Safeguarding children
What does ‘Safeguarding’ mean?
Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children means:
- protecting children from maltreatment (abuse or neglect).
- preventing impairment of child health and development
- ensuring children are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care
- enabling children to have optimum life chances and enter adulthood successfully.
What we do
The Children's Service, through it's Safeguarding Division, monitors and promotes best practice in relation to children who are receiving a social care service. These are primarily children who are looked after and children who are subject to child protection plans. The Division also:
- promotes Safeguarding work within the wider community through the Safeguarding Children Board.
- specifically handles all allegations by children against people in a position of trust (eg teachers, residential workers, foster carers, other workers and volunteers etc).
- monitors all missing children within Barnet.
The Division comprises the following:
- The Conference and Review Team who chair Looked After Children's reviews and child protection conferences.
- The Local Authority Designated Officer, Senior Safeguarding Officer and Allegations Investigator, who handle the allegations against staff and volunteers.
- The Safeguarding Children Board Development Officer who works to improve the effectiveness of the Board and the way in which agencies work together to safeguard children.
- The Delegated Manager for Missing Children who monitors children who are missing and ensures processes are in place to reduce the number of children missing within Barnet.
I am a professional. Can I ring for advice if I am worried about a child?
Yes, if you would like to talk over any concerns you have you can us and we will talk over with you whether the situation meets the criteria for a referral to our service. This may be particularly helpful for long term chronic situations or where the concerns are borderline or if the issue is unusual or complex. If we feel the child is at risk we will insist that you make a referral and will help you do this in a sensitive manner. If no-one in the team is available or the situation is an emergency we would expect you to contact the Referral and Assessment Team for advice immediately.
For further information contact the Senior Safeguarding Officer on 0208 359 4489.
Can members of the public ring the safeguarding Children Division for advice?
Yes, but in general it is better to ring the Referral and Assessment Team who can answer your query more quickly and ensure the right person helps you.
Can young people make contact with the chair of a meeting about them?
Yes, if you have recently had a case conference or looked after review held about you and would like to contact the chair you are very welcome. He/she will be happy to talk over any issues you would like to raise.
For further information contact the Senior Administrator on 0208 359 4524.
My child has recently become the subject of a Child Protection Plan, I am unhappy about this and would like to complain. What can I do?
We welcome complaints from service users either about the process of case conferences or the decisions made and the chair of the conference will be happy to meet with you in the first instance to discuss your complaint.
For further information contact the Senior Safeguarding Officer on 0208 359 4489.
The Safeguarding Children Division cannot investigate complaints about the service you have received from your social worker until they have been investigated by their manager. You can contact the Children's Service Complaints Officer on 0208 359 5730 about how to complain and you can also contact the chair of the conference or the Team Manager of the team for more information. The process for dealing with complaints is set out in the London Child Protection Procedures.(see Useful Links opposite)
I would like more written information about Looked After Reviews or Case Conferences. Where can I get this?
We have a series of leaflets explaining more about our service and the work we do.
For further information contact the Senior Administrator on 0208 359 4524.
Related Service Area Information: Children and Families - Listening to Children Division
Children, young people and families
