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DSCP Newsletter - August 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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Our Safeguarding Week will be held Monday 14 October – Friday 18 October 2024. Over the course of the week, a range of partners will deliver online, bitesize sessions on different topic areas within the theme of ‘Inclusion’. The sessions are free and are available across the partnership for all professionals to access.
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Please keep your eyes peeled for further information on how to book in the coming weeks on the DSCP website https://durham-scp.org.uk/
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Priorities
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Priority One: Domestic Abuse
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We are now working on the DSCPs’ first priority, Domestic Abuse, the work within this priority is moving into Phase 2 of the learning cycle where the Improvement Delivery Group will be planning, agreeing the methodology and schedule of work.
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The question that has been agreed within the Performance and Learning Group is:
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Question: What is the impact of early intervention/services on Domestic Abuse?(recognising behaviours and professional curiosity about home life)
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Key Line of Enquiry: Look at the journey of a family to understand those early stages and opportunities for support i.e. Early Help, Education, Health, Early Years provisions.
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Methodology: Audit Activity/Deep Dive
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This piece of work will be completed between August 2024 - November 2024. Findings from the work will be shared in a DSCP briefing in January 2025 and the DSCP newsletter. If you have any questions about the work contact: laura.bywater@durham.gov.uk
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Priority Two: Harm Outside The Home
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Within the priority two piece of work, children told us that when we speak to them, we need to use their language and understand the slang language they use.
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Young Persons Focus Group
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The Children’s Society have created a document that explains what appropriate language is when talking to children and their experience of exploitation in a range of contexts. We would invite all partners to look at the guidance.
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Priority Three: First 1,001 Days
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Sudden and Unexpected Deaths in Infancy (SUDI) Eyes on the Baby Training
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The Eyes on the Baby training has been designed to help staff prevent Sudden Unexpected Death in Infancy (SUDI) in County Durham. Most unexpected deaths of babies under 1 year occur in families living in impoverished circumstances with multiple risks or vulnerabilities, and a multi-agency approach is needed to reach the families most at risk of infant death. Training the multi-agency workforce in County Durham will help staff give advice about safer sleep, support shared working between services, and keep Eyes on the Baby to reduce SUDI.
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The training is relevant for all agencies and practitioners across the partnership. To access the training click HERE and login to an existing account or create an account if you don’t already have one. Please ensure you complete the correct STRAND for your job role which more detail can be found on this link provided.
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Priority Four: Mental Health and Wellbeing
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We are now coming to the end of the priority four work; we have had an amazing response from the parents and young people survey.
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This survey was shared with 120 young people and their parents who are receiving tier three support for their mental health and wellbeing. Surveys were returned by:
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- 45 responses from children/young people
- 40 responses from parents/carers
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Within the survey, young people and parents told us that the main learning they want practitioners to take from the survey is to listen more.
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A snapshot of what young people told us:
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- I have had to wait a long time so someone to talk to quicker would be good. I like when my worker Angie helps talk to people for me with me listening - she understands me and helps others understand too
- Having the right people caring for me (staff) feeling safe let me talk about it more, someone safe to speak to who listen
- Suggestion to improve support; "Been more available".
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Further work will be completed across the partnership in response to the survey and deep dive information. This information will be shared in the October DSCP newsletter.
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What's New
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New procedure supported by e-learning and development package
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Appropriate information sharing is central to effectively safeguard children from harm and promoting their wellbeing. Durham Safeguarding Children Partnership (DSCP) have worked closely with the Department for Education to develop a Tier 1 Information Sharing Agreement which is a multi-agency agreement that details the lawful basis for sharing information. The Tier 1 Agreement is available via our multi agency procedures; Information Sharing (trixonline.co.uk). The information has been created to help you share information in a fair, proportionate and lawful way.
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The DSCP has also developed an e-learning and development package available via DSCP Me Learning. The modules include:
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- learning from practice in Durham
- the definition of safeguarding in the context of information sharing (a strong emphasis on prevention) and,
- a shift in culture from requiring consent to share information to sharing within the lawful basis of ‘public task’.
All staff are encouraged to undertake the learning and development package. This is to ensure that you are aware of the changes to how and when we can share information to safeguard children and young people in relation to recent changes, including those within Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023 and Department for Education non statutory information sharing advice for practitioners providing safeguarding services for children and young people, parents and carers.
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For further information, please contact Vicki Vickerson, Performance and Programme Coordinator, DSCP Business Unit.
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Events
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The Fun and Food programme is funded by the Department for Education and runs during the main school holidays across County Durham. All DfE funded sessions are free for children in receipt of benefits-related free school meals and includes healthy food.
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They offer 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.
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Research has shown that the school holidays can be a pressure point for some families and that can lead to a holiday experience gap. We also know that children from low-income households are:
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- less likely to access organised out-of-school activities
- more likely to experience ‘unhealthy holidays’ in terms of nutrition and physical health
- more likely to experience social isolation.
The Fun and Food programme is a response to this issue and evidence shows that free holiday clubs can have a positive impact on children and young people. In addition, they have been able to secure additional funding to provide places for children not eligible for DfE funding but who are otherwise vulnerable, however, this will be managed by delivery partners directly and will be completely separate from the Fun and Food ticket system.
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For more information contact funandfood@durham.gov.uk
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The Child Accident Prevention Trust (CAPT) has designed a short online course to help health and childcare staff to understand 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 and is being delivered by Kevin Lowe, an Associate Consultant / Trainer with the Child Accident Prevention Trust (CAPT).
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Available dates are as follows:
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- Tuesday, 10th September 2024: 09:30 - 12:00
- Thursday 10th October 2024: 13:30 - 16:00
- Tuesday 12th November 2024: 09:30 - 12:00
- Thursday 12th December 2024: 13:30 - 16:00
- Thursday 16th January 2025: 09:30 - 12:00
- Thursday 13th February 2025: 13:30 - 16:00
- Tuesday 11th March 2025: 09:30 - 12:00
- Thursday 17th April 2025: 13:30 - 16:00
- Tuesday 20th May 2025: 09:30 - 12:00
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Please use the following link to book a place:
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During the next few weeks, the DSCP will be posting messages via our social media channels, on how to keep children and young people safe over the summer holidays.
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The messages aim to keep safeguarding children and young people in everyone’s minds, by providing helpful tips and advice on a variety of topics including:
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- Water safety
- Online safety
- Keeping babies safe in hot weather
- Safeguarding in sports.
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Please help us inform children, young people and families by reposting our messages via your own channels. You can follow our accounts here: https://x.com/DurhamSCP
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Sensory Smart Awareness Session for Professionals (free training)
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Free training is available from the Children's Occupational Therapy Service at County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust (CDDFT). It's for all workforces in County Durham and might be useful for Family Hub teams and Early Help teams to keep up to date with neurodevelopmental sensory difficulties and strategies to support. The Occupational Therapy team provide the training on request to teams and groups of staff. To arrange please contact cdda-tr.childrensoccupationaltherapy@nhs.net
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These sessions are designed for professional colleagues who require an update of the sensory systems and strategies that can be used within nurseries/schools. There are different packages to suit the different teams and last approximately 3 hours.
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Our face to face and Teams/Zoom training continues to grow and we have more courses available for you to access. There are currently 14 courses covering various themes available. The latest dates released for Parental Substance Misuse are now available to book along with all the other training we have on offer. To book any of the training on the training programme, click HERE
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We have added 3 new courses to our Me Learning (eLearning) course catalogue. These are:
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Criminal Exploitation and County Lines
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Criminal exploitation is a huge issue that involves people all over the world. It’s a very real problem and is extremely difficult and dangerous for victims of exploitation to get help. We all play a role in our community to look out for exploitation, and understanding criminal exploitation, including county lines, is crucial. This course will help you to become more aware of criminal exploitation and its different forms, and to understand what signs to look out for and how to respond.
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Online Safety – Risks to Children
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Most children use the internet positively, but they can sometimes behave in ways that may place themselves at risk. Knowing the potential risks and being able to encourage responsible and safe use of the internet is vital to help safeguard children online.
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Information Sharing - How We Work in Durham
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As mentioned in the 'What's New' section, the modules include, learning from practice in Durham, the definition of safeguarding in the context of information sharing, with a strong emphasis on prevention, and a shift in culture from requiring consent to share information to sharing within the lawful basis of 'public task'.
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Spotlight On
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The County Durham Early Help Partnership have recently approved their new County Durham Early Help Strategy which sets out our vision to support all children and families to achieve their goals in life, in an environment that is safe, happy and healthy.
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They are now looking to share the news about the strategy with internal workforce, partners, stakeholders and the wider public. As part of this work, they have produced a short two minute video to introduce the strategy and its key themes. They hope you will enjoy watching it and would encourage you to share it with your own audiences, should you wish to do so.
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The strategy recognises that all families need support from time to time to help their children thrive, whether that’s from friends, family, volunteers or local services.
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“Our ambition is for every family to receive the right support at the right time and in the right place, whether that is the lowest level of support or more specialist help”.
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The strategy highlights the commitment to building positive and trusted relationships with children and their families. It also sets out how to work in partnership with health, education, criminal justice and voluntary, community and faith organisations to ensure our support offer is accessible and meets the needs of all families.
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Next Steps: To continue to work with children, young people, parents and carers to co-produce the support we provide.
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Local Resources
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Alongside the new information sharing procedure, the DSCP have also added two further local resources to our multi-agency procedures.
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- Working Together Children with a Social Worker (CWSW) Feedback Flow Chart
- Attendance resource it for Schools and Social Care
The new local resources can be found in the Local Resource Library and attached to this chapter.
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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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If you would like to unsubscribe to our newsletter, please click the link below. The online subscription form can be found here.
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