Section 11 of the Children Act 2004 places duties on a range of organisations and individuals to ensure their functions, and any services that they contract out to others, are discharged having regard to the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.
What Does Safeguarding and Promoting the Welfare of Children Mean?
Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children means:
Protecting children from maltreatment
Preventing impairment of children’s health and/or development
Ensuring that children are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe effective care, and taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes.
What is the Responsibility of Wirral Safeguarding Children Board?
All organisations have a general duty to promote and safeguard children. Wirral Safeguarding Children Board (WSCB) is a statutory body that oversees these arrangements and in order to measure the effectiveness of these duties the Board has developed standards with indicators which can support a judgement.
What are the responsibilities of agencies to comply with Section 11?
Section 11 places a duty on:
local authorities and district councils that provide children’s and other types of services, including children’s and adult social care services, public health, housing, sport, culture and leisure services, licensing authorities and youth services;
NHS organisations, including the NHS Commissioning Board and clinical commissioning groups, NHS Trusts and NHS Foundation Trusts;
the police, including police and crime commissioners and the chief officer of each police force in England and the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime in London;
the British Transport Police;
the Probation Service;
Governors/Directors of Prisons and Young Offender Institutions;
Directors of Secure Training Centres; and
Youth Offending Teams/Services.
Completing and Scoring the Self-assessment
This year, the WSCB has developed a new model for Section 11 and 175 to include shorter audits throughout the year. Agencies will have the opportunity to upload key documents as evidence and can use the survey to identify any weaknesses or areas of improvement within their organisation. The audit consists of a series of questions which relate to specific arrangements, including policies, procedures, managing allegations and training which help safeguard children and young people.
When you have completed your audit, a blank Action Plan template can be downloaded from the WSCB website and populated with any areas requiring further improvement. The WSCB will dip sample action plans on an annual basis.
To find out more about Section 11, follow the link to our website.
