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What is Section 11?
Section 11 of the Children Act 2004 places duties on a range of organisations and individuals to ensure their functions, and any services that they contract out to others, are discharged having regard to the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.

What Does Safeguarding and Promoting the Welfare of Children Mean?
Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children means:(from Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023)
  • 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 the 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, wherever possible and where this is in the best interests of the children
  • taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes set out in the Children's Social Care Framework.
What is the Responsibility of Wirral Safeguarding Children Partnership?
All organisations have a general duty to promote and safeguard children. Wirral Safeguarding Children Partnership (WSCP) is a statutory body that oversees these arrangements and in order to measure the effectiveness of these duties the Partnership has developed standards with indicators which can support a judgement.

What are the responsibilities of agencies to comply with Section 11?
Section 11 places a duty on:
local authorities and district councils that provide children’s and other types of services, including children’s and adult social care services, public health, housing, sport, culture and leisure services, licensing authorities and youth services
NHS organisations and agencies and the independent sector, including NHS England and clinical commissioning groups, NHS Trusts, NHS Foundation Trusts and General Practitioners
the police, including police and crime commissioners and the chief officer of each police force in England and the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime in London
the British Transport Police
the National Probation Service
Governors/Directors of Prisons and Young Offender Institutions (YOIs)
Directors of Secure Training Centres (STCs)
Principals of Secure Colleges
Youth Offending Teams/Services (YOTs)

Completing and Scoring the Self-assessment
The audit consists of a series of questions which relate to specific arrangements, including policies, procedures, managing allegations and training which help safeguard children and young people.
When agencies have completed their audit, a blank Action Plan template can be downloaded from the WSCP website and populated with any areas requiring further improvement. The WSCP will dip sample audits after each topic, and action plans on an annual basis.

PRINTING YOUR AUDIT
To keep a copy of your audit, fill in the questions and press print before you click 'done'. The WSCP keep copies of every audit, you can request a copy of your audit by contacting Kat Ryan.

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* 1. Please select your agency from the options below

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* 2. Please provide details of the professional completing this audit

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* 3. Are relevant staff aware that the WSCP publishes an Annual Report of all activity, learning from audits, priority safeguarding areas and Business Plans?

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* 4. Are staff encouraged to access the WSCP website to access training, learning from reviews, information about local campaigns and policies and procedures?

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* 5. Are relevant staff aware of the WSCP's local priorities for 2024-26?

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* 6. Does your agency/organisation identify and promote safeguarding learning opportunities for all staff alongside the local training offer?

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* 7. Do all staff have access to the statutory Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews (CSPR’s) published by the WSCP and associated learning?

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* 8. Do staff have regular opportunities to reflect on practice?

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* 9. Does your agency/organisation ensure that learning is disseminated and embedded across your organisation?

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* 10. Does your agency/organisation have its own mechanisms in place to ensure lessons from practice result in improvements?

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* 11. If yes, which mechanisms are you using?

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* 12. Do staff know how to access local learning materials and resources from the WSCP including 7 minute briefings, practice guidance and strategies?

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* 13. Do staff in your agency/organisation feel they can contribute to the work of the WSCP to strengthen local multi-agency safeguarding arrangements?

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* 14. Are staff are aware of your agencies/organisations Section 11/175 audit findings and identified improvements?

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* 15. Does the voice of children and young people inform your agencies/organisations learning and improvement?

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* 16. If yes, how does the voice of children and young people inform the school/settings learning and improvement?

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* 17. Are staff aware of what Private Fostering is and their responsibilities to refer any identified cases to the LA?

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* 18. Are staff aware of Wirral's multi-agency Neglect Strategy 2023-26?

Evidence

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* 19. If you have a good practice example or case study in this area, please upload it here.
If you have any evidence to support your response to this topic, please use the upload feature below or e-mail Kat Ryan with your evidence.

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