - Faith Communities
27. Ofsted (Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills)
    - Ofsted and Fostering, Adoption and Residential Services
    - Ofsted and Early Years Day Care Provision
    - Ofsted and Education Provision

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Introduction

This section outlines the main roles and responsibilities of statutory agencies, practitioners and the voluntary and private sectors in safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children.

If any Practitioner has concerns about a child they should consult at the first opportunity with their line manager and/or with the Officer with designated responsibility for Child Protection in their agency. A referral to Children's Social Care should be made immediately if it is believed or suspected that the child has suffered significant harm or is likely to suffer significant harm. See section 3 of these procedures for more information on making a referral.

Statutory Duties

All agencies that work with children share a commitment to safeguard and promote their welfare, and for many agencies that is underpinned by a statutory duty or duties. Tameside Council as the local authority has a number of specific duties to organise and plan services and to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. One of these has been to establish a Local Safeguarding Children Board.

NHS bodies (Tameside and Glossop Primary Care Trust, Tameside and Glossop Acute Services NHS Trust, Pennine Care NHS Trust), the Police (including the British Transport Police), Probation and Prison services (under the National Offender Management structure), Youth Offending Team, Secure Training Centres and Connexions have a duty under s11 of the Children Act 2004 to ensure that their functions are discharged with regard to the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. Guidance for these agencies about their duty under s11 is contained in Making Arrangements to Safeguard and Promote the Welfare of Children ( DfES 2005) , found at: www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/resources-and-practice/

Local Authorities also have a duty to carry out their functions under the Education Acts with a view to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children under s175 of the Education Act 2002. In addition, maintained (state) schools and Further Education (FE) institutions, including 6th Form Colleges, have a duty under s175 to exercise their functions with a view to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of their pupils (students under 18 years of age in the case of FE institutions). And the same duty is put on Independent schools, including Academies and technology colleges, by regulations made under s157 of the 2002 Act. Guidance to local authorities, schools, and FE institutions about these duties is in “Safeguarding Children in Education” published by DfES in September 2004. In addition under s87 of the Children Act 1989 independent schools that provide accommodation for children also have a duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of those pupils. Boarding schools, residential Special Schools , and Further Education institutions that provide accommodation for children under 18, must have regard to the respective National Minimum Standards for their establishment . 

The Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS) also has a duty under s12(1) of the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000 to safeguard and promote the welfare of children involved in family proceedings in which their welfare is, or may be, in question.

Shared Responsibilities

It is important that all members of the community understand that child protection is a concern for everyone and that effectiveness of practitioner agencies will depend on the awareness and support of the public.

If any member of the public is concerned that a child may be at risk of abuse or neglect they should either telephone:

• Tameside Council's Children's Social Care Service and ask to speak to the duty social worker
• The Police
• The NSPCC national child protection line (or where relevant the NSPCC Asian child protection help line which provides advice in Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati, Bengali and Sylheti)

To fulfil their commitment to safeguard and promote the welfare of children all specified agencies and relevant practitioners and all agencies and practitioners working with children and families in Tameside should:

• Comply with the procedures in this manual
• Have policies in place for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, including a child protection policy; and procedures that are in accordance with these and other procedures from the Tameside SCB
• Ensure that any additional internal procedures or inter-agency protocols are consistent with these procedures
• Set clear priorities for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children which are explicitly stated in strategic policy documents
• Ensure there is a clear commitment by senior management to the importance of safeguarding and promoting children's welfare
• Develop clear lines of accountability within the organisation for work on safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children
• Ensure that all staff, including temporary staff and volunteers who work with children, are made aware of the establishment's arrangements for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and their responsibilities for tha t
• Have procedures for dealing with allegations of abuse against members of staff and volunteers
• Have arrangements in place to work effectively with other agencies to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, including arrangements for sharing information
• Share information between agencies to the extent that is required to assess and meet the needs of the child
• Respect confidentiality of information about individuals
• Actively promote a culture of listening to and engaging with children seeking their views in ways appropriate to their age and understanding, and taking account of those views both in individual decisions and the establishment or development of services
• Ensure sensitivity to needs arising from race, culture, religion or linguistic background
• Have appropriate whistle blowing procedures and a culture that enables issues about safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children to be addressed
• Maintain accurate records of decision making and actions

Recruitment

All agencies must ensure that they have in place safe recruitment policies and practices, including enhanced Criminal Record Bureau (CRB) checks, for all staff, including agency staff, students and volunteers, working with children. All agencies must ensure they are compliant with the requirements of the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006.

Training

All practitioners involved in working with children should undertake training in safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and have regular updates as part of continuing learning and development.

Employers have a responsibility to ensure that all staff, including administrative staff are given opportunities to undertake courses in safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children or ensure that safeguarding training is provided within the team.

Further information about Tameside SCB's training programme can be found on the website.

Tameside Children and Young People Strategic Partnership

The Children and Young People Strategic Partnership (CYPSP) works closely with Tameside SCB to ensure good outcomes for children and young people in Tameside. The CYPSP is responsible for overseeing the development of children's trust arrangements in Tameside. Part of this role is ensuring that all agencies working with children use common processes. To this end the Children and Young People Strategic Partnership is responsible for the implementation of the Common Assessment Framework, Lead Professional arrangements and JASPER (which becomes Contactpoint in line with the national system in 2008). All these processes are outlined in the Children's Needs Framework, the companion volume to the Safeguarding framework. Children in need of protection are at the higher level of the children's needs framework.

Everyone working with children and young people should have access to both frameworks which have been designed to complement each other.

Tameside Council's Children's Social Care

Tameside Council as the 'local authority' is required to ensure that children in its area are protected from significant harm. The local authority has a general duty under the Children Act 1989 to safeguard and promote the welfare of children who are in need and, so far as it is consistent with that duty, to promote the upbringing of such children by their families by providing services appropriate to the child's needs. They should do this in partnership with parents and in a way which is sensitive to the child's race, religion, culture and language, and where practicable, take account of the child's wishes and feelings.

Local authorities, with the help of other agencies as appropriate, also have a duty to make enquiries if they have reason to suspect that a child in their area is suffering, or likely to suffer significant harm, to enable them to decide whether they should take any action to safeguard or promote the child's welfare. Children's Social Care carries out these responsibilities on behalf of the local authority. (See section 7).

Children's Social Care services have the following responsibilities:

• To be the principal point of contact for anyone who has welfare concerns about children
• To assess, plan and provide support to children in need, including those suffering or likely to suffer significant harm
• To make enquiries under s47 of the Children Act 1989 wherever there is reason to suspect that a child in its area is at risk of significant harm
• To convene and chair child protection conferences. This service is delegated to Children's Social Care by Tameside SCB.
• To maintain the child protection register on behalf of Tameside SCB
• To provide a key worker for every child on the child protection register
• To ensure that the agencies who are party to the protection plan co‑ordinate their activities to protect the child
• To undertake a core assessment in relation to each child on the register, ensuring that other agencies contribute as necessary to the assessment and that assessments take account of key issues e.g. domestic abuse
• To convene regular reviews of the child's progress through both core group and child protection conference review meetings
• To instigate legal proceedings where necessary to ensure the protection of children from significant harm and to safeguard their welfare

Schools & Further Education Institutions

Tameside council will nominate a lead officer with responsibility for co-ordinating policy and action on child protection across schools and non-school services maintained by the authority, and for providing advice to them.

Tameside Council will ensure that guidance on child protection is sent to all head teachers in maintained and non-maintained schools in their borough.

Tameside Council will keep up to date lists of staff in schools who have a designated role in respect of safeguarding children and will support and encourage appropriate training for these staff.

If a pupil is placed in a school outside of Tameside, then Tameside Council should ensure it has adequate child protection policies and procedures.

Schools (including independent schools and non-maintained Special Schools) and Further Education (FE) institutions should give effect to their duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of their pupils (students under 18 years of age in the case of FE institutions) under the Education Act 2002 and where appropriate under the Children Act 1989 (see paragraph 2.5) by:

• Creating and maintaining a safe learning environment for children and young people; and
• Identifying where there are child welfare concerns and taking action to address them, in partnership with other agencies where appropriate.

Schools also contribute through the curriculum by developing children's understanding, awareness, and resilience.

Creating a safe learning environment means having effective arrangements in place to address a range of issues. Some are subject to statutory requirements, including child protection arrangements, pupil health and safety, and bullying. Others include arrangements for meeting the health needs of children with medical conditions, providing first aid, school security, tackling drugs and substance misuse, and having arrangements in place to safeguard and promote the welfare of children on extended vocational placements.

Education staff have a crucial role to play in helping identify welfare concerns, and indicators of possible abuse or neglect, at an early stage: referring those concerns to Children's Social Care, contributing to the assessment of a child's needs and where appropriate to ongoing action to meet those needs. When a child has special educational needs, or is disabled, the school will have important information about the child's level of understanding and the most effective means of communicating with the child. They will also be well placed to give a view on the impact of treatment or intervention on the child's care or behaviour.

Schools, Head Teachers, and Governors have a responsibility to implement DfES guidance issued in 2004 detailing responsibilities around safeguarding children, including but not limited to arrangements for safe recruitment of staff and training of staff in schools whether designated or not for the purposes of dealing with safeguarding children. Through their daily contact with children, teachers and other staff in maintained, foundation, voluntary aided and independent schools, sixth form and further education colleges are well placed to observe signs of abuse, changes in behaviour or a failure to develop.

Schools and Further Education institutions should have a senior member of staff who is designated to take lead responsibility for dealing with child protection issues, providing advice and support to other staff, liaising with the authority, and working with other agencies as necessary. A school or FE institution should remedy any deficiencies or weaknesses in its arrangements for safeguarding and promoting welfare that are brought to its attention without delay.

All schools must have policies and procedures which reflect the roles of staff and parents regarding:

• Child protection
• The use of force to control or restrain pupils
• Identification and response to bullying
• Identification and response to racism

Staff in schools and FE institutions should not themselves investigate possible abuse or neglect. They have a key role to play by referring concerns about those issues to Children's Social Care, providing information for Police investigations and/or enquiries under s47 of the Children Act 1989 , and by contributing to assessments.

Where a child of school age is the subject of an inter-agency child protection plan, the school should be involved in the preparation of the plan. The school's role and responsibilities in contributing to actions to safeguard the child, and promote his or her welfare, should be clearly identified.

Special Schools, including non maintained Special Schools and Independent schools, which provide medical and/or nursing care should ensure that their medical and nursing staff have appropriate training and access to advice on child protection and safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children.

Schools play an important role in making children and young people aware of behaviour towards them that is not acceptable and how they can help keep themselves safe. The non-statutory framework for Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) and the Healthy Schools Initiative provides opportunities for children and young people to learn about keeping safe. For example pupils should be taught to recognise and manage risks in different situations and then decide how to behave responsibly; to judge what kind of physical contact is acceptable and unacceptable; to recognise when pressure from others (including people they know) threatens their personal safety and well-being and develop effective ways of resisting pressure

PSHE curriculum materials provide resources that enable schools to tackle issues regarding healthy relationships including domestic violence, bullying and abuse. Discussions about personal safety and keeping safe can reinforce the message that any kind of violence is unacceptable; let children and young people know that it is okay to talk about their own problems; and signpost sources of help.

Corporal punishment is outlawed for all pupils in all schools, including independent schools, and FE institutions. The law forbids a teacher or other member of staff using any degree of physical contact which is deliberately intended to punish a pupil, or which is primarily intended to cause pain, injury or humiliation.

Teachers at a school are allowed to use reasonable force to control or restrain pupils under certain circumstances. Other staff may also do so, in the same way as teachers, provided they have been authorised by the head teacher to have control or charge of pupils. All schools should have a policy about the use of force to control or restrain pupils. Further guidance about this is at: www.dfes.gov.uk/publications/guidanceonthelaw/ 

Designated Members of Staff in Schools and FE Institutions

All schools and further education institutions must have a designated member of staff with responsibility for child protection, usually the head teacher or another senior member of staff and it may be useful to nominate a deputy designated member of staff to cover absences.

The designated member of staff should be provided with relevant on-going training. Designated staff must undergo refresher training every two years and non-designated staff every three years in line with Government guidance issued in 2004.

The designated member of staff is responsible for:

• Arranging training for colleagues
• Producing any internal child protection procedures for staff which should conform to and supplement these procedures and be freely available to all staff including any volunteers
• Keeping all staff updated with current procedures, ensuring that new and temporary staff are familiar with protection responsibilities (staff, in this situation, includes secretarial staff, midday supervisors, caretakers, school helpers etc)
• Provision of advice and support to staff
• Ensuring there is a system in place so that any concerns are reported as soon as they arise to Children's Social Care
• Monitoring attendance and development of children whose names are currently on the child protection register and informing Children's Social Care services of proposed or actual change of school
• Ensuring that all relevant information about a child is disseminated to appropriate staff within the school
• Ensuring complete records are sent to receiving schools, whether a child changes as a natural progression or for any other reason
• Maintaining accurate and secure child protection records

Education Welfare Officers (EWOs)

Under Education Law parents are responsible for ensuring that their registered children of compulsory school age (5 to 16) attend school regularly. Local authorities have a duty to ensure that parents undertake this responsibility. In Tameside this duty is usually carried out by Education Welfare Officers.

Education Welfare Officers (EWOs) will work closely with schools and families to resolve attendance issues, arranging school and home visits as necessary. 

In enforcing attendance, Education Welfare Officers have a variety of powers to help them ensure that children are properly educated. 

Though enforcing school attendance is the main responsibility of the Education Welfare Service, in many instances they will also undertake other important related duties. These include: 

• regulating child employment
• advising on child protection issues
• helping to arrange alternative educational provision for excluded pupils 
• preparing reports on pupils with special educational needs as part of the statementing process.

In their direct welfare work with families, EWOs who recognise child protection issues must refer them to Children's Social Care.

EWOs should assist the designated teacher in monitoring children for whom there is a child protection plan. EWOs are also able to provide advice and support to other education staff on child protection matters.

School Governors and Governing Bodies

Governing bodies and proprietors of non-maintained establishments must ensure that appropriate child protection procedures are in place, seeking advice as necessary from Tameside Services for Children & Young People.

Each Governing body should nominate one of its members to lead on child protection and ensure that opportunities are provided for her/his training.

School governors have a specific contribution to make when allegations are made against a head teacher, as set out in ' Safeguarding Children and Safer Recruitment in Education' (2007) .

Housing authorities and registered social landlords

Housing and homelessness staff in local authorities and housing managers (whether working for Tameside Council or for a registered social landlord such as New Charter Housing) and environmental health officers can play an important role in safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children.

Tameside Council does not directly own and manage housing, having transferred these responsibilities to New Charter Housing which is a Registered Social Landlord and a Housing Association regulated by the Housing Corporation under its Regulatory Code. Registered social landlords are not public bodies. They are therefore not under the same duties to safeguard and promote the welfare of children as are local authorities. However the Housing Corporation's Regulatory Code states that housing associations must work with local authorities to enable the latter to fulfil their duties to vulnerable children and young people. New Charter Housing are full members of Tameside SCB and are committed to safeguarding children and young people.

Housing authorities/registered social landlords often hold significant information about families which contain a child at risk. In the case of mobile families they may have more information than most other agencies. Housing authorities/ registered social landlords have an obligation to share information relevant to child protection with Children's Social Care services. The Registered Social Landlord Forum (RSL Forum) also has an important role in raising awareness of safeguarding matters on a general level.

Housing staff, in their day to day contact with families and tenants, may become aware of needs or welfare issues which they can either tackle directly (for instance by making repairs or adaptations to homes) or by assisting the family in accessing help through other agencies.

Housing staff are key to the assessment of the needs of families with disabled children who may require housing adaptations in order to participate fully in family life and reach their maximum potential.

Housing authorities/registered social landlords have a front line emergency role, for instance managing re-housing or repossession when adults and children become homeless or at risk of homelessness as a result of domestic abuse.

Housing staff should be alert to child protection issues when dealing with reports of anti-social behaviour by young people which might reflect parental neglect or abuse.

Environmental health officers inspecting conditions in private rented housing may become aware of conditions that impact adversely on children. Under Part 1 of the Housing Act 2004 authorities will take account of the impact of health and safety hazards in housing on vulnerable occupants including children when deciding the action to be taken by landlords to improve conditions.

Tameside Council continues to be the Housing authority with responsibility for assessing the needs of families under homelessness legislation and managing nominations to registered social landlords who provide housing in the area. New Charter Housing carry out this responsibility on behalf of Tameside Council. This is an important role in safeguarding children because of the contact with families as part of assessment of housing need, and because of the influence they have in managing prioritisation, assessment and allocation of housing.

New Charter Housing both as a provider and as the agency carrying out Tameside Council's statutory responsibility under homelessness legislation can help safeguard children by:

• Providing alternative accommodation to a parent and children if they have experienced domestic abuse
• Ensuring that dangerous offenders are not offered tenancies in locations offering high levels of access to children
• Ensuring that wherever possible homeless families are provided with temporary accommodation within Tameside
• Sharing with relevant agencies the address of a family which is transferred outside of Tameside
• Ensuring that all homeless families with children subject to s47 enquiries and/or on the child protection register are offered temporary accommodation within their home borough, unless alternative arrangements are consistent with the protection plan
• Providing references to Ofsted about potential childminders

Services Provided by Tameside Connexions

Tameside Connexions is responsible for the provision of services to a wide age range of young people (thirteen to nineteen, and for the more vulnerable, up to twenty five years of age). This duty is derived from section 114 of The Learning & Skills Act, 2000.

The Connexions workforce comprises not only professionally qualified personal advisers but includes other delivery staff working under their supervision. Connexions is a young person centred service and as such safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the young person is the primary concern.

The Connexions service (including its subcontractors) is responsible for:

• Identifying, keeping in touch with, and giving the necessary support to young people in their geographical area. Each young person's needs are assessed and the support and continuing contact they receive is tailored to their assessed needs. A young person may receive any combination of the following according to their need: information, advice, guidance, counselling, personal development opportunities, referral to specialist services and advocacy to enable them to access opportunities funding or other services. The needs of young people from vulnerable groups such as teenage mothers, care leavers, young people supervised by YOTs, and young people with learning difficulty and/or disability are a particular priority for Connexions partnerships
• Identifying young people who may be at risk from child protection issues and in these cases, alerting the appropriate authority. Connexions staff should be aware of the agencies and contacts to use to refer young people at risk and should be aware of the way in which these concerns will be followed up
• Minimising risk to the safety of young people on premises that they or their subcontractors are responsible for. The Connexions service should maintain the necessary capacity to carry out relevant risk assessments
• Minimising the risk that agencies that they signpost young people to, such as those providing employment and training opportunities, pose a threat to the moral development, and physical and psychological well being of young people
• Ensuring that the recruitment of all staff (including volunteers both to the Connexions service and their subcontractors) complies with current vetting regulations
• Ensuring that staff (including sub contractors), are aware of risks to the welfare of young people and can exercise their legal, ethical, operational and practitioner obligations to safeguard them from these risks. Information sharing protocols with other agencies should give the highest priority to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of young people and staff should comply fully with these agreements

Tameside Council's Adult Social Care

Those who work with adults in social care services must consider the implications of service users' behaviour for the safety and well being of any dependent children and/or children with whom those adults are in contact.

Adult social care services must establish and maintain systems so that:

• Managers within adult services can monitor those cases which involve dependent children
• There is regular, formal and recorded consideration of such cases between managers in both adults' and children's divisions
• Where both adults' and children's services are providing services to a family, staff communicate with each other and agree interventions

Adult social care services staff who receive referrals about adults who are also parents should consider if there is a need to alert children's services to a child who may be 'in need' or 'at risk of significant harm'.

Once action is taken under child protection procedures (and regardless of whether the work is undertaken jointly or separately) Children's Social Care become responsible for its co-ordination.

Tameside Adult Safeguarding Partnership

Tameside Adult safeguarding Partnership (TASP) represent the lead organisations in Tameside committed to Safeguarding Adults who maybe at risk of abuse. This would include anyone 18 or over, who is in need of community care services to enable them to retain their independence, well being, and choice and to access their human right to live a life free from abuse and neglect.

The role of TASP is to ensure there is a robust framework in place to safeguard adults, to ensure the same protection to adults as is currently given to children by the Children Act. This framework includes multi-agency safeguarding procedures/guidance for staff, training communication and publicity.

TASP have agreed an information sharing protocol between agencies. Information retained for the purpose of safeguarding adults, if required, is shared with organisations in respect of safeguarding children.

Health Services in Tameside

Tameside & Glossop Primary Care Trust, Tameside & Glossop Acute Services NHS Trust and Pennine Care NHS Trust together in Tameside are responsible for providing health services in hospital and community settings. They co-operate with the Local Authority in the establishment and operation of Tameside SCB and as statutory partners share responsibility for the effective discharge of its functions in safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. Representation on the board of the SCB is at an appropriate level of seniority.

A wide range of their staff will come into contact with children and parents in the course of their normal duties. All staff are trained in how to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, to be alert to potential indicators of abuse or neglect in children, and to know how to act upon their concerns in line with Tameside SCB procedures.

All health agencies whether in the NHS or independent health sector should ensure safeguarding children is an integral part of their governance systems.

All health services staff have a duty to protect children and these procedures apply to staff in all NHS and private and voluntary services.

All health practitioners working directly with children should ensure that safeguarding and promoting their welfare forms an integral part of all stages of the care they offer. Other health practitioners who come into contact with children, parents and carers in the course of their work also need to be aware of their responsibility to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people. This is important even when the health practitioners do not work directly with a child, but may be seeing their parent, carer or other significant adult.

All health practitioners who work with children and families should be familiar with these and any additional local procedures. They should be able to:

• Understand the risk factors and recognise children in need of support and/or safeguarding
• Recognise the needs of parents who may need extra help in bringing up their children, and know where to refer for help
• Able to access immediately contact details of the named or designated practitioners from whom advice can be sought
• Recognise the risks of abuse to an unborn child
• Contribute to enquiries from other practitioners about a child and their family or carers
• Liaise closely with other agencies including other health practitioners
• Assess the needs of children and the capacity of parents/carers to meet their children's needs
• Plan and respond to the needs of children and their families, particularly those who are vulnerable
• Contribute to child protection conferences, family group conferences and strategy discussions
• Contribute to planning support for children at risk of significant harm e.g. children living in households with domestic violence, parental substance misuse
• Help ensure that children who have been abused and parents under stress (e.g. who have mental health problems) have access to services to support them
• Play an active part, through the child protection plan, in safeguarding children from significant harm
• As part of generally safeguarding children and young people, provide ongoing promotional and preventative support through proactive work with children, families and expectant parents
• Contribute to serious case reviews and their implementation

Tameside and Glossop Primary Care Trust

Tameside & Glossop PCT has a range of responsibilities including :

• Providing the strategic health lead in inter-agency planning within the PCT area
• Ensuring that health services and health care workers contribute to inter-agency working
• Ensuring that all trusts are linked into Tameside SCB and that there is appropriate representation
• Co-ordinating the health component of serious case reviews
• Including clear standards in commissioning arrangements
• Appointing designated practitioners for child protection
• Having a Board Level Director who has executive responsibility for safeguarding children and for the performance management of the designated functions

Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) are under a duty to make arrangements to ensure that in discharging their functions, they have regard to the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. Tameside & Glossop PCT works with the local authority to commission and provide co-ordinated and, wherever possible, integrated services. There is a named public health practitioner who addresses issues around children in need as well as those in need of protection.

Tameside & Glossop PCT has the responsibility for ensuring that the health contribution to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is discharged effectively across the whole of Tameside's health services through the PCTs' commissioning arrangements. The PCTs' role is not only about specific clinical services, but also about exercising a public health responsibility for a whole population and a key task is ensuring the health and well-being of children in need in their area. Where practice-based commissioners undertake commissioning of services, this should be done in partnership with PCTs who will need to ensure their safeguarding duties are fulfilled.

Tameside & Glossop PCT co-operates with the Local Authority in the establishment and operation of Tameside SCB and shares responsibility for the effective discharge of its functions in safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. Tameside & Glossop PCT is also responsible for providing and /or ensuring the availability of appropriate expertise and advice and support to the SCB in respect of a range of specialist health functions e.g. primary care, mental health (adult and child and adolescent) and sexual health, and for coordinating the health component of serious case reviews. They should notify the Strategic Health Authority of all serious case reviews.

Tameside & Glossop PCT ensures that all their staff are alert to the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, have knowledge of local procedures and know how to contact the named and designated practitioners.

Tameside & Glossop PCT ensures that safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children are integral to clinical governance and audit arrangements. Service specifications drawn up by PCT commissioners include clear service standards for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, consistent with Tameside SCB procedures. By monitoring the service standards of contracted service providers Tameside & Glossop PCT is assured that service providers are meeting the required safeguarding standards.

Tameside & Glossop PCT ensures that all primary care teams have easy access to paediatricians trained in examining, identifying and assessing children and young people who may be experiencing abuse or neglect. Local arrangements include having all the necessary equipment and staff expertise for undertaking forensic medical examinations. These arrangements should avoid repeated examinations.

Tameside & Glossop PCT also ensures that all health agencies including the independent healthcare sector with whom they have commissioning arrangements have links with Tameside SCB, and that health agencies work in partnership in accordance with the agreed SCB plan. This also includes ambulance trusts and NHS Direct services.

Tameside & Glossop PCT ensures that all health providers from whom they commission services - both public and independent sector - have comprehensive single and multi-agency policies and procedures to safeguard and promote the welfare of children which are in line with and informed by Tameside SCB procedures, and are easily accessible for staff at all levels within each organisation.

Designated and Named Practitioners

Tameside & Glossop PCT has a senior paediatrician and senior nurse to undertake the role of designated practitioners for safeguarding children across all health services in Tameside as well as a named doctor and a named nurse (or midwife) who take practitioner lead within the PCT on safeguarding children matters. These designated practitioners are managed in relation to their designated functions by a Board Level Director who has executive responsibility for safeguarding children as part of their portfolio of responsibilities.

The terms 'designated' and 'named practitioners' denote practitioners with specific roles and responsibilities for safeguarding children. Tameside & Glossop PCT has a designated doctor and nurse to take a strategic, practitioner lead on all aspects of the health service contribution to safeguarding children across the PCT area, which includes all providers. Tameside & Glossop PCT has ensured that the establishment levels of designated and named practitioners are proportionate to the resident population of Tameside and to complexity of provider arrangements.

Designated and named practitioner roles should always be explicitly defined in job descriptions and sufficient time and funding should be allowed to fulfil their child safeguarding responsibilities effectively. Intercollegiate Safeguarding competencies and job description work will be published.

Appointment as a designated practitioner does not, in itself, signify responsibility personally for providing a full clinical service for child protection. This will usually be done by a team of practitioners.

The responsibilities of designated practitioners can be summarised as follows:

• Providing the strategic health lead on all aspects of the health service contribution to safeguarding children within the Tameside & Glossop PCT area
• Supporting the named practitioners in meeting child protection specifications
• Providing practitioner advice on child protection matters to the multi-agency network
• Representing all health service providers on Tameside SCB and ensuring that each trust has a specified link to the SCB
• Monitoring, evaluating and reviewing the health service contribution to the protection of children
• Collaborating with Tameside SCB and the named practitioners in each trust in reviewing the involvement of health services in serious incidents which meet the criteria for serious case reviews
• Ensuring the training needs of health staff are addressed by promoting, influencing and developing relevant training, on both a single and inter-agency basis.

The focus for the named practitioner role is safeguarding children within their own organisation. They should have specific expertise in children's health and development, child maltreatment and local arrangements for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. The responsibilities of named practitioners can be summarised as follows:

• Being a source of advice and expertise on child protection all child protection matters to all staff at the point of need
• Promoting good practice and effective communication within and between trusts and all agencies on all matters relating to the protection of children
• Ensuring that arrangements are in place for child protection supervision and training of all staff involved in providing services to children and families and vulnerable adults who are parents or carers and/or who may pose a risk to children
• Ensuring that child protection is an integral part of the trust's risk management strategy and that key staff are aware of the thresholds for triggering child protection enquiries and an assessment of risk
• The named practitioner will usually be responsible for conducting the Trust's internal case reviews except when they have had personal involvement in the case, when it will be more appropriate for the designated practitioner to conduct the review. The named practitioner will also be able to ensure the resulting action plan is followed up. They also have a key role in ensuring a safeguarding training strategy is in place and delivered within their organisation.
• Developing, monitoring and reviewing health service specifications and standards for child protection practice
• Ensuring there are effective systems of child protection audit to monitor the application of agreed child protection standards

Health Visitors

Health Visitors are part of the community health services provided by the NHS in Tameside. The main focus of their work is on prevention, helping people to stay healthy. The Health Visitor is a Qualified Registered Nurse.

Health Visitors are particularly involved with families who have children under five and with the elderly population. Every family with a child under the age of five has a named health visitor. The Health Visitor's role is to offer support to families through the early years from pregnancy and birth to primary school and beyond.

Most Health Visitor's work alongside midwives preparing parents for the birth of their baby by their involvement in pre-birth classes and antenatal home visits.

Health Visitors also offer help and advice to parents on the following :

• Their child's growth & development
• Common infections in childhood
• Common skin problems
• Behaviour difficulties. Sleeping, eating, potty training, temper tantrums and
• teething.
• Breastfeeding, weaning, healthy eating, hygiene, safety and exercise
• Postnatal depression, bereavement and violence in the family

Because of this particular focus and the way that Health Visitors work closely with families, they are often the first practitioners to become aware of families that are struggling to cope with their child. Usually, support is then given by the Health Visitor; or they will agree with the parents/carers on what other service may be helpful and make a referral where necessary.

Occasionally the problems that Health Visitors find in families give cause for concern about the protection of the child from harm and in these situations it is the duty of Health Visitors to consult with and/or make a referral to Children's Social Care. If the concerns continue and a child protection conference is arranged Health Visitors are often key contributors to the decision making in helping the family to protect the child from harm.

School Nurses

School nurses are trained nurses working between health, education and schools. They have an important role in promoting, assessing and monitoring the health and development of children and young people. School nurses provide an essential link between school, home and the community that helps safeguard the well-being of children and young people.

School Nurses have numerous responsibilities, which include:

• Supporting children with complex health needs
• Support for children with mental health problems (CAMHS framework, tier 1)
• Running immunisation and vaccination programmes
• Running drop-in clinics (e.g. stop smoking, obesity, sexual health) and Enuresis clinics
• Assessing the health needs of every five-year-old pupil
• Providing health schemes for young people
• Advice to parents and Parenting programmes
• Epipen training

Because school nurses have regular contact with school age children and have the skills and knowledge of child health and development they have an important role in all stages of the child protection process. They are also often involved in the Child and Family meetings under Section 17, Children Act 1989.

Dental Practitioners and Dental Care Practitioners (DCPs)

Dental practitioners and the dental care practitioners (dental therapists, dental hygienists, dental nurses etc) work in a variety of settings as salaried staff of PCTs, as providers of PCT commissioned services and as independent practitioners. They may see vulnerable children both within health care settings and when undertaking domiciliary visits. They are likely to identify injuries to the head, neck, face, mouth and teeth, as well as potentially identifying other child welfare concerns.

The dental team, irrespective of the healthcare setting in which they work, should therefore be included within the child protection systems and training within the local trust. Child protection and the Dental Team - an introduction to safeguarding children in dental practice will shortly be published as guidance for all dental practice staff. Dentists should have access to a copy of Tameside SCB's procedures.

The dental team should have knowledge and skills to identify concerns regarding a child's welfare, know how to refer to children's social care, and who to contact for further advice, including the named practitioners in the local health trust.

Other Health Practitioners

All other health practitioners and staff who provide help and support to promote children's health and development should have knowledge of Tameside SCB procedures and how to contact named practitioners for advice and support. They should receive the training and supervision needed to recognise and act upon child welfare concerns, and to respond to the needs of children.

Independent sector

Tameside & Glossop PCT ensures that, through contracting arrangements, independent sector providers deliver services that are in line with PCTs' obligations with respect to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and their duty to notify the local authority of children who are, or are likely to be accommodated for at least three months.

Tameside & Glossop PCT ensures that the same standards and requirements are applied to both NHS providers and the independent sector. It also ensures that appropriate links are established between independent providers Tameside SCB and that the provider is aware of Tameside SCB policies and procedures.

Where Tameside & Glossop PCT has commissioning arrangements with independent providers then the provider should have a named practitioner on site, and access to the PCT designated practitioners for complex issues or where concerns may have to be escalated and involve children's social care. Clinical networks can provide a further opportunity for sharing highly specialised resources across teams and geographical areas.

Tameside & Glossop Acute Services NHS Trust

Paediatricians

Paediatricians, wherever they work, will come into contact with child abuse in the course of their work. All paediatricians need to maintain their skills in the recognition of abuse, and be familiar with the procedures to be followed if abuse and neglect is suspected. Consultant paediatricians in particular may be involved in difficult diagnostic situations, differentiating those where abnormalities may have been caused by abuse from those which have a medical cause. In their contacts with children and families they should be sensitive to clues suggesting the need for additional support or inquiries.

Where paediatricians undertake forensic medical examination, they must ensure they are competent to do so, or work together with a colleague such as a forensic medical examiner who has the necessary complementary skills.

Paediatricians will sometimes be required to provide reports for child protection investigations, civil and criminal proceedings and to appear as witnesses to give oral evidence. They must always act in accordance with guidance from the General Medical Council and professional bodies, ensuring their evidence is accurate.

The core and case dependent skills required are outlined in detail in 'Guidance on Paediatric Forensic Examinations in Relation to Possible Child Sexual Abuse (2004), produced by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and the Association of Forensic Physicians.

Some paediatricians will act as independent expert witnesses in legal proceedings. The Academy of Royal Colleges issued guidance for those undertaking expert witness work in 2005.

Accident & Emergency

Staff working in Accident and Emergency (A&E) departments should be able to recognise abuse and be familiar with local procedures for making enquiries to find out whether a child is subject to a child protection plan.

Staff in A&E departments should also be alert to the need to safeguard the welfare of children when treating parents or carers of children. They should also be alert to parents and carers who seek medical care from a number of sources in order to conceal the repeated nature of a child's injuries. Specialist paediatric advice should be available at all times to A&E Departments, and all units where children receive care. If a child - or children from the same household - presents repeatedly, even with slight injuries, in a way which doctors, nurses or other staff find worrying, they should act upon their concerns. Children and families should be actively and appropriately involved in these processes unless this would result in harm to the child.

The relevant child's GP should be notified of visits by children to an A&E department. Where the child is not registered, the appropriate contact in the Primary Care Trust is to be notified for arranging registration. Consent should be sought from a competent child or young person for the PCT, health visitor and school nurse or other health practitioner to be notified where such practitioners have a role in relation to the child. This will require careful discussion and explanation, but overriding a refusal to provide consent should only take place when there is a public interest of sufficient force. Where there is a clear risk of significant harm to a child, or serious harm to an adult, the public interest test will almost certainly be satisfied. In such circumstances the reasons for taking such action should be carefully documented and an explanation given to the child or young person.

In-Patient and Out-Patient Services

In-patient services are provided by the Children's Unit who care for children requiring both medical and surgical treatment, the Neo-natal Unit who provide in-patient care to those babies who require intensive input due to circumstances surrounding their birth. Day case surgery provides surgical treatment to those children who do not require an overnight stay.

Out-patient services are provided by the Out-patient department, who treat approximately 200 children per week.

The Children's Community Nursing Team provides care to children in their own home. They care for children following discharge from the hospital and provide support for those families whose children have long term medical needs.

Where there are child protection concerns, a discharge planning meeting is convened to ensure that there are plans in place to safeguard these children and all agencies are aware of their roles and responsibilities before these children are discharged home.

Staff working in these areas, are trained to recognise abuse and neglect, follow the referral process as indicated in the Tameside SCB procedures and work with other agencies once detected.

Maternity Services

Midwives are the primary health practitioners likely to be working with and supporting women and their families throughout pregnancy. However, other health practitioners including maternity support workers, health visitors and, where applicable, specialist key workers may also be directly engaged in providing support. The close relationship they foster with their clients provides an opportunity to observe attitudes towards the developing baby and identify potential problems during pregnancy, birth and the child's early care.

It is estimated that a third of domestic abuse starts or escalates during pregnancy. All health practitioners working with pregnant women should understand that vulnerable women are more likely to delay seeking care, to fail to attend antenatal clinics regularly and will tend to deny and minimise abuse. Recognising the prevalence of abuse across all socio economic groups, it is important to provide a supportive and enabling environment, where the issue of abuse is raised with every pregnant woman, with the provision of information about specialist agencies, thus enabling disclosure should a woman choose. ( Maternity Section Children's NSF 2004). The Department of Health issued revised guidance Responding to Domestic Violence: A Handbook for Health Practitioners in January 2006.

Women and their families are increasingly choosing to access midwifery led maternity services. These are provided primarily outside hospitals in community based settings, including in Children's Centres. Where midwives and other maternity support staff are employed directly by NHS Primary Care or Hospital Trusts they are integrated in that Trust's safeguarding arrangements.

Ambulance Trusts and NHS Direct sites

The staff working in these services will have access (by phone or in person) to family homes and be involved with individuals in a time of crisis and may therefore be in a position to identify initial concerns regarding a child's welfare. Each of these agencies should have a named practitioner for child safeguarding. All staff should be aware of local procedures in line with Tameside SCB policies.

North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust should provide relevant staff with detailed child protection procedures, guidance and training for when they may attend an incident and suspect that the injured or any other child at the location may have been abused or neglected. These procedures should detail that in addition to providing any necessary para-medical attention and transport to hospital, staff must:

• Carefully record the patient's overall physical condition, clothing and the environment in which s/he was found
• Compare the injury / observed condition with any explanation provided by parent or carer
• Listen to the child and respond in a manner which instils confidence, and avoids unnecessary probing
• Provide a confidential patient report to the senior nurse at the A & E department and request a check with the child protection register
• Pass on relevant information to Central Ambulance Control (CAC), who will inform Children's Social Care or in an emergency the Police

If a parent/carer refuses to allow the ambulance crew to convey the child to hospital, CAC must be informed. CAC will inform Police and Children's Social Care and will arrange for the Ambulance Service duty officer to attend the scene.

Ambulance Service staff should also be alert to the possibility and significance of domestic abuse.

Universal health services - general practitioners, the primary health care team, practice employed staff and school nurses

General practitioners (GPs), other members of the primary health care team (PHCT) and GP practice-employed staff have key roles to play both in the identification of children who may have been abused and those who are at risk of abuse; and in subsequent intervention and protection. Surgery consultations, home visits, treatment room sessions, child health clinic attendance, drop-in centres and information from staff such as health visitors, midwives, school nurses and practice nurses may all help to build up a picture of the child's situation and can alert the team if there is some concern.

All PHCT members and GP practice-employed staff should know when it is appropriate to refer a child to children's social care for help as a 'child in need', and how to act on concerns that a child may be at risk of significant harm through abuse or neglect. In addition, where it is not the GP that is making the referral, they should be informed at the earliest opportunity.

The GP, GP practice-employed staff and the PHCT are also well placed to recognise when a parent or other adult has problems which may affect their capacity as a parent or which may mean that they pose a risk of harm to a child. While GPs have responsibilities to all their patients, children may be particularly vulnerable and their welfare is paramount.

Because of their knowledge of children and families, GPs, together with other GP practice staff and PHCT members, have an important role in all stages of child protection processes. This includes appropriate information sharing (subject to normal confidentiality requirements) with children's social care when enquiries are being made about a child, contributing to assessments and involvement in a child protection plan to protect a child from harm, as appropriate. GPs, practice staff and other PHCT practitioners should make available to child protection conferences relevant information about a child and family, whether or not they, or a member of the PHCT, are able to attend.

All GPs have a duty to maintain their skills in the recognition of abuse, and to be familiar with the procedures to be followed if abuse is suspected. GPs should take part in training about safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and have regular updates as part of their postgraduate educational programme. As employers, GPs should ensure that practice nurses, practice managers, receptionists and any other staff whom they employ, are given the opportunities to attend local courses in safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children or ensure that safeguarding training is provided within the team.

PHCTs should have a clear means of identifying in records those children (together with their parents and siblings) who are the subject of a child protection plan. This will enable them to be recognised by the partners of the practice and any other doctor, practice nurse or health visitor who may be involved in the care of those children. There should be good communication between GPs, health visitors, school nurses, practice nurses and midwives in respect of all children about whom there are concerns.

If concerns arise during an assessment that is undertaken as part of the Child Health Promotion Programme, that may require support from another agency it will be important for the practitioners involved to work in partnership and share relevant information as required in accordance with confidentiality obligations.

PCTs are responsible for planning integrated GP out-of-hours services in their local area and staff working within these services should know how to access advice from designated and named practitioners within the PCT. Each GP and member of the PHCT should have access to a copy of the Tameside SCB's procedures.

School nurses have regular contact with school age children who spend a significant proportion of their time in school. Their skills and knowledge of child health and development mean that, in their work with children in promoting, assessing and monitoring health and development, they have an important role in all stages of safeguarding children and child safeguarding processes.

Nurses and other health practitioners working with children and families in a variety of environments need to be alert to the strong links between adult domestic abuse and child abuse and are well placed to recognise when a child is in need of help, services or at potential risk of significant harm.

Pennine Care NHS Trust

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)

In the course of their work, child and adolescent mental health practitioners will therefore need to identify as part of assessment and care planning whether child abuse or neglect, or domestic abuse are factors in a child's mental health problems and to ensure this is addressed appropriately in their treatment and care. If they think a child is currently affected they should follow the child protection procedures laid down for their services within their area. Consultation, supervision and training resources should be available and accessible in each service.

Child and adolescent mental health practitioners have a role in the initial assessment process in circumstances where their specific skills and knowledge are helpful. Examples include: children and young people with severe behavioural and emotional disturbance, eating disorders or self-harming behaviour; families where there is a perceived high risk of danger; very young children, or where the abused child or abuser has severe communication problems; where the parent or carer fabricate or induce illness; and where multiple victims are involved. In addition, assessment and treatment services may need to be provided to young people with mental health problems who offend. The assessment of children with significant learning difficulties, a disability, or sensory and communication difficulties, may require the expertise of a specialist learning disability or child and adolescent mental health service.

Child and adolescent mental health services also have a role in the provision of a range of psychiatric and psychological assessment and treatment services for children and families. Services that may be provided, in liaison with children's social care, include the provision of reports for Court, and direct work with children, parents and families. Services may be provided either within general or specialist multidisciplinary teams, depending upon the severity and complexity of the problem. In addition, consultation and training may be offered to services in the community including e.g. social services, schools, primary health care teams, and nurseries.

Adult Mental Health Services

Adult mental health services, including those providing general adult and community, forensic, psychotherapy, alcohol and substance misuse and learning disability services, have a responsibility in safeguarding children when they become aware of or identify a child at risk of harm. This may be as a result of service's direct work with those who may be mentally ill, a parent, a parent-to-be, or a non-related abuser, or in response to a request for the assessment of an adult perceived to represent a potential or actual risk to a child or young person. These staff need to be especially aware of the risk of neglect, emotional abuse and domestic abuse. They should follow the child protection procedures laid down for their services within their area. Consultation, supervision and training resources should be available and accessible in each service.

All mental health practitioners have a duty to seek to discover whether any patient/client has responsibility for, or significant contact with, a child and to consider the impact her/his condition may have on that child and whether this requires a referral to Children's Social Care.

The needs and protection of the child (including the unborn child) of these patients are a priority in the assessment of parents and should be undertaken in partnership with PCT staff and Children's Social Care.

In order to safeguard children of patients, mental health practitioners should routinely record details of patients' responsibilities in relation to children and consider the support needs of patients who are parents and their children in all aspects of their work using the Care Programme Approach.

Care programme meetings about users of mental health services must include consideration of any needs or risk factors with respect to any children concerned including arrangements for contact and discharge. Children's Social Care must be included in these meetings.

Mental health practitioners should refer to Royal College of Psychiatrists policy documents including Patients as Parents and Child Abuse and Neglect: the role of Mental Health Services.

Close collaboration and liaison between the adult mental health services and children's social care are essential in the interests of children. This may require the sharing of information to safeguard and promote the welfare of children or protect a child from significant harm. The expertise of substance misuse and learning disability services may also be required.

The assessment of parents with significant learning difficulties, a disability, or sensory and communication difficulties, may require the expertise of a specialist psychiatrist or clinical psychologist from a learning disability or adult mental health service.

Visiting of Psychiatric Patients by Children

All inpatient mental health services must have policies and procedures relating to children visiting inpatients as set out in the Guidance on the Visiting of Psychiatric Patients by Children (HSC 1999/222: LAC (99)32) , to NHS Trusts. Additional guidance has been provided for high security hospitals. Mental health practitioners must consider the needs of children whose parent or relative is an inpatient, whether formal or informal, in a mental health unit and make appropriate arrangements for them to visit if this is in the child's best interests.

Alcohol and Drug Services

A range of services are provided, in particular by health and voluntary agencies, to respond to the needs of both adults (with parental responsibilities) and children who misuse drugs. These services are linked to the relevant agencies which comprise, as a minimum, health, social care, education and Police representatives. It is important that arrangements are in place, which enable child protection referrals from substance misuse (include alcohol) services to be made in relevant cases. Where children may be suffering significant harm because of their own substance misuse, or where parental substance misuse may be causing such harm, referrals will need to be made by drug action teams or substance misuse services in accordance with Tameside SCB procedures.

Where children are not suffering significant harm, referral arrangements also need to be in place to enable children's broader needs to be assessed and responded to. Tameside Children's Needs Framework provides further guidance on this.

Greater Manchester Police

The main purpose of the Police is the protection of life and the main functions are to uphold the law, prevent crime and disorder and protect the citizen. Children, like all citizens, have the right to the full protection offered by the criminal law. The Police have a duty and responsibility to investigate all criminal offences and as Lord Laming pointed out in his report into the circumstances leading to the death of Victoria Climbié (2003) “the investigation of crimes against children is as important as the investigation of any other serious crime and any suggestions that child protection policing is of lower status than any other form of policing should be eradicated.”

Safeguarding children is not solely the role of Police Family Support Team officers. It is a fundamental part of the duties of all Police officers. Patrol officers attending domestic abuse incidents, for example, should be aware of the effect of such violence on any children normally resident within the household. The Children Act 2004 places a wider duty on the Police to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. They also maintain relevant UK-wide databases, such as the Violent and Sexual Offenders Register (VISOR). This has been developed jointly between the Police and Probation service to assist management of offenders in the community.

Police officers engaged in e.g., crime and disorder reduction partnerships, drug action teams etc. must keep in mind the needs of children in their area.

The Police hold important information about children who may be at risk of harm as well as those who cause such harm. They are committed to sharing information and intelligence with other agencies where this is necessary to protect children. This includes a responsibility to ensure that those officers representing the Force at a child protection conference are fully informed about the case as well as being experienced in risk assessment and the decision-making process. Similarly, they can expect other agencies to share with them information and intelligence they hold to enable the Police to carry out their duties.

The Police are responsible for the gathering of evidence in criminal investigations. This task can be carried out in conjunction with other agencies but the Police are ultimately accountable for the product of criminal enquiries. Any evidence gathered may be of use to local authority solicitors who are preparing for civil proceedings to protect the victim. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) should be consulted, but evidence will normally be shared if it is in the best interests of the child.

The Police should be notified as soon as possible by Children's Social Care wherever a case referred to them involves a criminal offence committed, or is suspected of having been committed, against a child. Other agencies should consider sharing such information. This does not mean that in all such cases a full investigation will be required, or that there will necessarily be any further Police involvement. It is important, however, that the Police retain the opportunity to be informed and consulted, to ensure all relevant information can be taken into account before a final decision is made.

The decision concerning the instigation of criminal proceedings is made by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), whenever possible after consultation with other agencies and the decision is primarily based upon:

• Sufficiency of evidence
• Interests of the child and
• Public interest

In addition to their duty to investigate criminal offences the Police have emergency powers to enter premises without warrant where there is a risk to life or limb or in order to prevent serious damage to property. Such powers should be used only when necessary, the principle being that wherever possible the decision to remove a child from a parent or carer should be made by a court. Home Office Circular 44/2003  gives detailed guidance on this.

GMP Public Protection Investigation Unit

The Greater Manchester Police Family Support Teams in the Public Protection Investigation Unit take primary responsibility for investigating child abuse cases. From December 2005 they have IT capability under the national IMPACT Nominal Index (INI) to quickly check which forces (broadly, UK-wide) hold information on a particular individual. This has greatly enhanced the Police's ability to contribute swiftly to inter-agency requests in addressing perceived risks.

The INI capability draws on a number of Police databases including child protection, domestic abuse, crime, custody and intelligence as an investigation tool enables access to information that they may not be on the Police National Computer. An important guidance document called Investigating Child Abuse and Safeguarding Children was published by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) in 2005, and this sets out the suggested investigative approach, and terms of reference, for forces investigation of abuse to children.

The PPIU provides, on 7 days a week, a service to:

• Protect life and prevent crime
• Investigate (often serious) crimes against children
• Instigate criminal proceedings (in conjunction with the CPS) provided that there is sufficient evidence, it is in the public interest to do so and that it is in the best interests of the child
• Share information within, and where necessary outside of the Police service to protect children
• Make decisions and undertake risk assessments
• Undertake emergency protection of abused or neglected children and the use of powers of entry and removal where necessary
• Share information about sex offenders for local multi-agency public protection arrangements (MAPPA)
• Support civil proceedings
• Set practitioner standards

The PPIU's terms of reference are to investigate possible offences which occur:

• Within the family or extended family
• In respect of a child being cared for by any person (voluntary or practitioner) entrusted with her/his care at the time of an alleged offence
• Where the victim is an adult but the abuse occurred whilst s/he was a child and under either of the above circumstances

The term 'within the family or extended family' includes:

• All persons living within the same household as the child
• Any person, both voluntary and practitioner, entrusted with the care at the time of the alleged offence e.g. school teachers, youth workers, child minders etc and
• Regular visitors to the household e.g. neighbours, family friends, etc

The PPIU is also (in relation to sex offences) responsible for investigating suspects whose identities are known to the child but where there is no substantial relationship and for 'stranger attacks'.

Investigations falling within the above terms of reference will be conducted by the PPIU covering the area where the child lives.

Investigations, outside the PPIU terms of reference, will be dealt with (to the same standard) by CID officers from the Police station which covers the area in which the offence occurred.

Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS)

CAFCASS has the responsibility to advise the courts on the needs and interests of children who are the subject of family court proceedings, on issues such as applications for residence or contact orders, care orders, adoption and disputes about specific issues such as preventing a child being taken abroad.

The functions of the service in respect of family proceedings in which the welfare of children is or may be in question, are to:

• Safeguard and promote the welfare of children who are the subject of family proceedings
• Give advice to any court about any application made to it in such proceedings
• Make provision for the children to be represented in such proceedings
• Provide information, advice and other support for the children and their families

CAFCASS appoints an individual Officer who might be a CAFCASS employee or a self employed contractor. The CAFCASS officer is appointed by the court to undertake one or more of their functions and can be referred to by this general title. These CAFCASS Officers have different roles in private and public law proceedings which are denoted by different titles. The specific titles are:

• Children's Guardians, who are appointed to safeguard the interests of a child who is the subject of specified proceedings under the Children Act 1989 or who is the subject of adoption proceedings.
• Parental Order Reporters, who are appointed to investigate and report to the court on circumstances relevant under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 .
• Children & Family Reporters, who prepare welfare reports for the court in relation to applications under section 8 of the Children Act 1989 (private law proceedings including applications for residence and contact), and increasingly also work with families at the stage of their initial application to the court.
• CAFCASS Officers can also be appointed to provide support under a Family Assistance Order under the Children Act 1989. (Local Authority Officers can also be appointed for this purpose).

CAFCASS staff should be informed of any s47 enquiries or domestic violence incidents, on cases in which they have an involvement, and be kept informed of and, where appropriate, invited to strategy meetings, child protection conferences and child care reviews.

CAFCASS staff should also report any concerns without delay to Children's Social Care service or the Police.

The CAFCASS Officer has a statutory right in public law cases to access and to take copies of local authority records relating to the child concerned and any application under the Children Act 1989 . That power also extends to other records which relate to the child and the wider functions of the local authority or records held by an authorised person (i.e. the NSPCC) which relate to that child.

Pro-forma requests from CAFCASS seeking information in private law matters about a child or family known to Children's Social Care are responded to promptly.

Where necessary, a summary report indicating the extent of Children's Social Care services involvement and any ongoing welfare concerns about a child and/or adults is provided.

CAFCASS may also receive referrals of concerns from Independent Reviewing Officers about cases where there is cause for concern about drift in care planning agreed at court or elsewhere. Where these referrals are essentially concerned with matters of likely or actual significant harm to looked after children, CAFCASS will refer them back to Children's Social Care services and the local Police for consideration.

CAFCASS may need to act further upon the concern after this consideration is complete if an issue about care planning remains.

Where a CAFCASS Officer has been appointed by the Court as Children's Guardian and the matter before the court relates to specified proceedings (Specified proceedings include public law proceedings. Applications for contact, residence, specific issue and prohibited steps orders, which have become particularly difficult can also be specified proceedings) they should always be invited to all formal planning meetings convened by the local authority in respect of the child. This includes statutory reviews of children who are accommodated or looked after, child protection conferences, and relevant Adoption Panel meetings. The conference chair should ensure that all those attending such meetings, including the child and any family members, understand the role of the CAFCASS Officer.

Greater Manchester Probation services

The key aims of the Probation service are:

• Protecting the public
• Reducing re-offending
• Proper punishment of offenders in the community
• Ensuring offenders' awareness of the affects of crime on victims and the public
• Rehabilitation of offenders

Probation staff work predominantly with offenders aged eighteen years and over. The service also provides information and consultation to the victims (including child victims) of serious sexual and violent offences. Probation staff have both statutory and non-statutory contact with sex offenders following release from Prison and work with a range of offenders with less serious convictions against children.

Probation staff may become involved with cases which are relevant to child protection:

• In the course of preparing reports to the criminal courts
• As a result of their responsibility for the supervision of offenders (including those convicted of offences against children)
• Where an offender had been subjected to abuse as a child
• Where a sixteen or seventeen year old offender is or has been the subject of abuse
• Where a court requests a bail hostel placement for a single carer
• When a single carer is remanded or sentenced to custody

In addition, Probation Areas will provide a direct service to children by:-

• Offering a service to child victims of serious sexual or violent offences
• Supervising 16 and 17 year olds on Community Punishment
• Seconding staff to join Youth Offending Teams
• Supporting women victims, and indirectly children in the family, of convicted perpetrators of domestic abuse participating in accredited domestic abuse programmes

Probation staff must refer a child to Children's Social Care services if they are concerned that s/he may be in need or at risk of significant harm.

All offenders referred to the Probation service are assessed in terms of their risk level and needs by use of a standard assessment tool (OASys). Those assessed as high or very high risk are dealt with by means of multi-agency public protection arrangements (MAPPA).

Offender managers should ensure there is clarity and communication between Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) and other risk management processes e.g. in the case of safeguarding children, procedures covering registered Sex Offenders, domestic abuse management meetings, child protection procedures and procedures for the assessment of persons identified as presenting a risk or potential risk to children.

The Probation service victim liaison officer should consult Children's Social Care services in cases where the victim is a child.

When working with any member of a family where child abuse is known, or thought to have occurred and where the child remains in the care of, or has contact with the abuser, the Probation officer must liaise closely with Children's Social Care and any other relevant agencies. (The exception is where child has been removed and has no planned contact).

Youth Offending Team (YOT)

The duties of the YOT are to co-ordinate the provision of youth justice services for all those in Tameside who need them, and to carry out other duties under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 . Tameside YOT has contact with both victims and perpetrators of crime, and their families. Therefore, there may be occasions when practitioners identify circumstances in which action by Children's Social Care is required. Due to the multi-disciplinary make up of YOT's, they are well placed to fulfil their responsibilities under Section 11 of the Children Act 2004 .

A number of the children who are supervised by Tameside YOT will be children in need, some of whose needs will require safeguarding. It is necessary therefore for there to be clear links between youth justice and Children's Social Care, both at strategic level and at a child-specific operational level.

The responsibilities set out below apply not only to Tameside YOT, but also to initiatives under the prevention agenda, and practitioners/agencies contracted to provide services on behalf of the YOT. Tameside YOT have a duty to make arrangements to ensure that their functions are discharged having regard to the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, and to this end must ensure that the following arrangements are in place:

• A senior member of staff should be nominated to take lead responsibility for child protection and safeguarding matters, although ultimate accountability for this work will lie with the YOT Manager.
• Tameside YOT is represented on Tameside Safeguarding Children Board (SCB).
• Appropriate policies and procedures must be in place to ensure that the YOT fulfil their duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. These must include:
• A Child Protection Policy, making clear arrangements for managing disclosure of abuse, allegations against members of YOT staff, and procedures for referral of these issues to SSD and the Police
• Practice Guidance for staff around 'safe working practice', in order to try and avoid the potential for allegations against staff
• All YOT practitioners should be appropriately trained to ensure they are able to carry out their safeguarding responsibilities, including training in the identification and management of child protection concerns. Staff should also receive regular refresher training
• Clear arrangements should be in place for information sharing with partner agencies, and these should include the transfer of information to the secure estate regarding young people's risk and vulnerability
• There should be HR procedures in place which adequately reflect the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, and all staff should receive enhanced CRB clearance
• All assessments carried out by YOT practitioners (i.e. ASSET and ONSET) should place adequate emphasis on the identification and management of safeguarding issues
• When completing Local Management Plans following a serious incident, due consideration should be given to the safeguarding needs of both the perpetrator and the victim (where the victim is a child). Consideration as to whether a Serious Case Review is necessary should also be evidenced
• Tameside YOT has close links with the local Multi-agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA), the arrangements for which are set out in the guidance on Management of Known Offenders.

Tameside Council's Cultural and Customer Services (including sport and leisure)

Cultural services designed for children and families such as libraries, play schemes and play facilities, countryside ranger service, sport and leisure centres, events and attractions, museums and arts centres are directly provided, purchased or grant aided by Tameside Council, the commercial sector, and by community and voluntary agencies. Many such activities take place in premises managed by authorities or their agents.

In addition to their shared responsibility to provide staff with child protection training, cultural services must ensure that managers take responsibility for briefing casual and temporary members of staff of the need to be aware of child protection issues.

Staff, volunteers and contractors who provide these services will have various degrees of contact with children who use them, and appropriate arrangements will need to be in place. These should include:

• Procedures for staff and others to report concerns that they may have about the children they meet that are in line with What To Do If You Are Worried A Child Is Being Abused and SCB procedures
• Appropriate codes of practice for staff, particularly sports coaches, such as those issued by national governing bodies of sport, the Health and Safety Executive or the Local Authority. Working practices should be adopted which minimise unobserved contact with children. Sports agencies can also seek advice on child protection issues from the Child Protection in Sport Unit (CPSU) which has been established as a partnership between the NSPCC and Sport England.

Cultural and Customer Services must also ensure that any agencies contracting to use premises for which they have management responsibility have adequate child protection procedures.

Cultural and Customer Services should identify a member of staff who can take a lead role for child protection.

Managers of library services should ensure that child protection policies are in place and that these include the procedure for staff to follow if children are left unsupervised in the library.

Through the facility for homework helpers and holiday groups, some library staff have direct unsupervised contact with children and all must be familiar and comply with child protection procedures.

Because libraries provide opportunities for anonymous access to the internet, staff must be aware and take reasonable precautions to prevent access to pornography and chat rooms in which children may be drawn into risky relationships or exposed to harmful material.

Youth Services

Tameside Youth Service's policies and procedures should assist in balancing the desire to maintain confidentiality between the young person and the Youth Worker, and the duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of the young person and others. Volunteers within the Youth Service are subject to the same requirement.

Where Tameside Council funds local voluntary youth agencies or other providers through grant or contract arrangements, the Council will ensure that proper arrangements to safeguard children and young people are in place (for example, this might form part of the agreement for the grant or contract). The agencies might get advice on how to do so from their national bodies or the SCB.

Childcare Services

Childminders and everyone working in day care services should know how to recognise and respond to the possible abuse or neglect of a child.

Private, voluntary and Tameside Council day care providers caring for children under the age of 8 must be registered by Ofsted under the Children Act 1989 , and should have a written statement, based on What To Do If You're Worried A Child Is Being Abused - Summary . This statement should clearly set out staff responsibilities for reporting suspected child abuse or neglect in accordance with Tameside SCB procedures and should include contact and telephone numbers for the local Police and Children's Social Care. It should also include procedures to be followed in the event of an allegation being made against a member of staff or volunteer.

All agencies providing group day care must have a designated person who is responsible for liaison with local child protection agencies and Ofsted on child protection issues, and other staff should be able to implement child protection procedures in the absence of that person.

The Voluntary and Private Sector

Voluntary Agencies and Private Sector Providers

Voluntary agencies and private sector providers play an important role in delivering services for children and young people including in early years and day care provision, family support services, youth work and children's social care and health care.

Many voluntary agencies are skilled in preventative work and may be well-placed to reach the most vulnerable children, young people and families. The private sector is increasingly providing a range of specialist services for children, young people, their parents and carers.

Voluntary agencies either specific to Tameside or working across Greater Manchester also deliver advocacy for looked-after children and young people and for parents and children who are the subject of section s47 enquiries and child protection conferences. They offer for example: therapeutic work with children, young people and families, particularly in relation to child sexual abuse; specialist support and services for children and young people with disabilities or health problems; and services for children abused through prostitution and for children who abuse other children.

ChildLine is a national service for all children and young people who need advice about abuse, bullying, and other concerns. The NSPCC is a specialist child protection agency which operates help lines and other services throughout England , Wales , and Northern Ireland . Its national Child Protection Help line provides advice to adults and children about child protection concerns. Parent line Plus offers support to anyone parenting a child. These services, along with many other smaller help lines, provide important routes into statutory and voluntary services.

Voluntary agencies also play a key role in providing information and resources to the wider public about the needs of children and young people, and resources to help families. Many campaign on behalf of groups on specific issues.

The voluntary sector is active in working to safeguard the children and young people with whom it works. A range of umbrella and specialist agencies, including the national governing bodies for sports, offer standards, guidance, training and advice for voluntary agencies on keeping children and young people safe from harm. For example, the Child Protection in Sport Unit (CPSU) established in partnership with the NSPCC and Sport England provides advice and assistance on developing codes of practice and child protection procedures to sporting agencies.

Where independent agencies have a formal relationship with statutory ones e.g. subject to registration and inspection or contracted to provide services, the statutory agencies may reasonably be expected to provide clear advice and assistance.

The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) is a charity with a duty to protect children from abuse and neglect and has the statutory power to bring care proceedings in its own right.

The NSPCC is the only voluntary organisation authorised to initiate proceedings to protect children under the terms of the Children Act 1989 , but other voluntary agencies often play a key role in implementing child protection plans.

The NSPCC operates a national 24 hour child protection line, which accepts referrals and passes the information in respect of Tameside children to Tameside Children's Social Care.

Children's Social Care services may commission the NSPCC to undertake specific child protection related work, including s47 enquiries and, 'special investigations'. The NSPCC also provides services for children and families and has the same responsibilities in this respect as other voluntary agencies.

Sports Clubs

Many children regularly attend sports clubs which should have their own child protection procedures and training for relevant staff and volunteers.

The NSPCC Child Protection in Sport (CPSU) works in partnership with Sport England and other major sports agencies to develop safeguards for children in sport.

In partnership with Ladbrokes, the NSPCC has issued a free leaflet and checklist of questions ( Have Fun Be Safe) that parents and carers should be asking for, from agencies offering sports activities for children (available from NSPCC and Ladbrokes shops).

The Football Association (FA) has its own child protection policy and procedures and provides mandatory training for coaches, referees and volunteers involved in local football clubs.

The child protection procedures instruct individuals to seek advice or make referrals to the NSPCC Help-line, Children's Social Care or the Police.

Where suspected abuse occurs within a football setting, the FA Head of Education & Child Protection should be informed of the concerns and will provide information for any relevant child protection enquiries and strategy discussions.

Faith Communities

Churches, other places of worship and faith-based agencies provide a wide range of activities for children and young people. They are some of the largest providers of organised activities for children and youth work, and have an important role in safeguarding children and supporting families. Religious leaders, staff and volunteers who provide services in places of worship and in faith-based agencies will have various degrees of contact with children.

Like other agencies that work with children, churches, other places of worship and faith based agencies need to have appropriate arrangements in place for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. All faith communities, with support from nominated individuals in the local SCB, should be encouraged to develop and maintain their own child protection procedures, consistent with the child protection procedures of Tameside Safeguarding Framework, especially in respect of:

• Procedures for staff and others to report concerns that they may have about the children they meet
• Appropriate codes of practice for staff, particularly those working directly with children, such as those issued by the Churches' Child Protection Advisory Service (CCPAS) or their denomination, or faith group
• Recruitment procedures in accordance with these Tameside procedures, alongside training and supervision of staff (paid or voluntary)
• Faith communities should ensure that all clergy, staff and volunteers who have regular contact with children:
• Have been checked via the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) for suitability in working with children and understand the extent and limits of the volunteers role
• Are sensitive to the possibility of child abuse and neglect
• Have access to training opportunities to promote their knowledge
• Know how to report any concerns about possible abuse or neglect
• Are vigilant about their own actions so they cannot be misinterpreted

Churches and faith agencies can seek advice on child protection issues from the Churches' Child Protection Advisory Service (CCPAS). CCPAS can help with policies and procedures; its Guidance to Churches manual can assist churches and its publication on Safeguarding Children and Young People can assist other places of worship and faith-based groups

CCPAS provides a national (24 hour) telephone helpline for churches, other places of worship and faith-based groups and individuals, providing advice and support on safeguarding issues.

In developing procedures around child protection, faith communities should be encouraged to:

• Nominate an individual to take responsibility for drawing up and maintaining policy for child protection
• Have guidelines about the care of children in the absence of parents, which respect the rights of the child and the responsibilities of the adults towards them
• Have guidelines about safe caring practices e.g. not being alone with children without alerting others to the reason, ensuring all allegations, however minor, are reported to the agency/group manager/leader
• Ensure that any agencies who hire premises e.g. playgroups have child protection procedures in place
• Promote and maintain links with the statutory agencies in relation to both general and specific child protection matters

Whenever there is concern that a child has been abused or neglected the concern should be referred, without delay, to the duty social worker in Tameside Children's Social Care.

Ofsted (Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills)

Since 1 April 2007 Ofsted has assumed responsibility (from CSCI) for the inspection and regulation of all children's services. Ofsted also has responsibility for the inspection and regulation of early years day care provision as well as for schools (see sub-section below for information about roles and responsibilities of schools).

Further information is available on the role of Ofsted in respect of children's services providers in the publication 'Are you ready for inspection? - A guide to inspections of children's services conducted by Ofsted' which is available at http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/ 

Ofsted requires providers to meet national standards with respect to child protection, relevant to the service they offer. Providers will also be expected to have knowledge of child protection, including signs and symptoms and what to do if abuse or neglect is suspected.

Ofsted must be informed when a child protection referral is made to Children's Social Care regarding a person who works in any of the services regulated by Ofsted. Explicit agreement must be made in each case to confirm whether it is the employer or Children's Social Care who will inform Ofsted.

Ofsted must contact Children's Social Care services regarding any child protection issues and, in consultation with the Children's Social Care services, consider whether any action needs to be taken to protect children attending registered provision.

Ofsted should be invited to any strategy meetings convened due to concerns or allegations about practitioners in regulated settings.

Ofsted and Fostering, Adoption and Residential Services

Ofsted has responsibility for the registration and periodic inspection of:

• All fostering services (local authority and independent)
• All children's homes (local authority and independent)
• Adoption agencies (local authority and voluntary agencies)
• All 'qualifying' boarding schools/residential Special Schools/ Further Education colleges with boarding facilities for under eighteens
• Residential family centres
• Domiciliary care and private and voluntary hospitals and clinics

Ofsted and Early Years Day Care Provision

Registered childminders and group day care providers must satisfy explicit criteria in order to meet the national standard with respect to child protection. Ensuring that they do so is the responsibility of the early years directorate of Ofsted. Ofsted requires that:

• All childminders and group day care staff have knowledge of child protection, including the signs and symptoms of abuse and what to do if abuse or neglect is suspected
• Those who are entrusted with the day care of children or who child mind have the personal capacity and skills to ensure children are looked after in a nurturing and safe manner
• Ofsted will seek to ensure that day care providers:
• Ensure the environment in which children are cared for is safe
• Have child protection training policies and procedures in place, which are consistent with these procedures
• Be able to demonstrate that their procedures have been followed when an allegation is made

Ofsted must seek to cancel registration if children are at risk of significant harm by being looked after in childminding or group day care settings.

Ofsted also has the responsibility to bring civil proceedings or criminal proceedings against registered or unregistered day care providers in certain circumstances.

Ofsted and Education Provision

Boarding schools, residential Special Schools , and Further Education institutions that provide accommodation for children under 18, must have regard to the respective National Minimum Standards for their establishment .