Focus on Families following Safeguarding Reviews

Category: Children

The part families can play in the process of Safeguarding Reviews is crucial to ensuring the Reviews are meaningful, the voice of the child or adult that is the subject of the LCSPRs (formerly SCRs) or SARs is heard and that future change will be effective from the views of those using services. Families often hold key information that can be used to inform the Safeguarding Reviews, that wouldn’t always be picked up during the multi-agency information collecting that takes place as part of the Review process.

As part of the BSCP/BSAB improvements to practice Ashleigh Coneron, our Safeguarding Practice Review Officer and Lead on Safeguarding Reviews, has devised a new Good Practice Guide for family involvement in Safeguarding Reviews, based on the ‘7 Steps’ model used by AAFDA (Working with Families in Domestic Homicide Reviews (vimeo.com)). This is accompanied by a flowchart broadly laying out the steps for family involvement, however due to every family experiencing such a painful and traumatic event which has become the subject of a Safeguarding Review, each family process will be individually tailored to that family’s needs. We have also produced leaflets for families involved in our LCSPRs and SARs that explain the difference that family involvement can make to the Review process.

As a result of the improvements to our practice, BSCP and BSAB will ensure:

• That lines of communication are opened at the earliest stage possible when it is agreed that a Safeguarding Review will be commissioned
• The family are offered an advocate to support them through the Review process, should they feel they need extra support
• The family are contacted with an update after each Panel meeting
• The family are offered the opportunity to meet the Panel overseeing the Review of their loved one/s
• The family are offered as long as they feel they need to read the draft report before it is put to the LCSPR or SAR Sub-Group and the Executive Members for final sign off
• The family have input in to shaping the recommendations of the report, as often they will first-hand experience of knowing whether any changes would make improvements to services in the future
• The family are kept fully updated on publication process and timeline

BSCP and BSAB are also introducing the opportunity for families to work with us to provide Impact Statements that will be included upon publication of the Safeguarding Reviews. We hope this will ensure the families feel heard, included in the Review process and the voice of their loved one/s is captured in the most personal and meaningful way.

There are real vulnerable children and adults that are the subjects of our Safeguarding Reviews and it is paramount to the Safeguarding Partnership that their voices are heard and their lived experiences are understood by those involved, and those that may go on to read the Reviews in the future. We hope that due to the changes we have made to working with the families of those subject to Safeguarding Reviews, we will create more comprehensive and meaningful changes and improvements to services as a result of their input.