Tameside Safeguarding Framework

Section 1 - Introduction

• Working Together to Safeguard Children
• Policies, Procedures, Protocols & Practice
• Tameside Children's Needs Framework
• Figure 1 - Children's Needs Framework
• Figure 2 - The legislative and policy context of Safeguarding Practice and Service Delivery in Tameside

1.1 Safeguarding and Promoting the Welfare of Children can be a complex task in modern societies. It is for this reason that policies and procedures are needed. But crucially these must support the delivery of good practice and services that achieve positive outcomes for the people.

1.2 The Tameside Safeguarding Framework (Tameside SF) has been designed by Tameside Safeguarding Children Board (Tameside SCB) primarily to be an accessible tool for practitioners to use in their work. It is also designed to be a source of reference for the service user who could be anyone in Tameside.

1.3 The procedures in this document are the core Child Protection procedures. They can also be downloaded on the Tameside SCB website. Additional guidance on specific areas of policy and practice are available on the website. These are listed in appendix 5 and can also be downloaded from the website and added to this framework as required by, and according to, the specific interests of the user of the TSF.

1.4 The Tameside SCB website will be used to update the Framework on a routine basis and to provide news on practice and service developments.

1.5 The Tameside SCB training programme will continue to offer excellent opportunities to update skills and knowledge to safeguard children in Tameside.

1.6 You can also ring or write to Tameside SCB with your comments and suggestions.

Working Together to Safeguard Children

1.7 The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) (when previously known as the Department for Education & Skills (DfES)), a government department, has published the important document, Working Together to Safeguard Children, commonly known as Working Together 2006. This sets out the general expectations of agencies to do just that and has greatly influenced the shape of the Tameside Safeguarding Framework.

Policies, Procedures, Protocols & Practice

1.8 Policies set out how the strategic aims of Tameside SCB will be implemented, usually through outlining the principles of good practice. New policy is approved at the most senior level, by members of the Board of Tameside SCB. 

1.9 Procedures describe in more detail what staff should do in particular circumstances and to an extent how they must do it; it defines the limits of practitioner and practice discretion. 

1.10 Protocols may also do this but are more specifically used as the basis of agreements between different agencies, or parts of the same agency, about how to approach a particular issue. 

1.11 Guidance gives practical and/or theoretical advice on the best way of approaching an issue or carrying out an activity. 

1.12 Practice is the delivery of services through the interaction of the practitioner, or service provider, with the people who will use the service. It is the skills of the practitioner that will ultimately determine the quality of service that is provided. Everything else, including the policies set out in the TSF, is there to support that practice (see figure 2).

Tameside Children's Needs Framework

1.13 Tameside Safeguarding Framework is the companion to the Tameside Children's Needs Framework (see figure 1) which aims to shift the focus from dealing with the difficulties in children's lives to preventing things from going wrong in the first place. It will help children and young people to achieve the five priority outcomes as set out in the government's guidance on Every Child Matters:

• Be healthy
• Stay safe
• Enjoy and achieve
• Make a positive contribution
• Achieve economic well-being. 

1.14 Tameside Children's Needs Framework will support earlier help for children and families by providing a tool for all practitioners to identify needs and a consistent approach to co-ordinating services through

• JASPER/ContactPoint
• Common Assessment Framework
• the Lead Professional role 
• Child and Family meetings. 
• Service Information Directory (www.tameside-sid.org.uk ) 

1.15 This framework recognises the expertise that parents and carers have and encourages working in partnership with the assessment and service delivery skills of practitioners. 

1.16 Further information about Tameside Children's Needs Framework is at appendix 2.

Please note:

1.17 Throughout the Safeguarding Framework, the terms 'child' and 'children' are meant to include young people and the unborn child.

Figure 1 - Children's Needs Framework

Figure 2 - The legislative and policy context of Safeguarding Practice and Service Delivery in Tameside