Section 11 2024/25: Topic 1 - Policies, Procedures & Thresholds

What is Section 11?

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 Partnership?

All organisations have a general duty to promote and safeguard children. Wirral Safeguarding Children Partnership (WSCP) is a statutory body that oversees these arrangements and in order to measure the effectiveness of these duties the Partnership 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 and agencies and the independent sector, including NHS England and clinical commissioning groups, NHS Trusts, NHS Foundation Trusts and General Practitioners
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 National Probation Service and Community Rehabilitation Companies35
Governors/Directors of Prisons and Young Offender Institutions (YOIs)
Directors of Secure Training Centres (STCs)
Principals of Secure Colleges
Youth Offending Teams/Services (YOTs)

Completing and Scoring the Self-assessment

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 agencies have completed their audit, a blank Action Plan template can be downloaded from the WSCP website and populated with any areas requiring further improvement. The WSCP will dip sample audits after each topic, and action plans on an annual basis.

PRINTING YOUR AUDIT
To keep a copy of your audit, fill in the questions and press print before you click 'done'. The WSCP keep copies of every audit, you can request a copy of your audit by contacting Kat Ryan.

To find out more about Section 11, follow the link to our website.

Question Title

* 1. Please select your agency from the options below

Autism Together

Care/Children's Home

Catch 22

Children's Centre

Early Help

Family Safety Unit

Health Provider

Housing Provider

Licencing

Local Authority Children's Services

Merseyside Fire and Rescue

Merseyside Police

Nursery/Early Years Setting

Sport, Culture and Leisure

Training Provider

National Probation Service

Voluntary/Faith

Wired

Youth Offending Service

If your organisation is not listed, please use this box *please note that all schools and colleges should complete the Section 175*.

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* 2. Please provide details of the professional completing this audit

Name:

Job Role:

Service/Team:

E-mail Address:

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* 3. Is there a named lead for safeguarding in your organisation?

No named lead for safeguarding

There is a named lead but they are not known/identified to staff in the role

There is a named lead who is known to staff

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* 4. Does your your organisation publish a clear statement of the commitment to safeguard children and young people?

No published statement

A clear statement is published which is visible to all staff and service users

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* 5. Has your organisation published a safeguarding policy which is reviewed annually?

No published safeguarding policy

Safeguarding policy has been published but not reviewed within the last 12 months

Safeguarding policy is Published and has been reviewed within the last 12 months

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* 6. Please upload your current Safeguarding Policy

DOCX, DOC, JPEG, GIF, JPG, PDF, PNG file types only.

Choose File

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* 7. Does your organisation have a clear procedure for sharing information with other professionals, agencies and the WSCP?

Yes

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* 8. Are staff aware of the multi-agency Information Sharing protocol and guidance updated in 2022?

Yes

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* 9. Are all staff aware of safeguarding procedures/policies including WSCP online multi-agency safeguarding procedures and how to access them?

Not confident that all staff are aware of and can access safeguarding procedures

Confident that all staff are aware of and can access safeguarding procedures

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* 10. Do staff understand the thresholds of need and know how to refer concerns into Childrens Services?

Yes

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* 11. Are safeguarding policies/procedures accessible to children, young people and their families?

Safeguarding procedures are not accessible to children, young people and their families.

Safeguarding procedures are accessible (ie don't have to be requested) to children, young people and their families.

Question Title

* 12. If your organisation commissions services are you assured of the services arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people?

No assurance that arrangements are in place

Contracting/terms of use arrangements in place but no or limited reference to safeguarding

Organisation has robust arrangements in place to be assured services have appropriate safeguarding arrangements

Not applicable

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* 13. Do all staff know what to do within the organisation if they have safeguarding concerns about a child/young person?

Organisation is not confident staff know what to do if they have concerns

Organisation is confident that staff know what to do if they have concerns

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* 14. How does your organisation test the use and awareness of policies and procedures amongst staff in your agency?

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* 15. If you have a good practice example or case study in this area, please upload it here. If there is more than one document to attach, please send to Kat Ryan

PDF, DOC, DOCX, PNG, JPG, JPEG, GIF file types only.

Choose File