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DSCP Newsletter - February 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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The DSCP have agreed their 2025-2027 Business Plan with four new priority pieces of work. The four new priorities will be launched in April 2025.
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Alongside the three pieces of priority work, the Performance and Learning Group will also oversee a fourth priority that will run alongside in the format of an action plan to work towards Working Together and Towards Reform.
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Further information will be shared in the March DSCP Newsletter.
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Priorities (2023-2025)
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Priority One: Domestic Abuse
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Operation Encompass (OE) continues to function as business as usual.
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Notifications are sent from Durham Constabulary to schools via the Safeguarding portal ensuring timely and relevant information about a Police attended Domestic Abuse situation is passed to those who support children as victims of Domestic Abuse during the day.
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Locally, in County Durham, there are an average of 300 notifications per month sent to school. These notifications are monitored by the OE team, and performance (schools opening them on the day, within 24 hours, within 48 hours) is monitored and improvement work ongoing.
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At times, schools are notified when a student/pupil have moved to a new setting and we thank schools for reporting that back to us so we can notify the new school and update our records.
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Please note – Operation Encompass notifications are ‘sent’ from the Local Authority, meaning if you received one, there is no need to report that into the MASH/Front Door.
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Did you know? There is a national Operation Encompass charitable organisation, run by the original founders of Operation Encompass, a school teacher and Police Officer, who were husband and wife, working to make children’s lives better. The OE Charity has several well know patrons, including Dame Ester Rantzen DBE and Dame Vera Baird KC DBE. The website, Home : Operation Encompass, is full of useful information and resources for schools and safeguarding leads.
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In the coming months here in County Durham, there will be a continuation of the OE scheme to increase the age range from the current parameters of Reception to Year 11, to include nursery settings. More news on that will be available in the spring.
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Priority Two: Harm Outside The Home
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18th March is National Child Exploitation Awareness Day #CEADAY2024
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The campaign aims to encourage everyone to Think, spot and speak out against abuse and adopt a zero tolerance to adults developing inappropriate relationships with children or children exploiting and abusing their peers.
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Any child can be exploited. Help to improve the chances of young people being heard and to deter sexual predators and criminal activity through awareness of child exploitation –
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Say Something if You See Something
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The DSCP have a number of resources and tools you can look at in order to develop your understanding and awareness of what is exploitation and what you can do if you see something.
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Available E learning training:
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- Child Exploitation (spot the signs)
- County Lines
- Vulnerability/Welfare Pen Picture
- Push and Pull Factors
- Stages of Sexual Exploitation
- The Grooming Process Criminal Exploitation
- Information Sharing and Home Outside the Home Information Sharing Agreement
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A number of useful resources on out Harm outside the Home page
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Priority Three: First 1,001 Days
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The early years are an extremely important time and giving every child the best start in life is crucial to reduce health inequalities across the life course. Injuries are a leading source of hospitalisation and can affect a child or young person’s social and emotional wellbeing. Unintentional injuries in and around the home are a leading cause of preventable death for children under 5 and are a major source of ill health and serious disability. Estimates suggest that one in five children under 5 will attend an Accident & Emergency department each year due to an injury sustained in or around the home.
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- Falls (56.4 per 10k)
- Exposure to inanimate mechanical forces (30.6 per 10k)
- Accidental exposure to noxious substances (17.4 per 10k)
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County Durham has the 2nd highest rate out of 153 local authorities for children aged 0-4 due unintentional injuries and in 2022/23, County Durham hospitals received 440 admissions due to unintentional injuries in this population.
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Multi-agency Unintentional Injuries Steering Group
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A Multi-agency Unintentional Injuries Steering Group (colleagues from DCC-Early Years, Family Hubs, Public Health and the NHS (0-25 service) has been meeting since August 2024 to better understand the current unintentional injuries taking place in County Durham and to develop an action plan for future collaboration with other partner organisations.
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Unintentional Injuries Training session
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Supporting Home Safety for Children Under Five Years in Durham
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This free online course (2.5 hours), delivered by Child Accident Prevention Trust (CAPT) is designed to help practitioners learn about the main hazards for children and babies and to explore how best to get safety messages across to parents and carers. The training combines presentations, group activities and time for discussion.
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Priority Four: Mental Health and Wellbeing
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The Improvement Delivery Group have now completed the first five stages of the learning cycle for Priority Four. The Business Unit have created a briefing for practitioners to explain what we have looked at and to give some helpful links to resources and guidance. It is an A3 document designed to be taken into team meetings, supervisions or to be used by practitioners to help them to reflect on key learning, shares strengths in practice, identifies areas for learning in safeguarding practice, together with details on the steps you can take to find out more and access further training and resources.
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The DSCP Business Unit have created and launched two posters to highlight to partners the importance of information sharing.
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You can access these posters from the DSCP Multi Agency Procedure Local Resources
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Please share these posters in any venues where partners are likely to see them (i.e team rooms, family hubs, GP surgeries)
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You can also visit the DSCP Multi-Agency Procedure Local Resources to read more about:
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- Information sharing procedure;
- Summary-children who move across LA borders;
- Tier 1 children safeguarding procedure;
- Tier 2 children safeguarding procedure.
Or find out more by accessing the DSCP training package which will support you in your role to share information to safeguard children and young people. The course covers:
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- learning from practice in Durham
- information sharing in the context of safeguarding; a strong emphasis on prevention, and;
- sharing within the lawful basis of ‘public task’ rather than consent
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Eating Disorders Awareness Week
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Eating Disorders Awareness Week is a vital opportunity to raise awareness of eating disorders.
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Previous weeks have covered eating disorders in Men, ARFID, Binge Eating Disorder, the need for more time to be spent training medical students on eating disorders and much more and runs from 24th February – 2nd March and is hosted by Beat.
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In the UK, at least 1.25 million people are living with an eating disorder - that’s at least 1 in 50 people - you are probably working with someone who is affected. Having the right support in place at work can make a big difference to someone’s recovery or to help them manage their caring responsibilities. Many people wouldn’t know how to spot the signs that someone has an eating disorder. This is important because the sooner someone is treated for an eating disorder the better their chance of making a full recovery.
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Beat Eating Disorders are the UK’s eating disorder charity who partner with the NHS to provide services for those with an eating disorder, their carers - such as family and friends - and training for healthcare professionals.
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Self Injury Awareness Day (1 March)
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Each year around the world, 1st March is Self Harm Awareness Day (sometimes also known as Self Injury Awareness Day). In the UK, it is an opportunity for everyone across the country to speak with one voice to raise awareness around what is often a very misunderstood topic. Partners and individuals from outside of the sector are also encouraged to get involved to help spread the message as widely as possible, particularly across social media where we encourage use of the hashtag #SelfHarmAwarenessDay.
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Further information including support and resources available can be found here.
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There are still a few courses remaining on our training programme which ends 31 March 2025. Please click HERE to check availability and to book a place on:
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- Neglect and Poverty
- Parental Substance Misuse
- LGBTQIA+ Awareness
- Safeguarding and Protecting Disabled Children
- Safeguarding Children for Managers and Designated Leads
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1 April 2025 – 31 March 2026
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The new training programme (face to face training, MS Teams or Zoom) will be released in the next few weeks for you to book onto training for the coming year. We have some new exciting courses for you, as well as carrying forward some of our excellent training from this year. Spaces are limited so please book early to secure your place.
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There are also 44 courses on Me-Learning (eLearning) covering a huge range of topics on safeguarding children. Please login to your existing account to explore the range of training or register HERE if you have not already got an account.
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The DSCP have been working with Durham Constabulary to share their new updated Partnership Information Sharing form which has been uploaded onto the DSCP website Partnership Information Sharing.
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Also attached is the Guide to Intelligence Sharing which gives information around what is deemed to be intelligence and how it should be shared/recorded.
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Both documents can be found at:
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The Fun & Food Programme
The Fun & Food programme runs during the Easter, Summer and Christmas school holidays across County Durham. All sessions are free and include breakfast/lunch/tea and snack.
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Easter Holiday 2025: Friday 11th April to Monday 28th April.
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Children taking part in the programme can enjoy a wide range of sessions including things like: sport, dance, art and crafts, outdoor adventures, fun with animals, circus skills, seaside trips and much more. If a child receives benefits-related free school meals, then families will receive a Fun and Food Ticket through their school with details of how to find out about what’s on in their area and how to book their child a place.
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All children from reception to year two receive a free school meal through the Universal Infant Free School Meal scheme. The Fun and Food programme is aimed at children whose parents apply for free school meals based on their income and any benefits they receive.
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National Guidance and Useful Resources
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Contact us:
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Council Offices, Green Lane, Spennymoor, DL16 6JQ
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Subscriptions
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