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DSCP Newsletter - May 2024
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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 are pleased to announce the launch of their new website and training booking system. Having been in development for the past several months, the new site went live on Tuesday 7th May 2024.
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With a fresh look and feel, the site affords a smoother, more intuitive user experience. The new site will replace the existing webpages and sees everything rehoused in one central space with an easy-to-use search facility.
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Work to develop the site is now nearing completion but will continue for a period after the go live date. We would urge you to visit the site and provide any feedback to help us improve its functionality (feedback to DSCPSecure@durham.gov.uk). The DSCP are going to work through all the pages and information offered to practitioners, children and their families to offer as much information to the partnership on each topic.
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From the go live date there will be automatic redirection from the old web pages to the new website. Contact details for reporting abuse of children and the Durham Multi-Agency Procedures remain unaltered.
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If you would like to continue to receive the newsletter please click the button below.
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Priorities
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Priority One: Domestic Abuse
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We are delighted to offer five new courses related to domestic abuse on our eLearning platform ‘Me Learning’:
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- DASH Risk Assessment
- Non-fatal Strangulation and Suffocation
- Predatory Marriage
- Understanding the Criminal and Family Court Process - Domestic Abuse
- Coercive control in Children's and Mother's Lives
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To access, login if you have an existing account or self-register HERE
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Priority Two: Harm Outside The Home
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The Improvement Delivery Group have now completed the 5 stages of the learning cycle for Priority Two.
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The business unit have created a briefing for practitioners to explain what we have looked and to give some helpful links to resources and guidance.
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The Harm Outside the Home (HOTH) briefing has been uploaded to the website, it is an A3 document designed to be taken into team meetings, supervisions or to be used by practitioners to help them to think about the early warning indicators of HOTH and what you can do.
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Please visit our website to download the document.
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Priority Three: First 1,001 Days
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This year’s DSCP Development Day will be looking at how we are safeguarding and protecting our most vulnerable children, children who come into the category of the first 1,001 days.
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The DSCP are going to offer a day of 1-hour bitesize workshops around key areas of practice. The focus for the day is children from conception to two years (first 1,001 days)
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On the 22nd May 2024, the Durham Safeguarding Children Partnership will host a development day focused on the first 1001 days of a child’s life (conception to 2 years).
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This event is free to attend and is open to everyone working with children in Durham.
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Keynote speakers from the local authority, early help, health and the DSCP business unit will be addressing topics related to keeping children and young people safe during this vulnerable time. The sessions offered to partners have been identified within the Priority three piece of work within the DSCP, each session will last approximately 1 hour, the sessions can be attended in isolation or as a package.
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- Concealed Pregnancies
- Safe sleeping/ Safe Handling
- Learning from practice review (information sharing, cross boundary sharing and professional curiosity)
- Enhance Parenting Pathway Program
- Whole Family approach (family networks)
If you would like to attend, please complete the booking form. The deadline to book is Tuesday 21st May 2024. Invites (including joining links) will be sent out after 17th May 2024.
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Please contact us if you have any queries or require any further information
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Priority Four: Mental Health and Wellbeing
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Mental Health and Wellbeing is the fourth priority piece of work for the DSCP, this priority is now in Phase 2 of the learning cycle where the Improvement Delivery Group will be coming together to further scope out the question identified by the Performance and Learning Group and look at the methodology, they will use to gather information regarding the Key Line of Enquiry.
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What are the barriers to accessing mental health services earlier before families are in crisis? What are we doing around prevention and promoting good mental health for children and families – Whole Family Approach?
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How do we identify families at the earliest opportunity for support, looking at the journey of a family that have gone into crisis and whether there was an opportunity to offer any intervention or support at an earlier opportunity to prevent families reaching crisis point?
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Mental Health Awareness Week 2024
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Taking place from 13 to 19 May, on the theme of “Movement: Moving more for our mental health”.
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Movement is important for our mental health. But so many of us struggle to move enough. We know there are many different reasons for this, so this Mental Health Awareness Week we want to help people to find moments for movement in their daily routines. Going for a walk in your neighbourhood, putting on your favourite music and dancing around the living room, chair exercises when you’re watching television – it all counts!
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What's New
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Peer Mentors are adult volunteers who are care experienced, they use their lived experiences to support young people when they transition out of care and become care leavers.
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Developing good relationships with young people, supporting them to do as well as they possibly can when they move into their own home and become part of their community.
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- Funding for activities and travel that the care leavers and mentors can both do in the local community.
- Joint activities with other care leavers and mentors
- Support with living successfully in their first home, skills development, support from the mentor around applying for jobs, CV’s, job interviews, accessing areas of interest.
- Training, development and support for the peer mentors to fulfil their role
- Support groups with other peer mentors
- Careful matching including shared interests
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County Durham Care Leavers Service Peer Mentor Project welcome conversations around developing the service to its full potential and a better understanding. We would also like to hear from you if you are care experienced and have an interest in using your own experiences to support other young people.
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If you would like an application form or a further discussion please contact: Christopher.Maughan@durham.gov.uk
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Events
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Child Safety Week 2024: 3rd-9th June 2024
During the summer holidays families and dogs are spending more time together, so Defra is encouraging key partners to continue sharing practical #DogSafety tips that families can use this summer.
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Defra’s dog safety partner pack includes a range of downloadable resources to support your dog safety communications both online and in person.
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TASP have a series of short webinars which are accessible for all Durham practitioners. Each month they focus on a different topic:
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The Association of Safeguarding Partners (TASP) Webinar Programme
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20 May 2024: 16:00-17:15 – Employing Young Scrutineers – Our Experience:
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Tower Hamlets Safeguarding Partnership will be discussing their experience of recruiting and employing two Young Scrutineers.
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24 June 2024: 16:00-17:15 – Vulnerability Hub – The Humberside Police Experience:
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Humberside Police will be presenting their experiences running their Vulnerability Hub which is primarily focused on early intervention, prevention and diversion in an aim to reduce demand to the front door of partner agencies.
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More information on the webinars and links to register can be found via this link: TASP Webinars
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Training
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As well as the five new domestic abuse courses highlighted in within Priority One – Domestic Abuse section of this newsletter, we are delighted to share another two courses available on Me-Learning (eLearning platform) coming soon.
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- Multi-Agency Chronology of a Child’s Significant Events
- Child Protection Conference Part 2 (this is the second part of the Introduction to Child Protection conference already available)
To access, login if you have an existing account or self-register HERE
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We also have two new courses added to our training programme which will be delivered on MS Teams or Zoom to complement our already amazing training offer. Book early as spaces are limited (Book a place)
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- LGBTQIA+ Awareness
- Unconscious Bias and Cultural Competence in Safeguarding Children
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Stronger Families Training
Please find below detail of Stronger Families Training which is free to our Partner Services in County Durham.
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Stronger Families training is advertised through the Family Information Service, see below link to access further course information, available dates and detail of how to book:
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An Introduction to the Durham Way (2 x 2.5 hr virtual sessions via Microsoft TEAMS). The Durham Way Event introduces the vision and principles of ‘Thinking Family’. The event aims to build positive relationships between services and promote integrated working practices.
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Understanding Teenagers Training (1 x 3 hr virtual sessions via Microsoft Teams. This training will provide practitioners with an increased knowledge of the stages of adolescence
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Working with Dads & Male Carers (1 x 3hr virtual session via Microsoft Teams). To provide front line staff and managers with the confidence, knowledge and skills to engage with and work effectively with Dads and Male Carers.
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Reducing Parental Conflict Training (1 day training delivered either face-to-face or virtually via Microsoft Teams). This training will provide practitioners with an increased ability to recognise parental conflict, to understand the causes of conflict and provide practical tools and resources to enable practitioners to support families they are working with.
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Loss and Bereavement Training (1 x 3hr delivered face to face). This Training provides Practitioners with an Increased knowledge of the different stages of grief and how they can affect a person.
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Reducing Parental Conflict E-Learning (interactive and will take approximately 1 hour to complete). This course is intended for practitioners who work with children, young people or families and would like to have a basic knowledge of parental conflict. It was designed to raise awareness of what is meant by 'parental conflict', recognise the differences between parental conflict and domestic abuse, understand the impact that conflict has on children and young people and to be able to recognise positive ways of communicating.
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Local Resources
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Multi-Agency Procedures
The following updated or new multi-agency procedures will go live on the DSCP website on the 22nd May 2024:
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- CAPVA
- Safeguarding Children with a Social Worker, children in care and children previous in care
- Online Safety
- Agencies Roles and Responsibilities
- Children from Abroad, including Victims of Modern Slavery, Trafficking and Exploitation
- So Called Honour Based Abuse
- Forced Marriage
- Female Genital Mutilation
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Scan the QR code to see all the multi-agency procedures provided by the DSCP.
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Welcome to the DSCP Independent Scrutineer
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I am pleased to announce that we have appointed a new Independent Scrutineer, Adrian Green. Adrian brings a wealth of experience as a former Durham Police Commander for both Safeguarding and Neighbourhood Policing and, also, in various regional, national and partnership roles.
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We look forward to working with Adrian and hope many of you will get the opportunity to meet with him soon either directly or within DSCP work groups and events.
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What is an Independent Scrutineer?
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Working Together 2023 sets out clear guidance that the role of independent scrutiny is to provide assurance in judging the effectiveness of multi-agency arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children in a local area, including arrangements to identify and review serious child safeguarding cases. The independent scrutineer should consider how well the safeguarding partners are providing strong leadership and agree how this should be reported. The guidance is concise and gives an element of flexibility in that the decision on how best to implement the role is to be made locally, safeguarding partners should ensure that the scrutiny is objective, acts as a critical friend and promotes reflection to drive continuous improvement.
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Partnership Work with children
North Durham Academy and Stanley Area Action Partnership held a Joint cadet forces engagement day at North Durham Academy on Monday 22nd April 2024.
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The event was an excellent opportunity to engage with the Police, Fire, Army and Royal Air Force Cadets. Evidence suggests that 80% of young people who join the Cadet Forces experience and hone vital skills which they take into later life. Young people benefit from the structure, discipline, training opportunities and the quality education they receive from the cadets and are able to do this in a fun, safe and enjoyable environment.
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Whilst the event was aimed at year 8 pupils initially, pupils in other year groups across the academy showed a keen interest in taking part. The pupils took part in a range of workshops throughout the day including virtual flying, ration tasting and lifesaving skills. The finale of the day was observing emergency services rescue a victim from a road traffic incident by cutting the roof off a vehicle.
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North Durham Academies are currently in the process are organising future events to broaden the number of pupils who are able to experience the wonderful activities the joint cadet forces are able to offer.
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It is hoped that an increasing number of pupils have been inspired by their experience and now wish to join one of the cadet forces. This will enable more young people to occupy their time on an evening and weekend, reducing the number of young people who have no structured or purposeful activities to do in the community.
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Well done North Durham Academy and Stanley Area Action Partnership for a great piece of partnership working. We love hearing about events for our children and young people, if you have anything to share get in touch with Laura Bywater at DSCPSecure@durham.gov.uk
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National Guidance and Useful Resources
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Council Offices, Green Lane, Spennymoor, DL16 6JQ
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