Amendments

This chapter has been fully refreshed throughout to acknowledge new areas and reasons that children are bullied and includes a new Section 6, Further Information.

This chapter has been updated to reflect Working Together to Safeguard Children (as amended in December 2020) arrangements and expectations.

This chapter has been reviewed and refreshed.

This chapter has been reviewed and updated. New appendices have been added to identify local processes (flowcharts), for agency roles etc. and Training Resources for Forced Marriage, together with a Glossary.

This chapter has been updated entirely and replaces a chapter dealing with similar issues. It focusses on The National Minimum Standards and Quality Standards contain specific requirements on safeguarding and child protection for each particular regulated setting where children live away from home; the values and practices those caring for children living away from home should have, together with specific matters in respect of the types of settings children might be in, e.g. fostering placements, residential care, etc.

This chapter has been updated and includes updated Data Protection Act information and Appendices as well as the Steering Group Terms of Reference and MARAC Ground Rules.

A link has been refreshed to the GMC updated Guidance.

This chapter seeks to define Child Criminal Exploitation and ‘County Lines’, and identify the risks and signs for children if they become engaged in this – highlighting the difficulties that will then exist in engaging and diverting them. Nevertheless, importantly, the chapter seeks to reflect how agencies can effectively respond and work with children where these risks occur. The chapter also contains a Further Information Section.

This chapter has been amended to add a new Section 9, Other Relevant Information into which has been added:

• 'The NCA, County Lines Drug Supply, Vulnerability and Harm (2018)';
• 'The Centre for Social Justice: Girls and Gangs';
• 'Preventing Gang and Youth Violence: Spotting Signals of Risk and Supporting Children and Young People';
• 'Children's Voices - A review of evidence on the subjective wellbeing of children involved in gangs in England (Children's Commissioner, November 2017)'.

This is a further version of the Merseyside Joint Agency Protocol. The Foreword identifies:

The investigation of all sudden and unexpected deaths must be of the highest forensic standard. This is necessary for the care of the bereaved, the needs of our justice system and the good of our society. The investigation of sudden and unexpected infant and child deaths deserves no less.

This chapter identifies the Board and Forum membership of the Liverpool Safeguarding Children Partnership (LSCP) together with the membership groups and the relevant agencies that need to attend those. It also benefits from a flow chart that identifies the roles and responsibilities of the multi-agency safeguarding process. The chapter replaces the previous Liverpool LSCP process and membership.

• Sudden Unexpected Deaths in Infancy Protocol.

This procedure is concerned with children arriving into the UK:

• Alone;
• In the care of adults who, whilst they may be their carers, have no Parental Responsibility for them;
• In the care of adults who have no documents to demonstrate a relationship with the child;
• In the care of agents.

This is a broad cohort of children, and it may include (but is not limited to) children who have been subject to trafficking and/or modern slavery, and/or may have been exposed to the additional risks of commercial, sexual or domestic exploitation. It may also include children who have been trafficked internally within the UK.

Part 1 of this chapter covers issues which will apply across this cohort.

This chapter has been amended by linking to updated:

• North West ADCS Protocols: North West Children in Need Moving across Local Authority Boundaries Procedure;
• North West Notification and Transfer of Children Subject of Child Protection Plans across Local Authority Boundaries Procedure; and
• North West Pre-Care and Care Proceedings Notification and Transfer across Local Authority Boundaries Procedure.

This chapter has been amended to update the GOV.UK guidance 'Safeguarding women and girls at risk of FGM'.

This links to 'Female genital mutilation risk and safeguarding: guidance for professionals (2016)' but also includes the 'FGM risk assessment templates'; 'FGM safeguarding and risk assessment: quick guide for health professionals', and 'FGM safeguarding pathway' (flowchart).

These documents provide guidance to support an NHS organisation when they are developing or reviewing safeguarding policies and procedures around female genital mutilation (FGM).

They can be used by health professionals from all sectors, particularly designated and named safeguarding leads, and local safeguarding Children Partnership members. It is based on existing best practice within the NHS.

This chapter has been amended in to add links to current guidance 'Care of unaccompanied migrant children and victims of modern slavery (November 2017) (statutory guidance)' and 'DfE/Home Office, Safeguarding Strategy Unaccompanied asylum seeking and refugee children, (November 2017)'. (See Related Guidance).

This chapter has been amended to update the links and Guidance: DfE, Care of unaccompanied migrant children and child victims of modern slavery (November 2017); NCA Modern Slavery Human Trafficking Unit (MSHTU); Royal College of Nurses, Modern Slavery, guide for nurses and midwives (2017). (See Related Guidance).

A new Section 'Further Information' has been created to separate additional information/resources from statutory and local guidance. New links have been added in this section to:

• The Centre of expertise on Child Sexual Abuse – Key messages from research on child sexual exploitation;
• Child sexual exploitation: Practice Tool (2017) (open access) - further background information about child sexual exploitation and additional commentary around some of the complexities of practically responding to the issue;
• Tackling Child Sexual Exploitation: A Resource Pack for Councils;
• Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse; Child sexual exploitation: Practice Tool (2017) (open access);
• National Crime Agency, Modern Slavery Human Trafficking Unit (MSHTU);
• College of Policing, Responding to Child Sexual Exploitation;
• The Children's Commissioner, Preventing Child Sexual Abuse; Barnardo's, Child sexual Exploitation - resources and research on Child Sexual Exploitation.

This chapter has been updated by adding a link to 'The Royal College of Pathologists and Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, Sudden Unexpected Death in Infancy and Childhood - Multi-agency Guidelines for Care and Investigation' (see Relevant Links).

This is a revision of the 2004 report and encompasses the statutory duties of individual professionals and agencies to investigate all sudden and unexpected deaths in infancy and childhood with due thoroughness, care and compassion, according to 'Working Together to Safeguard Children: A Guide to Inter-agency Working to Safeguard and Promote the Welfare of Children' (Department for Education, 2015) and best evidence.

• Section 1, Introduction;
• Section 3, Response by Professionals in Agency; and
• Section 6, Referrals to Careline.

• North West ADCS Protocols: North West Children in Need Moving across Local Authority Boundaries Procedure;
• North West Notification and Transfer of Children Subject of Child Protection Plans across Local Authority Boundaries Procedure; and
• North West Pre-Care and Care Proceedings Notification and Transfer across Local Authority Boundaries Procedure.

include a Appendix 1: MACE Pathway for Concerns Process Map and a new Section 9, Links with Criminal Exploitation.

This chapter has been updated to provide updated and new links: LSCP Learning Improvement Framework (LIF) (see Introduction) and new Appendices:

• Appendix 1: Learning and Improvement Index;
• Appendix 2: LSCP Critical Incident Evidence Committee Process - Flowchart;
• Appendix 3: LSCP Process: Responding to Cases that May Warrant the Undertaking of a Serious Case Review;
• Appendix 4: LSCP Serious Case Review: Request for CIG Consideration Form;
• Appendix 5: Learning and Improvement Framework – Activities.

A link has also been added to the NSPCC, Serious Case Review Quality Markers, (2016) for reference (see Relevant Guidance).

This chapter has been fully updated to reference Liverpool's approach to identifying, assessing and supporting young carers in line with the agreed Adult and Children's Family Assessment and Early Help (EHAT) Pathway and Liverpool Young Carers Assessment Pathway.

Relevant provisions of the Children and Families Act 2014 and the Care Act 2014 in relation to young carers came into force on 1 April 2015.

Please note new keywords for:

• Child Trafficking Advocate;
• Slavery and Trafficking/Prevention Order;
• Slavery and Trafficking Risk Order.

This chapter has been amended to provide an updated 'Merseyside Multi-Agency Protocol' to reduce harm caused by Child Sexual Exploitation. The 'CSE1 form' and 'CSE Measurement Tool' and 'MACSE Plan' within this are presented now also as separate links for ease of access and use.

This chapter has been fully and comprehensively updated.

It reflects the importance of a learning and improvement culture within the agencies involved in Children's Social Care and safeguarding. It identifies cases that should be subject to Serious Case Reviews and acknowledges that where concerns don't meet this threshold, agencies should undertake their own learning. Emphasis is made with respect to transparency of the learning processes and feedback in a variety of ways; 'learning' will come from a number of sources and in a number of ways (identified in Appendix 1: Learning and Improvement Index).

This chapter covers comprehensively the issue of children who go missing and in particular the forces that drive children to run away, together with the relevant agencies roles and responsibilities. Highlighted is the fact that children who go missing can be subject to trafficking and child sexual exploitation, and that the more often a child goes missing, the greater the concerns rather than a reduction of risk they may be exposed to.

Where children go missing from home, and there is a delay in parents carers reporting their absence, then this itself should be a cause for concern.

Contact details have been updated.

This chapter has been updated to reflect the current Liverpool organisation and Working Together to Safeguard Children.

This chapter has been updated with regard to the MAPPA levels and those officers of the agencies that form the Single Point of Contact (SPOC).