The Board received a report presented by the Director of Quality and Safety, Lorna Quigley, advising that the Children and Social Work Act 2017 (the ‘2017 Act’) was introducing new local safeguarding arrangements that would replace those currently in place under the Children Act 2014.  The new arrangements would see the current Local Safeguarding Children Board replaced by new arrangements led by the local authority, the Police and the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) as the three statutory agencies who would have equal and joint responsibility for local safeguarding arrangements.

The new arrangements stemmed from the ‘Wood Review’ of Local Safeguarding Boards published in May 2016, the chief recommendation of which was a proposalto introduce a newstatutory frameworkfor multi-agency safeguarding arrangements, the review recommending that -

·  there be a requirementfor allareas tomove towardsnew multi-agency arrangements;

·  there be a requirement forthe threestatutory agenciesto designmulti-agency arrangementsfor protecting children,and towork togetheron keystrategic issues;

·  an expectation be placed onschools andother agenciesinvolved in the protectionof childrento co-operatewith thenew multi-agency arrangements;

·  the existingsystem ofserious casereviews be replaced by a new nationallearning frameworkoverseen bya newindependent body; and

·  the national oversightof ChildDeath Overview Panels be transferred to the Department for Health.

The changes agreed had been introduced by the 2017 Act which aimed to improve support forlooked afterchildren inEngland andWales, especiallyfor those leaving care; to enablebetter learningabout effectiveapproaches tochild protectionand care inEngland; and to establish anew regulatoryregime forthe socialwork profession inEngland.  The Act further required the three safeguarding partner agencies to set out how they would work together, with any further relevant agencies, to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and how the arrangements would be subject to independent scrutiny. 

The partners had worked together to design a model for the new safeguarding arrangements which was compliant with the 2017 Act and made independent scrutiny of those arrangements a key feature.  The proposed model was detailed within an appendix to the submitted report.  It was the intention of the of the partners, as the Wirral Safeguarding Partnership, to introduce the arrangements in shadow form from 1 April 2019 through to full implementation on 1 September 2019 at which point the current Wirral Safeguarding Children Board would be stood down.  These arrangements would satisfy the transitional arrangements guidance published by the Department for Education.

There was no alternative to the proposed arrangements insofar as there was a statutory requirement to have the new multi-agency safeguarding arrangements in place by September 2019.  The model proposed had been subject to regular multi-agency consultation with the Wirral Safeguarding Children Board and with young people, families, professionals and the wider community during December 2018 – January 219, all of which had informed the final proposed model.

The Board received a presentation in support of their consideration, the presentation outlining responsibilities and requirements under the 2017 Act; the purpose of new local arrangements; Wirral’s proposed new arrangements, including the learning approach and approaches to be adopted more generally in the local multi-agency partnership; and an overview and consideration of key features of the model proposed.

The NHS Wirral Clinical Commissioning Group Board Members and the Members of the Wirral Borough Council Committee of the Cabinet - 

RESOLVED:  That

1.  the proposed children’s safeguarding model be endorsed;

2.  the publication of the model ahead of shadow implementation on 31 March 2019 be noted, along with the full implementation of the new arrangements on 1 September 2019 at which point the Wirral Safeguarding Children Board will be stood down.