Safeguarding and Quality Assurance Unit

Core Functions

The Safeguarding and Quality Assurance Unit consists of five teams who all share the same mission statement but who each have specific core functions and responsibilities. 

They are supported by a dedicated team of business support staff who are managed by a senior business support manager. They provide administrative support including arranging, booking and minuting meetings, inputing data, updating LiquidLogic and providing clerical support to all staff in the Unit.

Cheshire West and Chester Local Safeguarding Board (LSCB)

The Cheshire West and Chester Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) is the key statutory mechanism for agreeing how the relevant organisations will cooperate to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and for ensuring the effectiveness of what they do. The LSCB is responsible for:

• Setting practice standards and developing policies and procedures
• Monitoring performance against those standards
• Ensuring staff are appropriately trained

The team consists of the following staff:

• The Board Manager who has responsibility for managing the effectiveness of the board. Ensuring the engagement of all agencies and identifying the strategic priorities.
• A Training Officer who develops and delivers multi agency training to the children’s workforce.
• A Policy and Development officer who leads on policy development by project managing the key activities of the board.

The Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) has responsibility for ensuring the children’s workforce is safe by managing allegations of abuse or misconduct of professionals working with children, offering advice and making refferals to the relevant bodies as appropriate. The LADO is also responsible for raising awareness and understanding of safe working practices and safer recruitment.   

Child Protection Chairs

Child Protection chairs have a key responsibility in managing the Child Protection Conference process in a manner that promotes the highest standards of multi-agency practice so that children and young people in Cheshire West and Chester receive quality safeguarding service in line with national legislation, policy and procedures. 

They convene and chair conferences for children who are at risk of significant harm. They also provide consultancy and advice to all professionals working with children and have a crucial role in quality assuring the work of all agencies. This includes the quality of assessments, reports, core groups and child protection plans. Conference chairs also chair a 3 month child in need meeting after a decision has been made to discontinue a child protection plan.

Independent Reviewing Officers

Independent Reviewing Officers are responsible for chairing Statutory Reviews for children who are looked after by the local authority. They also have a responsibility to monitor the activity of the authority as a corporate parent in ensuring that care plans have been given proper consideration and weight to the child’s wishes and feelings and that, where appropriate, the child fully understands the implications of any changes made to his/her care plan.

Independent Reviewing Officers are expected to fulfil a significant function in scrutinising and assuring the quality of care planning for looked after children and, where the situation arises, they have an important role in problem resolution.

One Independent Reviewing Officer is responsible for reviewing foster carers. The team also includes the fostering and adoption panel adviser.

Inclusion and Participation Services

The main role of this team is to promote the views, values and opinions of cared for children and young people within Cheshire West and Chester. Providing opportunities for them to have an input into the strategic development, design, delivery, and evaluation of all services provided for them by Cheshire West and Chester.

Safeguarding Children in Education (SCIE)

The team is responsible for ensuring that all children in Cheshire West and Chester schools are "safe to suceed". They will achieve this by ensuring that all schools are aware of and effectively discharge their safeguarding responsibilities by providing advice, support and challenge and training in respect of safeguarding polict, procedure and practice. The team also offer advice, support and challenge to schools regarding the Ofsted inspection process upon which they base their programme of preventative and responsive whole school audits and reviews.  

Commitment

All staff in the Safeguarding and Quality Assurance Unit are highly qualified and experienced who have attended appropriate training and are committed to continuous professional development. They will be aware of current guidance and legislation will keep abreast of any new legislation, guidance and messages from research to ensue they can deliver quality advice and support to all.

Accountability

The Safeguarding Unit is directly accountable to the Director of Children’s Services.

Mission Statement

We challenge, promote and encourage the highest standards of safeguarding practice through review, audit and scrutiny to ensure better outcomes for the children and young people of Cheshire West and Chester.

To achieve this we will adopt the following four principles:

• Child focussed
• Challenge to improve
• Working together in partnerships
• Inclusive and respectful

Child Focussed

• Ensure the welfare of the child is paramount
• Putting the needs of the children first
• Enable children and young people and their families to actively participate in decisions about their lives
• Ensure children and young people are actively engaged in the recruitment of staff, in shaping services and in the ongoing review of service delivery.

Challenge to Improve

• Ensure all agencies adhere to the safeguarding standards and challenge when these standards are not being met
• Ensure all agencies meet their statutory duties in accordance with national guidance and legislation and challenge when these duties are not being met.
• Provided feedback on the quality of practice with children and families
• Share learning based on experiences, to ensure that practice and services are constantly improved
• Identify gaps in service and service standards which will be reported to the Local Safeguarding Children Board, Children's Trust, the Director of Children's Services and the Corporate Parenting Board.
• Help establish and aid an understanding of baselines from which we can measure the impact of services on each individual child or young person
• Provide constructive and offer practical solutions to all 

Working Together In Partnerships

• Ensure all partner agencies understand their roles and responsibilities in relation to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people.
• Share appropriate information with each other and all partner agencies to improve practice and outcomes for children and young people.
• Encourage the active involvement of all agencies in the work we do
• Foster a collaborative ethos that cuts across professional boundaries
• Be innovative, willing to change, learn and be open to two way challenge

Inclusive and Respectful

• Promote diversity, equality and anti-discriminatory practice
• Challenging any discriminatory or innappropriate language or behaviour
• Treat all staff and agencies with respect