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Safeguarding Children

Children have the right to grow up safe from harm. It is not acceptable for anyone to treat a child in a way that makes them unhappy and that will affect their future well-being and quality of life.

Safeguarding children is one of the highest priorities for Bexley Care Trust. We are committed to minimising the risk of physical, sexual or emotional harm to all children and young people . We want to ensure, as a PCT, that we have the necessary checks and systems to do this, as required under Section 11 of the Children Act 2004.

The Care Quality Commission published a report of their review of arrangements in the NHS for safeguarding children on July 16, 2009. The report was accompanied by a letter from David Nicholson, NHS Chief Executive asking NHS trust boards to take urgent action to ensure that children are safeguarded in their local community.

As a minimum boards are required to ensure that:

their organisation meets statutory requirements in relation to Criminal Records Bureau checks
Child protection policies and systems are up to date and robust, including a process for following up children who miss outpatient appointments and a system for flagging children for whom there are concerns
all eligible staff have undertaken and are up to date with safeguarding
at level one
a review of other training arrangements should be completed within 6 months, taking account of emerging messages from the national review of safeguarding training
designated and/or named professionals are clear about their role and have sufficient time and support to undertake it
there is a board level executive director lead for safeguarding; the board reviews safeguarding across the organisation annually and ensures that safeguarding systems and processes are working.

What does the service do?

The Bexley Safeguarding Children team offers support and advice about safeguarding children, promoting good practice and effective communication

within and between trusts and all other agencies on matters relating to the protection of children.

Bexley Care Trust Declaration of Safeguardng Children details the arrangements in place to safeguard children in Bexley. To find out more, you can view the declaration via the right link.

If you would like more information about the safeguarding children service at Bexley Care Trust, view the link on the right to our Annual Safeguarding Children Report or contact one of the team below.

Where to get more help?

If you have a concern about a child or want to be signposted to other organisations that can offer support, please go to the Where to get help page.

Protecting Children from Domestic Violence

Across the capital there has been an increase of approximately 30% in the numbers of domestic violence incidents reported to the Metropolitan Police since the start of 2010. Rates of domestic violence in some parts of Bexley are high when compared with other areas of London.

To help overcome this, Bexley Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) has issued this important multi-agency protocol in respect of safeguarding children living in situations with domestic violence.

The purpose of the protocol is to ensure that children and young people who are identified as at risk of harm from domestic violence:

are identified and supported from early stage
receive a thorough assessment of their needs
receive the necessary support from appropriate services.

We also realise it is important that non-abusing parents are supported to ensure they are able to meet the needs of their children.

For more information, you can download a copy of the protocol via the right hand side link. If you would like advice or support in this area, please contact the nurse for Safeguarding Children on Tel: 007810 552771.

If you have concerns for a child who may be at risk of domestic violence, please see our Where to get help section for more information about who to contact.

ContactPoint

ContactPoint is a tool used by children's workforce staff and will provide details of others also working with that child. ContactPoint will facilitate greater communication across agencies by professionals, thus helping earlier identification of needs and earlier, more effective action to address those needs. ContactPoint will hold basic information about all children and young people aged under 18 years.

ContactPoint will not hold any assessment information, case information or subjective observations about child or family circumstances.

For more information view the right hand link to the London Borough of Bexley website.