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Welcome to the latest edition of Linked, Durham Safeguarding Children Partnership e-bulletin. We’ve brought together information from a number of partners and we hope you find the articles useful and informative. There will be a new bulletin every month, so if you have ideas around content or potential items for inclusion moving forward, get in touch with Stephen Winship in the Business Unit - stephen.winship@durham.gov.uk
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Private Fostering I Make a Change I Indecent images of Children I Child and Adolescent to Parent Violence and Abuse (CAPVA), and much more...
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Private Fostering - A reminder !
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Private fostering is an arrangement made by a child’s parent (or someone with parental responsibility) for them to live with a carer who is not a close relative of the child (under the age of 16 or 18 if the child is disabled).
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Close relative is defined as: grandparent, brother, sister, uncle, aunt or step-parent (by marriage) of the child.
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The arrangement is expected to last for more than 28 days and on a full-time basis.
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Examples of private fostering include:
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- Children / young people living with a friend’s family as a result of parental separation, parental hospital admission, divorce or difficulties at home.
- Teenagers living with their partner’s family.
- A child from overseas staying with a host family, or overseas students at school who stay with a host family during the holidays.
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NB: Privately fostered children are NOT Looked after Children
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What to do if you believe there is a private fostering arrangement
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Parents and private foster carers should notify Durham County Council of the arrangement.
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The parent/s (or those with parental responsibility) and the private foster carer have a duty to notify Durham County Council of the name and address of the private foster carer 28 days before the start of the private fostering arrangement.
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If the arrangement is already in place, they must notify Durham County Council immediately. If the arrangement is made in an emergency and is intended to last more than 28 days, this information should be provided within 48 hours of the child being placed.
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Partner agencies should notify Durham County Council
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In Durham we currently have 5 Private Fostering arrangements identified. We know however nationally, that Private Fostering is significantly under reported. In cases where children’s Private Fostering arrangements are not known to Durham County Council, we cannot be sure that they are safe or have their needs met to a good standard.
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For all agencies working with children and families, it is essential you are alert to the living arrangements of children. Be curious and ask the questions about who is living in a household and what relationship they are to the child. Be curious when a child is describing a living arrangement with someone who is not a close relative.
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When meeting children, young people and their families, we should all ask questions about who lives in the household and who parental responsibility as this can help in identifying a private fostering arrangement.
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Professionals from other agencies (such as teachers, nurseries, health care practitioners and housing providers) should notify Durham County Council if they become aware of or believe that a child is living in a private fostering arrangement.
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If you are wondering about an arrangement and need advice or support, please contact First Contact for advice and guidance about whether a referral is required. It is better to ask!!
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The role of Durham County Council and arrangements
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The Children Act 1989 places a legal duty on Durham County Council, to protect and promote the welfare of privately fostered children, to check that the arrangements for the child/ren are safe and that the child/ren are well cared for.
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Section 44 of the Children Act 2004 extended these duties to include children who are proposed to be, but not yet, privately fostered. The duties are set out in the Children (Private Arrangements for Fostering) Regulations 2005.
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When we are informed of a proposed or existing private fostering arrangement:
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- All enquiries are progressed via a contact being made to the Durham County Council, First Contact Service.
- If the First Contact Service establishes the case is a private fostering arrangement the case will transfer directly to the Families First Locality Team to enable a Private Fostering Assessment to be completed.
- If clarity is needed as to whether the case will meet the criteria for a private fostering arrangement a visit will be undertaken by a social worker to establish whether the criteria for private fostering is met.
- If the placement is confirmed as a private fostering arrangement, the Families First social worker will then begin the Private Fostering Assessment, which needs to be completed within 10 working days up to a maximum of 45 days if the situation is more complex.
- The child’s social worker will visit the child within 5 days of the referral and as a minimum every six weeks during the first year of the private fostering arrangement and then every 12 weeks thereafter. The child should be seen at the placement and spoken to alone where this is appropriate.
- The placement will be reviewed by QRT once the arrangement is confirmed and there after annually in a Private Fostering review.
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The most recent annual Private Fostering Report was completed in July 2021. The report has made several recommendations. These recommendations have been fed into an improvement plan. This plan will be reviewed regularly by Durham County Council and our partner organisations.
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One of the key themes from the plan for Durham County Council is that in line with national trends that we must continue to raise awareness of Private Fostering. For children living in private fostering arrangements known to the council we must ensure they have high quality assessments and that their arrangements ensure their safety and meet their needs to a good standard. To achieve this we need to work together to keep Private Fostering arrangements central to our collective work with families.
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We have already seen some partners changing forms they use with children and families to reflect asking the question about a child’s arrangements. A further key theme is reaching out to all communities in Durham including our GRT community to develop links and ensure they have an awareness of Private Fostering and the statutory requirements.
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We have undertaken several awareness raising sessions across, Education, Early Help and Housing colleagues to continue to emphasis the importance of reporting Private Fostering to Children’s Services but should you wish to access this presentation please contact Bernadette Toomey – Strategic Lead for Private Fostering or Tufan De – Service Manager and we will be happy to offer support.
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A reminder of Key Contacts should you need to report a Private Fostering arrangement :
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First Contact/Social Care Direct
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Telephone: 03000 267 979 or 0191 383 5752
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Make a Change, which is delivered by Harbour, is a multi-tiered and early response to the perpetration of domestic abuse which was developed by Respect in partnership with Women’s Aid Federation England and draws on the Change That Lasts model.
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This training session is for front line practitioners working in Durham who come into contact with clients who they are concerned might be, or already are, using abusive behaviours in their intimate relationship(s). The training will focus on recognising the signs of domestic abuse perpetration, safety approaching the issue with clients and engaging in a motivational conversation with a view to being able to refer to the Make a Change Programme.
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The training will take place on 21 October, 10am until 1pm. Visit the event page to book your place: Make a Change
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The Marie Collins Foundation
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The Marie Collins Foundation is supporting CEOP (Child Exploitation & Online Protection) in their development of a parents/carers resource on the Dark Web. To ensure any information and resources meet the requirements of what parents/carers are worried about or would like to know more on you are invited to submit your views about the proposed resource.
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You are invited to a DSCP Development Session that will focus on the response to Harmful Sexual Behaviour. There will be an introduction to the session focussing on the learning from Durham Serious Case Reviews where the theme has been in respect of children and young people who display harmful sexual behaviour. The session will include a raising awareness session by Children’s Social Care and Youth Justice Service regarding the revised Harmful Sexual Behaviour process in Durham and how the AIM Assessment fits in with the other assessment tools available.
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The Rise in Indecent Images of Children
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The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Social Media has published a report on addressing the rise in self-generated indecent images of children online (access here).
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The report makes 10 key recommendations:
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- Tech companies should not introduce encryption unless they can guarantee that they can still remove illegal content and cooperate with law enforcement in the same way they do now.
- The RSE (Relationships and Sex Education) curriculum should facilitate constructive conversations about healthy relationships in a digital age, that avoid blaming children. The Department for Education and relevant devolved Education Departments must ensure that schools are well-resourced, and teachers receive appropriate training to facilitate these messages. The APPG recommends that interventions are targeted at primary aged children, as well as older teenagers.
- The Home Office should review all relevant legislation to ensure it is as easy as possible for children to have their images removed from the internet and ensure that they can have confidence in the removal process.
- Tech companies should be proactive in taking responsibility for ensuring they act with a duty of care towards their users. They should cooperate constructively with Government and other stakeholders. Platforms should ensure there are clear ways for users to raise complaints and request images are taken down.
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- “Self-generated” indecent imagery should be referred to as “first person produced imagery”.
- There should be clearer guidelines established for policing throughout England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland relating to Outcome 21 to ensure a more consistent outcome that does not blame or criminalise children unnecessarily.
- The Online Safety Bill and other relevant legislation such as the Audio-Visual Media Services Directive should encourage age verification of adult websites to prevent children from accessing them.
- The Government should publish more information about the requirements in the Online Safety Bill as soon as possible, including how Ofcom will designate expert co-regulators in priority areas such as child sexual abuse.
- The Government should ensure that organisations working to remove illegal content or preventing offending are well-funded and resourced, particularly areas that were previously EU-funded.
- Platforms should take all possible measures to tackle harmful fake accounts, particularly those held by sex offenders.
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Neglect Basics - New Training!!
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Durham Safeguarding Children Partnership has launched its updated programme of Neglect training and the first course to be released is the Neglect Basics and Toolkit session. This training will provide participants with knowledge of common areas of concern relating to child neglect. You will also become familiar with County Durham’s Neglect Toolkit and how it can be used in supporting children and families and where to go for additional support when appropriate.
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The Children’s Society have launched the #LookCloser Programme of Learning which takes place from 11 – 15 October 2021. It is a week full of free learning sessions on their work to tackle child exploitation and harm.
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A full programme of learning sessions are available which will be delivered via Microsoft Teams. Please see the attached flier which includes the calendar of events and descriptions of what the sessions include. There are limited spaces for each session, so sign up to your preferred event by clicking the link on the calendar below.
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Child and Adolescent to Parent Violence and Abuse
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Children and adolescents being abusive and causing harm towards parents and family members is a serious issue and evidence suggests it is increasing. Recent research shows that about 20% of teenagers cause harm to their parents and about 10% seriously so. There is currently no legal definition of child and/ or adolescent to parent violence and abuse, but our working definition in Durham is:
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A Child or young person aged between 8 and 18, that is displaying behaviours which could cause harm, this includes abusive or violent behaviour towards people close to them, particularly their parents or carers. This abuse may be physical, verbal, financial, coercive or emotional and may include behaviours such as hitting, making threats, scaring them into doing or not doing things, or causing damage in the home.
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The abuse and/or violence can be carried out by sons and daughters against mothers, fathers, grandparents, siblings and carers. It can be hard to find ways to keep everyone safe, including the child or adolescent whose behaviour is posing a risk to positive family relationships and safety. It can be difficult to know how to make things better.
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In Durham, multi-agency partners from the Domestic Abuse & Sexual Violence Executive Group (DASVEG), Durham’s Domestic Abuse Partnership Board are working alongside RESPECT to implement the delivery of the Respect Young People’s Programme (RYPP), develop a local definition, screening tool and referral pathway to better support families experiencing CAPVA.
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The RYPP is a 19-session structured programme of intervention delivered over 12 weeks; including 7 sessions with parents, 9 sessions with young person and 2 family sessions. It is an accredited programme that fits with Restorative Justice Council Quality Mark. In the first instance, RYPP training will be offered to frontline practitioners within Children and Young People services.
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All multi agency partners are expected to participate in Awareness Raising Training; Ask and Act. This session will support professionals who have contact with children, young people and families in a range of settings to increase their ability to recognise CAPVA, to understand the dynamic involved and provide the confidence to approach the subject of CAPVA with families. This training will help practitioners identify families who will benefit from the RYPP.
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The Ask and Act training is an online blended training course, made up of self-directed learning via the On-line Moodle Learning Platform plus a 3 hour live interactive session.
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Delivery of the Ask and Act Training will start 23/11/21 with further dates following but it is essential to book early. Details can be found here:
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SafeLives - #IsItOk Campaign and Survey
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As part of the SafeLives Verge of Harm[ing] project which is exploring how and why young people aged 11 to 25 begin to use harmful behaviours in their relationships, this #IsItOk campaign and survey asks you to share tweets and posts to reach as many young people as possible and to promote, share, and encourage the completion of the snap survey.
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The aim is that the recommendations made at the end of this project to be relevant to young people with a wide range of backgrounds and experiences, which means we need your support to share the survey with young people from marginalised and minoritised groups who our work may sometimes remain ‘hidden’ from. If there is anything you feel our team could do to make the survey/project more accessible to these groups, please contact the project lead on bethan.taylor@safelives.com
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The DSCP Training Offer is now focused on the coordination and commissioning of our multi-agency training as opposed to delivery. A new Coordinator Amy Armstrong is now in place. There are some really exciting events in place around Child Sexual Abuse/Harm and Child Exploitation. Keep an eye out for upcoming circulations, and other sessions being introduced, but in the meantime here's what's available.
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When booking our training events you will see that the DSCP are no longer using Survey Monkey, but now use Microsoft Forms. This should be really straightforward for you with good functionality and links to the new website when we go live early next year, making the whole process more streamlined than before.
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