Families First Assessments (FFA) are used by practitioners who work with children, young people, parents, and carers where it is considered that the child/family would benefit from early help support. It is used to identify needs, and to organise the right support and services to address those needs at an early stage. The FFA process allows different agencies and services to share information and work together in a coordinated way.

For families with children under 18 (25 if they have a learning need or disability), Families First can help with issues such as parenting, mental and physical health problems, drug or alcohol dependency, domestic abuse, school-related concerns, debt problems, and risk of becoming homeless.

The Continuum of Need  is a guidance document that sets out the ‘Levels of Need’ experienced by children, young people, and families in Hertfordshire. It provides clarity and support to partners working with them and at what level they should be leading on early support. The Continuum of Need document aims to prevent the unnecessary escalation of issues or problems by seeking early intervention. It helps ensure that the right response is given, by the right services, at the right time. The document also provides guidance on the levels of need and service response and about how the thresholds affect the type of referrals accepted by Children’s Safeguarding & Specialist Services, which is positioned at level 3/4 and statutory duties.

The Hertfordshire Safeguarding Children Partnership (HSCP) uses the Continuum of Need to agree on how the relevant organisations in Hertfordshire will cooperate to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and ensure effectiveness.

Child in Need: Under the Children Act 1989, local authorities are under a general duty to provide services for children in need for the purposes of safeguarding and promoting their welfare. A child in need is defined under section 17 of the Children Act 1989 as a child who is unlikely to achieve or maintain a reasonable level of health or development, or whose health and development is likely to be significantly or further impaired without the provision of services, or a child who is disabled. To fulfil this duty, practitioners undertake assessments of the needs of individual children, giving due regard to a child’s age and understanding when determining what, if any, services to provide.

Child Protection: Under section 47 of the Children Act 1989, where a local authority has reasonable cause to suspect that a child who lives or is found in their area is suffering or is likely to suffer significant harm, it has a duty to make such enquiries as it considers necessary to decide whether to take any action to safeguard or promote the child’s welfare. Such enquiries, supported by other organisations and agencies, as appropriate, should be initiated where there are concerns about all forms of abuse, neglect, and exploitation whether this is taking place in person or online, inside or outside of the child’s home. There may be a need for immediate protection whilst an assessment or enquiries are carried out. Schools are required to cooperate with children’s social care when carrying their inquiries and therefore we have a duty to share information when requested to do so. 

Significant Harm is the threshold for a child protection response to support and or protect children. Harm is defined in the Children Act 1989 as the ill-treatment of a child or the impairment of their health or development. This can include harm caused by seeing someone else being mistreated, for example by witnessing domestic abuse. The phrase ‘significant harm’ was introduced by the Children Act 1989. The Act does not define ‘significant’. The question of whether or not harm is ‘significant’ relates to its impact on a child’s health or development.  

The Gateway is the ‘front door’ to Hertfordshire’s social care. The Gateway Service receives contacts and referrals (queries via calls or emails) from partner agencies and members of the public for support from Early Help and Children’s Social Care. Contacts are received via the Customer Service Centre, where there are current safeguarding concerns that require an immediate response. It provides a single response to all new contacts that require an initial multi-agency approach. Contacts that present as meeting a threshold for immediate response bypass the Gateway and are screened and transferred directly to the Joint Child Protection Investigation Team, area Assessment Teams or 0-25 Teams (statutory services).

The multi-agency Gateway operates to the principle that every family (child/young person and their parent/carer) has the right:

• to be told when a professional is worried about the safety or wellbeing of their child by that professional

• to have their consent obtained when someone wishes to make a request for support on their behalf

• to be front and centre of the plan to keep their child safe and well.

Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) is a partnership of Children’s Services, that comprise Health, Police, and Probation. Advisory support is provided by Independent Domestic Violence Advocates and satellite partners, these agencies work together to identify the need of children and their families and signpost to the appropriate agency or resources where threshold is met.

The main aim of a MASH is to improve the quality of information sharing when making decisions between agencies at the earliest opportunity.

MASH is co-located, within the Gateway are two pods and one Early Help pod.

Abuse is all forms of maltreatment of a child and may involve inflicting harm or failing to act to prevent harm. Children may be abused in a family or in an institutional or community setting by those known to them or, more rarely, by others. Abuse can take place wholly online, or technology may be used to facilitate offline abuse.  Children maybe abused by an adult or adults or by another child or children.

Neglect is a form of abuse and is the persistent failure to meet a child’s basic physical and/or psychological needs, likely to result in the serious impairment of the child’s health or development. Section 9 provides the full definition.

Exploitation is a risk to children and young people that takes place outside of their families. Extra familial harms take a variety of different forms and children can be vulnerable to multiple harms including (but not limited to) sexual abuse (including harassment and exploitation), domestic abuse in their own intimate relationships (teenage relationship abuse), criminal exploitation, serious youth violence, county lines and radicalisation.

NB the terms abuse, neglect, and exploitation, and safeguarding issues are rarely standalone events and cannot be covered by one definition or one label alone. In most cases, multiple issues will overlap.

Children Looked After: A child is ‘looked after’ (in care) if they are in the care of the Local Authority for more than 24 hours. Children can be in care by agreement with parents or by order of a court. The placement providing the care can be a connected person to the child or a Local Authority approved foster carer.

Kinship Care refers to a type of care where a child who cannot be looked after by their birth parents is cared for by relatives or friends. The government in England has launched a Kinship Care Strategy to improve kinship carers’ financial stability, education, training, and partnership with local authorities and other agencies.

These arrangements can be known as either family and friends care or private fostering.

• Family and Friends Carers: If you’re a grandparent, aunt, uncle, brother, sister, or family friend looking after a child who can’t be cared for by their birth parents, you’re known as a family and friends carer. Sometimes these carers will be given Parental Responsibility for the children through a Child Arrangements or Special Guardianship Order.

• Private Fostering: You’re a private foster carer if you’re not a close relative and you’re looking after a child who’s under 16 (or under 18 if they’re disabled) for more than 28 days in a row.

Victim is a widely understood and recognised term, but we understand that not everyone who has been subjected to abuse considers themselves a victim or would want to be described that way. When managing an incident, we will be prepared to use any term that the child involved feels most comfortable with.

Alleged perpetrator(s) and perpetrator(s) are widely used and recognised terms. However, we will think carefully about what terminology we use (especially in front of children and their parents and carers) as, in some cases, abusive behaviour can be harmful to the perpetrator too. We will decide what is appropriate and which terms to use on a case-by-case basis.

Equality Statement, Children with Protected Characteristics

Some children are at greater risk of harm, both online and offline, and additional barriers can exist for some children with respect to recognising or disclosing it. At Roots Federation we are committed to anti-discriminatory practice and ensuring that all children are provided with the same protection regardless of any additional needs, barriers or protected characteristics they may have. As stated in the Equality Act 2010, we recognise the protected characteristics that may be applicable to our pupils:

• Age

• Disability

• Gender reassignment

• Marriage and civil partnership

• Pregnancy and maternity

• Race

• Religion or belief

• Sex

• Sexual orientation

All staff and volunteers understand the importance of recognising that a child may benefit from Early Help intervention, and it is integral to our whole Federation approach to look and listen out particularly for children: 

• who have a special educational need and/or disabilities (SEND) or health conditions

• who are a young carer

• who could experience discrimination due to their race, ethnicity, religion, gender

identification or sexuality

• have English as an additional language

• are known to be living in difficult situations – for example, temporary accommodation or where there are issues such as substance abuse or domestic violence

• are at risk of FGM, sexual exploitation, forced marriage, or radicalisation

• are asylum seekers

• are at risk due to either their own or a family member’s mental health needs

• are looked after or previously looked after (see Section 11)

• who have ongoing unexplainable and/or persistent absences from education

• whose parent/carer has expressed an intention to remove them from school to be provided with elective home education (EHE).

Children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)

We know who our pupils are with special educational needs, disabilities, or additional health needs and recognise that they may face additional barriers, that can include:

• assumptions that indicators of possible abuse, such as behaviour, mood and injury, relate to the child’s impairment without further exploration

• these children being more prone to peer group isolation or bullying (including prejudice-based bullying) than other children

• assumptions that children with SEND can be disproportionally impacted by things like  bullying - without outwardly showing any signs

• communication barriers and difficulties in managing or reporting these challenges

• cognitive understanding – being unable to understand the difference between fact and fiction in online content and then repeating the content/behaviours in schools or colleges or the consequences of doing so.

• reluctance to challenge carers (professionals may over-empathise with carers because of the perceived stress of caring for a disabled child)

• disabled children often rely on a wide network of carers to meet their basic needs and therefore the potential risk of exposure to abusive behaviour can be increased

• a disabled child’s understanding of abuse

• lack of choice/participation.

Children Looked After (CLA)

The most common reason for a child to become looked after is as a result of abuse and/or neglect. We therefore ensure that the appropriate arrangements are in place to support these children and keep them safe from further harm. This includes:  

• appointment of a Designated Teacher (DT) for CLA

• appropriate staff made aware of a child’s looked after status

• ensure that necessary staff have the skills, knowledge and understanding of the child’s needs

• ensure the child’s record contains a clear understanding of their legal status and care arrangements, including the levels of authority delegated to their carer and contact arrangements with birth parents or those with parental responsibility

• keep contact details of the child’s social worker, carer(s) and name and contact details of the virtual school head for DT to liaise with.

Children with a Social Worker (CWASW)

Virtual School Heads have a responsibility for the strategic oversight of the educational attendance, attainment, and progress of:

• children looked-after,

• children previously looked-after; and

• children with a social worker – defined as any child who has been assessed as being in need under section 17 of the Children Act 1989 and currently has a social worker; it also includes those who have been assessed as needing, or previously needing, a social worker within the past 6 years due to safeguarding or welfare reasons.

In line with Promoting the education of children with a social worker and children in kinship care arrangements: virtual school head role extension - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) this has been extended to include:

• children who have previously had a social worker – the cohort of children with a social worker and those who have previously had a social worker who are aged from 0 to 18; and

• children in kinship care arrangements - this means any friend or family member, who is not a child's parent but raising them for a significant amount of the time, either as a temporary or permanent arrangement.

In offering advice and information to workforces that have relationships with children with social workers, virtual school heads identify and engage with all key professionals in Hertfordshire and beyond, helping them to understand the role they have in improving outcomes for CWASW e.g. DSL and deputies, social workers, headteachers, governors, special educational needs co-ordinators, mental health leads, other Local Authority partners, including Designated Social Care Officers for SEND.

Roots Federation ensures that our Designated Teacher has the appropriate training, so they are able to take the leadership of this crucial area of our safeguarding arrangements in collaboration with our Designated Safeguarding Lead which includes:

• working closely with virtual school heads to ensure that funding is best used to support the child’s educational achievement and development needs that are identified in their personal education plans

• collaborating with the virtual school heads to also promote the educational achievement of previously looked after children.

Roles and Responsibilities of Staff including Leadership and Management 

Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility at Roots Federation. This policy applies to all of our staff including permanent, temporary and supply, volunteers, governors and contractors. It also applies to our safeguarding arrangements for extended school and off-site activities.

Roots Federation plays a crucial role in preventative education. This is in the context of a whole-school approach to preparing pupils for life in modern Britain, and a culture of zero tolerance of sexism, misogyny/misandry, homophobia, biphobia, transphobia and sexual violence/harassment. This will be underpinned by our:

• Behaviour Policy

• pastoral support system

• planned programme of relationships, sex and health education (RSHE), which is inclusive and delivered regularly, tackling issues such as:

• healthy and respectful relationships

• boundaries and consent

• stereotyping, prejudice, and equality

• body confidence and self-esteem

• how to recognise an abusive relationship (including coercive and controlling behaviour)

• the concepts of, and laws relating to, sexual consent, sexual exploitation, abuse, grooming, coercion, harassment, rape, domestic abuse, so-called honour-based violence such as forced marriage and FGM and how to access support

• what constitutes sexual harassment and sexual violence and why they’re always unacceptable.

Role and Responsibility of all staff (permanent, temporary and supply), volunteers and contractors

All staff will be required to:

• read Part One and Annex B of  Keeping Children Safe in Education, and the reviewed version of this guidance at least annually. Staff/volunteers who do not work directly with children are not required to read Part One and can be provided with Annex A (a condensed version of Part One) but to promote good practice we recommend that they do so.

Translated versions of Part One Keeping Children Safe in Education can be found at Keeping Children Safe in Education Part 1 Translations | LGFL for staff, volunteers, parents and carers whose first language may not be English, should they wish to use this

• read Annex B of Keeping Children Safe in Education which outlines important additional information about specific forms of abuse and safeguarding issues to ensure we have a culture that recognises that children within the specific circumstances can be at greater risk of abuse, neglect and exploitation, and a working knowledge to identify indicators. As good practice, we ask staff who do not directly work with children to also read this chapter

• sign confirmation that they have read the expected sections according to their role, have understood the content and their roles and responsibilities in our whole Federation approach to safeguarding

• promote and raise awareness about the importance of online safety when communicating with parents and carers. This includes making parents and carers aware of what we ask children to do online (e.g. sites they need to visit or who they’ll be interacting with online)

• contribute to creating a culture for pupils who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or gender questioning to speak out and share their concerns

• contribute to creating a culture for any child defined as having a protected characteristic to speak out and share their concerns (see Section 5).

All staff will be aware of:

• our safeguarding arrangements and systems which is explained to staff as part of their induction and annual update training. As part of staff induction new staff/ volunteers are provided with the following key guidance and information provided by our senior leadership team:

• Child Protection Policy

• Staff Behaviour Policy/Code of Conduct

• the role and identity of the Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) and deputies

• the Behaviour Policy

• online safety policy

• our expected safeguarding response to children who are absent from education, particularly on repeat occasions and/or prolonged periods

• signs of vulnerabilities to look out for in children who may benefit from Early Help support, we explain to staff the Early Help process for children and their families and what their role is in this to support DSLs in ensuring children and their families receive support as soon as problems emerge

• the importance of Families First Assessments and how they can help identify emerging difficulties and therefore how sharing information, including with other practitioners, can support early identification and assessment

• what to do if they identify a safeguarding issue or a child tells them they are being abused or neglected, including specific issues such as FGM, and how to maintain an appropriate level of confidentiality while liaising with relevant professionals

• the process for recording and sharing information internally to DSLs and on children’s safeguarding records

• the process of making referrals to the Local Authority Children’s Social Care and/or Police where required and the statutory processes that may follow