Multi-Agency Safeguarding Arrangements

The geographical area for these multi-agency safeguarding arrangements, which includes arrangements for reviewing child deaths will be based upon the Leeds Local Authority boundary.

As defined in Working Together to Safeguarding Children 2023 the Lead Safeguarding Partners (LSPs) for Leeds are:

• The Chief Executive of Leeds Local Authority  
• Chief Executive for NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board
• Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police

The Delegated Safeguarding Leads (DSLs) for Leeds are:

• Director of Children and Families, Leeds City Council
• Director of Nursing and Quality, Leeds office of NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board
• Chief Superintendent- Leeds District Commander, West Yorkshire Police 

The Lead Safeguarding Partners have equal and joint responsibility for local safeguarding arrangements, and they will keep under review how best to make sure that these arrangements work to improve safeguarding of children. 

The responsibilities are underpinned by equitable and proportionate funding including through any contributions from relevant agencies. Funding arrangements are agreed by the Lead Safeguarding Partners and are reviewed on an annual basis to ensure that adequate funding is provided to meet the statutory requirements of the partnership. 

The Delegated Safeguarding Partners have the responsibility and authority for ensuring full participation with the safeguarding arrangements. Although the Lead Safeguarding Partners have delegated their responsibilities to those named above, they remain accountable for any action or decisions taken on behalf of their respective agency. 

The LSCP is structured to support the implementation of the Multi-agency Safeguarding Arrangements under Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023 and to ensure that safeguarding practice across the city keeps children safe.

The Lead Safeguarding Partners meet as a minimum, on an annual basis to set the strategic direction, vision, shared priorities, contributions of relevant partners and the resource required to deliver services effectively. Key partnership documents are agreed, including multi-agency safeguarding arrangements, annual report, annual budget, and scrutiny plans. 
The Lead Safeguarding Partners maintain the option of meeting more frequently to meet their statutory functions.  

In Leeds, the Delegated Safeguarding partners, form an Executive to oversee the safeguarding arrangements for children and have equal responsibility and accountability for safeguarding. They oversee the safeguarding vision and priorities for the city and gain assurance that the work of the partnership is improving outcomes for all children and families.

Although not required by Working Together to Safeguard Children (2023), to strengthening the input from education at strategic level decision-making, Leeds have made the decision that Education is the fourth safeguarding partner within the arrangements and is included within the Executive membership. 

Additional members of the Executive, alongside the delegated safeguarding partners, in Leeds are: 

• The Independent Scrutineer.
• Deputy Director for Learning- Leeds City Council 
• Executive Principle, White Rose Academies- Chair of Education Safeguarding Group.   
• Legal Advisor
• Business Unit manager

The chairing arrangements for the Executive rotate between the Delegated Safeguarding Partners, on an annual basis.

All the subgroups within the safeguarding arrangements report directly to the Executive and work collaboratively to ensure comprehensive and effective safeguarding practice.

The structure includes: 

• Children and Young Peoples Partnership Meeting
• Review Advisory Group 
• Audit and Review Group
• Third Sector Safeguarding Group 
• Education Safeguarding Group
• Learning and Development Group
• Policy and Practice Group 
• Silver MACE
• Secure Settings Group
• Multiagency Child Protection Strategic Group
• Child Death Overview Panel

The purpose of the Children and Young People Partnership meeting (CYPP) is to provide strong and effective leadership to support effective partnership work and take action to deliver the aspirations of the Best City Ambition for Leeds. Its key objectives are to join up activities between partners to maximise outcomes, and to create a culture where partnership work in the interest of children and their families is built into the way all agencies, sectors and organisations act.

The CYPP is chaired on a rotational basis by a Delegated Safeguarding Partner and offers opportunities for CYPP members to be actively engaged in meaningful discussion, debate and respectful challenge relating to both the Children and Young Peoples Plan (CYP Plan) and the Leeds Safeguarding Children Partnership (LSCP) multi-agency safeguarding arrangements.

All the subgroups within the arrangements, contributing to the Partnership's objectives, assurance and oversight. They are chaired by a senior member from a partner organisation, with membership from across the partnership, including education and third sector, and meet as a minimum four times a year.  

Where appropriate, subgroups allocate work to time limited Task and Delivery groups, made up of members from across the partnership, relevant to the objectives. The subgroups hold responsibility for the work of the Task and Delivery groups and are accountable for the delivery of the relevant work plan.

Although not formally within the reporting structure to the Executive, the practitioner group in Leeds, which is supported by the Business Unit, offers feedback through task and delivery groups and to subgroups, ensuring that the partnership directly hear the voice of practitioners. 
The purpose of the group is:   

• To provide the practitioner perspective on information produced by the LSCP. 
• To participate in the development of information to ensure that it meets the needs of all practitioners.
• To develop a network of support that practitioners can utilise outside of the group.

Relevant partners 

These are identified by the Lead Safeguarding Partners, and their involvement within the safeguarding partnership is required to safeguard and promote the welfare of local children.

Relevant partners contribute to the safeguarding arrangements by membership of the subgroups and Children and Young People Partnership, including those on a more regional or national footprint who have local representatives. Those relevant partners with a wider footprint are consulted on local safeguarding arrangements when appropriate, but have open access to the partnership via communication with the business unit.  

It is expected that all relevant partners act in accordance with the local safeguarding arrangements in Leeds and LSPs seek assurance regarding this via the organisational self-assessment (section 11), annual Leeds self-declaration and via audit activity.

In Leeds the relevant safeguarding partners include (but not limited to):

• Leeds City Council
• West Yorkshire Police
• Leeds Teaching Hospital Trust
• Leeds Community Healthcare Trust
• Leeds York Partnership Foundation Trust
• Leeds Children and Family Services
• NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board
• Third, Community and Voluntary Sector 
• Housing and Environment
• Providers of Early Years Education 
• Providers of Primary Education
• Providers of Secondary Education
• Providers of Further Education
• Providers of Alternative Educational provision 
• National Probation Service
• CAFCASS
• Wetherby Young Offender Institution
• Yorkshire Ambulance Service
• British Transport Police
• Immigration and Control.
• West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service
• Public Health

The structure also includes close working links to other partnerships and Boards with responsibility for safeguarding and/or children in the city, including but not limited to: Leeds Safeguarding Adult Board (LSAB), Safer Leeds Community Safety Partnership, Health and Wellbeing Board, Early Help/Family Help Board, Corporate Parenting Board, Youth Justice Board, Serious Youth Violence Board and Domestic Abuse Local Partnership (DALP).

Education: 

The Education sector is represented throughout the LSCP structure in Leeds. 

As of September 2024, education is the fourth partner within the LSCP executive, alongside the statutory delegated safeguarding partners. 

The structure includes an Education Safeguarding group, who’s function is to support the wider strategic work of the LSCP by: 

• Providing a framework to enhance communication, support and challenge between all educational establishments, including Early Years providers and Further Education, and the Leeds Safeguarding Children Partnership. 
• Support the development and co-production of safeguarding assurance, and improvements across educational establishments.
• Work collaboratively with the three statutory safeguarding partners to support and contribute to the delivery of the locally agreed children partnership arrangements. 
• Highlighting strengths, challenges, threats and opportunities for educational settings and the partnership.  
• Provide a local sector response to relevant national consultations impacting the safeguarding arrangements of children and young people in education settings. 

Education partners, including from a range of providers, are members of the appropriate subgroups across the LSCP structure. 

Third Sector: 

All references to the Third Sector within this document include but is not exhaustive of the following types of organisations: Voluntary, Faith, Community, Sports, Arts, Charity.

In Leeds, the Third Sector is a significant and activity partner within the multiagency safeguarding arrangements, with representatives from the vast sector who work with children and families, being members of the subgroups across the LSCP structure. 

The Third Sector Safeguarding Group is a key group within the LSCP structure, ensuring that Third Sector partners have a strong voice, highlighting challenges and opportunities, supporting the development of safeguarding practice, identifying learning and the dissemination of information and resources.  

Secure settings: 

In Leeds there are secure settings which accommodate young people from across the country, Wetherby Young Offenders Institute, Adel beck Secure Children’s Home and the Police Custody Suite. 

Representatives from these provisions and wider system partners, form a Secure Settings subgroup, which provide oversight and challenge in relation to safeguarding practice. 

The group reports directly to the Executive, to ensure a clear line of sight and early identification of risks.

Child Death Reviews

The geographical and population ‘footprint’ of the child death review process is within the Local Authority boundaries of Leeds.

The purpose of the Child Death Overview Panel (CDOP) is to identify any matters relating to the death, or deaths, that are relevant to the welfare of children in Leeds or to public health and safety, and to consider whether action should be taken in relation to any matters identified. The funding for the CDOP will be through the annual LSCP budget. 

The CDOP will prepare and publish an annual report on what it has done as a result of the child death review arrangements in Leeds, including recommendations and responding actions.

Any learning from the child death review process will be disseminated via the LSCP communication channels.

In Leeds we have guiding principles that underpin the work of partners and the partnership, to support children, families and communities and keep children safe.  

• Restorative practice – our approach in Leeds to working with families is a restorative one, and our work with families must maintain a focus on investing in the relationships we have with children, young people and their families, and with colleagues and partners to improve outcomes, prevent or resolve harm. Practitioners and agencies have a responsibility to offer both support and challenge to families and to each other in order to respond robustly, whilst appropriately utilising the strengths of the families and using restorative language. 
• Child friendly practice – Our shared vision is for Leeds to be a child friendly city in which children and young people are safe from harm in their families, their communities and their neighbourhoods. Our ambition is that Leeds is the best city in the UK and the best city for children and young people to grow up in, with child friendly practice underpinning all that we do. 
• Right conversations, right people, right time – we want children, young people and families to receive the right support and help at the right time, as early as possible in the life of a problem. Preventative and early help responses are critical to avoid issues from escalating and children experiencing further harm.
• Think Family, Work Family – children live in families and our approach to safeguarding must recognise and respond to the needs of all family members holistically. We cannot lose sight of the child in addressing the needs of their parents and carers, but we are committed to a Think Family Wok Family approach across the city. 
• Trauma Informed - In Leeds we are working towards being a Trauma Informed city, which is reflected in all our actions, activities and interactions.  Our strategy, Compassionate Leeds: Trauma awareness, prevention and response strategy for children, young people and families, sets out how we plan to create that change by taking a public health approach to the problem. This will focus on preventing childhood trauma and reducing its impact for children and young people across Leeds.
• Voice of the child – in all of our work, it is vital to hear the child’s voice, and to focus on their experiences, from interactions and support to children and families, through the system to the strategic direction. We have made a commitment throughout the safeguarding partnership that the voice of children and young people will be central to all that we do.    
• The best start in life for all children- Before and after birth, we support parents and babies to create the conditions where stress is reduced, positive bonds and attachments can form, and language and communications skills develop, supporting the best start for all children in the city.
• Participation of parents and carers – as with hearing the voice of the child or young person, so is it equally important that parents and carers are involved in discussions and decision making which impacts upon them. Participation of parents and carers supports the restorative approach and ensures that they are able to contribute to assessments and plans in relation to them and their families. 
• Working together- One service alone is not enough to keep children and young people safe. We will work in partnership with families, communities and other services, we will co-ordinate our work with partners, sharing information appropriately and effectively to avoid duplication and ensure that children and families get the support that they require at the earliest opportunity.

When working with families in Leeds partners will work to the Leeds Practice Model
which builds on all aspects of practice and what we know to be useful when assessing, implementing and evaluating what we do. Therefore, all our work, is underpinned with the following Leeds Practice Principles:

• always working WITH - creating a context of high support and high challenge
  with children, young people and families and each other
• relationship based - assuming that engagement and best outcomes are achieved through trusting and respectful relationships with each other, taking responsibility for creating and maintaining effective relationships at all levels
• enabling the utility of the family - putting the family at the heart of everything
  we do; recognising and enabling the networks and skills within the family; and
  wherever possible families determine the direction of care and intervention.
• early in the life of a problem - engaging families in appropriate and effective
  support immediately when an issue is identified and maintaining a persistent
  offer to engage in support.
• one family, one lead worker, one plan - wherever possible working to reduce numbers of practitioners involved with a single family and defining one lead practitioner to co-ordinate a single comprehensive family plan. Where agencies are also involved with the adults in the family, a “Think Family, Work Family” approach should be adopted.
• systemic, formulation driven and evidenced based - all plans consider the
  whole system around a family, information is effectively analysed, and plans are created using the best available evidence.
• transparent - children, young people and families are as fully informed as possible and are always involved in and understand decisions that concern themselves and their families.
• strength focussed - all interactions, interventions and plans are seeking, affirming, and utilising existing knowledge, skills and abilities; and adopt an evidence based approach to assessing needs and managing risk.
• recognising that engagement with education is a protective factor - seeking to maximise attendance, attainment, and achievement.
• accountability, evaluation and sustainability - always working to continually understand a situation, improve plans and find ways to enable independence and reduce reliability on services.

To support staff at all levels across the city, the partnership has in place a Concerns Resolution Process, which outlines the steps to be taken when there are disagreements between practitioners from differing agencies in relation to concerns about the safety and welfare of a child or young person, and/or action being taken to safeguard a child or young person.

The process does not replace the need to respond to significant safeguarding concerns immediately. The safety and wellbeing of the child, young person or unborn, is paramount, and should they be considered at risk of significant harm safeguarding processes should be followed.

Leeds has a clear framework in which multi-agency conversations about vulnerable and potentially vulnerable children can take place. This approach recognises the complexity of children’s and their family’s needs and circumstances and so helps to ensure that the support is provided in the most appropriate way.

In Leeds the practice is undertaking the right conversation at the right time rather than the concept of ‘thresholds’ that is, the opportunity for a practitioner who has a concern that a child may need additional support to have a quality conversation to clarify the nature of the concerns, the needs of the child and their family and the most helpful way to respond to them.

The advantages of this approach are: 

• Founded on collaboration and conversation
• Promotes shared responsibility and flexibility 
• Recognises complexity of unique needs of each individual child and family 
• Reduces bias of individual professional and agency decisions through debate 

The identification of a lead practitioner, sits within our guiding principles and practice model, identifying the most appropriate practitioners to support the child/family with the identified need.

The lead practitioner is the named practitioner who has been identified as the person who will be the family’s main point of contact throughout the early help process, such as a family support worker, school nurse, teacher, health visitor and/ or special educational needs coordinator, could undertake the lead practitioner role.

Where it is felt that it is in the best interests of the child and their family the lead practitioner for Section 17 (Child in Need) does not need to be a qualified Social Worker however, they will need direct supervision from a qualified Social Worker. In Leeds for Children in Need when the lead practitioner is an individual other than a social worker, then this practitioner will sit within the Family Help hubs, to ensure appropriate oversight. 

The voices and views of children and young people are at the heart of making Leeds a child friendly city, with the 12 Child Friendly Leeds Wishes providing a focus for our work.  The 12 Wishes, which were developed based on the feedback and consultation data from over 80,000 children and young people in Leeds, inform the priorities in the Children and Young Peoples Plan and progress against the actions is overseen by the Children and Young Peoples Partnership.

Listening to and responding to the voice of the child” is one of the 4 key behaviours that underpin our citywide approach to supporting children and young people and encouraging children and young people “to be active citizens who feel they have a voice and influence” is one of the 5 outcomes as detailed in our Children and Young People’s Plan.

Prioritising the voice and influence of children, young people and families is part of the culture of the partnership with the understanding that all partners have the responsibility to hear and respond to the voice of children and families and feed this into the work of the wider partnership. Opportunities to do this are provided within the subgroups of the partnership and through the assurance processes.

The terms of reference for all groups include the need to consider how to hear and respond to the voice of children, young people and families.  

On an annual basis partners and members of the Executive, participate in a takeover meeting of the partnership, an event which is planned and delivered by youth voice groups from across the city and focuses on sharing and discussing the top issues voted by young people.

In addition, on a minimum of a yearly basis members of the executive, including the independent scrutineer meet with children and young people accessing safeguarding services to hear directly about their experiences, concerns and ideas, to inform the priorities of the safeguarding partnership.

Every six months, three citywide reports outlining voice and influence of children and young people, parents and carers (SEND, Social Care and Universal) are shared with the partnership for discussion and reflection, increasing awareness of emerging issues, priorities and good practice.

The lead for voice and influence of children and young people, in the Children and Families directorate is a member of the partnership providing challenge and guidance, via membership of the Children and Young Peoples partnership meeting. This provides the link between the partnership and citywide youth voice groups (SEND Youth Council, Children in Care Council, Care Leavers Council etc) and members of the Voice Influence and Change Network ( youth voice leads in educational settings, youth groups, health, third sector, LCC teams and services etc) who work with seldom heard and underrepresented young people, to ensure that the safeguarding partnership can listen and respond to all children and young people across the city. 

The Leeds Safeguarding Children Partnership employs an Independent Scrutineer, a role critical to the impartial scrutiny of our safeguarding arrangements. The scrutineer provides additional assurance in judging the effectiveness of multi-agency arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children in the city.

The functions of the Independent Scrutineer in Leeds are therefore to:

• provide safeguarding partners and relevant agencies with independent, rigorous, and effective support and challenge at both a strategic and operational level. 
• provide assurance to the whole system in judging the effectiveness of the multiagency safeguarding arrangements through a range of scrutiny methods.
• ensure that statutory duties are being fulfilled, quality assurance mechanisms are in place, and that local child safeguarding practice reviews and national reviews are analysed, with key learning areas identified and effectively implemented across the safeguarding system. 
• ensure that the voice of children and families is considered as part of scrutiny and that this is at the heart of arrangements through direct feedback, informing policy and practice. 
• be regarded as a ‘critical friend’ and provide opportunities for two-way discussion and reflection between frontline practitioners and leaders. This will encourage and enable strong, clear, strategic leadership. 
• provide independent advice when there are disagreements between agencies and safeguarding partners and facilitate escalation procedures.
• evaluate and contribute to multi-agency safeguarding published arrangements and the annual report, alongside feeding into the wider accountability systems such as inspections.

As well as the Executive, the independent scrutineer is also a member of the Review Advisory Group and Audit and Review Group, to ensure that scrutiny is applied at the earliest opportunity.  

Additional assurance is provided via the scrutiny of the organisational self-assessment (section 11), and new annual assurance tool to be implemented in 2025, which will be responsive to changes in legislation, policy, practice, learning and in line with the LSCP priorities for the year.    

The Audit and Review group oversee an annual audit programme, which provides assurance in relation to practice and processes across Leeds, as well as the identification of areas for improvement.

Data is scrutinised by the Audit and Review group, to offer a level of assurance in relation to the effectiveness of safeguarding systems in Leeds, as well an understanding of themes and identify areas for improvement. 

The LSCP Review Advisory Group (RAG) is responsible for identifying learning in relation to the most serious cases, including Serious Child Safeguarding Incidents (SCSIs), identifying good practice and areas of learning and improvement. 
The fundamental purpose of reviewing incidents where children who have either died because of abuse or neglect, or where children have been seriously harmed, is to learn from those cases to help make improvements to systems that protect children and to prevent other children from being harmed.

A central role is to seek assurance related to actions taken following local learning activities, Rapid Reviews, Local Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews (CSPRs) or National Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews. The RAG requests support from other LSCP subgroups to disseminate learning, undertake quality assurance work to measure impact and to seek assurance that partner agencies use their own internal structures to implement recommendations. 

Leeds has a review process in place which ensures that cases are considered in a timely manner in line with the requirements of the guidance, considers the views of the three safeguarding statutory partners and is overseen by a clear governance process, which is published on the website. 

In Leeds the LSCP has in place a process for discussing and agreeing those incidents which may meet the criteria for making a notification (the SCSI Notification Process). This process has oversight from the Executive and legal advice is provided. 

Cases for consideration are raised to the RAG via partner agencies using the SCSI notification and discussion form. 

The LSCP RAG collectively considers whether an incident meets the criteria for a SCSI notification, with the relevant partner agencies providing information and professional opinions to support the decision making. Following the notification of a SCSI by the local authority to the National Safeguarding Panel the LSCP through the LSCP RAG will promptly undertake a Rapid Review. 

A Rapid Review is a multi-agency process which considers the circumstances of a SCSI. The purpose of the Rapid Review is to identify and act upon immediate learning and consider if there is additional learning which could be identified through a wider Child Safeguarding Practice Review (CSPR).

In Leeds, once the Rapid Review responses have been received, RAG members meet, alongside the Rapid Review individual report authors, to consider the information, key learning points and areas for further consideration. This allows authors to share their information in a responsive way and ensure that the process is not remote. 

RAG members then meet separately to consider if the criteria to undertake a review is met.  

Minutes of all meetings are produced alongside the Rapid Review form, capturing the rationale for any recommendations made and shared with the LSCP Executive, who make the final decision, prior to submission to the National Panel. 

An independent author is commissioned, where appropriate, to undertake any Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews in Leeds, with a panel of partners supporting and quality assuring the process. 

The overall responsibility for the local CSPR process, identification, dissemination and embedding of learning sits with the RAG with oversight and assurance gained by the Executive. 

A well informed and skilled workforce is key to safeguarding children and the partnership ensures that a variety of learning and development opportunities are available to practitioners across the workforce, underpinned by a Learning and Improvement Framework.

This is overseen by the Learning and Development group, who link with all other groups to ensure that opportunities are reflective of and responsive to the work and identified needs of the wider partnership, this includes learning from reviews, audit findings, learning when things go well, training needs analysis and sharing of expertise and knowledge.

Multiagency training forms part of the wider learning and development offer, with the Learning and Development group having oversight of its effectiveness.  

Multiagency training opportunities is via a blended approach, online, face to face and E-learning, provided via commissioned services or experts from within Leeds and/or the wider safeguarding system. 

The impact of multiagency training on practice and outcomes for children and families is established via training evaluation, audit, feedback from practitioners, children and families.  

All multiagency training materials are reviewed on a regularly basis and updated timely in line with any legislative, policy and practice changes.  

The multiagency training offer is reviewed on an annual basis to ensure that it meets the requirements of safeguarding practice in Leeds and will be driven by learning from reviews, findings of audits, inspection findings, change in policy, practice and legislation, and the identified prioritises for the city. 

The partnership has an information sharing agreement in place, which all partners have signed up to and supports the work of the partnership. 

Information sharing guidance is included within relevant learning and development opportunities and a resource for staff is provide via the LSCP website. 

Funding is agreed upon between the statutory safeguarding partners, which is equitable and proportionate, as required by Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023. It enables the Safeguarding Partnership Business Unit to fulfil its functions and allows the existing arrangements to deliver against statutory responsibilities and strategic priorities. 

Funding covers staffing costs, scrutineer functions, multi-agency training and audits, the undertaking of child safeguarding practice reviews and child death overview process, as well as timed limited work in-line with the prioritises of the LSCP. Budget oversight is maintained by the business unit manager with regular reporting the Executive.

Any changes to the budgetary arrangements are agreed by the Lead Safeguarding Partners but must ensure that the partnership can continue to meet its statutory obligations. 

The delivery cost of providing child protection and safeguarding services incurred by each statutory safeguarding partner is subject to their organisation’s budgetary arrangements.