1.1 Principles for Working with Children

1. Introduction

This chapter sets out the key principles and concepts for safeguarding children, as set out in relevant legislation and guidance including the Children Act 1989 and Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023 (Department for Education).

Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023 is statutory guidance which sets out key roles for individual organisations and agencies to deliver effective arrangements for helping, supporting, safeguarding, and protecting children (anyone who has not yet reached their 18th birthday).

It defines safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children as:

• providing help and support to meet the needs of children as soon as problems emerge;
• protecting children from maltreatment, whether that is within or outside the home, including online;
• preventing impairment of children’s mental and physical health or development;
• ensuring that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care;
• promoting the upbringing of children with their birth parents, or otherwise their family network through a kinship care arrangement, whenever possible and where this is in the best interests of the children;
• taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes in line with the outcomes set out in the Children’s Social Care National Framework.

Part of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is ‘also child protection’, which is defined as activity that is undertaken to protect specific children who are suspected to be suffering, or likely to suffer, significant harm.

2. Safeguarding – A Shared Responsibility

Successful outcomes for children depend on strong partnership working between parents/carers and the practitioners working with them. Practitioners should take a child-centred approach to meeting the needs of the whole family.

As set out in the Children’s Social Care National Framework, the following principles apply:

• children’s welfare is paramount;
• children’s wishes and feelings are sought, heard, and responded to;
• children’s social care works in partnership with whole families;
• children are raised by their families, with their family networks or in family environments wherever possible;
• local authorities work with other agencies to effectively identify and meet the needs of children, young people, and families; and
• local authorities consider the economic and social circumstances impacting children, young people, and families.

In addition to individual practitioners shaping support around the needs of individual children, local organisations and agencies should have a clear understanding of the collective needs of children locally when commissioning services. Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) are required to have executive lead roles for children, children with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) and for safeguarding (individual roles or combined as part of one role). It is expected that these executive leads will work with key partners across public health, social care, justice, and education to ensure the interests of those groups are met, including that appropriate resources are allocated for the provision of services and maintaining an overview of the quality of services. As part of that process, the Director of Public Health, informed by the relevant ICB Executive Leads, should ensure that the needs of children are a key part of the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) developed by the Health and Wellbeing Board. Safeguarding partners should use this assessment to help them understand the prevalence and contexts of need, including specific needs relating to disabled children and those relating to abuse, neglect and exploitation, which in turn should help shape services.

3. A Child-centred Approach Within a Whole Family Focus

A child-centred approach is fundamental to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of every child. All practitioners should follow the principles of the Children Acts 1989 and 2004. These Acts make clear that the welfare of children is paramount and that they are best looked after within their families, with their parents playing a full part in their lives, unless compulsory intervention in family life is necessary.

In the context of a child-centred approach, all practitioners should work in partnership with parents and carers as far as possible. Parents and carers need to understand what is happening, what they can expect from the help and support provided, what is expected of them and be supported to say what they think.

This approach sits within a whole family culture in which the needs of all members of the family are explored as individuals and how their needs impact on one another is drawn out.

This child-centred approach is supported by:

• the Children Act 1989, which requires local authorities to give due consideration to a child’s wishes when determining what services to provide under section 17 and before making decisions about action to be taken to protect individual children under section 47. These duties complement requirements relating to the wishes and feelings of children who are, or may be, looked after, including those who are provided with accommodation under section 20 and children taken into police protection;
• the Equality Act 2010, which puts a responsibility on public authorities to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination and promote equality of opportunity. This applies to the process of identification of need and risk faced by the individual child and the process of assessment. No child or group of children must be treated any less favourably than others in being able to access effective services which meet their particular needs. To comply with the Equality Act 2010, safeguarding partners must assess and where appropriate put in place measures ahead of time to support all children and families to access services, overcoming any barriers they may face due to a particular protected characteristic (see also Equality, Diversity and Human Rights in a Safeguarding Context);
• the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) which is an international agreement that protects the rights of children and provides a child centred framework for the development of services to children. The UK Government ratified the UNCRC in 1991 and, by doing so, recognises children’s rights including to expression and receiving information;
• the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 recognises that children can be victims of domestic abuse in their own right if they see, hear or experience the effects of domestic abuse and are related to either victim or perpetrator of the abuse, or either the victim or perpetrator of the abuse has parental responsibility for that child;
• the Children’s Social Care National Framework, statutory guidance that sets out the purpose of children’s social care as existing to support children and families, to protect children by intervening decisively when they are at risk of harm and to provide care for those who need it, so they grow up and thrive with safety, stability, and love.

4. Principles for Working with Children

Children are clear about what they want from an effective safeguarding system. Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023, reports that children have said that they need:

• vigilance: to have adults notice when things are troubling them;
• understanding and action: to understand what is happening; to be heard and understood; and to have that understanding acted upon;
• stability: to be able to develop an ongoing stable relationship of trust with those helping them;
• respect: to be treated with the expectation that they are competent rather than not;
• information and engagement: to be informed about, and involved in procedures, decisions, concerns and plans;
• explanation: to be informed of the outcome of assessments, and decisions and reasons when their views have not met with a positive response;
• support: to be provided with support in their own right as well as a member of their family;
• advocacy: to be provided with advocacy to assist them in putting forward their views;
• protection: to be protected against all forms of abuse, exploitation, and discrimination, and the right to special protection and help if a refugee.

Anyone working with children should see and speak to the child, listen to what they say, observe their behaviour, take their views seriously, and work with them and their families and the people who know them well when deciding how to support their needs.

4.1 Helping children understand safeguarding

All children should be helped, supported and protected when things are difficult. The Department for Education and the National Children’s Bureau have worked with children and young people to create resources to explain to children, young people and their families how individuals, organisations and agencies work together to help, support and protect them:

An illustrated guide for children, young people and their families

5. Expectations for Multi-agency Working

Working Together to Safeguard Children sets out that strong multi-agency and multi-disciplinary working is vital to identifying and responding to the needs of children and families. The following expectations have been developed to underpin this multi-agency working. They apply to all agencies and practitioners involved in safeguarding and protecting children. Specifically, these include police, local authorities, health services, probation services, youth offending services, education providers and childcare settings, and voluntary and third sector organisations. The term practitioners used here refers to all those working in these services and settings. The expectations are structured at three levels for strategic leaders, senior and middle managers, and direct practice.

Strategic leaders may include Chief Executives of local authorities, Chief Executives of ICBs, Chief Executives of NHS Trusts, Chief Constables, Police and Crime Commissioners, and Chief Executives of multi-academy trusts.

Senior and middle managers may include Directors of Children’s services, heads of services and team managers in local authorities, designated and named professionals (GP, nurse, doctor, midwife) in health, the Chief Superintendent and Chief Inspector (and equivalents) in police, head teachers, designated safeguarding leads and nursery managers in education.

Those in direct practice include frontline social workers, health visitors, police constables, teachers and those working in the voluntary and community sector.

The professions listed as examples for each level is not exhaustive, decision making structures will differ by area, and local areas should consider how best to apply these standards to match their local approach.

Multi-agency expectations for strategic leaders are as follows:

• collaborate: leaders develop a shared vision for how their services work together to deliver shared goals;
• learn: leaders use evidence from direct practice in their area so that they know and can evaluate what is and isn’t working well for children and families;
• resource: leaders are ambitious about helping, supporting, and protecting children in their area and jointly prioritise and share resources accordingly;
• include: leaders create an inclusive culture where diversity is understood, and multi-agency and multi-disciplinary working is celebrated;
• mutual challenge: leaders hold each other and their teams to account and are held to account by their teams for the quality of the partnership working.

Multi-agency expectations for senior and middle managers are as follows:

• collaborate: decisions are based on a shared practice approach and constructive debate and analysis of information from all services;
• learn: managers ensure their teams have time to engage in peer learning and knowledge exchange, peer audit, group supervision and observation;
• resource: managers ensure children receive the holistic support they need, drawing in expertise from a wide range of agencies;
• include: managers support staff to identify and challenge discrimination, disparity, and negative stereotypes;
• mutual challenge: constructive challenge within and across agencies and disciplines is actively encouraged, independent judgements are valued and given space alongside collective decision-making to avoid groupthink.

Multi-agency expectations for direct practice are as follows:

• collaborate: practitioners working with the same child and family share information to get a complete picture of what life is like for the child. Collectively, they ensure the child’s voice is at the centre and the right support is provided;
• learn: practitioners learn together by drawing on the best available evidence from their individual fields and sharing their diverse perspectives during regular shared reflection on a child’s development, experiences, and outcomes;
• resource: practitioners build strong relationships across agencies and disciplines to ensure they support and protect the children with whom they work;
• include: practitioners recognise the differences between, and are confident to respond to, circumstances where children experience adversity due to economic and social circumstances and acute family stress, and situations where children face harm due to parental abuse and neglect;
• mutual challenge: practitioners challenge themselves and each other, question each other’s assumptions, and seek to resolve differences of opinion in a restorative and respectful way.

Children’s Social Care National Framework:  Statutory Guidance on the Purpose, Principles for Practice and Expected Outcomes of Children’s Social Care sets out that all organisations, including safeguarding partners and relevant agencies, should use the National Framework to:

• raise aspirations for what high-quality support and practice with children, young people and families can achieve;
• establish a shared approach and strong relationships across agencies, so everyone can engage constructively in delivering effective support to children, young people and families;
• embed voices of children, young people and families in the design and delivery of services and support;
• determine the right support, challenge, and accountability across agencies so that everyone can work towards the goal of seeing families thrive, and understand the impact of their services in helping to deliver that ambition.