Overall procedure applying to all agencies.
All agencies will commit themselves to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and will fulfill the requirements of "Working Together to Safeguard Children" in so far as this applies to them.
All agencies need to consider the lessons from research (Chapter 9 of "Working Together) dealing with the impact of abuse, sources of stress for families, social exclusion, domestic abuse, mental illness, substance misuse and parental learning disability.
All agencies must abide by the Statutory Guidance issued in relationship to section 11 of Children Act 2004 available in the Document Library of these procedures.
The following agencies will discharge their functions as required by section 11 of the Children Act 2004: Telford & Wrekin Council, the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital Trust, NHS Telford and Wrekin, the West Mercia Constabulary, the National Offender Management Service (formerly the Probation Service and the Prison Service) the Youth Offending Service.
Other agency staff must be aware of "What To Do If you Are Worried A Child Is Being Abused".
In order to meet their responsibilities to promote and safeguard the welfare of children, each organisation must have:
- Clear priorities for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children explicitly stated in their strategic policy
- The clear commitment of senior management to the importance of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children
- A clear line of accountability within the organisation for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children
- Recruitment and human resource management procedures that take account of the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and which require appropriate checks on new staff and volunteers. In this context organisations must be familiar with the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 , "Key Safe Employment Standards" and "Recruitment and Selection Procedures" all available from the document library attached to these procedures.
- Procedures for dealing with allegations of abuse against members of staff and volunteers which comply with "Managing Allegations against Adults" available from the document library in these procedures.
- Arrangements to ensure staff undertake appropriate training and refresher training as in the Training and Development section of these procedures.
- Policies for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children including a child protection policy
- Arrangements to work effectively with other organisations and to share information with them in order to ensure the safeguarding and promoting of the welfare of children
- A culture of listening to and engaging with children, seeking their views and taking account of those views when making decisions about individual cases or the development of services
- Appropriate whistle-blowing policies and that enable issues about safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children to be addressed.
Every child will be provided with services which will keep them safe, regardless of their legal status.