Agency Roles and Responsibilities

• Agencies work together to identify children who are at risk of, or affected by, serious youth violence, including children who are exploited. They intervene to reduce risk and provide support for children; they monitor effectively the impact of interventions so that risk is reduced;
• Children who are affected by serious youth violence or are exploited experience a child-centred approach from all professionals. Practice is based on a good understanding of children's experiences, their background and identity, including any barriers to them accessing help and support, and their needs and strengths;
• Professionals understand the importance of building trusting relationships with children. Professionals work together to ensure a strengths-based approach to engaging with children and their families. Partners have a shared understanding of the risks and needs of the child, and relationships are built on trust and respectful communication;
• Assessments show that the experiences, strengths and needs of children are well understood. Their views are clearly recorded and central to a multi-agency response. Assessments are timely, include contributions from all relevant agencies and consider extra-familial harm, including risks online. They consider strengths and risks within the family and address risk to, and the protective capacity of, other children, including siblings and peers;
• Assessments and plans are dynamic and adapt to changing risks and needs;
• Children are protected through effective multi-agency arrangements. Key participants attend multi-agency meetings. These meetings are effective forums for timely information-sharing, planning, decision-making and monitoring. Actions happen within agreed timescales, and they help. Protection provided reduces risk and meets need;
• Children and their families can access a range of effective services that are well coordinated, including therapeutic help. Where children are both victims and harming others, multi-agency responses address all their needs and reduce risks;
• Professionals and support staff across agencies are well trained and supported, including receiving support with the emotional impact of working with children and families. They are confident and knowledgeable and understand the impact of serious youth violence on children's health and well-being. They are aware of the importance of avoiding victim-blaming language and approaches as well as personal and institutional bias. This enables them to identify effectively how to help and protect children and to take action to do so;
• Health practitioners, including those in ambulance services, show professional curiosity when children present with injuries that may indicate they are victims of, or at risk of, serious youth violence. They respond to their immediate needs, share information appropriately to reduce risk, and make sure that children are supported to access services to help them to stay safe and to meet their needs;
• Agencies avoid unnecessarily criminalising children. Partners understand the experiences that can contribute to children being violent and/or exploiting other children. They reduce risks through appropriate support for all children involved;
• Cases of serious youth violence and exploitation are investigated effectively. The safeguarding needs of all children are addressed;
• Children and their families are listened to. Multi-agency practice focuses on their needs and experiences and is influenced by their wishes and feelings;
• Schools/education providers have effective systems to identify children at risk of, or subject to, serious youth violence and/or exploitation and children who are missing from school. They make timely referrals to access appropriate support, including to early help or children's social care. Schools and partner agencies share information appropriately and work effectively together to make sure that children get the support they need;
• Schools/education providers are supported by local safeguarding partners to contribute effectively to multi-agency working, including joint work to ensure that children are protected from harm. They work to raise awareness and understanding of the risks of serious youth violence and exploitation. Partners work together to support children to remain in education;
• Taking a multi-agency approach, leaders and managers across agencies understand the causes and consequences of serious youth violence, including factors that make children more vulnerable. They target resources on prevention and early intervention, using evidence-based approaches. This includes work with the community, businesses, education providers and parents and children;
• Leaders and managers across agencies share and analyse information effectively so that partners know and understand: the prevalence of serious youth violence in their area; the localities where children may be at risk; the demographics of perpetrators and victims (including issues of disproportionality such as ethnicity, disability or gender); and the experiences of children. This leads to effective multi-agency strategy, planning and action, including commissioning services to meet local need;
• Leaders and managers share information and intelligence to inform decisions about partners' interventions in places and spaces. Relevant partners are involved and understand the aim of the intervention and the intended outcomes. Interventions mean that children and places and spaces are safer. Partners evaluate interventions and use that learning to continually improve;
• Partners engage with communities, children, parents and carers to understand their needs in relation to and views about serious youth violence and to inform their decision-making about interventions and commissioning services;
• Leaders and managers engage in critical reflection, and challenge and support practice. They promote continuous improvement in services for children at risk of serious youth violence;
• Leaders in the local partnership, through the MASA, actively and effectively monitor and evaluate the work of the statutory partners. The local partnership works closely with other strategic partnerships and local organisations to make sure that children and their families get the help and support they need;
• The local partnership promotes multi-agency learning about identifying, assessing and responding to serious youth violence. The partnership informs and improves practice, planning and the design of services, using feedback from children and families, as well as research and intelligence about effective multi-agency practice.

(Joint Targeted Area Inspections of the Multi-agency Response to Serious Youth Violence). 

Serious Violence Reduction Orders (SVROs) are a civil order made in respect of an offender convicted of an offence involving a bladed article or offensive weapon.

The Order allows the police to detain a person subject to an SVRO, provided they are in a public place, and search them for bladed articles or offensive weapons.

Serious Violence Reduction Orders: Statutory Guidance sets out the background on SVROs, police processes, evidential considerations, court procedure and information on using SVROs alongside other orders and interventions.

Local authorities provide services to adults who are responsible for children who may be in need. When staff are providing services to adults, they should ask whether there are children in the family and consider whether the children need help or protection from harm. Children may be at greater risk of harm or be in need of additional help in families where the adults have mental health problems, misuse substances or alcohol, are in a violent relationship or have complex needs or have learning difficulties.

Adults with parental responsibilities for disabled children have a right to a separate carer's needs assessment under section 17ZD Children Act 1989.

Adult social care services should liaise with children's social care services to ensure that there is a joined-up approach when carrying out such assessments.

Housing and homelessness services in local authorities and others at the front line such as environmental health organisations are subject to the duties set out in paragraph 4 of section 2 of Working Together to Safeguard Children. Professionals working in these services may become aware of conditions that could have an adverse impact on children. Under Part 1 of the Housing Act 2004, authorities must take account of the impact of health and safety hazards in housing on vulnerable occupants, including children, when deciding on the action to be taken by landlords to improve conditions. Housing authorities also have an important role to play in safeguarding vulnerable young people, including young people who are pregnant or leaving care.

Health professionals are in a strong position to identify welfare needs or safeguarding concerns regarding individual children and, where appropriate, provide support. This includes understanding risk factors, communicating effectively with children and families, liaising with other agencies, assessing needs and capacity, responding to those needs and contributing to multi-Agency assessments and reviews.

A wide range of health professionals have a critical role to play in safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children including GPs, primary care professionals, paediatricians, nurses, health visitors, midwives, school nurses, those working in maternity, child and adolescent mental health, adult mental health, alcohol and drug services, unscheduled and emergency care settings and secondary and tertiary care.

All staff working in healthcare settings - including those who predominantly treat adults - should receive training to ensure they attain the competencies appropriate to their role and follow the relevant professional guidance;

• Safeguarding Children and Young People: Roles and Competencies for Health Care Staff, RCN;
• Looked after children: Roles and Competencies of Healthcare Staff (2020);
• Protection children and young people: the responsibilities of all doctors, GMC (2018);
• Child Safeguarding Toolkit (Royal College of General Practitioners).

Within the NHS:

• NHS England will be responsible for ensuring that the health commissioning system as a whole is working effectively to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. It will also be accountable for the services it directly commissions including health care services in the under-18 secure estate and in Police custody. NHS England will also lead and define improvement in safeguarding practice and outcomes and should also ensure that there are effective mechanisms for Safeguarding Children Partnerships and health and wellbeing boards to raise concerns about the engagement and leadership of the local NHS;
• Integrated Care Boards will be the major commissioners of local health services and will be responsible for safeguarding quality assurance through contractual arrangements with all provider organisations. ICBs should employ, or have in place, a contractual agreement to secure the expertise of designated professionals, i.e., designated doctors and nurses for safeguarding children and for looked after children (and designated paediatricians for unexpected deaths in childhood). In some areas there will be more than one ICB per local authority and Safeguarding Children Partnership Area area, and ICBs may want to consider developing 'lead' or 'hosting' arrangements for their designated professional team, or a clinical network arrangement. Designated professionals, as clinical experts and strategic leaders, are a vital source of advice to the ICB, NHS England, the local authority and the Safeguarding Children Partnership, and of advice and support to other health professionals; and
• All providers of NHS funded health services including NHS Trusts, NHS Foundation Trusts and public, voluntary sector, independent sector and social enterprises should identify a named doctor and a named nurse (and a named midwife if the organisation provides maternity services) for safeguarding. In the case of ambulance trusts and independent providers, this should be a named professional. GP practices should have a lead and deputy lead for safeguarding, who should work closely with named GPs. Named professionals have a key role in promoting good professional practice within their organisation, providing advice and expertise for fellow professionals, and ensuring safeguarding training is in place. They should work closely with their organisation's safeguarding lead, designated professionals and the Safeguarding Children Partnership.

Model job descriptions for designated and named professional roles can be found in the intercollegiate document Safeguarding Children and Young People: roles and competencies for health care staff.

Office for Health Improvement and Disparities

The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (formerly Public Health England (PHE)) is an executive agency of the Department of Health and Social Care established to co-ordinate a programme across central and local government, the NHS and wider society, drawing on expert advice, analysis and evidence, to drive improvements in the public’s health.

5.4.1 The Police

Under section 1(8)(h) of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 the Police and Crime Commissioner must hold the Chief Constable to account for the exercise of the latter's duties in relation to safeguarding children under sections 10 and 11 of the Children Act 2004.

All Police officers, and other Police employees such as Police Community Support Officers, are well placed to identify early when a child's welfare is at risk and when a child may need protection from harm. Children have the right to the full protection offered by the criminal law. In addition to identifying when a child may be a victim of a crime, Police officers should be aware of the effect of other incidents which might pose safeguarding risks to children and where officers should pay particular attention. For example, an officer attending a domestic abuse incident should be aware of the effect of such behaviour on any children in the household. Children who are encountered as offenders, or alleged offenders, are entitled to the same safeguards and protection as any other child and due regard should be given to their welfare at all times.

The Police can hold important information about children who may be suffering, or likely to suffer, significant harm, as well as those who cause such harm. They should always share this information with other organisations where this is necessary to protect children. Similarly, they can expect other organisations to share information to enable the Police to carry out their duties. Offences committed against children can be particularly sensitive and usually require the Police to work with other organisations such as local authority Children's Social Care. All Police forces should have officers trained in child abuse investigation.

See: College of Policing, Authorised Professional Practice Website.

The Police have emergency powers under section 46 of the Children Act 1989 to enter premises and remove a child to ensure their immediate protection. This power can be used if the Police have reasonable cause to believe a child is suffering or is likely to suffer significant harm. Police emergency powers can help in emergency situations but should be used only when necessary. Wherever possible, the decision to remove a child from a parent or carer should be made by a court.

The British Transport Police (BTP) can play an important role in safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, especially in identifying and supporting children who have run away or who are truanting from school.

The BTP should carry out its duties in accordance with its legislative powers. This includes removing a child to a suitable place using their Police protection powers under the Children Act 1989 and the protection of children who are truanting from school using powers under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998. This involves, for example, the appointment of a designated independent officer in the instance of a child taken into Police protection.

Probation services are provided by the National Probation Service (NPS). The NPS is subject to the section 11 duties. They are primarily responsible for working with adult offenders both in the community and in the transition from custody to community to reduce reoffending and improve rehabilitation. They are, therefore, well placed to identify offenders who pose a risk of harm to children as well as children who may be at heightened risk of involvement in (or exposure to) criminal or anti-social behaviour and of other poor outcomes due the offending behaviour of their parent/carer(s).

Where an adult offender is assessed as presenting a risk of serious harm to children, the offender manager should develop a risk management plan and supervision plan that contains a specific objective to manage and reduce the risk of harm to children.

In preparing a sentence plan, offender managers should consider how planned interventions might bear on parental responsibilities and whether the planned interventions could contribute to improved outcomes for children known to be in an existing relationship with the offender.

The National Probation Service (NPS) is responsible for assessing all adult offenders at court and allocating them to either the NPS or relevant Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC). They have offender management responsibility for all high-risk offenders and those convicted of sexual offences, whether subject to a community sentence or on licence release from custody. They are therefore, well placed to identify offenders who pose a risk of harm to children and contribute to multi-Agency work relating to child safeguarding where the parents of a child are being managed by the NPS.

Where an offender is assessed as posing a risk of harm to a particular child, the offender manager will develop a risk management plan to manage this risk and reduce the harm likely to be caused to any child. The offender manager will also attend various meetings in support of their safeguarding work, such as Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPAs), Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conferences (MARACs), Strategy Meetings, Child Protection Conferences and Core Group Meetings.

Offenders can also be subject to a number of restrictions, depending upon their sentence and this can support the effective protection of children. Accredited interventions can also be imposed to reduce the risk of harm posed by an offender, particularly around domestic abuse or sexual offending.

See also: HMPP Child Safeguarding Policy.

The Prison Service has a responsibility to identify prisoners who pose a risk of harm to children (see the HMP Public Protection Manual). Where an individual has been identified as presenting a risk of harm to children, the relevant prison establishment:

• Should inform the local authority Children's Social Care services of the offender's reception to prison and subsequent transfers and of the release address of the offender;
• Should notify the National Probation Service. The Police should also be notified of the release address;
• May prevent or restrict a prisoner's contact with children. Decisions on the level of contact, if any, should be based on a multi-Agency risk assessment. The assessment should draw on relevant risk information held by Police, National Probation Service and prison service. The relevant local authority Children’s Social Care contribute to the multi-Agency risk assessment by providing a report on the child’s best interests. The best interests of the child will be paramount in the decision-making process.

A prison is also able to monitor an individual's communication (including letters and telephone calls) to protect children where proportionate and necessary to the risk presented.

Governors/Directors of women's establishments which have Mother and Baby Units should ensure that:

• There is at all times a member of staff allocated to the MBU, who as a minimum, is trained in first aid, whilst within the prison there is always a member of staff on duty who is trained in paediatric first aid (including child/adult resuscitation) who can be called to the MBU if required;
• There is a contingency plan/policy in place for child protection, first aid including paediatric first aid and resuscitation, which should include advice for managing such events, and which provides mothers with detailed guidance as to what to do in an emergency;
• Each baby has a childcare plan setting out how the best interests of the child will be maintained and promoted during the child's residence in the unit.

See also HMPP Child Safeguarding Policy.

Governors, managers and directors of the following secure establishments are subject to the section 11 duties set out in Chapter 2 of Working Together to Safeguard Children:

• A secure training centre;
• A young offender institution;
• A secure college.

Each centre holding those aged under 18 should have in place an annually reviewed safeguarding children policy. The policy is designed to promote and safeguard the welfare of children and should cover issues such as child protection, risk of harm, restraint, recruitment and information sharing. A safeguarding children manager should be appointed and will be responsible for implementation of this policy.

Detailed guidance on the safeguarding children policy, the roles of the safeguarding children manager and the safeguarding children committee, and the role of the establishment in relation to the SCP can be found in Prison Service Instruction (PSI) 08/2012 'Care and Management of Young People'. In the HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) Policy Frameworks.

See also Matters of Concern, Safeguarding Concerns, Allegations and Complaints for Children in Custody – Youth Custody Service (Youth Justice Resource Hub).

Youth Offending Services (YOS’s) s are multi-Agency teams responsible for the supervision of children and young people subject to pre-court interventions and statutory court disposals (The statutory membership of YOTs is set out in section 39 (5) of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998).

They are therefore well placed to identify children known to relevant organisations as being most at risk of offending and to undertake work to prevent them offending. YOTs should have a lead officer responsible for ensuring safeguarding is at the forefront of their business.

Under section 38 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, local authorities must, within the delivery of youth justice services, ensure the 'provision of persons to act as appropriate adults to safeguard the interests of children and young persons detained or questioned by Police officers'.

Section 55 of the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009 places upon the Secretary of State a duty to take account of the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in discharging its functions relating to immigration, asylum, nationality and customs. These functions are discharged on behalf of the Secretary of State by UK Visas and Immigration, Immigration Enforcement and the Border Force, which are part of the Home Office: Arrangements to Safeguard and Promote Children’s Welfare in the United Kingdom Border Agency.

The guidance in Working Together to Safeguard Children applies in its entirety to all schools. The following have duties in relation to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children:

• Governing bodies of maintained schools (including maintained nursery schools), further education colleges and sixth form colleges;
• Proprietors of academy schools, free schools, alternative provision academies and non-maintained special schools. In the case of academies and free school trusts, the proprietor will be the trust itself;
• Proprietors of independent schools;
• Management committees of pupil referral units.

Section 175 of the Education Act 2002 places a duty on local authorities (in relation to their education functions and governing bodies of maintained schools and further education institutions, which include sixth-form colleges) to exercise their functions with a view to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children who are pupils at a school, or who are students under 18 years of age attending further education institutions. The same duty applies to independent schools (which include Academies and free schools) by virtue of regulations made under section 157 of the same Act.

In order to fulfil their duty under sections 157 and 175 of the Education Act 2002, all educational settings to whom the duty applies should have in place the arrangements set out in paragraph 4 of this chapter. In addition schools should have regard to specific guidance given by the Secretary of State under sections 157 and 175 of the Education Act 2002 namely, Keeping Children Safe in Education.

Early years providers have a duty under section 40 of the Childcare Act 2006 to comply with the welfare requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework (EYFS), Section 3, The Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements.

This includes:

• A practitioner must be designated to take lead responsibility for safeguarding children in every setting. Childminders must take the lead responsibility themselves. The lead practitioner is responsible for liaison with local statutory children's services agencies, and with the SCP. They must provide support, advice and guidance to any other staff on an ongoing basis, and on any specific safeguarding issue as required. The lead practitioner must attend a child protection training course that enables them to identify, understand and respond appropriately to signs of possible abuse and neglect;

• Providers must train all staff to understand their safeguarding policy and procedures and ensure that all staff have up to date knowledge of safeguarding issues.

See also Ofsted Guidance: Inspecting Safeguarding in Early Years, Education and Skills Settings. How effectively leaders and governors create a safeguarding culture in the setting.

This includes:

• During term time, or when the setting is in operation, the designated safeguarding lead or an appropriately trained deputy should be available during opening hours for staff to discuss safeguarding concerns.

The responsibility of the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS), as set out in the Children Act 1989, is to safeguard and promote the welfare of individual children who are the subject of family court proceedings. It achieves this by providing independent social work advice to the court.

A CAFCASS officer has a statutory right in public law cases to access local authority records relating to the child concerned and any application under the Children Act 1989. That power also extends to other records that relate to the child and the wider functions of the local authority, or records held by an authorised body that relate to that child.

Where a CAFCASS officer has been appointed by the court as a child's guardian and the matter before the court relates to specified proceedings, they should 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.

Local authorities have the statutory responsibility for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the children of service families in the UK (when service families or civilians working with the armed forces are based overseas the responsibility for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of their children is vested in the Ministry of Defence).

In discharging these responsibilities:

• Local authorities should ensure that the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Families Association Forces Help, the British Forces Social Work Service or the Naval Personal and Family Service is made aware of any service child who is the subject of a child protection plan and whose family is about to move overseas;
• Each local authority with a United States base in its area should establish liaison arrangements with the base commander and relevant staff. The requirements of English child welfare legislation should be explained clearly to the US authorities, so that the local authority can fulfil its statutory duties.

Voluntary organisations and private sector providers play an important role in delivering services to children. They should have the arrangements described in paragraph 4 of section 2 of Working Together in place in the same way as organisations in the public sector, and need to work effectively with the Safeguarding Children Partnership. Paid and volunteer staff need to be aware of their responsibilities for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, how they should respond to child protection concerns and contact the Cumberland Safeguarding Hub or Westmorland and Furness Safeguarding Hub in accordance with the Multi-agency Thresholds Guidance; where the situation is an emergency, the local Police should be contacted immediately.

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 has extended the definition of Position of Trust within the Sexual Offences Act 2003 section 22A to include anyone who coaches, teaches, trains, supervises or instructs a child under 18, on a regular basis, in a sport or a religion. It's against the law for someone in a position of trust to engage in sexual activity with a child in their care, even if that child is over the age of consent (16 or over).

See also Guidance on Reporting Safeguarding Concerns in a Charity.

Churches, other places of worship and faith-based organisations provide a wide range of activities for children and have an important role in safeguarding children and supporting families. Like other organisations who work with children they need to have appropriate arrangements in place to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.

Many of the agencies subject to the Section 11 duty are members of the Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA), including the police, prison and National Probation Service. MAPPA should work together with duty to co-operate (DTC) agencies to manage the risks posed by violent and sexual offenders living in the community in order to protect the public and should work closely with the safeguarding partners over services to commission locally.

Amendments made by the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 extend of the duty to co-operate under MAPPA, so that any other person the Responsible Authority considers could contribute to the achievement of the purpose of MAPPA may also share information with the named partners.