Issue - meetings

This report for the period April 2024-March 2025 sets out that since the dissolution of the ‘Pan-Dorset Safeguarding Children Partnership’, the new BCP Safeguarding Children Partnership has focussed on implementing new arrangements to fulfil the statutory responsibilities of the three statutory safeguarding partners who have joint responsibility and accountability for the multi-agency safeguarding arrangements in the BCP geographical area.??The three statutory safeguarding partners are BCP Council, NHS Dorset ICB and Dorset Police. Within this period of significant change, partners have maintained a focus on safeguarding children and through the new arrangements have gained insights on the effectiveness of how well partners work together to safeguard local children and young people, and areas to be developed. Full details of the multi-agency safeguarding arrangements can be seen here. 

The report provides an account of: 

·       What we have done as part of our local arrangements, including any child safeguarding practice review 

·       Impact of learning from local and national reviews 

·       How we have applied independent scrutiny to review and challenge our safeguarding practice 

·       How education partners are engaged with 

·       Future improvements that can be made as to the effectiveness of local safeguarding arrangements. 

This report will be submitted to the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel by 30 September 2025 and will be published on the BCP Safeguarding Children Partnership website.

The BCP Safeguarding Children Partnership Manager presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'B' to these Minutes in the Minute Book.

The report for the period April 2024-March 2025 set out that since the dissolution of the ‘Pan-Dorset Safeguarding Children Partnership’, the new BCP Safeguarding Children Partnership had focussed on implementing new arrangements to fulfil the statutory responsibilities of the three statutory safeguarding partners who had joint responsibility and accountability for the multi-agency safeguarding arrangements in the BCP geographical area.??

The three statutory safeguarding partners were BCP Council, NHS Dorset ICB and Dorset Police. Within this period of significant change, partners had maintained a focus on safeguarding children and through the new arrangements had gained insights on the effectiveness of how well partners worked together to safeguard local children and young people, and areas to be developed. Full details of the multi-agency safeguarding arrangements could be seen here. 

The report provided an account of: 

·       What had been done as part of our local arrangements, including any child safeguarding practice review 

·       Impact of learning from local and national reviews 

·       How we had applied independent scrutiny to review and challenge our safeguarding practice 

·       How education partners were engaged with 

·       Future improvements that could be made as to the effectiveness of local safeguarding arrangements. 

The report would be submitted to the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel by 30 September 2025 and would be published on the BCP Safeguarding Children Partnership website.

The Board discussed the report, including:

·       A Board Member highlighted that reading the report was emotionally challenging, with particular concern expressed over child deaths and the prevalence of domestic abuse and exploitation.

·       The importance of community awareness was emphasised, and a personal experience of reporting suspected abuse was shared.

·       The breadth of the report was appreciated, and a query was raised regarding the use of the Child Exploitation Risk Assessment Framework (CERAF) across NHS partners, with gaps identified.

·       It was confirmed that CERAF was in use but not yet fully embedded. Plans for independent peer review were outlined to strengthen its application.

·       The report was praised for being well-written, and the value of case reviews in making the content relatable was highlighted.

·       The importance of self-awareness within the partnership was noted, and a question was raised about the benefits of transitioning to a localised BCP Safeguarding Children Partnership.

·       It was explained that the localised approach allowed better focus on urban challenges such as neglect, exploitation, knife crime, and county lines. Plans for improved communication and resource allocation were described.

·       Formal thanks were expressed for work undertaken during the transition from Pan-Dorset to BCP arrangements, with progress acknowledged under challenging circumstances.

RESOLVED that the establishment of the new BCP Safeguarding Children Partnership, the multi-agency safeguarding arrangements in place, identification of its effectiveness to date and areas to be developed are to be noted by the Board.