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| Updated Chapters | |
| Chapter Name | Details |
| Residential Child Care – Key Principles | This chapter has been revised throughout. |
| Information Sharing | This chapter has been revised in the light of revisions to Working Together December 2020 |
| Staying in Touch - Safe Use of the Internet, Social Media and Taking Photographs | Links have been added to the NSPCC report removal tool – this tool enables young people under the age of 18 to report a nude image or video of themselves which has appeared online. The Internet watch foundation will review these reports and work to remove any content which breaks the law. |
| Advocacy and Independent Visitors | This chapter has been revised throughout |
| Staff Qualifications and Employment Checks | This chapter has been updated in the light of the U.K.’s withdrawal from the EU and exit from the EEA. |
| New Chapters | |
| Chapter Name | Details |
| Child Criminal Exploitation and County Lines | This chapter provides information on Child Criminal Exploitation, including county lines. It describes the signs and indicators that children are being exploited, and offers guidance for staff in Children’s Homes on how they can respond to keep children safe from harm linked to criminal exploitation. |
| Next update: March 2022 |
| New Chapters | |
| Chapter Name | Details |
| Blood Borne Viruses (BBVs) | This guidance has been reviewed and updated throughout. |
| Allegations Against Staff and Volunteers | A fourth bullet point has been added into Section 1, Introduction to reflect the revised guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children. The new bullet point means this procedure now also covers situations where an individual has behaved or may have behaved in a way that indicates they may not be suitable to work with children. This is to capture concerns around transferable risk; for example where a person who works in the home is involved in a domestic abuse incident and this may have implications for their suitability to work with children. |
| Notifications of Serious Events | This procedure has been updated to reflect the latest Ofsted guidance for social care providers on the types of incident which they consider to be serious, and which therefore will require notification to the regulatory authority. New sections on the quality of notifications and learning from notifications have been added. |
| Staff Qualifications and Employment Checks | This guidance has been reviewed and updated as required. Section 3, Safe Recruitment and Employment Checks is new. |
| New Chapters | |
| Chapter Name | Details |
| Administration of Medication | This guidance has been added to the online procedures. |
| Updated Chapters | |
| Chapter Name | Details |
| Allegations Against Staff and Volunteers | This chapter has been substantially updated. |
| Updated Chapters | |
| Chapter Name | Details |
| Notifications of Serious Events | This procedure, which sets out which agencies and individuals should be notified when a serious event occurs in relation to a child living in a Children’s Home, has been updated to reflect revised guidance issued by Ofsted in August 2019. The revised guidance sought to clarify what is meant by a ‘serious event’ with the aim of reducing the overall number of notifications made to Ofsted, and in particular reducing the number of repeat notifications made as a result of submitting additional / updated information. |
| Updated Chapters | |
| Chapter Name | Details |
| Notifications of Serious Events | This procedure has been reviewed throughout and extensively updated as required to reflect the latest advice from Ofsted in relation to the notification of serious events. |
| Care and Placement Plans Guidance | This guidance has been reviewed throughout and updated as required. Information in relation to Pathway Plans was updated to reflect that care leavers can request support from local authorities up to the age of 25 years. |
| Moving to Another Placement | This guidance has been reviewed throughout and updated as required. Section 2, Arrangements for the Transfer or Discharge has been updated to include a note on the actions placing authorities are required to undertake if a young person is moving from the home into an unregulated placement. |
| New Chapters and Features | |
| Chapter Name | Details |
| Monitoring and Surveillance | This new policy describes how the use of CCTV and other monitoring equipment may be used to support the well-being of children and young people living in our homes. |
| Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences (RIDDOR) | This new chapter outlines the duties placed on the home to report certain serious workplace accidents, occupational diseases and specified dangerous occurrences (near misses). |
| Updated Chapters | |
| Chapter Name | Details |
| Residential Child Care – Key Principles | Section 3, Achieving the Key Principles has been updated to reflect the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018, and explains that children living in Children’s Homes should be helped to understand the types of personal information which is kept in their case records, what it is used for, who it will be shared with and how long it will be kept for. The child’s right to access their case record should also be explained to them. |
| Young Person’s Guide | This section has been updated following publication of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018 to recommend that Children’s Guides contain information for children and young people on the data / records which the home keeps on them, as well as explaining the right of children and young people to access their case file. |
| Information Sharing | This guidance has been reviewed and updated throughout to reflect Working Together to Safeguard Children (2018) and the revised DfE Information Sharing Advice for Practitioners Providing Safeguarding Services to Children, Young People, Parents and Carers. |
| Case Recording | This chapter has been reviewed and updated as required to reflect the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018. |
| Access to Records | This guidance has been updated as required to reflect the provisions of the Data Protection Act 2018 and General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). |
| Education | This guidance has been updated to reflect amendments relating to Previously Looked After Children introduced by the Children and Social Work Act 2017’. A Previously Looked After child is one who is no longer looked after in England and Wales because they are the subject of an Adoption, Special Guardianship or Child Arrangements Order which includes arrangements relating to with whom the child is to live, or when the child is to live with any person, or has been adopted from ‘state care’ outside England and Wales. A new Section 4, Safeguarding in School has also been incorporated. |
| Updated Chapters | |
| Chapter Name | Details |
Contact with Parents / Carers/ Siblings and Others |
Section 2, Different Types of Contact has been updated to take account of the ways in which social media and mobile communication are used by young people living in Children’s Homes to have on-going contact with friends and family members. |
Health Care Assessments and Plans |
Section 1, Health Care Assessments has been updated to include additional information on situations when children and young people can provide their own consent to health care assessments and treatment. |
| Preparation for Leaving Care | This chapter has been updated throughout to reflect the Children and Social Work Act 2017 and 3 new statutory guidance documents which require local authorities to offer Personal Adviser support to all care leavers up to the age of 25, to publish their Local Offer for care leavers and to have regard to seven 'corporate parenting principles'. |
| Updated Chapters | |
| Chapter Name | Details |
| Case Recording | Section 17, Records must Usually be Retained After Closure has been updated to include a link to the Children’s Services – Retention of Records table which provides an overview of the retention requirements for different types of Children’s Social Care Records. |
| Smoking and Alcohol | Information on e-cigarettes / vapes has been added into Section 1.1, E-cigarettes/Vapes. |
| Recognising Abuse and Neglect | This guidance has been reviewed and updated to reflect current Government guidance on safeguarding children and the responsibility which is shared among all professionals to keep children safe and promote their welfare. |
| Referring Safeguarding Concerns | This section has been reviewed and updated throughout to reflect current Government guidance on safeguarding children; it emphasises that keeping children safe and promoting their welfare is a responsibility of all staff working in the home, not just managers and key workers. |
| Safeguarding Children and Young People from Sexual Exploitation | Section 1, Introduction has been revised throughout to include additional information on the nature of child sexual exploitation and its impact on young people. The Indicators of Possible Sexual Exploitation described in Section 2, Indicators of Possible Sexual Exploitation have also been updated to reflect the complexity of child sexual exploitation, including situations where young people are both perpetrators and victims of abuse. |
| Identifying and Supporting Children and Young People Vulnerable to Violent Extremism including Radicalisation | Section 1, Introduction / Definitions has been updated to include additional information on what is meant by the term extremism, an explanation of the processes by which young people can be exposed to the messages of extremist groups was also added. |
| Allegations Against Staff and Volunteers | This guidance has been updated to clarify the distinct roles and responsibilities of the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) and the homes’ senior manager in relation to the handling of allegations against staff and volunteers. |
| Self Harming and Suicidal Behaviour | Section 2, Planning and Prevention has been updated to provide additional guidance for staff on how to respond to young people in our care who are feeling suicidal or who are self harming. A note was also added about the importance of offering appropriate support to staff members and other young people living in the home when incidents of self harm have taken place. |
| Visitors to the Home | This section has been reviewed throughout and updated as required to reflect current arrangements for receiving visitors in the home. |
| Looked After Reviews | This guidance has been reviewed throughout and updated to include additional detail on the circumstances in which Independent Reviewing Officers (IROs) should look to bring forward a child’s Looked After Review. See Section 2, Frequency of Looked After Reviews for full details. |
| Updated Chapters | |
| Chapter Name | Details |
| Providing Personalised Care | Section 3.2, Gender has been updated to include information on the role of residential care workers in supporting young people who are experiencing gender identity issues. |
| Case Recording | Section 17, Records must Usually be Retained After Closure has been updated to include a reminder that no children’s social care records should be destroyed while the National Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse is on-going. |
| Social Visits (Including Overnight Stays) | This guidance has been reviewed throughout and updated as required. |
| Advocacy and Independent Visitors | This chapter has been updated to include a link to the Children’s Society ‘Advocacy Services for Children and Young People – A Guide for Commissioners’. This guide outlines the legislative requirements placed on local authorities in relation to the provision of advocacy support for children in need and looked after children. |
| Safeguarding Children and Young People from Sexual Exploitation | This guidance has been updated to reflect the revised definition of Child Sexual Exploitation published by the Department for Education in February 2017. See Section 1, Introduction for the revised definition of CSE. |
| Allegations Against Staff | This guidance has been reviewed throughout and updated as required. Links to LADO referral form and the Kirklees Safeguarding Children Board website have been added. |
| Updated Chapters | |
| Chapter Name | Details |
| Correspondence, Communication and Social Networking | A link has been added to a recently published practical guide for parents and carers whose children use social media. The guide contains information on the risks young people might face through using social media and offers practical tips on how to minimise these risks. |
| Advocacy and Independent Visitors | This guidance has been reviewed and updated throughout; Section 2 Duties of an Advocate is new. |
| Safeguarding Children from Radicalisation and Extremism | A link has been added to the to Education Against Hate website which has been developed by HM Government, and contains practical advice for parents, teachers and school leaders on protecting children from extremism and radicalisation. |
| Updated Chapters | |
| Chapter Name | Details |
| Restrictive Physical Intervention | This guidance has been revised throughout to reflect the publication of the Children’s Homes (England) Regulations (2015) including the Quality Standards. |
| New Chapters and Features | |
| Chapter Name | Details |
| Safeguarding Children from Radicalisation and Extremism | This new chapter contains information for staff working in residential homes on the risks faced by children and young people who are exposed to extremist material and / or radicalised. It highlights the key indicators which staff should be alert to, and explains the action which should be taken where there are concerns about the behaviour of any young people in our care. |
| Removed Chapters | |
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| These chapters have been updated in line with the new Quality Standards and Regulations: |
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| Updated Chapters | |
| Chapter Title | Details |
| Statements of Purpose | This chapter has been updated. |
| Safeguarding Children and Young People from Sexual Exploitation | This chapter has been updated in to include a new Section 8, Child Sex Offender Disclosure Scheme. |
| New Chapters and Features | |
| Chapter Title | Details |
| Polices, Values and Principles (Kirklees Children's Services Procedures Manual) | This chapter links to the Kirklees Children's Services Procedures manual. |
| Local Contacts (Kirklees Children's Services Procedures Manual) | This chapter links to the Kirklees Children's Services Procedures manual. |
