Dear Colleagues,
Happy New Year from the Wirral Safeguarding Children Board!
On behalf of the WSCB I am very pleased to send you this week’s Safeguarding News Update.
The weekly emails are designed to update you about specific safeguarding items; these may be issues of local or national significance, information about an aspect of the WSCB’s work or information designed to support good professional practice. This week the update is about Neglect. Neglect is the most common reason for a child to be the subject of a child Protection Plan in the UK and research from the NSPCC tells us that 1 in 7 secondary school age children and 1 in 20 children under 11 in the UK have been neglected at some point.
At the recent WSCB meeting partner agencies discussed the tools available to professionals for assessing neglect, particularly the Graded Care Profile tool which is the standard neglect tool recommended by the WSCB. However, there is evidence from the local authority to suggest that the vast majority of cases referred into children’s social care with neglect as a significant feature do not evidence use of the Graded Care Profile tool.
The tool was re-presented by the WSCB 18 months ago and practitioner guidance and an information leaflet for families were developed at the same time. The tool and the resources are attached. The resources and the updated Practice Guidance are also available on the WSCB’s procedures website and can be accessed here:
http://wirrallscb.proceduresonline.com/chapters/g_neglect.html
The WSCB strongly recommends that professionals who work with families where neglect is a factor are familiar with the practice guidance and the graded care profile tool. To support practitioners with neglect and the graded care profile revised training was introduced last year. Details of the neglect training and our other safeguarding courses can be found here:
The course list for 16-17 will be published in March and neglect training will be part of the programme.
Also attached to this update are 3 neglect awareness raising posters for you to use and display in your organisations.
I hope you find all the information useful. If organisations would like to have any aspect of their safeguarding work highlighted in a future update please get in touch.
Kind regards
David Robbins
Business Manager
Wirral Safeguarding Children Board
Hamilton Building
Conway Street
Birkenhead
CH41 4FD
