1.2 Underlying Policy, Principles and Values

1. Introduction

Pan Sussex Safeguarding and Child Protection Policies are informed by and aligned with:

• Working Together to Safeguard Children: Statutory Guidance (Department for Education);
• Children Act 1989;
• Children Act 2004;
• Children’s Social Care National Framework (Department for Education);
• Relevant safeguarding legislation.

Nothing is more important than children’s welfare. Every child deserves to grow up in a safe, stable, and loving home. Children who need help and protection deserve high quality and effective support. This requires individuals, agencies, and organisations to be clear about their own and each other’s roles and responsibilities, and how they work together.

This policy sets out the underlying policy, principles and values underpinning safeguarding and child protection activity across Sussex.

2. Safeguarding and Promoting Children’s Welfare

Throughout this procedures manual, safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is defined as:

• providing effective early help and family help, recognising that timely, proportionate support can prevent escalation to statutory intervention;
• protecting children from maltreatment, whether that is within or outside the home, including online;
• preventing 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, whenever possible and where this is in the best interests of the children;
• taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes in line with the outcomes set out in the Children’s Social Care National Framework.

In this procedures manual, a child is defined as anyone who has not yet reached their 18th birthday. ‘Children’ therefore means ‘children and young people’ throughout.

Child protection is part of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and is defined for the purpose of this guidance as activity that is undertaken to protect specific children who are suspected to be suffering, or likely to suffer, significant harm. This includes harm that occurs inside or outside the home, including online and technology-facilitated harm, in line with the Online Safety Act 2023.

Children may be vulnerable to neglect and abuse or exploitation from within their family and from individuals they come across in their day-to-day lives. These threats can take a variety of different forms, including: sexual, physical and emotional abuse; neglect; domestic abuse, including controlling or coercive behaviour; exploitation by criminal gangs and organised crime groups; trafficking; online abuse; sexual exploitation and the influences of extremism leading to radicalisation. Under the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, children are recognised as victims of domestic abuse in their own right, even where they do not directly witness abusive incidents. Whatever the form of abuse or neglect, practitioners should put the needs of children first when determining what action to take.

All professionals across Sussex play a role in ensuring children have optimum life chances to enter adulthood successfully.

3. Child Protection

Child protection is part of safeguarding and promoting welfare. This refers to the activity that is undertaken to protect specific children who are suffering or at risk of suffering significant harm.

Effective child protection is essential as part of wider work to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. However, all agencies and individuals should aim proactively to safeguard and promote the welfare of children so that the need for action to protect children from harm is reduced.

Child protection practice must recognise that harm may occur outside the family home and should incorporate a contextual safeguarding approach, addressing risks in peer groups, schools, neighbourhoods and online environments.

Professionals in all agencies and organisations (including public services, commissioned provider services and voluntary organisations; whether paid or a volunteer) who come into contact with children, who work with adult parents/carers or who gain knowledge about children through working with adults, should:

• be alert to potential indicators of abuse or neglect;
• be alert to risk and vulnerability factors which can increase a child’s vulnerability to abuse and neglect;
• be aware that mental health problems can be an indicator that a child has suffered, or is at risk of suffering abuse, neglect or exploitation;
• be alert to the risks which individual abusers, or potential abusers, may pose to children;
• be alert to the impact on the child of any concerns of abuse or maltreatment;
• be able to gather and analyse information as part of an assessment of the child’s needs.

This includes awareness of serious violence, exploitation and criminal activity affecting children, in line with the Serious Violence Duty under the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022.

Multi-agency training is crucial for enhancing collective awareness of local needs and available services for supporting children and young people. Practitioners must maintain up-to-date knowledge of emerging risks including online abuse, grooming, exploitation and radicalisation.

Safeguarding partners should assess local training needs and establish mechanisms for monitoring and evaluating the impact of training.

4. Effects of Language used in Safeguarding and Child Protection

Effective communication in safeguarding and child protection is crucial. Professionals must carefully consider the language they use and its potential impact on those involved.

Various agencies and professions use different terminology and acronyms to describe needs, leading to a complex landscape of communication. Failure to explain this terminology can result in professionals, individuals, and families feeling disempowered and excluded.

Language used in safeguarding should be trauma informed, strengths-based and non stigmatising, avoiding labels that blame or pathologise children and families.

5. Shared Responsibility

All children have the right to be safeguarded from harm and exploitation whatever their:

• race, religion, first language or ethnicity;
• gender (including gender identity) or sexuality;
• age;
• health or disability;
• location or placement;
• any criminal behaviour;
• political or immigration status.

Statements about, or allegations of abuse, or neglect made by children, must always be taken seriously.

Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility and applies across statutory, voluntary, community, faith, private sector an online contexts.

Effective safeguarding relies on the shared commitment and cooperation of all relevant agencies and individuals.

The wishes and feelings of children must always be sought and given due weight according to their age and understanding.

6. Principles Underpinning all Work to Safeguard and Promote the Welfare of Children

Practise must be:

• Child-centered Approach: Professionals must prioritise the welfare of the child, ensuring they are seen, heard, and understood in decision-making processes.
• Rooted in Child Development: Understanding the stages of child development is crucial for planning interventions that cater to the child’s needs at every age.
• Focused on Outcomes for Children: Plans and interventions should be tailored to address the unique needs of each child, aiming for outcomes aligned with key welfare objectives.
• Holistic Approach: Assessment and intervention strategies should consider the broader context of the child’s environment, including family dynamics and cultural factors.
• Ensuring Equality of Opportunity: All children deserve equal access to opportunities for healthy development, regardless of background or circumstances.
• Involvement of Children and Families: Collaborative relationships with children and their families facilitate understanding and trust, crucial for effective intervention.
• Building on Strengths: Recognising and leveraging the strengths within families is as important as addressing difficulties, ensuring a balanced approach to intervention.
• Integrated Approach: Multi-agency collaboration should begin early to address additional needs beyond universal services, promoting comprehensive support for children.
• Continuous Process: Safeguarding is an ongoing process that requires continuous assessment, intervention, and review to adapt to the child’s evolving needs.
• Providing and Reviewing Services: Services should be provided promptly based on identified needs, with regular reviews to assess their impact on the child’s development.
• Informed by Evidence: Professional judgments should be informed by evidence-based practices and ongoing evaluation to ensure effectiveness in safeguarding children and families.

In addition, practice should be:

• trauma informed, recognising the impact of adversity, cumulative harm, and intergenerational trauma;
• inclusive and neurodiversity aware, recognising how SEND and neurodivergence may affect communication, behaviour and vulnerability.

7. Working in Partnership with Children and Families

Working Together to Safeguard Children emphasises partnership working with parents and carers wherever possible.

Parents and carers should be supported to understand what is happening, what is expected of them, and what support is available, while ensuring children safety remains paramount.

8. Four Principles that Underpin Work with Parents and Carers

1. Building Positive Relationships: Practitioners establish trust and cooperation by approaching families with empathy and respect, avoiding stigma, and identifying strengths to support positive change. They adapt their approach to address diverse needs and recognise signs of abuse or neglect without resorting to stereotypes.
2. Clear and Inclusive Communication: Communication is respectful, clear, and inclusive, catering to the needs of parents and carers. Materials are age-appropriate, free of jargon, and accessible in multiple languages if necessary, with professional interpreters provided when needed.
3. Empowering Decision-Making: Parents and carers are empowered to participate in decision-making processes. They are informed in advance about meeting attendees and formats, encouraged to bring support persons, provided with relevant information and access arrangements, and guided towards available local support services.
4. Community Engagement and Feedback: Practitioners involve parents, carers, families, and communities in designing safeguarding processes, incorporating their insights and feedback into service improvement efforts continuously.

Parents and carers should also be informed of their rights to advocacy, complaints processes and access to independent advice where appropriate.

9. Cultural Competency

Culturally competent practice acknowledges the significance of cultural identity in children’s and families lives.

Cultural competence should be applied alongside professional curiosity and cultural humility, ensuring safeguarding concerns are neither minimise nor exaggerated due to cultural assumptions.

Culture and faith must never be used as a justification for abuse. The welfare of the child remains paramount.

Please also refer to:

Safeguarding Children from Black, Asian and Minoritised Ethnic Communities (NSPCC Learning)

Safeguarding in Faith Communities (NSPCC Learning)

10. Sussex Safeguarding Children’s Partnership Anti Racist Practice Statement

10.1 Guiding principles

There is no place for racism in Sussex.

We recognise that the impact racism has on our communities is devastating. It is our responsibility to create safe, inclusive and supporting environments and challenge racism when we see it. We stand firmly together with our partners in being committed to tackling institutional and interpersonal racism in all of its forms. We commit to listening, monitoring and continually evaluating our practice because we recognise that good anti-racist practice for the Partnership leads to better outcomes for our children in our county.

Anti-racist practice seeks to identify where people are discriminated against because of race or membership of global majority communities, and to take active steps to address the systems, privileges and everyday practices that maintain this unequal treatment, whether they be intentional or unintentional.

This statement seeks to set out the principles and actions we will adopt towards this aim. Anti-racist practice extends to how we work together as colleagues and professionals, as well as with families, children and young people.

We should speak up when professionals interact or behave in a way that is disrespectful or unacceptable, whether of families or of colleagues.

10.2 Anti-Racist working as a Safeguarding Children’s Partnership

• Accept racism exists and affects many of us and our children.
• Be aware of prejudices within ourselves, in others and in the services we provide.
• Be aware of the potential for stereotyping and bias. Do not make assumptions about someone’s race, ethnicity and culture, based on presenting behaviour or what is recorded about them within assessments or reports.
• Always consider the race, ethnicity and cultural needs of children, families and adults within our services and partnership activity.
• To strive as a partnership to deepen our understanding of both the structures of racism and the development of cultural competence and cultural humility.
• Be aware that families from black and global majority communities will have lived experience of racism, which may impact on how they present. The cumulative impact of racism is trauma and can impact on people’s mental health, in terms of anxiety and depression.
• Intersectionality: the different aspects of identity and their social implications can multiply inequalities and may further compound experiences of racism, discrimination, and oppression, in terms of being Black, male, unemployed, working class, poor health (including mental health), disabled, LGBTQ+ etc – particularly in terms of institutional and structural racism.
• Research reveals there is an overrepresentation of black children in our care system, child protection systems, within school exclusions and within mental health and criminal justice services. We need to consider the cause, not just behaviours and plan appropriate support and challenge to services within the community.
• Wherever possible, ensure that black African, Caribbean/Asian/Muslim fathers (and those from other minoritised communities) are included in assessments, decision making and as potential carers in their children’s lives – even if they are ‘non-resident’ (as they are not always absent).
• Consider the Adultification of black children, whereby black boys and girls can be treated more like adults due to perceptions of them presenting as older or more confident than their white peers. Remember they are children first and foremost.

10.3 Recognising and Challenging Racism

The Partnerships need to promote that a key part of anti-racist practice is ensuring you look at your beliefs and where they come from and to educate yourself about different cultural practices / traditions, customs and norms that may be unfamiliar to you for example see Female Genital Mutilation chapter, Honour Based Abuse chapter, Forced Marriage chapter, Abuse Linked to Spiritual and Religious Beliefs / Ritual Abuse and Breast Ironing chapter. Be aware that these issues can impact on white communities too. We firmly challenge and do not support these harmful practices in any form.

Consider diverse communities’ religion and cultural festivals, such as Ramadan, Eid, Chinese New Year, Yom Kippur, Diwali. Be mindful of families who may be fasting for Ramadan for instance, when arranging appointments.

Don’t just consider ‘cultural competence’, which relates to reading/researching about someone’s culture from a white privileged perspective, consider ‘cultural humility’ too, which focusses on continued learning about black communities, beliefs, norms, customs, faith, and traditions. This requires reflection on one’s own beliefs, values and biases and how this may impact on how we receive information and respect the culture and values of others, it encourages us to remain curious (see Conversations about Culture: The Importance of Cultural Humility – YouTube video) and be mindful of White privilege (see What is White Privilege? BBC).

It is important to be responsible for calling out and challenging racism when we come across it. Whether amongst colleagues, employees, or families with whom we work with.

Microagressions are statements that put white people into a dominant position without being obviously hostile and are a ‘subtle’ form of racism, which people can use intentionally or unintentionally (see How Microaggressions can cause Lasting Pain, BBC). These are to be avoided.

Being an ally to all in the partnership and the families with whom we work involves noticing microaggressions, discrimination, assumptions, stereotypes, oppression and racism and feeling confident enough to challenge it, in all its forms, in a nonconfrontational manner, by asking questions and making people aware that what they are saying or doing is discriminatory, offensive, or racist and why.

We need to be open to being challenged and to recognise in ourselves that this might be difficult and uncomfortable and be aware of possible defensiveness we may have about this.

12. Gender Identity and Expression

Gender identity is a way to describe whether someone feels most aligned with girl, boy, neither, both or without gender at all. Some children and young people are very clear on what their gender identity is and for others it may change over time through a period of exploration. These children may be trans, non-binary or gender exploring.

Practise in relation to gender identity must be child centred, developmentally informed, evidence based and safeguarding led, ensuring children’s mental and physical health and well-being are paramount.

Being trans, non binary, or gender exploring does not in itself constitute a safeguarding concern, nor should it prevent appropriate safeguarding intervention where needed.

See also Gender Identity (NSPCC)

13. Gender Dysphoria

See also Gender Identity and the Law (opens as a pdf)

Gender dysphoria refers to clinically significant distress related to an individual’s experience of gender incongruence.

Not all children who experience gender related distress will experience persistent dysphoria, an experiences may change over time.

Practitioners should work within their professional competence and consider the child’s broader context, including mental health, neurodiversity, family circumstances and safeguarding risks.

14. Children who are Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual or Transgender (LGBTQ+)

Identifying as LGBTQ plus does not in itself place a child at risk.

Safeguarding responses should focus on risk such as bullying, discrimination, exploitation, family rejection, online harm and mental health vulnerability.

Professionals should create safe, inclusive environments where children feel able to share concerns.

15. Six Key Practice Themes to make a Difference in Reducing Serious Harm and Preventing Child Deaths caused by Abuse or Neglect

These themes are consistent with learning from the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel Annual Reports (2022 to 2024), particularly in relation to communitive harm, disguised compliance, and organisational drift.

1. understanding what the child’s daily life is like;
2. working with families where their engagement is reluctant and sporadic;
3. critical thinking and challenge;
4. responding to changing risk and need;
5. sharing information in a timely and appropriate way;
6. organisational leadership and culture for good outcomes.

16. Case Recording Principles

Good quality case recording is essential in ensuring:

• continuity of service to children and families when staff are unavailable or change, or when a service resumes after a period of time;
• effective risk management practices to safeguard the well-being of children, especially in emergency situations;
• effective partnerships between staff, children, their families, their carers, other agencies and service providers;
• clarity of information for everyone involved in the planning and delivery of services, and in the event of investigations, inquiries, or audits;
• adequate information for staff and managers to ensure the best possible utilisation of available resources;
• as a means by which to ensure accountability and adherence to procedures and statutory responsibilities;
• details of good quality observations of the child and care givers.

Records should be analytical, evidence based and demonstrate how the child’s voice informed decision making, while remaining compliant with data protection legislation.

16.1 Recording the child’s story

It is essential to capture the child story,  wishes, feelings and lived experience.

If a child wishes to access their record, it should be accessible and reflect their experiences, identity and understanding in a respectful way.

Consideration should be given to the child’s future access to records in line with MIRRA principles. Read more about this here – The MIRRA Project | UCL MIRRA: Memory – Identity – Rights in Records – Access.

The British Association of Social Workers (BASW) case recording tips:

• include the child throughout the recording;
• write records as if writing to the child or family members;
• make records purposeful and analytical;
• include memory objects (eg. photos) sensitively and critically;
• make sure records reflect the whole of the child’s story and why decisions were made;
• chart the child’s journey;
• include different views and opinions;
• make records easy to access;
• make sure recording is balanced and meaningful;
• avoid jargon and vague language, do not record every piece of communication.

17. Sussex Statement of Recognition that care leavers have a right to their information

Many older post-care adults are still unaware that they can access their childhood care files:

“All Care Leavers and those who had been supported through Children’s Social Care have the right to fully access their childhood care files. Access to this information can have a positive impact on people’s lives. The value of these files, and the need for us to promote this right of access, is recognised by the Sussex Safeguarding Children Partnerships and we aim to offer all care leavers support and kindness in what can be a difficult and challenging process.”

This statement is also included in the Local Offer and in information explaining Access to Records.

18. Infographic for Children and Young People Summarising UK Government Actions to Protect Children’s rights

Infographic on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Department of Education) (opens as a pdf)

19. Delivering Evidence Based Interventions

Evidence based practise should be informed by:

• the Families Foundations Toolkit from the What Works Centre for Children and Families:
• professional judgment;
• cultural responsiveness and lived experience of children and families particularly where evidence gaps exist.