Tees Safeguarding Children Partnerships' Procedures Download Referral Form Consult 'The Framework of Need'

1. Overview

1.1 Whenever there is reasonable cause to suspect that a child is suffering or is likely to suffer significant harm, there should be a strategy discussion involving local authority children’s social care (including the residential or fostering service, if the child is looked after), the police, health, and other bodies such as the referring agency, education, early help, or other practitioners involved in supporting the child. This might take the form of a multi-agency meeting and more than one discussion may be necessary.

2. Purpose

2.1 The purpose of a strategy discussion is to determine the child’s welfare and plan rapid future action if there is reasonable cause to suspect the child is suffering or is likely to suffer significant harm.

2.2 A strategy discussion will consider multi-agency information and make a decision on whether to initiate enquiries under Section 47.

3. Timing

3.1 A strategy discussion can take place following a referral or at any other time, including during the assessment process and when new information is received on an already open case.

3.2 Children’s Social Care holds the responsibility for determining the timing of a Strategy Meeting, guided by the level of actual or perceived risk to the child. Professional discretion must be exercised in assessing the urgency of the situation. In most cases, a Strategy Meeting should be convened within 24 hours of the decision to hold one.

3.3 In emergency situations, where immediate safeguarding action is required, Children’s Social Care, the Police and, where available, any other partner may conduct a telephone strategy discussion to determine the immediate response. In such cases, a full Strategy Meeting is required as a follow up to the initial telephone strategy discussion to determine joint safety planning and next steps and must take place within no more than five working days.

3.4 In specific circumstances, such as planning for an unborn baby, Strategy Meetings should be scheduled at a predetermined stage of the pregnancy. In these cases, professionals must be given more than 24 hours’ notice to ensure full participation and effective planning.

4. Attendees

4.1 A local authority social worker, health practitioners and a police representative should, as a minimum, be involved in the strategy discussion. Other relevant practitioners will depend on the nature of the individual case but may include those who have concerns about the child and/or those involved in the child’s life, for example:

• the practitioner or agency which made the referral
• the child’s school or nursery
• any health or care services the child or family members are receiving
• youth justice practitioner and/or youth worker
• adult mental health, substance misuse and/or domestic abuse specialist
• British Transport Police representative

4.2 All attendees should be sufficiently senior to make decisions on behalf of their organisation and agencies. They should be sufficiently skilled and experienced to prepare for and engage with the strategy discussion and be able to critically assess and challenge their own and others’ input.

5. Tasks

5.1 The discussion should be used to:

• share, seek and analyse available information
• agree the conduct and timing of any criminal investigation
• consider whether enquiries under section 47 of the Children Act 1989 should be undertaken.

5.2 It is for the local authority to decide whether to make enquiries and the strategy discussion should inform this decision. Where there are grounds to initiate an enquiry under section 47 of the Children Act 1989, decisions should be made as to:

• what further information is needed if an assessment is already underway and how it will be obtained and recorded
• what immediate and short-term action is required to support the child, and who will do what by when
• whether legal action is required

5.3 The timescale for the assessment to reach a decision on next steps should be based upon the needs of the individual child, consistent with the local protocol and no longer than 45 working days from the point of referral into local authority children’s social care.

The assessment framework set out earlier on in this chapter should be followed for assessments undertaken under section 47 of the Children Act 1989. The lead practitioner for section 47 enquiries should be a social worker.

 5.4 Lead practitioners should convene the strategy discussion and make sure they:

• consider the child’s welfare and safety, including through speaking to the child, and identifying whether the child is suffering or likely to suffer significant harm
• decide what information should be shared with the child and family (on the basis that information is not shared if this may jeopardise a police investigation or place the child at risk of harm)
• agree what further action is required, and who will do what by when, where an EPO is in place, or the child is the subject of police powers of protection
• record agreed decisions in accordance with local recording procedures
• follow up actions to make sure what was agreed gets done

5.5 Health practitioners should:

• advise about the appropriateness or otherwise of medical assessments, and explain the benefits that arise from assessing previously unmanaged health matters that may be further evidence of neglect or maltreatment
• provide and co-ordinate any specific information available to them from relevant practitioners regarding family health, maternity health, school health mental health, domestic abuse and violence, and substance misuse to assist strategy and decision making
• secure additional expert advice and support from named and/or designated professionals for more complex cases following preliminary strategy discussions
• undertake appropriate examinations or observations, and further investigations or tests, to determine how the child’s health or development may be impaired

 5.6 The Police should:

• discuss the basis for any criminal investigation, including both reactive (where there is evidence to suggest a crime has been committed) and proactive (where further activity is required to establish if a crime has occurred), and any relevant processes that other organisations and agencies might need to know about, including the timing and methods of evidence-gathering
• lead the criminal investigation where joint enquiries take place with the local authority children’s social care leading for the section 47 enquires and assessment of the child’s welfare

6. Immediate Protection

6.1 Where there is a risk to the life of a child or a likelihood of serious immediate harm, whether from inside or outside the home, the local authority, the police (including British Transport Police) or NSPCC should use their statutory child protection powers to act immediately to secure the safety of the child, as set out in Section 46 of Children Act 1989.

6.2 If it is necessary to remove a child from their home, a local authority must, wherever possible and unless a child’s safety is otherwise at immediate risk, apply for an Emergency Protection Order (EPO). Police powers to remove a child in an emergency should be used only in exceptional circumstances where there is insufficient time to seek an EPO or for reasons relating to the immediate safety of the child.

6.3 An EPO, made by the court, gives authority to remove a child, or prevent a child being removed from a hospital or other place the child is being accommodated, and places them under the protection of the applicant.

6.4 When considering whether emergency action is necessary, the local authority or the police should always consider the needs of other children in the same household or in the household of an alleged perpetrator.

6.5 The local authority in whose area a child is found in circumstances that require emergency action (the first authority) is responsible for taking emergency action. If the child is looked after by, or the subject of a child protection plan in another authority, the first authority must consult the authority responsible for the child. Only when the second local authority explicitly accepts responsibility (to be followed up in writing) is the first authority relieved of its responsibility to take emergency action.

6.6 Planned emergency action will normally take place following an immediate strategy discussion. Social workers, the police or NSPCC should:

• initiate a strategy discussion to discuss planned emergency action. Where a single agency has to act immediately, a strategy discussion should take place as soon as possible after action has been taken
• see the child (this should be done by a practitioner from the agency taking the emergency action) to decide how best to protect them and whether to seek an EPO
• wherever possible, obtain legal advice before initiating legal action, in particular when an EPO is being sought

7. Useful links (on this website)

• Joint Working Protocol for Police and Social Care
• Initiating Section 47 Enquiries