safeguarding

Improving and safeguarding social wellbeing: a strategy for social work in Northern Ireland 2012-2022

Strategy that has a particular focus on social work in the Health and Social Care (HSC) System which is where the majority of social workers are employed. It is intended as a guide for social workers, their employers, commissioners, education providers and regulators.

Criminal justice, education, youth justice, voluntary and private organisations are also important employers of social workers and this strategy and its proposals will support social workers in these sectors.

Children in care

As part of the NSPCC's strategy to improve outcomes for those children who are most at risk, it will be delivering innovative services that seek to capture learning about what works to keep looked after children safe from harm.

This web resource provides information on the looked after children, why looked after children are at risk, safeguarding concerns, as well as further resources, news and statistics.

Commissioning care homes: common safeguarding challenges (SCIE guide 46)

Guide that aims to identify the issues that commonly lead to safeguarding referrals from care homes. The underlying causes are also identified; neither are in order of prevalence.

Prevention checklists are provided to help both commissioners and providers to work towards a reduction in occurrence of these issues. There are additional links to resources.

Safeguarding: council developments

Report that provides details of how safeguarding practices have been improved in the areas of leadership and management; recruiting, maintaining and retaining a highly competent workforce; quality assurance and performance management; referral and assessment processes and procedures; and partnership working.

It gives localised accounts of practice implementation and, where possible, evidence of outcomes.

Meeting children’s needs for care and protection

Report on a series of seminars set-up to draw together national and international knowledge and professional, policy and research expertise in relation to the management, evaluation and research of everyday multi-professional intervention to safeguard children.

The series has resulted in fostering new links between different fields and networks in pursuit of improving data collection and use, in addition to widening opportunities for future collaborative research and development activities.

On the safe side: principles for the safe accommodation of child victims of trafficking

Document that explores the issues around what makes accommodation safe for child victims of trafficking. ECPAT UK undertook structured face-to-face interviews and a roundtable discussion with a range of professionals, including local authority children’s services, the police, NGOs and organisations accommodating child victims of trafficking, as well as ascertaining the views of the young people themselves. This led to the formulation of 10 child-centred principles concerning the provision of safe accommodation for child victims and/or suspected child victims of trafficking.

Safeguarding adults: a community case study

Video case study about John, a 50 year-old man with Asperger's syndrome. He was being exploited by a group of young girls in the community. John has the capacity to make decisions for himself and clearly felt he was getting something from his relationship with one of the girls. He was also giving her money on a regular basis.

People who knew John were concerned for him. With support from his mother, his employer, his social worker and the police he was able to stop giving money to the girl. The girl was warned off by the police, but John really misses his relationship with her.

Safeguarding children across services: messages from research on identifying and responding to child maltreatment - messages for professionals working in children's social care

The tragic deaths of Victoria Climbié in 2000 and Peter Connelly in 2007 brought the difficulties of identifying and dealing with severe neglect and abuse sharply into public focus. These children died, following weeks and months of appalling abuse, at the hands of those responsible for caring for them.

The public outcries that followed asked how the many different professionals who had seen these children and their families in the weeks before their deaths could have failed to recognise the extent of the children’s maltreatment.