Child Protection Conference
Safeguarding means helping children to grow up into confident, healthy and happy adults. It also means protecting children from physical, emotional, sexual abuse and neglect.
Most children generally enjoy a happy childhood experience within their own family. Unfortunately for some, this is not the case. During difficult family times, everyone who knows the child must do the best they can to keep them safe and protect them from harm.
When a child is considered at risk of significant harm a Child Protection Conference will be held. The first meeting is called an Initial Child Protection Conference and any subsequent meetings are called Review Child Protection Conferences.
The meetings use the Signs of Safety model which is a tool to help practitioners with risk assessment and safety planning in child protection cases. Its purpose is to enable practitioners across different disciplines to work collaboratively and in partnership with families and children to achieve the best outcomes.
All conferences are chaired by a child protection chair and are attended by a social worker, partner agencies who will work and provide information at the meeting and family members of the child/young person. The young person can attend the conference or they can have someone speak on their behalf.
At the meeting, all people there will review all information and discuss what they are worried about and what is currently regarded as safety measures. A Child Protection Plan will be agreed and distributed at the meeting to determine what actions are to be completed in what timescales.
For further information on child protection conferences, use the links below: