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SOUTH GLOUCESTERSHIRE COUNCIL – NEWS RELEASE 25/1/07
A shared and inclusive approach to protecting children
An innovative approach to child protection is set to be unveiled this
week as a new website goes live.
A new partnership made up of 11 local authorities in the South West of
England and led by South Gloucestershire Council, have joined forces to
launch a web-based, jargon-free and interactive guide. The site contains
information for all professionals working with children and young people
and explains what they must do to protect and support the most
vulnerable people in the region.
The South West Child Protection Procedures (SWCPP) website has been
built to agree upon consistency and approach, and follows in the wake of
the Victoria Climbiè Inquiry, which emphasised this particular need.
Cllr Sheila Cook, executive member for children and young people at
South Gloucestershire Council, said: “This approach takes the protection
of children into the 21st Century, and, basing our procedures on the
web, means that the public can go onto the website to find out what they
can expect from professionals. It also allows them to understand what
agencies have to do to keep the safety of children at the heart of their
practice.”
The site is different and unique because it:
• will be developed to include the voice of children and young people
• will be constantly updated so that users can always know they are
using the most up to date version of procedures
• is written in plain English to reduce jargon and make it
understandable to the public – has used young people to proof read the
content
• has links to research evidence, government guidance and the law for
each stage in the procedures
• will be used for training and developing child care practice in
future, and for providing feedback from agencies and the public about
what works or doesn’t work for them
• will support and drive consistency of approach across all 11 areas –
ensuring that families and professionals who move across geographical
boundaries won’t be subject to different procedures in different areas
The site follows a simple cause and effect outline and shows how to
manage individual cases by asking simple ‘yes’ and ‘no’ questions.
It is being promoted as ‘Child Protection Procedures Without the Jargon’
because of its intention to appeal to as many people as possible. As
part of the process in producing the website, the commissioned company,
Reconstruct, spoke to a number of children and young people to ensure it
was accessible to them.
The partnership covers 11 local authorities: Bath and North East
Somerset, Bristol, Devon, Gloucestershire, North Somerset,
Plymouth, Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Swindon, Torbay and
Wiltshire.
All council services such as social services, schools and the youth
service, plus the police, the health service, Connexions and the
voluntary sector in their areas will use the new procedures.
The partnership commissioned a local company, Reconstruct, to design the
procedures on their behalf and South Gloucestershire Council has worked
closely with the company director, Barry Raynes, to develop the site.
They will now continue to maintain and develop the site, and while it
currently just covers procedures for dealing with possible abuse, of
individual children and young people in the future procedures in other
specialist areas such as dealing with professionals, underage sex, etc,
will be added.
The new site – www.swcpp.org.uk – goes live on Wednesday 31 January 2007
and can also be accessed via the Local Safeguarding Children Boards page
on the 11 local authorities websites.
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