Annual Safeguarding Report

The safeguarding incident reporting process was updated in 2020 to ensure that safeguarding concerns are recorded and signed off by a manager. This provides evidence of the decision-making process, including where the decision is made not to refer to statutory services. Each incident needs timely sign-off by a manager.

A new KPI has been set to monitor performance against this. The % of safeguarding incident reports completed within a 24-hour time scale with a target of 90%- during 2022, 97 % of safeguarding concerns met this target. During 2022, the Refuges and Homelessness Schemes have also adopted this way of working.

The table below shows the number of safeguarding incidents recorded during 2021. There has been an overall increase in safeguarding concerns this year when compared to last year, increasing from 105 to 151. Most of this increase relates to the Emotional Health and Wellbeing contract.

Emotional Health and Wellbeing Service

Over the last year, 62 (44 individuals) safeguarding incident reports have been completed by the Emotional Health and Wellbeing Service, a significant rise from the 19 the year before. These have been raised for a range of reasons and are shown in the table below:

Of particular note is the rise in incidents relating to suicidal ideation from one last year to 14 (11 young people) this year.

As well as internal management sign-off, this is also reviewed for each incident by a Deputy Director at Child Action North West and then again at audits with Child Action North West. There is agreement that appropriate actions are being taken to keep children safe, including speaking to school safeguarding leads, Child Adolescent and Mental Health Services, Social Workers, etc.

Key will be involved in a small working group at Child Action North West to see if further improvements can be made to current working practices.

Schools Counselling 

There have been 28 (19 individuals) safeguarding concerns reported in Key’s work in schools who have directly commissioned us. The concerns fall into the following areas:

Many of these relate to work in one high school. The recurrent theme is of young ladies self-harming, and for some cases, there are recurrent incident reporting forms for an individual.

Of the five across Key where we didn’t meet the KPI target, three were from this area of work and related to one employee who seemed to have misunderstood the process. They are no longer employed by Key.

Drop In

Drop-in 41 cases (35 individuals)

For Drop-in cases, all but one of the cases relate to 16 and 17-year-olds who are either homeless or threatened with homelessness, in most cases, the other areas of concern, such as emotional abuse, sit alongside the homelessness/ risk of homelessness.

In most cases, the young people are referred for CSC assessment or are already open to services. Where this is not the case, appropriate reasons for not doing so are recorded. For example, they have been able to return home or approaching their 18^th birthday and are safe for now and don’t want CSC intervention.

Homelessness Schemes

There have been nine safeguarding alerts over the last year relating to 8 individuals.  These alerts are now integrated into Key’s systems, and timely decision-making is evident. All cases have complied with Key’s KPI. Most cases have related to suicidal ideation or self-harm, and support has been given both within the scheme and, where appropriate supporting people to access statutory services such as mental health crisis teams.

Social workers have also been updated where relevant. The Emotional Wellbeing Coach is now in post at the young people’s schemes, and it is hoped that their input will build resilience and support a reduction in mental distress.

Refuge

There have been six safeguarding incident forms completed (3 individuals).

Safeguarding concerns are relatively few in this setting, with people living in a place of safety.

Cases are being dealt with appropriately, and information is shared with statutory partners as appropriate.

Outreach

There have been 4 safeguarding incident forms completed (4 individuals)

Cases have been dealt with appropriately and has involved working with statutory partners.

Other Services

Critical tenancy 

Training and Disclosure and Barring Checks (DBS)

All team members are up to date with their mandatory safeguarding training and all staff have a suitable DBS in place.

Conclusion

Work during the year has been positive with strong performance against the new KPI. Further work will take place this year to ensure that safeguarding remains at the forefront of people’s minds. A piece of work is underway to ensure all team members have undertaken/refreshed suicide awareness training so that everyone feels confident if someone shares that they are thinking of taking their own life. Safeguarding will remain high on Key’s agenda to ensure that cases are recorded and actioned appropriately.