The Role and Scope of the BSCB

The Buckinghamshire Safeguarding Children Board (BSCB) was set up in January 2006, in accordance with Working Together to Safeguard Children, to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in Buckinghamshire.

Under the requirements of the Children Act 2004, the BSCB is the key statutory mechanism for agreeing how the relevant organisations in Buckinghamshire will co-operate to safeguard and promote the welfare of children it its locality.

Under this statutory requirement, the BSCB is also required to ensure the effectiveness of what these organisations do.

The core objectives of the BSCB are to:

• Co-ordinate what is done by each person or body represented on the Board to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in Buckinghamshire; and

• Ensure the effectiveness of what is done by each such person or body for those purposes (s14(1) Children Act 2004)

The Scope of BSCB

BSCB will contribute to the key outcomes of the Every Child Matters Agenda and in particular ‘staying safe’ by co-ordinating work to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and ensuring that work is effective.

Staying Safe includes:
• Protecting children from harm
• Preventing impairment of children’s health and development
• Ensuring children have safe and effective care
• Undertaking the role in ways that ensure children have optimum life chances and successfully enter adulthood

The BSCB will specify in every Annual Business plan the extent of the safeguarding agenda that it is seeking to cover for the year, with a view to working progressively to embracing the full safeguarding agenda.

Co-ordinating work to ensure children are properly protected from harm remains the core function of the BSCB. The BSCB will concentrate on core safeguarding issues for achieving ‘Staying Safe Outcome’s as well as contribute to ‘Being Health Outcomes’ within the Every Child Matters Agenda.

The scope of the BSCB role falls into three categories:

1. To engage in activities that safeguard all children and aims to identify and prevent maltreatment, or impairment of health or development, and ensures that children are growing up in circumstances consistent with safe and effective care.

To achieve this objective the BSCB will:
• Continue to develop polices and procedures for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children in Buckinghamshire,

• Continue with, and expand monitoring activity into the effectiveness of organisations implementation of their duties under s11 of the Children Act 2004,

• Establish means of communication with the communities in Buckinghamshire to ensure a wider understanding of safeguarding issues – and for the BSCB to respond to issues,

• Ensure that information is available to children so they know who they can contact when they have concerns about their own safety and welfare,

• Promote BSCB minimum standards for the recruitment and supervision of persons who work with children and monitor their implementation and compliance,

• Ensure the full implementation of the BSCB training strategy to meet the training needs of staff across all agencies so that they work effectively together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children who may be at risk of significant harm,

• Participate in the local planning and commissioning of children’s services to ensure they take safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children into account,

• Continue to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of what is done by the Local Authority and Board partners individually and collectively to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and advise them on ways to improve.

2. To lead and co-ordinate proactive work that aims to target particular groups

To achieve this the BSCB will:
• Develop and implement strategies to safeguard and promote the welfare of groups of children who are potentially more vulnerable than the general population, for example children living away from home, children who have run away from home, or children with disabilities

3. To lead and co-ordinate arrangements for responsive work to protect children who are suffering, or at risk of suffering, maltreatment

To achieve this the BSCB will:
• Ensure systems are in place to identify and support the safety and welfare of children who are privately fostered,

• Ensure that systems are in place in all agencies for investigating alleged breaches of safeguarding practices in respect of persons working with children, and to monitor compliance with the procedures,

• Report on the findings of the Child Death Overview Panel relating to all child deaths in Buckinghamshire,

• Undertake serious case reviews as required by Working Together to Safeguard Children.