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DSCP Newsletter - April 2025
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Welcome to the latest edition of the DSCP newsletter. We hope you find it useful and informative. Please contact us by email if you have any comments or suggestions for future newsletters (DSCPSecure@durham.gov.uk)
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Latest News from DSCP
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Durham Safeguarding Children Partnership have just launched the new Strategic Business Plan 2025-2027. The Business Plan sets out how the Durham Safeguarding Children Partnership will work towards our shared vision of ‘keeping children safe’.
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The Business Plan outlines.
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- Priorities and themes that will help keep children and young people safe and protected from harm
- Partners work collaboratively to achieve the same end goals
- Partner agencies hold one another to account effectively
- Learning is promoted and embedded. Information is shared effectively
Our Vision is simple, it’s about ‘Keeping Children Safe’ on the premise that safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. It acts as an umbrella covering all that we do and underpinned by applying our values: Tenacity; Curiosity; Openness.
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You can find out more about the DSCP via our website About us, the Strategic Business Plan 2025-2027 can also be found here.
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Durham Safeguarding Children Partnership has agreed the following priorities to direct its work for 2025 - 2027.
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Priority One: Harm Outside The Home
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Why is it a Priority for DSCP?
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It is recognised that the children and young people that are at risk of Harm Outside the Home (HOtH) can be children who are not always visible to practitioners. Therefore the DSCP want to look at how can we strengthen and challenge the partnership to look at increasing the awareness, offer a greater understanding of places and spaces, focus on missing children and disruption.
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- Young people, practitioners, parents/carers and public have increased awareness and are supported and educated to recognise risk
- The Durham offer is clear and understood. Children at risk are identified, assessed and effectively supported
- Targeted approach to Places and Spaces and People of Concern, mapping used to target intervention and activity is disrupted
- Young People are supported to transition into Adult Services
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Priority Two: Safeguarding Through Early Identification and Intervention
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Why is this a priority for the DSCP?
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The learning from the past two years within the DSCP links to early intervention and missed opportunities at an early stage. There is a focus in the DSCP to drive practice, develop practitioners understanding of thresholds and have clear safeguarding processes and pathways, which includes cross boundaries and meeting the needs of families. This in turn will reduce cases going into crisis - coming through the correct process and early information sharing is key.
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Several reviews and government reports have highlighted the need for a more consistent, effective and well-funded early intervention systems of support for families. These reviews have emphasised the importance of early intervention and prevention to improve outcomes for children and families.
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- All practitioners across agencies in Durham are confident at identifying risk
- Thresholds, safeguarding processes and pathways for intervention are understood and utilised
- Intervention is targeted and meets the needs of the family, providing the right support at the right time
- Practitioners are confident leading early help assessments and plans
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Priority Three: Trauma Informed Practice
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Why is this a priority for the DSCP?
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Increase understanding, identification and impact of trauma affecting our children, young people and parents and to identify joint improvement opportunities e.g. mental and emotional wellbeing, school behaviour and attendance, transitional safeguarding.
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Learning from our Rapid Reviews and Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews (CSPRs) has highlighted heightened risk for young people who need support in adulthood.
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All Rapid Reviews, CSPRs and priority work over the last 12 months have included learning around understanding complex trauma and assessing risk. This includes learning on how unaddressed trauma and distress can lead to family relationships breaking down.
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- Trauma informed practice is embedded across all agencies working with children and families
- Impact of trauma is identified and understood
- Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in children and parents are understood
- Interventions include support for children, young people, parents and carers allowing trauma to be identified and supported
- Focus on support at the point of incident occurring
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Priority Four: Working Together and Towards Reform Action Plan
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Why is this a priority for the DSCP?
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On 15th December 2023 the government published ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023 - statutory guidance on multi-agency working to help, protect and promote the welfare of children.’ This statutory guidance ‘sets out what organisations and agencies who have functions relating to children must and should do to help, protect and promote the welfare of all children and young people under the age of 18 in England.
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The 2023 edition replaces Working Together to Safeguard Children 2018. This new edition of Working Together is central to delivering on the strategy set out in Stable Homes, Built on Love (2023), which outlines the Government’s commitment to support every child to grow up in a safe, stable and loving home.
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Alongside the Working Together statutory guidance, the Government published:
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In light of these publications, the DSCP had been requested to undertake a review of their local multi-agency safeguarding arrangements and published their revised arrangements here.
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Session booking links can be found at:
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Resources can be found here.
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Mental Health Awareness Week (12-18 May)
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Every year, 1 in 4 of us will experience a mental health problem. But too many of us aren’t getting the help we need. Over 2 million people are waiting for NHS mental health services, and since 2017 the number of young people struggling with their mental health has nearly doubled with people feeling overwhelmed and hopeless. They need support right now.
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Mental Health Awareness Week is an annual event in the UK dedicated to raising awareness of mental health and promoting mental wellbeing for all. Organised by the Mental Health Foundation, the week provides an opportunity to reflect on mental health, spark conversations, and support those experiencing mental health challenges. Each year, a specific theme is chosen to focus attention on aspects of mental health.
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The theme is set by the Mental Health Foundation ever year, and for 2025 it’s ‘community’. Community is an ideal theme for Mental Health Awareness Week.
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Social connections and community are vital for mental health and wellbeing. Through meaningful relationships and community participation, we gain support systems that help us navigate life’s challenges. Communities provide emotional support, companionship, and a sense of belonging that reduces isolation.
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Strong community networks offer practical and emotional assistance during difficult times, helping people build resilience and find purpose through shared experiences and mutual support.
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Further information about the week and how to get involved can be found at:
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The DSCP training programme for 2025/26 is now live. As always, there is a blend of face to face, virtual (via MS Teams or Zoom) and eLearning/recorded briefing courses available. The Workforce Learning and Development Group have ensured that not only have we covered emerging themes from learning reviews locally but nationally in our training offer.
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Face to Face and Virtual Training on MS Teams or Zoom (book a place HERE.
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Please read charging policy before booking)
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Book now for 2025/26 as places are limited and fill up quickly
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“Anti-Racist Practice is a course designed to provoke challenge and critical reflection on how we engage meaningfully with our more diverse communities, without feeling oppressive. The course is facilitated to enable a safe space for professionals to discuss what it means to be anti-racist as opposed to non-racist, whilst reflecting on their own privilege and position of power.
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The purpose of the course is to develop staff confidence in working with our more diverse communities through exploring several key topics such as terms of address, unconscious bias and language. In addition, the course is particularly important considering the changing demographic of parts of the county which are becoming more diverse, however the political rhetoric across the country is becoming more divisive. An example of this was the discourse around the summer riots and civil unrest of 2024.
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Therefore, as practitioners working in Durham, we need to be mindful that some of our children and families from diverse cultures have different needs and will require a different form of support to ensure we can effectively meet their needs. In order to achieve this, we need to be aware of sensitive and inclusive practice through reflecting on anti-racist practice in a safe learning environment.”
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Being Part of a TAF (Team Around the Family)
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This course is designed to outline the expectations for those assuming the role of Lead Practitioner within a Team Around the Family (TAF). It addresses common misconceptions and highlights best practices essential for ensuring that the families you support receive timely and appropriate interventions to achieve their goals. The course delves into the various roles within a TAF and emphasises the importance of collaborative efforts to enhance the effectiveness of the TAF. Additionally, it provides guidance on your responsibilities and the participants to ensure successful outcomes.
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Safeguarding Children Level 1 and 2
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This course is a face to face or MS Teams or Zoom session delivered in person, as an alternative to the Safeguarding Children level 1 or level 2 on our Me-Learning platform. It is for anyone who works directly or indirectly with children, young people and families where your role requires you to understand safeguarding and how to protect children. e.g. taxi drivers, early years and admin staff and who prefer a session being delivered to them rather and eLearning.
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If you are a safeguarding designated lead, manager or someone who has responsibility for safeguarding in your job role, then you will need to complete Safeguarding Children for Managers and Designated Safeguarding Leads (Level 3/4)
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By the end of the session, participants will:
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- Know what child abuse and neglect are and understand the possible signs and symptoms
- How to respond to a concern about a child or young person
- Understand other forms of abuse and what to look for
- Understand the importance of the Voice of the Child and Lived Experiences
- Importance of effective communication and information sharing
- Importance of challenge and professional curiosity
- Allegations management
- Private Fostering
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Other courses available to book are:
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- Gypsy, Roma Traveller Cultural Awareness
- Impact of Parental/Carer Mental Ill Health on Children (PAMIC)
- LGBTQIA+ Awareness
- Neglect and Poverty
- Neglect Basics and Toolkit
- Parental Substance Misuse
- Safeguarding Children for Managers and Designated Leads (Level 3-4)
- Trauma Informed Approaches
- Understanding Gangs and Exploitation from a Child’s Perspective (Accredited)
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Register for an account or login to an existing account HERE. Please read charging policy before creating a new account)
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Alongside the face to face and virtual training, we have 46 eLearning or recorded briefings on our Me-Learning platform. These short sessions will provide an insight into a variety of specialist topics covering emerging themes locally and nationally that are reoccurring in many learning reviews.
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On the 11th of March 2025, The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel published a report about 53 children from black, Asian and mixed heritage backgrounds who died or were seriously harmed between January 2022 and March 2024. These children were subject to horrific abuse, including sexual abuse, fatal assault and neglect, with 27 children dying as a result.
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The report sought to understand the specific safeguarding needs of children from these specific ethnic backgrounds and how agencies helped to protect them before it was too late. It has revealed a significant silence in talking about race and racism in child safeguarding, with many local areas failing to acknowledge the impact of race, ethnicity and culture.
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The key findings include:
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- Limited Attention to Race and Ethnicity: the analysis reveals a concerning lack of focus on race, ethnicity, and culture in both safeguarding practice and reviews. This oversight has resulted in insufficient critical analysis and reflection on how racial bias impacts decision-making and service offers to children.
- Silence on Racism: the report identifies a pervasive silence and hesitancy to address racism and its manifestations. This silence renders the safeguarding needs of black, Asian, and mixed heritage children invisible, both in practice and in the system for learning from reviews.
- Missed Opportunities: in failing to acknowledge race, racial bias and racism, the current system misses many opportunities to learn from incidents where black, Asian, and mixed heritage children have been seriously harmed or died. This failure to see the totality of children’s lives or to scrutinise how racial bias may have affected decision-making leaves children vulnerable and at risk of harm, without the necessary support and protection.
Risk-assessment and decision-making is a common theme across all safeguarding reviews, but this analysis has highlighted specific issues in relation to race. For example, in 19 reviews risk had been at least partially recognised, but this had not translated into action. This included several examples about girls from Asian and mixed Asian heritages who made disclosures about sexual abuse, but these appeared either to have been disregarded as untrue or were not carefully followed up.
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In one review family members had vocalised that they perceived practitioners to be racist. However, the review appeared to distance itself from any possibility of racism by noting that practitioners had been mindful of the ethnicity of the family. The review then concluded these accusations were groundless, but did not provide evidence about whether the claims had been investigated or provide any detail about how this judgement had been made.
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The Panel’s report contains a number of recommendations for local areas so they can better protect black, Asian and mixed heritage children who are at risk of harm.
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The lead recommendations include:
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- Acknowledging and Challenging Racism: local leaders should ensure that appropriate internal structures are in place to support practitioners to recognise, discuss and challenge internal and institutional racism.
- Empowering Practitioners: creating conditions that empower practitioners to have conversations with children and families about race and identity. This includes building skills and confidence and ensuring there are safe opportunities for self-reflection within teams and in supervision to acknowledge their own biases.
- Reviewing Local Strategies: Child Safeguarding Partnerships should review their local strategies and approaches to addressing race, racism, and racial bias in their work with black, Asian, and mixed heritage children.
These recommendations are a crucial step towards creating a more inclusive and effective safeguarding system that recognises and addresses the unique challenges faced by black, Asian, and mixed heritage children.
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The DSCP Training Programme includes training relating to Anti Racist Practice which can be accessed here
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This report analyses the 2023 to 2024 safeguarding yearly report to:
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- understand how safeguarding partnerships have developed their approaches
- examine the similarities, differences, and positive steps taken by partnerships towards the implementation of the Working together to safeguard children 2023 arrangements
- identify examples of good practice and case studies that demonstrate positive approaches across safeguarding partnerships
- propose a report template which safeguarding partnership can use when producing future reports
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The DSCP are proud to share that the Partnership have been named three times in the report as a good practice example of how to measure the impact of the work the partnership completes. We want to thank everyone in the DSCP for all your hard work and support over the last year.
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National Guidance and Useful Resources
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- “Just who is left to fight their corner?” – Ombudsman launches report on fostering for councils Local Government Ombudsman, March 2025
- Good decisions: supporting children aged 16 and 17 who need help when they are homeless Ofsted, March 2025
- Government no longer places girls in Young Offender Institutions Ministry of Justice, March 2025
- The role of key workers in supporting children and young people with experience of serious youth violence DfE, March 2025
- Protecting children from child criminal exploitation NSPCC Learning, March 2025
- Our new family safety plan: empowering families to prevent child sexual abuse Lucy Faithfull Foundation, March 2025
- Exploring local authority data and monitoring of Family Group Conferences Foundations, March 2025
- Lost boys wellbeing and welfare Centre for Social Justice, March 2025
- What you need to know about child sexual abuse CSA Centre, March 2025
- Raised by relatives: the experiences of Black and Asian kinship carers Kinship, March 2025
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Contact us:
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Council Offices, Green Lane, Spennymoor, DL16 6JQ
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