A boy's hand thrust forward towards the camera

About the CYSCP

Welcome to the City of York's Safeguarding Children Partnership (CYSCP).

Legislation requires all local authority areas in England to work together as a team to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children. In the City of York we do this by coming together as a collective group of people and organisations and we call this the City of York Safeguarding Children Partnership.

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Our vision, values and principles

The partnership has a vision at its core which is underpinned by its values and principles; these set out how the 3 statutory safeguarding partners work together with relevant agencies.

The overarching vision for the CYSCP is:

For all the children of York to grow up in safety and to always feel safe.

Our values are:

  • safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. Children are safeguarded by a whole system, agencies, stakeholders, families, and communities
  • the voice and lived experience of children and families is at the centre of everything that we do

Our principles are:

  • empowerment - we'll support, respect and empower families to make their own informed decisions
  • learning - we're a partnership that reflects, learns and are committed to continuous improvement
  • prevention - we're committed to early help and early support, preventing harm from occurring
  • relational practice - we'll work in a strength-based way, in collaboration with families and with each other, to achieve the best possible outcomes for children and young people.

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The purpose of the partnership

The purpose of the CYSCP is to support and enable local organisations and agencies to work together to ensure that children and young people in the city are safe and safeguarded. This is achieved by:

  • professionals from different organisations working together and challenging each other and taking ownership together of children, young people and their families they are working with
  • ensuring safeguarding and children’s welfare is promoted
  • listening to children, young people and their families – understanding their lived experiences
  • providing early help – ensuring families get the right help at the right time
  • improving practice
  • producing multi-agency documentation and resources for example, practice guidance, strategies and 7 point briefings
  • improving outcomes – what does this mean for the child, young person and family
  • focussing on whole family relationships
  • sharing learning and good practice
  • sharing and disseminating information for example, training courses

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The structure of the partnership

There are 3 statutory partners who have overall equal responsibility to keep children and young people safe. In York these are:

These are called Lead Safeguarding Partners.

Each Lead Safeguarding Partner should appoint a Delegated Safeguarding Partner for its agency. It has been agreed within the City of York that the lead officers will delegate their function to the following officers:

  • Martin Kelly, Corporate Director of Children Services, City of York Council
  • Catherine Clarke, Assistant Chief Constable, North Yorkshire Police
  • Michelle Carrington, Executive Director for Quality and Nursing, York Health and Care Partnership.

In addition there are ‘Relevant Agencies’ who are organisations and agencies are also involved with safeguarding and promote the welfare of local children. Examples of relevant agencies are:

  • Education
  • Early Years
  • Health organisations
  • Criminal Justice
  • Voluntary Sector
  • Local Government
  • Public Services
  • Youth Groups

Further information in relation to this is set out in the CYSCP Safeguarding Arrangements Report. Please note: this document is currently being reviewed and updated and will be added to the website before the end of the year.

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Independent Scrutiny

In addition the partnership has an Independent Scrutineer. Mel John-Ross was recruited into this role in 2023. Her role is to challenge the partnership in all areas of its work, highlighting areas needing improvement, as well as good practice. The aim is to help make services across the city safer for children and young people.

Mel brings a wealth of experience to her role as a qualified children’s social worker, serving as an Executive Director for Children’s Services at Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council.

At the time of her appointment, Mel John Ross, said:

I am delighted to be joining the City of York’s Safeguarding Children’s Partnership as the new Independent Scrutineer.

"I look forward to working with partners from across the children’s partnership, who deliver services for children and young people, as well as the many colleagues and organisations who shape and contribute to York being a city where children and young people thrive.

“My role will be to support partners in achieving the very best outcomes for children, young people and their families; to hear and respond to children’s voices and lived experiences and to shine a light and celebrate best practice by the dedicated practitioners from across the partnership.

“Equally, to support and contribute to culture that is highly ambitious and aspirational for children and young people, and one that is open and reflective to continuous learning and continuous improvement.”

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Partnership Governance Arrangements

The partnership Executive meeting has overall responsibility for the work of the partnership. This group meets bi-monthly and is chaired by the Executive Chair. Membership of the Executive includes the three statutory partners, Public Health and Education.

There are 5 partnership sub-groups which report into the Executive.  The sub-group meetings are held quarterly and have good multi-agency partnership representation from the statutory partners and relevant agencies. The sub-groups drive forward the work and business on the multi-agency partnership. Often Task and Finish groups are created to carry out a targeted piece of work. Regular update reports on the work of the partnership via the sub-groups are taken to Executive.

These sub-groups are:

  • Voice and Involvement Sub-Group
  • Exploitation Sub-Group
  • Case Review Sub-Group
  • Learning, Development and Performance Sub-Group
  • Safeguarding and Professional Practice Sub-Group

In addition, the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) reports into the Executive.

Please review the CYSCP Safeguarding Arrangements Report for further information in relation to these sub-groups.

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The types of work performed by the partnership

The partnership have identified the following priorities for 2024 to 2025 and the sub-groups have been working on these priorities. These are:

Additionally below are examples of the type of work the partnership carry out:

  • produce documents for example, Strategies, Practice Guidance, Procedures, Tools and 7 Point Briefings
  • carry out Multi-Agency Audits on practice
  • carry out reviews on cases
  • disseminate learning to frontline professionals for example, via 7 point briefings, One Minute Guides, learning masterclass events, training, newsletter, campaigns and the website
  • deliver training

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Information sharing

The 3 Statutory Safeguarding Partners and other agencies in the CYSCP work together to create a positive culture of sharing information and facilitate legally compliant and effective data sharing practices. The Department for Education has produced Information sharing advice for safeguarding practitioners for people who provide safeguarding services to children, young people, parents and carers.

There is also an Information Sharing Form which partners complete to share information.

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Further Information and Resources

City of York Safeguarding Children Partnership Arrangements Report

It's a statutory responsibility for each local area to publish their safeguarding arrangements. This is detailed within the CYSCP Safeguarding Arrangements Report.

Legislation

The website is regularly updated with useful information for professionals, parents and carers and children and young people. See our latest news page for further information.

The partnership also produce a monthly CYSCP Newsletter to communicate information to professionals. Colleagues can sign up to receive our newsletter.

Follow @YorkSCP on X.

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Annual Report

All Safeguarding Children's Partnerships are required to publish annual reports outlining the work of the partnership over the previous year.

Current Annual Report

Independent Scrutineers Report

The purpose of the Independent Scrutineers Report is to provide a summary of the key findings from the Independent Chair and Scrutineer for the CYSCP current annual report.

Previous Annual Reports

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Business Plan

The CYSCP Business Plan sets out the strategic priorities that the partnership has identified for 2024 to 2025.

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Freedom of Information

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOI Act) provides the public with a general right of access to information held by public bodies, such as local government, the police, the NHS and state schools.

The CYSCP is a statutory partnership in its own right set up under the Children Act 2004 and is not a public authority for the purposes of the FOI Act. It's therefore exempt from the duty to provide information under the FOI Act.

Section 3 of the FOI Act provides that:

  • (2) For the purposes of this Act, information is held by a public authority if
    • (a) it is held by the authority, otherwise than on behalf of another person, or
    • (b) it is held by another person on behalf of the authority

An FOI request may be made directly to partner agencies of the CYSCP. Where a CYSCP partner which is deemed to be a public authority under the FOI Act holds information for its own purposes, then it does so otherwise than on behalf of another person and the information held will be subject to the FOI Act. However, partners in possession of documents such as CYSCP minutes, documents and reports are holding this information on behalf of ‘another person’ (the CYSCP) and it is therefore not liable to disclosure under a FOI request.

Details of how to access information from a public body can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website.

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The function of the partnership Business Unit

The Business Unit carries out the following functions:

  • co-ordinates work of the partnership
  • supports sub group chairs
  • disseminates information
  • support campaigns
  • co-ordinates multi-agency training
  • produces multi-agency dataset

The CYSCP Business Unit is there to support the partnership membership helping to coordinate and manage multi-agency working. The team is made up as follows:

  • Sophia Lenton-Brook CYSCP Business Unit Manager

CYSCP Performance and Governance Officer’s: Clare Davies and Joanna Williamson.

We can be contacted at:

City of York Safeguarding Children Partnership
West Offices
Station Rise
York
YO1 6GA

Email: [email protected].

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