Safeguarding

Safeguarding children newsletters

Edition 8: March 2024

Understanding adverse childhood experiences

As part of the Barnsley Safeguarding Children Partnership multi-agency training programme, we had independent trainer, Zoe Lodrick, attend Shaw Lane Sports Club to deliver training on understanding adverse childhood experiences. We had a great turnout of almost 100 of the Barnsley workforce. As always, Zoe received great feedback; here are just a few of the comments received:

Thank you so much for today. It was really thought provoking and the analogies that Zoe used helped me to understand things in a different perspective. Thank you so much.
Amazing training. I first saw Zoe in Leeds in 2015 and I make every effort to see her whenever she comes to Barnsley. Her lectures are invaluable.
Fantastic training, really engaging presentation by Zoe. I'm looking forward to embedding the knowledge in my role as an ISVA. Thank you.
Absolutely fantastic training! Zoe really invests in you as a learner. So powerful and thought provoking.

Zoe will be next delivering training in Barnsley on the 22 November, again at Shaw Lane Sports Club. This time the training will be around the impact of domestic abuse on children and adults. This training is bookable on POD, please add your name to the waiting list, if its already full.

View the Barnsley SCP multi-agency training programme.

Multi-agency training programme

We offer an extensive range of training courses to people who have a responsibility for safeguarding children. We offer face to face training courses and virtual lite bite sessions.

BSCP is keen to promote the new strengthening and re-energising core groups training. This training is essential for anyone who attends core groups or potentially could attend them.

By the end of the training, those attending should understand the key principles and remit of core groups, be familiar with the arrangements for convening meetings, be able to describe the responsibilities of core group members and have explored how child protection plans should be developed and implemented in Barnsley.

See all the training opportunities.

BSARCS open day (additional seminar)

Additional date: dealing with disclosure of sexual abuse from children and young people - 5 June 10am 12.30pm delivered via Zoom

This course looks at best practice in how to work with disclosure. It Identifies what your professional responsibilities are when hearing a disclosure. It discusses how to working with professional curiosity can shape and manage "difficult" conversations which support children and young people to speak up about difficult experiences. Finally, the course looks at a trauma informed response to supporting children after a disclosure has been made.

Please register by contacting ruth.oleary@bsarcs.org.

Child sexual abuse

The CSA Centre has published a report on child sexual abuse in England and Wales. The report analyses existing data from children’s social care, policing, criminal justice and health to explore how child sexual abuse is being identified and responded to. Findings show:

Across the year, local authority children’s services in England recorded concerns about child sexual abuse in 33,760 assessments of children.
Concerns about child sexual exploitation were recorded in 15,020 assessments.
one in 10 assessments undertaken by local authorities in England recorded a concern about some form of child sexual abuse.

Download the report.

Online safety

The UK Safer Internet Centre has published new research on online safety examining the experiences and opinions of children and their parents/carers. Findings from a survey of 2,008 parents and their children aged 8-17 include: 74% of parents and carers are worried about the fast-changing online world as posing safety risks to their child; 60% of 8- 17-year-olds who say they have used generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) believe it has online safety risks; and 48% of 8-17s think changing technology is making it harder for them to control who can access information about them online.

Read the news story.

Read the research.

Update from Chilypep

Chilypep have some exciting news to share! HOME, Barnsley is one of 24 Hubs across the country to share in £8 million funding for early support hubs to help children and young people receive better mental health support across the country.

The government announced in October 2023 that £4.92 million would be available for 10 early support hubs. It is now providing an additional £3 million to expand the number of hubs to 24 across the country - ranging from Exeter to Liverpool.

The £8 million overall package will improve access for children and young people to vital mental health support, offering early interventions to improve wellbeing before their condition escalates further.

HOME, Barnsley is delighted to have been successful in securing this funding for the young people of Barnsley and it will go towards continuing to support the Wellbeing Programme here at HOME, ensuring we can continue to offer a range of services, including group work, 1-2-1 support, counselling and signposting.

Find further information and the Government’s announcement on their website.

For more information on HOME, Barnsley please visit the Chilypep website.

Free training through Kooth

Kooth are offering free training webinars for you on the topic of “Overcoming mental health stigma in Muslim communities”. Book your place on KoothTalks.

In April Kooth are running webinars specifically to help parents and carers with children sitting exams. Please let your network of parents know about this support available, especially if they're worried about their child’s anxiety.

Extra-familial harms

Research in Practice has published video learning resources which look at professional innovation in response to extrafamilial risks and harms. These are harms that young people may encounter and experience beyond the family home (including online). The videos cover:

what helps innovation in children’s social care
adopting trauma informed practice to support young people experiencing extra-familial harm
developing contextual safeguarding as a local system
and reflective structures that enhance local innovation

Watch the videos:

Innovation in response to extra-familial risks and harms - the Innovate Project: video learning resources

Read the news story:

Innovation, contextual safeguarding and trauma-informed practice

National CSPR Panel Annual Report 2022-23

The National Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel has published its’ annual report 2022 to 2023.
Read the full report.

OPEN UP Barnsley

The OPEN UP Directory has been updated for 2024. Access and download it from the Chilypep website.

Please feel free to share this with other colleagues, networks, parents, carers and of course, young people.

IDAS Professionals Helpline

IDAS host a professionals helpline to offer advice and support, which comes through to the hubs team rather than a helpline worker.

Helpline number: (01226) 320112

Working Together 2023

Working Together was updated in 2023 and published in December. These updates specifically emphasise:

a shared responsibility
multi-agency safeguarding arrangements
providing help
support and protection
organisational responsibilities
learning from serious child safeguarding incidents and child death reviews

View the full Working Together 2023 guidance.

Edition 7: December 2023

Safeguarding Awareness Week 2023

We’ve had a successful SAW 23! Throughout the week, we trained professionals from across the partnership on a variety of issues relating to keeping children safe. The Online Harms conference, where 100 people from 20 organisations attended to learn more about online harms and trauma, the dark web, gaming and gambling, cyber-crime and sex offenders who use the internet. We also brought safeguarding awareness to the community at Barnsley Market all week. We showcased services available for adults and children.

To accompany our training around online harms, we’ve created a video for children and young people aged 7 to 16 years old. It looks at seven popular apps: TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, WhatsApp, Telegram and Discord. It gives advice to stay safe when using them. This video was sent to all schools in the borough and is here to share with children and young people that you work with. Watch our video about online harms.

Online Harms Training through the BSCP

If you missed our online harms conference during SAW, don’t worry – we have a two hour ‘lite bites’ online seminar suitable for anyone that works with children and families and those involved in multi-agency partnerships. The course will explore how children and young people use technology and outlines the various online harms that exist across various online platforms. It will consider the potential consequences of these online harms on young people’s development. It also explores various ways of supporting and educating families and young people in ways of keeping safe online.

The next dates are 23 February 2024 and 24 May 2024. Visit our Barnsley Safeguarding Children Partnership webpage and view our training calendar under the ‘professionals’ page to book your place.

Graded Care Profile 2 tool training for accessing neglect

The Graded Care Profile 2 tool is used to evaluate levels of parental care in cases with neglect concerns. Its a tool developed by the NSPCC. In order to access it, you need to be trained by accredited trainers. We offer this through the BSCP.

Recent feedback from our courses:

In feedback received from training in April and July 2023, 100% strongly agreed/agreed that the training was well delivered. It agreed it was relevant and appropriate to the needs of the learners and met the learning objectives and outcomes of the session. “The videos helped illustrate the theory”.
Attending this training will improve outcomes for children by “allowing me to identify what is happening ‘now’ for the child” and “spot the signs of neglect”.
“I now feel confident to use GCP2”.
GCP2 training is “Informative and useful for practice”.
“A really good refresher on how to use GCP2”.

Training is free, and course capacity has been increased to meet demand: the next dates are 22 March 2024, 6 June 2024 and 6 September 2024.

Visit our Barnsley Safeguarding Children Partnership webpage and view our training calendar under the ‘professionals’ page to book your place.

Resources to promote safeguarding

The ‘real safeguarding stories’ YouTube channel from Collingwood Learning is a bank of videos created for use in CPD sessions and lessons to provoke discussion and explore safeguarding issues. All stories are monologues powerfully performed by actors and can be searched by topic.

Watch some of the Real Safeguarding Stories.

BSCP Anti-Bullying Strategy 2022 to 25

Our Anti-Bullying strategy has been recently refreshed, including a plan-on-a-page for children and young people. It's created in collaboration with ChilyPep’s Young Commissioners groups ‘Escape’ and ‘Sanctuary’.

Check out the fully refreshed strategy.

Child exploitation: spot the signs this Christmas

There's no typical victim or offender when it comes to child criminal and sexual exploitation. Be sure to spot the signs over the festive period: expensive, unexplained gifts given to young people could be an early warning sign.

For more details, including how to report concerns, visit South Yorkshire Police's webpage.

Edition 6: September 2023

BSCP Annual Report

The BSCP annual report 2023 is now available, covering the work undertaken by the Partnership in 2022 to 2023. It includes information on Partnership priorities, progress being made in safeguarding in Barnsley, and data showing the local safeguarding landscape.

Barnsley’s anti-bullying commitment

In June 2023, BSCP re-launched our anti-bullying commitment and asked schools to refresh their pledge for 2023 to 2024.

Barnsley's youth groups (The Youth Council, Inclusive Youth Voice and Care4Us) have created an anti-bullying video. It explains different types of bullying, the effects of being bullied, and introduces the commitment pledge. We've created two toolkits for staff training on online harms and anti-bullying, along with surveys for primary and secondary schools. It will be led by youth councillors and Designated Safeguarding Leads. If you'd like a copy of these materials, please email us at barnsleysafeguardingchildrenspartnership@barnsley.gov.uk. Anti-Bullying Week takes place 13 to 17 November 2023

Step up/down protocol - Children’s Social Care

A new protocol has been issued relating to families moving up or down the gradient of help in Social Care (from Universal Services to Targeted Early Help and Statutory Services). It's in line with the new Thresholds for Intervention guidance. Read the step up/down protocol.

South Yorkshire Health and Care Partners Support ICON 2023 campaign

Health and care partners across South Yorkshire are working together to support parents and carers to cope with their baby’s crying. This will help to prevent traumatic head injuries.

NHS South Yorkshire will be continuing to support and promote the ICON approach to infant crying after ICON Week, which ran from 25 to 29 September. They aim to raise awareness of infant crying and how parents and carers can cope with it. This should help prevent serious injury, illness and even death which can result from adults not knowing how to soothe or otherwise safely attend to crying babies. For more details, visit South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board’s website, or ICON’s website.

NHS South Yorkshire #Drypregnancy

During September, NHS South Yorkshire supported #DryPregnancy to highlight the risks of drinking alcohol during pregnancy. They're also raising awareness of foetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD). FASD are a range of conditions that can be caused by drinking alcohol during pregnancy. Even a small amount can cause lifelong harm to a baby. The safest option is to have none at all. To find out more, visit Drymester's website.

Professionals online safety helpline

The UK Safer Internet Centre's Professionals Online Safety Helpline has introduced new guidance to aid educators and professionals working with young people. The guidance aims to answer frequently asked queries on topics including reporting content of concern on social media, impersonation on social media platforms, and responding to incidents of young people sharing nude images online.

Download the resources available from the professionals online safety helpline.

Kooth in Barnsley: digital service for young people aged 11 to 25

Kooth is a British association for counselling and psychotherapy accredited service. It provides a free, safe and non-judgemental place for young people to connect with others and know they're not alone. They have instant access to self-help materials, live moderated discussion forums and tools such as online journals and goal trackers. Young people can also contribute written pieces of work reflecting their own experiences. they can also access drop-in or booked sessions with professional counsellors. To find out more, or to access the service, visit Kooth's website.

The Online Safety Bill – update

The Online Safety Bill, which will make companies legally responsible for making sure that their websites are safe for children, has passed through Parliament and will soon become law. Gov.uk states that “The bill takes a zero-tolerance approach to protecting children and makes sure social media platforms are held responsible for the content they host. If they don't act rapidly to prevent and remove illegal content and stop children seeing material that is harmful to them, such as bullying, they'll face significant fines that could reach billions of pounds. In some cases, their bosses may even face prison.” After years of campaigning, the NSPCC celebrated “a momentous day for children”. To find out more, visit the NSPCC website.

Safeguarding Awareness Week: 20 to 24 November 2023

Preparations are well underway for South Yorkshire’s Safeguarding Awareness Week 2023. Our themes this year include online harms, children missing from education, the first year of life, trans awareness and domestic abuse. We're keen to promote and have activities planned at your service, centre or school. Drop us a line at barnsleysafeguardingchildrenspartnership@barnsley.gov.uk. Colleagues will be on hand at the market hall all week. They'll provide information about services across the partnership, for children and their families. Youth groups will hold an extra Saturday morning session. We have a full week of multi-agency training for professionals working with children in the borough. See our multi-agency page for more details. Key highlights include:

Domestic Abuse Masterclass

The masterclass is led by retired South Yorkshire Police Detective Inspector Adrienne Sheekey, formerly of the Barnsley Domestic Abuse Team. It will examine the impact of domestic abuse on children and young people. It explain how to support and safeguard them as survivors and witnesses of abuse.

Online Harms: Beyond Contextual Safeguarding Conference

This full-day conference will be led by keynote speaker and international technology expert Cath Knibbs. It will provide practical advice and information about online harms. In the afternoon, attendees will choose two of the following four available workshops, split in two sessions:

Session 1: either cyber crime with Natalie Garrett from South Yorkshire Police, or the dark web with CEOP Education ambassadors Ceri Higgs and Sharron O’Rourke.
Session 2: either sex Offenders who use technology to groom with Jane Laing, a former Program Lead for social work at Sheffield University, or gaming and gambling related harms with YGAM Program Lead, Sam Starsmore.

Both the Domestic Abuse Masterclass and the online harms conference are free to attend, but places are limited. Book your place via POD or by emailing marionproudfoot@barnsley.gov.uk. To book a stall for your service, or to let us know of any activities you are planning for #SAW23, email barnsleysafeguardingchildrenspartnership@barnsley.gov.uk.

Edition 5: June 2023

Let's hear your voice dashboard

We are pleased to announce that the Let’s hear your voice survey findings are now live. The Survey ran from 14 October to 9th December 2022 and was completed in education settings by Years 4, 6, 8 and 10. The questions were developed in consultation with Public Health, teaching staff and pupils in Barnsley. The aim of the survey is to create a large-scale public health dataset about children and young people living/learning in Barnsley, which can be used to help settings understand the health and wellbeing of their pupils and develop bespoke policy and curriculums according to need. The survey data can inform service commissioning, interventions and strategic planning to improve health outcomes for children, young people and families in Barnsley. A dedicated power BI dashboard has been produced which includes all survey findings.

View the service dashboard.

R;pple browser extension

Following changes to KCSiE for tracking and monitoring online activity and the recent Mental Health week in May, we’d point schools to this free resource from R;pple. Aiming to reduce suicide rates through prevention, R;pple provides an interception when an individual searches for harmful content relating to self-harm or suicide online and encourages them to seek mental health support from a range of charities and services, tailored to suit them (helpline, text service, webchat, self-help app, pocket resources). The browser extension does not track online activity and is free to use for schools, colleges, parents / carers and individuals

Young people's substance misuse service offer

The Young People’s Substance Misuse Service (YPSMS) is a voluntary, free and confidential specialist drug and alcohol service for young people up to the age of 18 in Barnsley who area affected by their own, or someone else's substance use. The service is non-judgemental and aims to help young people make the changes they want to make now or in the future. Talking openly and honestly can be difficult and support is offered in safe environments. We offer a range of therapeutic interventions to reduce or prevent harm associated with drug and alcohol use. The service also offers sexual health interventions, C-card registration and distribution, chlamydia screening, Blood Borne Virus screening, access to vaccination and smoking cessation advice. It provides young people and professionals with support for relationships, finances, emotional health and wellbeing, peers, exploitation, physical health, family support, education, training & employment. Provision is offered to parents, carers and professionals, including advice and support to those supporting young people, who may not yet be ready to access the service themselves. We also work with other professionals and community groups to offer targeted group sessions, training, and outreach provisions with identified groups.

In Barnsley, we have to LADO's; Ruth Holmes and Sian Christian, who can be contacted by emailing lado@barnsley.gov.uk and asking for a call-back.

View the 'one minute' guide.

Keeping children safe in education

The Department for Education (DfE) has published updated statutory guidance on safeguarding for schools and colleges in England. Keeping children safe in education 2023 will replace the 2022 version of the guidance from 01 September 2023. NSPCC Learning has published a CASPAR briefing summarising updates to the guidance.

Keeping children safe in education 2023.

Children missing from school

Alliance for Youth Justice has published a podcast exploring how society perceives children affected by serious violence, how and why this perception is shaped, and whether this perception is accurate. It highlights how the systems designed to support and safeguard children can be reformed to tackle serious violence effectively.

Listen to the podcast on harmful children or social harm.

Children's social care

The House of Lords Public Services Committee has released a report on the government's plans to reform children's social care in England – Stable homes, built on love. Recommendations include: The Department for Education (DfE). Should look again at how to ensure advocacy services can be fully independent; the government should examine which elements of Family Help could be rolled out nationally and provide funding; both informal and formal kinship carers across England should be consistently provided with sufficient financial support; and the DfE should set regional and national targets for foster carer recruitment and retention.

Read the response to the children's social care implementation strategy.

Free YGAM Training available

As the recently published guidance on filtering and monitoring includes a section on gambling, The Barnsley Safeguarding Children Partnership recommend this fully funded training by YGAM. Accredited by City and Guilds and fully online, you also get access to over 1,000 complimentary resources on completion.

Book your place on the YGAM Training available

Edition 4: March 2023

A message from David Radford, our new BSCP Independent

Dear colleagues,

I am proud to have been recently appointed as Independent Chair and Scrutineer for Barnsley Safeguarding Children Partnership (BSCP).

Last year I was lucky enough to work alongside the Children’s Social Care Quality Assurance Team and saw, across all agencies, the commitment to improving children’s lives and the determination to work together to make a difference. I experienced the frankness, kindness and big heartedness that characterises this special part of the world. And I thought, ‘I want to be a part of that and play a part’. I know this work can be hard - I am a social worker by profession and have worked in Children’s Safeguarding for 40 years, at the front line and in senior management in statutory and voluntary sectors.

I have seen amazing work that successfully supports families and gives children a voice in making their lives happier and rewarding. I have experienced what can be achieved through creative and productive working relationships. But I’m also aware of the many factors that can cloud individuals and organisations thinking and actions. Effective Working Together across agencies that have different core purposes, skills and expertise, but a shared aim, is an essential ingredient of successful Safeguarding – we all know it, but it remains a significant challenge to get right consistently. Current statutory guidance places a responsibility on Barnsley MBC, South Yorkshire Police and NHS South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board, as the Statutory Safeguarding Partners, to enlist the cooperation of all Relevant Agencies to work together under the umbrella of the BSCP.

The BSCP is here to further learning and improvement in effective inter agency working through:

• Providing up to date policies and practice guidance that enables these to be translated into effective action• Ensuring we have a good understanding of how well we are doing across agencies, promoting children’s wellbeing so that they can remain in their families and communities safely implementing local and national learning including from serious child safeguarding incidents and promoting good practice from local and national activity• Ensuring organisations and agencies challenge appropriately and hold one another to account effectively

I’ve been involved in many Partnerships over 30 years and have seen how effectiveness and expectations have increased. In all agencies there are increasing pressures from workloads, demand, recruitment challenges and the increasing complexity of work. The Safeguarding Children Partnership has an important role to play in these developments, as the promotion of the principles of good safeguarding practice becomes even more vital.

My role is to facilitate the work of the Safeguarding Partners and the effectiveness of the Partnership through chairing key meetings, and providing evidence, through scrutiny activity, to build our understanding of how well Barnsley meets its statutory responsibilities and how we can continue to improve. I hope to meet many of you and welcome your views to aid my understanding of the experience of children and their families. I hope that the BSCP will ensure it remains of relevance to your work. If you don’t feel it does or if you have views or ideas and suggestions about how we can make the BSCP most effective please contact me through davidradford1@barnsley.gov.uk. I really look forward to working alongside you and supporting you in the work that you do.

Child exploitation Awareness Day 18 March 2023

National Child Exploitation Awareness Day aims to highlight issues surrounding Child Exploitation. The emphasis is in raising public awareness of how to spot the signs of exploitation in local communities and on public transport.National campaigns are being run by the NWG and The Children’s Society. South Yorkshire Police hold their Child Exploitation Campaign launch Friday 17th March at Rotherham United’s New York Stadium.

CSA 2021/22: Trends and Data

The Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse (CSA centre) has published a new report setting out how agencies in England and Wales identified and responded to child sexual abuse in 2021/2022. The report collates data from various agencies including children’s social care, policing and health. Findings include: in 2021/2022, local authority children’s services in England recorded concerns about child sexual abuse in 33,990 assessments of children, a 15% increase on 2020/2021; and police forces in England and Wales recorded 103,055 child sexual abuse offences, the highest-ever level and a rise of 15% on the previous year.Child sexual abuse in 2021/22: trends in official data.

State of the Nation 2022: Children and Young People's wellbeing

The Department for Education (DfE) has published a new State of the Nation report looking at the wellbeing of children and young people in England over the academic year 2021/2022. The report finds that during the 2021/22 academic year, while wellbeing on most measures remained consistent, anxiousness among both primary and secondary-aged pupils appears to have increased and is higher than in 2020/21State of the nation 2022: children and young people’s wellbeing.

Education and Case Reviews

NSPCC Learning has published a new briefing on learning from case reviews for the education sector. The briefing summarises key issues for the education sector highlighted in case reviews and identifies learning to support education professionals with safeguarding children and young people.

Education: Learning from case reviews

Thresholds for intervention

The document which outlines thresholds for intervention by Universal services, Early Help, CIN and Child Protection is currently being updated and it out for consultation. Please email laurahammerton@barnsley.gov.uk for further information.

Child and Adolescent Mental Health

The Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health has published a recording of its webinar on depression and supporting children and young people. The webinar includes talks on: family risk factors and underlying mechanisms; professional football clubs and the wellbeing of young people; and an online parenting intervention trial.

Depression: identifying and supporting children and young people.

Unaccompanied children

The Refugee and Migrant Children’s Consortium (RMCC), including Every Child Protected Against Trafficking UK (ECPAT UK) has published a parliamentary briefing on unsuitable accommodation for unaccompanied children seeking asylum in England. Recommendations include: the government should set up a taskforce involving all local safeguarding partners to find all missing unaccompanied children seeking asylum; commit to an urgent independent inquiry about the use of hotel accommodation; and develop a network of local authority commissioned foster carers who specifically look after unaccompanied children seeking asylum.

Refugee and Migrant children's consortium briefing: the use of Home Office hotels for unaccompanied children seeking.

Charging for non-attendance at BSCP face to face training

As from the 1st April 2023 Barnsley Safeguarding Children Partnership will be reinstating the charging policy for non-attendance at face to face multi-agency safeguarding children training. Where a cancellation is made within 24 hours of the training, consideration will be given to charging the service. This will apply to all delegates who fail to attend on the day, without any prior notice.

The charge is £50.00 and will be made directly to the service.

Edition 3: December 2022

Voice of the child

We want to promote your stories! Many children and young people say that the support and help they’ve received across agencies have had lasting and beneficial impacts on their lives. We want to share those stories. Words on a page can be brought to life through our Comms colleagues for sharing across social media platforms. We have already begun this. Find out more about Ethan's story on X.

ICON

Coping with a crying baby and lack of sleep can be difficult to cope with and more so with cost-of-living pressures during the festive period. Research suggests that some parents and caregivers can lose control when a baby’s crying becomes too much. Some go on to shake a baby, which can lead to death or significant long-term disabilities. ICON aims to prevent abusive head trauma in babies by helping parents understand that crying is normal and supports them to develop ways of managing crying without reaching the stage where they feel like harming the baby. The ICON message is given by Midwives and Health Visitors prior to and after birth. If you work with families with new babies, please ask them how they are doing, remind them of the ICON message, and that support is available.

I - Infant crying is normal and peaks around 6 weeks of age

C - Comforting methods can help soothe a baby and crying may stop

O - It's OK to walk away for a few minutes if crying is becoming too much and the baby is safe

N - Never ever shake a baby

For more information, visit the ICON website.

Independent inquiry into Child Sex Abuse

Final report published October 2022.

Cyberbullying

South West Grid for Learning and UK Safer Internet Centre have designed new anti-bullying resources that focus on online bullying. Resources are aimed at 3- to 11- year-olds and include information on: questions to ask; statements to support children with recognising online bullying; as well as classroom activities.

See ProjectEVOLVE – new online bullying resources available

Helping babies sleep safe this winter

Winter can be difficult for families, having to make difficult choices. They might be anxious about the costs of keeping their home and baby warm. The recommended room temperature for babies is 16-20 degrees, which can be hard to maintain in colder months. It can be tempting to wrap a baby up to keep them warm, however we know that overheating a baby increases the chances of SIDS (also known as cot death) and research shows babies are better to be cooler than too hot.

That’s why our Children and Young People Public Health colleagues are working with Communications and Marketing to share information from Lullaby Trust around safer sleeping for babies during winter months. The Lullaby Trust raises awareness of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), provides expert advice on safer sleep for babies and offers emotional support for bereaved families. The short campaign also includes guidance on safer sleep over the festive season, when schedules change and might include staying over at a different house or having a few drinks.

Please share this with people you know, who might benefit from these useful tips.

Children in care

The Together Trust has launched a survey to establish what care looks and feels like to 16- and 17-year-olds living in England. The trust would like to hear from this age group to help influence government policy around provision of care.

See the survey: Teenagers across England ask 'What does care mean to you'.

Chilypep open up directory

Access the chilypep directory

Multi-Agency Escalation Policy

Are you aware of how to escalate a professional disagreement in relation to a child safeguarding concern in Barnsley? Did you know we have an escalation policy for these instances? Use the online escalation form once you have first attempted to resolve the matter at Stage 1 through your line manager.

Safeguarding adults newsletters

June 2024

BSAB launches new strategic plan

We've produced a new strategic plan to outline what we aim to achieve in the coming year and how this will help keep adults safe.

If you'd like any more details about the work of the board or our strategic plan, please contact catherine@barnsley.gov.uk

Second national SAR review now available

The review now published Analysis of Safeguarding Adult Reviews: April 2019 to March 2023 (executive summary) Local Government Association evaluated 652 SARs for wider data about types of abuse etc and completed detailed analysis of 229 SARs to produce a summary of:

who experienced abuse
what type of abuse
good practice identified
areas for improvement
recommendations for SABs

Good practice identified:

risk assessment and management (in 31 per cent of cases)
applying the principles of Making Safeguarding Personal (29 per cent)
continuity/perseverance and attention to health needs when working with adults who are self-neglecting (22% of cases)
use of the mental capacity act (11%)
think family approaches (8 %)
use of advocacy (7%)
legal literacy (6%)
understanding of personal history (4%)
work with unpaid carers (4%)
hospital discharge (4%)
very occasional positive mention was made of recording (3%), transition planning (3 per cent), use of professional curiosity (35) and attention to protected characteristics (1%)

Practice shortcomings identified:

poor risk assessment/risk management (82%)
shortcomings in mental capacity assessment (58%)
failure to recognise abuse or neglect (56%).
shortcomings in making safeguarding personal (50%)
absence of professional curiosity (44%)
lack of attention to people’s care and support needs (43%) their mental health needs (41%)and attention to people’s care and support needs (43 per cent) and physical health (37%)
an absence of professional curiosity (44%)
absence of legal literacy (40%)
superficial acceptance of individuals’ apparent reluctance to engage (38%)
absence of a ‘think family’ approach (37%).
a lack of perseverance (21%)
poor access to advocacy (21%)
lack of attention to substance use (20%)
poor transition planning (15%)
poor attention to protected characteristics (12%)
absence of relationship-based practice (10%)

Barnsley Safeguarding Adult's Board will be assessing our local performance to evaluate what areas we may need to develop to support workers and volunteers to feel confident in all areas of safeguarding.

We regularly run learning from SARs event to bring this data to life. Find out more about training.

South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Safer South Yorkshire Week - 1 to 5 July 2024

BSAB are pleased to support this event to increase the knowledge of staff and volunteers visiting people in their own homes. We have complete two reviews into the deaths of adults in house fires and are keen to reduce the risk of further deaths.

We're offering free virtual fire safety awareness sessions to partners existing and new, alongside our referral training. This training is aimed at any public facing partners/charities/organisations that may want to refer their service users to the fire service for a home fire safety visit. To book on a session please email safe&well@syfire.gov.uk.

Resources available

We have the following available for workers/volunteers and to leave in public spaces - eg libraries, community spaces etc.

Workers/volunteers

Hoarding Z card - showing clutter scales for workers visiting adults in their own homes.

For the public

Safeguarding book marks with QR codes.

Leaflets with QR code.

For more information about the resources visit our Information and support for workers and volunteers webpage.

Leaflets and posters

If you'd like resources, please contact the safeguardingadultsservice@barnsley.gov.uk.

April 2024

Updated policies/guidance available

People in Positions of Trust policy has been updated.

Organisational abuse policy has been updated.

Self-Neglect and/or Hoarding policy has been updated with more tools to accurately assess the risks linked to self-neglect

Mental Capacity Act Toolkit – Nationally, Safeguarding Adults Reviews reference the lack of appropriate mental capacity assessments. To help workers we have produced a toolkit.

We'd welcome your feedback - catherine@barnsley.gov.uk.

Please share these links widely and if training is needed please visit our Safeguarding adults training page.

Hoarding – a personal story

We're incredibly grateful that Diane has given us permission to include her experience in the newsletter.

Too much stuff,
Does your nut in,
You can’t move around the house,
Squeeze through the boxes,
Scramble over bags,
You play hunt the sock, you haven’t seen for ages,
To try and make a match.
You feel quite embarrassed, to have visitors look around,
Inside it’s a dump.
A burglar would be in danger, of having an accident,
There’s nothing worth of value, even the tele doesn’t work,
It’s covered with thick dust and spiders.
Bed time is a nightmare, the bed is hidden under junk,
It’s hard to find somewhere to sleep,
What started off as a collection, ended up as a mad obsession.
It’s no joke when you’re stuck in a rut,
all it would take is a lit-up fag, to ignite a fire.
The exits have all been blocked, the fire alarm doesn’t work,
If you screamed, no one would hear you,
You’d need a miracle to get out,
You wouldn’t think it was a problem, buying to excess,
When your home is invaded, by piled up crap,
Stuff you thought you needed,
It’s just a vicious circle, trying to D. Clutter,
The emotional pain can leave you depressed,
You need to admit you’ve got a problem, not to be in denial,
Before you can get help, you feel overwhelmed,
It’s hard to know where to start, or where to get support,
You’re not on your own, there’s thousands of us out there,
But once you start to make progress, and just take one step at a time,
There’s light at the end of the tunnel, it’s not going to be easy.
It’s going to be tough, but going to the D ‘Clutter Club,
You can meet people like yourself,
Who don’t pre-judge you,
You can pat yourself on your back, for making an enormous effort,
Just never give up trying

Diane (member of the D ’Clutter Group)

If you're working with someone struggling with hoarding please share details of the D'Clutter Group which meets monthly at the Lightbox.

Promoting annual health checks for adults with learning disabilities

Adults and children have a right to an annual health check via their GP, these are crucial to identify health conditions at an early stage. South West Yorkshire Partnership Trust have produced four helpful films to explain what they are and why we should encourage adults to attend.

MECC link - simple signposting to better health and wellbeing

Find helpful resource to support adults to stay well.

24-hour support for mental health

Find text support for people struggling with mental ill health – share the link.

February 2024

Death of a safeguarding adults forum by experience (SAFE) member

We're sad to share news of the unexpected death of George Orr who died in December 2023, aged 70. George had been an active campaigner for adults with learning disabilities for over 10 years and he was one of the first members of the SAFE group. We will miss his enthusiasm and questions and we send our condolences to all his family and friends.

Joint Safeguarding Adult Review with Wakefield

We have completed a joint, non-statutory review, with Wakefield Safeguarding Adults Board. The family have requested that we do not publish the full report, however members of BSAB and the Safeguarding Adults Review subgroup will receive a copy of the full report.

Claire died aged 40 at home, she had struggled with alcohol use for many years, and she was resistant to involvement of services which led to self-neglect. Her access to alcohol services was complicated by her Wakefield address and a Barnsley GP and the lack of robust information sharing across the boundaries by health services.

Barnsley and Wakefield safeguarding boards will make sure that the agreed recommendations result in changes; locally our commissioning colleagues have started work to make sure that adults can access support irrespective of location of their GP or postal address.

The main recommendations are:

Commissioners of drug and alcohol services in South and West Yorkshire will review contracts to maximise access to services for people who live on "boundaries".
Barnsley and Wakefield hospitals to flag complex patients and set up an information sharing system.
Barnsley and Wakefield Safeguarding Boards to ask the Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conferences, supporting victims of domestic abuse, to improve their information sharing systems across geographical boundaries.
Wakefield Safeguarding Board to support production of a multi-agency risk assessment tool and audit its impact.
Workers will receive training and resources to support them to deliver person centred responses, when working with adults with complex lives.
All organisations to evaluate the accessibility of their records to all relevant staff within their own organisation.

New and updated policies online

Self-Neglect and/or Hoarding policy, flow chart and summary guidance:

We've reflected the learning from local and national safeguarding adults’ reviews in our latest policy. It includes tools to assess the risks of self-neglect more effectively and to explore the challenge of assessing executive functioning (being able to do what you say you will do). Our local training will include the changes and we would encourage you to share the link to the resources widely and to attend the training, if you've not recently completed it.

Professional curiosity guidance

We have developed guidance to support and encourage workers and volunteers to be curious, especially when things do not "feel right"

Lack of professional curiosity and tenacity regularly feature in both adults and children’s reviews. We hope this resource will empower workers to be curious and question.

Mental capacity toolkit

We thank colleagues at the Integrated Care Board for their support in identifying and amending this helpful document, which will assist all workers to identify when capacity is in question and how to complete assessments.

View the mental capacity act toolkit.

Hoarding Z cards

We've produced a hoarding resource, which are the size of a credit card, which open out to show the hoarding clutter ratings to support staff accurately identify the level of hoarding risk in the adult’s home. If you'd like to circulate these to staff or volunteers please contact the Safeguarding Adults Service, detailing which organisation you represent, what contact you have with adults in their own homes and how many of the cards you would like. Email safeguardingadultsservice@barnsley.gov.uk.

Safeguarding Awareness Week 2023 Evaluation

We'd like to thank all organisations who participated in SAW23. Our impacts are shown below

What we did - We produced a comprehensive social media plan across our Barnsley Council and Healthy Barnsley Facebook pages, sharing key safeguarding advice and promoting our events, with a focus on our Barnsley Market takeover.
How we made a difference - Our social media campaign generated 3,502 social media engagements, including 96 shares and 219 link clicks. This is up on last year’s total and helped us achieve our targets around social media.
What we did - To help us share key children’s safeguarding messages, we produced a daily social media plan for our new Family Hubs Facebook page.
How we made a difference - These messages generated 133 social media engagements, including 15 link clicks, helping us share key advice with a targeted audience of families and parents.
What we did - As part of our Barnsley Market takeover, we promoted our Housing Options team’s drop-in to donate items we can share with homeless charities in Barnsley to support those sleeping rough this winter.
How we made a difference - These social media messages proved particularly popular, with a reach of 29,107 and 1,674 engagements. This was a great way to encourage more people to come down and learn more about the support that’s available locally.
What we did - As part of our commitment to delivering this year’s campaign in partnership, we created a social media timeline, including our plans across Barnsley Council’s channels and messages from our partners.
How we made a difference - This proved a great way to capture what we had planned across Barnsley, helping us make sure the right messages were going out through the right channels.
It also provided an easy way for partner organisations to get involved by sharing relevant messages with their audiences.
What we did - To promote our plans for the week, we produced a joint media release, bringing together key events and messages from spokespeople in Adults and Children’s.
How we made a difference - Our media release generated 60 views, being read by 50 unique visitors. We featured the release as part of our top stories webpage.
What we did - We drove traffic across all our channels to our Safeguarding Awareness Week webpage, which included details about events for the public and professionals as well as updated safeguarding materials.
How we made a difference - Throughout November, our Safeguarding Awareness Week webpage was viewed 587 times, with 289 unique visitors.
On top of this, we saw:
387 views for our safeguarding children webpage, with 270 unique visitors.
612 views for our safeguarding adults webpage, with 371 unique visitors.
What we did - We promoted the wide range of events available for professionals through regular internal messages on the intranet and in our bulletins in the run-up to SAW.
How we made a difference - Articles in our Let’s Talk and schools bulletins generated 16 link clicks to our Safeguarding Awareness Week webpage. Our Online Harms conference was also promoted regularly in the school bulletin to encourage professionals working with children to take part.
Our intranet articles generated 97 views, with our message promoting our Online Harms Conference proving particularly popular.
What we did - We did a dedicated edition of our Safeguarding Adults newsletter around what we have planned, spotlighting events for professionals to get involved with.
How we made a difference - The open rate for this bulletin was 74%, making it an effective way of reaching our professional audience. The bulletin generated 298 link clicks, further showing its value in promoting events in the run-up.
What we did - We designed a range of digital screen adverts for Safeguarding Awareness Week, driving traffic to our events webpage.
How we made a difference - These were displayed in our council buildings, including Westgate and the Town Hall, as well as Barnsley Markets, helping us increase visibility for our Market takeover.
What we did - We designed a range of digital and printed materials to promote our Safeguarding Awareness Week plans, using our established safeguarding branding.
How we made a difference - We ran intranet and barnsley.gov.uk banners in the run-up to Safeguarding Awareness Week to drive traffic to our events webpage. We also created a Teams background to support our teams and designed a poster template for promoting specific events.

Planning for SAW 24 will commence late spring, if you would like to contribute to the planning process, please contact Cath Erine (Board manager) - catherine@barnsley.gov.uk.

Mental health support for young people (under 25)

Chilypep have produced a comprehensive resource mapping all the support services locally and nationally for young people.

Please share the link with relevant workers and any young adults you work with - Open up Directory - Chilypep.

December 2023

Safeguarding Awareness Week 20 to 24 November

Thanks to all the organisations who contributed to the week of events. A full evaluation will be shared in our next newsletter. Highlights include:

We received more calls for support to Adult Social Care during the week than the same week in 2022.
Several adults were referred to services or received support /advice whilst in the markets.
A robust multi-agency media campaign was delivered.
Over 300 safeguarding bookmarks were shared with members of the public.
The first Yorkshire and Humber learning from safeguarding adults’ reviews was attended by 95 delegates, with very positive evaluations
Thanks to Rotherham for hosting this years SY launch event exploring on-line harm for both adults and children.

DCI Ben Wood is leaving Barnsley

Ben is moving onto another area of policing; we extend our best wishes to him and look forward to building on the joint work established by Ben. Details of his replacement will be included in the next edition.

New safeguarding resources

We have two new resources – a leaflet and bookmark with QR codes that link to our webpage:

If you'd like copies for local use please contact safeguardingadultsservice@barnsley.gov.uk, you'll need to collect from either Gateway or Westgate Plaza.

Legal powers to support work with dependent drinkers

Mike Ward and colleagues from Alcohol Change have produced an excellent resource to support safeguarding work with dependent drinkers.

Download the 'Legal powers to support work with dependent drinkers' document.

New service – suicide prevention

PAPYRUS Prevention of Young Suicide PAPYRUS Prevention of Young Suicide is the UK charity dedicated to the prevention of suicide and the promotion of positive mental health and emotional wellbeing in young people. PAPYRUS exists to reduce the number of young people who take their own lives, by shattering the stigma surrounding suicide and equipping young people and their communities with the skills to recognise and respond to emotional distress. PAPYRUS believes that no young person should have to struggle alone with thoughts of suicide. PAPYRUS have been awarded funding from the Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council, to deliver training for those working or living in the Barnsley locality.

The aim of the training offer is to provide suicide prevention knowledge and skills to the workforce to intervene early and equip them with the skills and knowledge to have supportive conversations around Suicide Prevention for all ages. It aims to encourage everyone to work together to support the communities of Barnsley and each other, to prevent loss of life to suicide.

There are three course available:

Barnsley Public Health Service have commissioned these training courses and are free to attend as long as you live or work in Barnsley. Book your place by visiting the Papyrus website.

Care leavers – can you help deliver a magical Christmas day for these young adults

If you or your organisation are able to offer donations to buy presents, you can via our crowd funder.

Volunteers are needed to get involved with ribbons and bows, at the "wrapathon", which will be held this year at Barnsley College on the 18,19 and 20 December - please contact us if you'd like to help. If anyone is part of a knitting, floristry or craft group who might like to make gifts or table decorations -please get in touch by emailing angela.fawcett@nhs.net.

Request for your views – Care providers experience of working with Adult Social Care

We're very keen to get feedback from you our delivery partners in adult social care regarding your experience of working with us and supporting people in our borough.

The survey is now closed but if you want to give feedback please contact us at ascqualityassurance@barnsley.gov.uk.

September 2023

Safeguarding Awareness Week – 20 to 24 November 2023

Providing information and empowering the public to identify and report concerns about themselves, family and friends is a major theme for this year. We're working with Safeguarding Children’s colleagues to highlight the risks of online harm and abuse – romance, financial and other scams, sexual exploitation and the need to protect personal information.

To do this we have the support of Barnsley markets who are providing stalls to organisations who would like to share messages with the public.

If your organisation would like to be involved in the markets during the week, please contact Cath as soon as possible at catherine@barnsley.gov.uk.

A strong media campaign is being organised by all partners. Watch out for social media, web and other publications. If your organisation can be part of this and you have not yet been involved, please do contact us as soon as possible.

We'll have a dedicated Safeguarding Awareness Week webpage that will list details of all activities for both the public and workers or volunteers – just search for Safeguarding Awareness Week 2023. We'll circulate the link when available.

Berneslai Homes – hardship fund

If you're working with an adult or family who live in a Berneslai Homes property and are struggling with bills or food, please let them know about the hardship fund.

Berneslai Homes can offer support with gas and electricity bills with pre-payment vouchers, or help with food and toiletries. In some cases, help can be given to tenants with energy arrears that are below £750 via a one-off payment.

What can households get?

The fund has a £750 cap per household within 12 months, to be used on fuel costs, food or both.
A Berneslai Homes officer completes a full application and income and expenditure form to assess whether a tenant is eligible for the fund.
The application process will look at income, employment status, essential spend, household spend, shopping and travel expenses.
Following a successful application, the tenant can access the fund again after three months, up to the maximum limit of £750 per household within 12 months.

How do people apply?

Phone: (01226) 774270
Email: tenantsupportservice@berneslaihomes.co.uk
On the Berneslai Homes website

Free online training – trauma informed practice

This is a one-off, three-hour online training course looking at how we can incorporate a trauma informed approach to working by considering adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and trauma. It explores the benefits of becoming a trauma informed organisation and incorporating a trauma informed approach to your work.

A trauma informed approach is about asking ‘What has happened to you?’ rather than ‘What’s wrong with you?’ and ‘What are you having to do to survive?’. It's moving from ‘What is your problem?’ to ‘What is your story?’ and ‘What are your strengths?’

The course will enable you to:

Understand that adverse childhood experiences/trauma are widespread.
Recognise and understand the impact of trauma.
Recognise the importance of enabling clients who have been affected by trauma, to recognise their own strengths, skills and resources, promoting natural recovery from trauma.
Recognise and consider how to address the needs of staff/colleagues exposed to traumatic events or to the details of trauma experienced by others.

The course is aimed at professionals who work or volunteer in a role that supports people who may have been affected by trauma and will be delivered over Zoom.

Book your place online.

Mental capacity resources from 39 Essex Street

If you engage in capacity assessments and want to stay updated on case law, please sign up for emails from 39 Essex Street. See an example update.

Learn more about Safer Communities and the support they can offer to adults in Barnsley

We're responsible for delivering a range of services including homelessness and housing options, housing and environmental crime and blight. We're also the strategic leads for agendas including serious and organised crime, prevent, prepare and protect, migration and asylum and violence reduction.

The housing and community safety team consists of:

wardens
proactive and reactive housing officers across private sector properties
case management officers, who cover all tenure of properties in high-risk cases
victim and witness officers
empty homes officers
community safety and community enforcement.

Our aim is to build strong and resilient communities through a combination of enforcement and support.

Our approach values early help and prevention, strengthening and utilising community assets, and prioritising the most vulnerable. This is achieved through strong partnerships and a proactive problem-solving place-based approach.

We respond to requests for service, investigate complaints and carry out inspections and where necessary, take informal and formal action including the serving of statutory notices.

What issues or problems do we work with?

Support for Gypsies and Travellers.
Support for landlords and tenants – disrepair, illegal evictions, waste and recycling issues.
Community safety, domestic violence, victim and witness support.
Support for self-neglect and hoarding – the customer led D’Clutter group shapes our work.
Graffiti removal, fly-tipping, anti-social behaviour and neighbour disputes.
Area councils and community engagement, volunteering and relationship with the third sector and private sector.

Which organisations do we work with?

We have a multi-agency approach which includes South Yorkshire Police, South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue and Berneslai Homes, and our officers are based within local partnership team police stations. We also work closely with adult social care, health colleagues and others to support people struggling with self-neglect and hoarding.

How can I refer to the service?

Email safer@barnsley.gov.uk. Emails will be triaged, assessed and allocated for investigation.

Proactive housing officers work within the area council teams and can be contacted directly.

Successful challenge event held

We collaborated with partners to review how safeguarding adults’ reviews into the deaths of four adults from self-neglect and/or hoarding had informed/changed practice.

Positives identified:

More public information about how to get help for hoarding.
Strong customer run D’Clutter group – a self-help group for hoarding.
Robust joint working between organisations.
Management oversight of cases that remain 'high risk'.
Additional resources in some organisations.

We found areas for improvement. These themes are repeated in many other parts of the country.

Help people use the Mental Capacity Act and distinguish between people’s ability to tell you what they are going to do compared with what they are able to do.
Make sure workers know about all the resources available to them/adults they're supporting.

We'll be producing an action plan to evidence progress and this will be monitored by the Safeguarding Adults Review subgroup