This service is responsible for chairing reviews for all Looked After Children, ensuring they have a care plan and that the plan is quality assured and right for the child or young person. 

All Looked After Children (for the duration they are legally looked after) will have an allocated Independent Reviewing Officer (IRO) and be able to contact them and know who they are.

What is an Independent Reviewing Officer?

Information about IRO's and what they do:

• a registered Social Work Professional, independent of the case or line management, who chairs Looked After Child Reviews in accordance with the IRO Handbook
• primary focus is to quality assure the care planning and review process for each child and to ensure that his/her current wishes and feelings are given full consideration
• subjects the Local Authority's Care Plan to scrutiny and robust challenge where necessary
• engages meaningfully with Looked After Children and strive to remain child-centred throughout

Useful information and downloads

• IRO leaflet parent and carers (PDF)
• IRO leaflet children and young people (PDF)
• Post 18 Reviews - A guide for young people (PDF)

This service is responsible for organising and chairing initial and review Child Protection Conferences.

What is a Child Protection Chair?

The conference chair should be a professional, independent of operational and/or line management responsibilities for the case. Where possible the same person should chair subsequent child protection reviews. The chair should meet the child and parents in advance, where possible, to ensure they understand the purpose of the conference and the process.

The chair should also quality assure progress to secure improved outcomes for the child in between case conferences, this is achieved through mid-way audits.

Those with parental responsibility and professionals involved in the child's life will receive copies of the Conference Minutes and the Outline Plan.

Useful information and downloads

• a guide to Child Protection Enquiries (Section 47) (PDF)
• a guide to Child Protection Conferences (PDF)
• a guide to Child Protection Conferences for children and young people (PDF)
• scaling and categories for parents (PDF)

All organisations providing services to children and young people must ensure their staff and volunteers are safe to do so. Most adults who work with children and young people act professionally and aim to provide a safe environment for the children and young people in their care, however, it must be recognised that there are adults who will deliberately seek out, create or exploit opportunities to abuse children.

The allegations' process is managed by Worcestershire’s Local Authority Designated Officers (LADO) as part of the Safeguarding and Quality Assurance Service.

A LADO referral should be made when there is an allegation or evidence that any person who works with children (via their employment or voluntary activity) has met the below threshold:

• behaved in a way that has harmed a child or may have harmed a child
• possibly committed a criminal offence against or related to a child
• behaved in a way that indicates they may pose a risk to children
• behaved or may have behaved in a way that indicates they may not be suitable to work with children

If you are unsure about referring to the LADO please speak to your Designated Safeguarding Lead or manager in the first instance and read the leaflet for professionals to ensure threshold is met before you refer.

The below leaflets will help you understand the LADO process and procedures, prepare for Position of Trust meetings and explain the processes to others.

Downloads

• information regarding position of trust meetings (PDF)
• a guide for professionals and volunteers who work with children (PDF)
• managing allegations - guidance if you have allegations made against you (PDF)

Making a referral

All statutory partner agencies are required to report all allegations to the LADO within one working day. Referrals should be submitted through the portal if the threshold for LADO procedures has been met. 

The Safeguarding Lead in your organisation will need to assess whether to contact the LADO prior to discussing the concern with the individual, this will be assessed on an individual basis and should not happen if this will increase the level of risk to a child/ren. 

If the assessment determines that the level of risk will not increase, then initial fact-finding enquiries can be completed prior to contacting the LADO as this will help you determine if the LADO threshold is met and whether a referral is necessary. Should you decide that the LADO threshold is not met then you will need to record the reasons for this for your own records.

Please see the guidance on how to register and make a referral.

• Children's Services Referral Portal Guide (PDF)

Make a referral

Who can I contact if I have a concern?

If you are unsure about referring to the LADO please speak to your Designated Safeguarding Lead or manager in the first instance and read the leaflet for professionals to ensure threshold is met.

If you still require some guidance please submit the online referral then you can contact the duty LADO on: 01905 846221. 

We first need the referral to be submitted via the online form in order for any advice from the LADO to be recorded.

Management of Allegations training and briefing

Management of Allegations Training is available through Worcestershire Children Safeguarding Partnership, this course will provide information which will help you to better understand the Management of Allegations processes, the role of the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO), and the role of the multi-agency network.

It will:

• help give you details on the legislation, procedures and processes
• ensure you know what to do if there is an allegation against a professional
• better understand your role as professionals working in regulated activity

Book a place

View the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) Privacy Notice

The Advanced Practitioners Service is part of the Safeguarding and Quality Assurance Service, their roles include:

• working with Newly Qualified Social Workers across the service; they are committed to supporting and enabling Social Worker's learning experience and providing opportunities to develop practice
• they work as a team to support the service to promote Practice Standards, Culture and the Vision for children in Worcestershire; they do this through modelling good practice and enabling reflection and analysis
• Advanced Social Work Practitioners will complete Stage 1 complaints to give an independent view/investigation of the complaint received
• Advanced Social Work Practitioners will work with experienced Social Workers beyond their Newly Qualified Year on targeted interventions such as assessment and planning work; this may include practice learning sessions and Signs of Safety Mapping sessions
• the Advanced Practitioners will work to develop practice sessions on key learning and present these within Team Meetings across the service

In Worcestershire we are introducing a new approach to our work with children and families, this approach is called Signs of Safety.

What is Signs of Safety?

The Signs of Safety approach, seeks to strengthen assessments and maximise family participation and where possible they actively contribute to solutions to keeping their child safe. Using the Signs of Safety approach professionals supporting families work together to:

1. look at what’s going well in the child’s life - the strengths
2. understand who is worried and why - the worries and concerns
3. identify what needs to be done to build on the strengths, reduce the concerns and keep the child safe - the outcomes

The approach expands on the assessment to encompass strengths and signs of safety that can be built upon to stabilise and strengthen a child’s and family’s situation. The approach is designed to help professionals and families throughout assessment and intervention.

Useful information and downloads

• Signs of Safety updates will be published in the quarterly: Safeguarding Board Newsletter
• more information can be found here: Signs of Safety website
• Signs of Safety guide for professionals (PDF)
• Signs of Safety guide for families (PDF)