Bristol Safeguarding Children Board

This page is about the Bristol Safeguarding Children Board. If you have any concerns about a child please do not ignore these concerns. You can contact any professional involved with a child to discuss your concerns or you can talk to a local Children's Social Care Team. Information on how to do so can be found by following this link:- Concerned about a child

Local Safeguarding Children Boards

The Children Act 2004 led to the establishment of Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCB's) replacing 'Area Child Protection Committees'.

The core duty of an LSCB is to ensure that there are adequate arrangements in place across agencies to protect children from harm. There are also obligations placed upon LSCBs to ensure that the welfare of children is promoted.

The core functions of an LSCB are set out within 'The Local Safeguarding Children Boards Regulations, 2005'. They range from the development of policies and procedures for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children to communication and awareness raising and to monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of safeguarding work within the local authority area. LSCB's also have a responsibility to carry out reviews of serious cases and, from April 2008, to have in place systems for responding to and analysing unexpected deaths of children.

Function

The main function of Bristol Safeguarding Children Board (BSCB) is to co-ordinate and lead work on child protection within Bristol. In doing so BSCB provides policies and procedures to enable those working with children & young people to actively ensure that they are working to safeguard the welfare of those children and young people. These policies and procedures, once implemented, are also audited to ensure they are improving the quality of services to children and young people in Bristol.

Structure

BSCB is made up of organisations and people working together to promote children's welfare and keep them safe. It includes Bristol City Council's Children and Young People's Services, the police, the probation service and the various primary and secondary (e.g. hospital services) NHS services.

BSCB comprises the Board, Executive Board and 6 further groups/sub-groups. The Board and Executive Board comprise representatives from a range of agencies and partners whose sole aim is to strengthen arrangements for keeping children and young people safe in Bristol;

 Subgroups:

• Performance Sub-Group

• Training Sub-Group

• Quality Sub-Group

• Serious Case Review Sub-Group

• Communication and Community Engagement Sub-Group

• Education Sub-Group

 Groups and Networks:

• E-Safety Working Group;

• FGM Strategic Group;

• Forced Marriage Working Group;

• Faith Network.

Activities:

The BSCB also provides and supports the provision of training to agencies and groups within Bristol to ensure that policies and procedures are being used and implemented. Once a year, in April/May, the BSCB run a Multi-Agency Safeguarding Conference. The Board meet annually four times and Executive Board six times.

Policy, procedure and guidance for practitioners and their managers adopted by the Board can be found in the section 'Safeguarding for professionals'.

Annual Report and Business Plan

BSCB produce an annual report combined with the coming years business plan. The first annual report was published in 2006 following the establishment of the Safeguarding Children Board. BSCB Annual Reports and the most recent Business plan are available here:

BSCB Annual Report 2010-2011 and Business Plan 2011-2012

BSCB business Plan 2010-2011

BSCB Annual Report 2009-2010 and Business Plan 2010-2011

BSCB Annual Report 2008-2009 and Business Plan 2009-2010

BSCB Annual Report 2007-2008 and Business Plan 2008-2009

BSCB Annual Report 2006-2007 and Business Plan 2007-2008

BSCB Annual Report 2005-2006 and Business Plan 2006-2007 

Newsletter

BSCB produce an annual newsletter, previous years newsletters can be found here:

BSCB Newsletter 2010

BSCB Newsletter 2009

BSCB Newsletter 2008

BSCB Newsletter September 2006

BSCB Newsletter February 2006

Strategic Plan 2008-2011

BSCB has a Strategic Plan which informs the work that it undertakes within the annual business plan. The Strategic Plan is being reviewed and a new plan will be produced for 2012. the current Strategic plan is available here:

BSCB Strategic Plan 2008-2011