Contact:
  • Children and Families Services 
  • Address:

    Bath & North East Somerset Social & Housing Services, P. O. Box 3343,Bath.BA1 2ZH

  • E-mail:
    children_family@bathnes.gov.uk 
  • Telephone:
    (01225) 397985 
  • Fax:
    (01225) 396115 
  • Minicom:
    (01225) 477815  
  • Page Updated:
    14/09/2007
  • Author:
    Ted Head 
A to Z Index

Local Safeguarding Children Board

Annual Report and Business Plan 2006/7

Introduction 

This is the Annual Report and Business Plan of Bath and North East Somerset’s Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) which was established in February 2006 and came into operation from 1 April 2006. It details the Annual Report and the Review of the Work Programme of the outgoing Area Child Protection Committee (ACPC) and the first Business Plan and Work Programme of the LSCB.

It has been developed by representatives of the constituent agencies of the out going ACPC and incoming LSCB, and was informed by consultation within the LSCB’s stakeholder forum in December 2005. This Plan is intended for professionals and others who provide services to vulnerable children, young people and their families, whether as a targeted user group or as part of the universal service.

The aim of this report is to be informative about the work of Bath and North East Somerset’s Local Safeguarding Children Board and to make the results of our efforts accountable to safeguarding children professionals, to those who fund and support safeguarding children services and the LSCB, to the Lead Member for Children’s Services, to the Executive Council of Bath and North East Somerset, to our service users, and to the public of Bath and North East Somerset.

The Business Plan sets out:

a) The Mission Statement, aims, objectives and role of the LSCB.

b) The Membership and meeting structure.

c) A review of the 2005/2006 ACPC activity and achievements.

d) The Work Programme for the LSCB 2006/2007.

The Business Plan will be distributed and made available to all key agencies and key stakeholders and is a public document. It is accessible on the Bath and North East Somerset Council Information Service website. The LSCB will audit the distribution, awareness and knowledge of its Business Plan amongst frontline staff, and how it is incorporated into Service Plans of individual agencies.

The final Annual Report and Business Plan of the Area Child Protection Committee made plans for effecting the transition to and establishment of the Local Safeguarding Children Board by 1 April 2006. Work was progressed across all partner organisations, links made with existing and new stakeholders, briefings provided for the Change for Children Steering Group and the Integration Project Board, and the Annual Stakeholders Forum (December 2005) was used to involve all stakeholders, including local parents, children and young people, in discussions about the remit and scope of the work of the LSCB and this first Business Plan and Work Programme. An extra-ordinary meeting of the ACPC was held in January 2006 to review progress with this work, to consider proposals from stakeholders, and to make recommendations to the Council about the LSCB for Bath and North East Somerset. The plans for the establishment of the Local Safeguarding Children Board for Bath and North East Somerset were approved by the Council Executive on 8 February 2006.

The overall aim of the final Annual Report and Business Plan of the Area Child Protection Committee was to ensure that it handed over to the Local Safeguarding Children Board a safeguarding children system that provided a sound basis for the Board to undertake its work. The LSCB will have more influence than the ACPC in the safeguarding of children and a wider remit to safeguard their welfare. Its creation will not be a break with the past but a continuation of inter-agency achievements. The ACPC for Bath and North East Somerset consisted of members with a strong commitment for safeguarding children and to working together, and achieved significant improvements in joint working, the delivery of services to and outcomes for children and families. The strengths of the ACPC have been transferred to, and will provide a sound foundation for, the LSCB.

The LSCB will be the key mechanism for agreeing how the relevant organisations in the Local Authority area will co-operate to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in Bath and North East Somerset, and for ensuring the effectiveness of what they do. The work of the LSCB contributes to the wider goals of improving the wellbeing of all children, with a particular focus on the aspects of the Staying Safe outcome. Within the wider Children’s Trust governance arrangements its role is to ensure the effectiveness of the arrangements made by individual agencies and the wider partnership to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children.

The development of the Business Plan 2006/2007 has been shaped by the Every Child Matters agenda and The Children Act 2004, the revised Working Together to Safeguard Children, the National Service Framework for Children, and inform the compilation of and is central to the Children and Young People’s Plan 2006-2009 for Bath and North East Somerset which was published on 31 March 2006. The Business Plan will have a particular focus upon the Staying Safe outcome and through its contributions to the Children and Young People’s Plan will contribute to the other outcomes – Being Healthy: Enjoying and Achieving: Making a Positive Contribution: and, Achieving Economic Wellbeing.