In June 2020, Barnardo’s was commissioned by the Department for Education to coordinate a voluntary sector response to supporting children and young people who had ‘slipped from view’ due to school, closures, lockdown and whom were likely to be adversely impacted by the impact on services and wider community networks due to COVID-19.
Barnardo’s is hosting a national webinar, on Thursday 29th April, to share the evaluation findings and the learning of this collaborative approach. Events will focus on what the sector tried to do: what worked and what didn’t; and most importantly what children, their families, schools and other agencies have told us they need next. These events will be an opportunity to hear from voluntary sector partners and think collaboratively about how to continue building links, integrate learning and further develop future practice.
You can resister your attendance through Eventbrite using the following link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/south-west-regional-event-learning-from-a-pandemic-see-hear-respond-tickets-147778522539
Pressures of the pandemic have shone light on inconsistent and concerning approaches to DNACPR decision. CQC (Care Quality Commission) have now published the final report regarding DNACPR, which includes 11 recommendations themed under three main headings:
• Information, training and support
• A consistent national approach to advance care planning
• Improved oversight and assurance
This link will provide full details, including a summary and access to the full report: https://www.cqc.org.uk/news/releases/improved-oversight-reform-needed-pressures-pandemic-shine-light-inconsistent
This guidance covers keeping adults in care homes safe from abuse and neglect. It includes potential indicators of abuse and neglect by individuals or organisations, and covers the safeguarding process from when a concern is first identified through to Section 42 safeguarding enquiries. There are recommendations and policy and training, and care home culture, to improve care home staff awareness of safeguarding and ensure people can report concerns when needed.
Safeguarding adults in care homes (nice.org.uk)
Recent Protests
Recent protest activity in the City has gained much media coverage, particularly relating to the serious disorder that developed outside Bridewell police station on March 21st. Numerous protests have been held against the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill in the weeks since and policing operations have been delivered to facilitate people’s right to protest, with the aim of achieving a balance between protecting the rights of others and mitigating the disruption that can be caused to the wider community.
Throughout these protests the initial policing approach has been to use Neighbourhood officers to engage with protesters, as over recent years, this has proven to be vital in safely and effectively facilitating protests and is an approach Avon and Somerset Constabulary are committed to.
Planning for the events is done in partnership with a team at Bristol City Council- and other partners - so that there’s shared understanding of potential impacts and effective communication across businesses and communities.
For many of the recent protests, additional police resources have been available as a contingency, but have been deployed on several occasions, to manage specific issues, particularly to counter the risk of disorder, or impacts on the wider community that are considered to be excessive (such as blocking key routes into the City). Local communication networks are used to raise awareness of protest events and their likely impacts, particularly through the City Centre and Broadmead Business Improvement Districts. This has helped to mitigate the impacts which protests have on the City, while maintaining support for the public’s right to protest.
Easing out of COVID restrictions
The re-opening of the retail and hospitality sectors from Monday 12th April and progress towards the return of ‘normality’ for the City, has been long anticipated by many. The relaxation of restrictions does however bring challenges - particularly from a policing perspective- as people gather in public spaces to socialize, while there continues to be ongoing requirements for social distancing and restricted access to many businesses. The relaxation of restrictions coincides with the onset of warmer weather and lighter evenings. There have been problems in some locations around the City, where people have gathered in large numbers and engaged in anti-social behaviour and criminality. Partnership responses have been developed to better manage these locations, particularly through seeking to occupy the space in ways that encourage more responsible behaviour. It’s anticipated that the challenges and incidents arising from large gatherings in such spaces will continue through to the summer, but developing issues are being monitored through weekly partnership meetings. These meetings allow quick responses to be implemented to keep people safe.
Since the start of the year, the KBSP Business Unit has been doing lots of work around preventing homelessness. A working group – chaired by Paul Sylvester (Head of Housing Options, Bristol City Council) and Ann James (Director, Children and Families, Bristol City Council) - has been established to focus on tackling this issue. So far there’s been four meetings – one each month - and during these meetings the group has achieved the following:
• Terms of reference, which explain the purpose of the group, have been agreed
• Youth Housing Pathway Contextual Safeguarding Proposal was discussed
• Project post for this work was proposed and agreed
• Case studies of children were presented to the group
• Joint protocol papers have been developed and discussed
Bristol City Council’s Safer Communities Team have submitted their Channel Annual Assurance Statement to the Home Office. Channel is an early intervention multi-agency process designed to safeguard vulnerable people from being drawn into violent extremism or terrorist behaviour.
The Assurance Statement shows Bristol City Council’s levels of compliance against areas of Channel delivery set out in the Channel Statutory Guidance 2020. This has started a number of practice improvements around Bristol City Council’s Channel process and in turn will improve outcomes for those individuals the Safer Communities team are supporting to reduce their vulnerabilities to radicalisation. The Safer Communities Team in Bristol are currently supporting three individuals through the Channel process.
The Bristol City Council has reviewed and updated the Modern Slavery information on its webpage. We invite members of the partnership and the general public to explore this information using the following link: Modern slavery and exploitation information for professionals - bristol.gov.uk
The Safer Streets One project has now completed delivery of security strengthening, CCTV, fencing, alley gating and planting in the Manor Farm area of Bristol. This brings some much-needed physical intervention to a community that has suffered from very high levels of theft over the past few years. Delivery of this has been extremely challenging given the pandemic and short-timescale so well done to the Project Manager (David Price) for such great work.
Safer Streets 2 has been launched by the Home Office. The team has been awarded preferred bidder status by the OPCC (Office of Police Crime Commissioner) meaning they’re highly likely to get the £400k grant on offer. This will be spent on a programme of works to tackle theft in the Portland and Brunswick Square areas of Bristol. This will include; CCTV, secure bicycle storage, street wardens, security strengthening works. The team will find out in May if they’ve been successful in securing this funding.
Safer Streets 3 is a newly announced funding opportunity aimed at making streets safer for women. There is little information at the moment, but suggestions are that this will be funding for physical works as well as education programmes. The team are in the early stages of pulling a working group together to shape up a bid for when opportunities are announced.
The Street Intervention Service have spent the last couple of weeks focusing on the central areas of Bristol to provide a planned response to the opening of non-essential shops. This seems to have been successful and the team are now looking at some of the other hotspots around the City such as East St, Bedminster. As always, the team is looking to assess individuals needs in terms of Housing, Health, Behaviour, Substances and Money prior to putting interventions in place to address those needs.
Section 11
The Section 11 audit is a statutory requirement of the KBSP. This requires that the KBSP conduct an area wide audit, to ensure the safeguarding of children is effective and - where necessary – improved. These annual audits are evidence based and include written submissions and ‘walkabouts’ (site visits) to test safeguarding arrangements locally. Due to Covid-19, the Partnership made a written report, rather than a walkabout, but it’s hoped that when all Covid -19 restrictions have been lifted, we can incorporate walkabouts into the audit again.
Nineteen organisations across the City took part in the latest audit, which went live at the beginning of November and closed in February. This year’s audit focused on:
The audit responses are currently being analysed and an audit report will be prepared for the KBSP Children’s Group meeting in May, it will then be presented to the KBSP Executive. Once the recommendations have been agreed by the Partnership, action plans will be developed. The Partnership want to work with local partners to create a Centre of Excellence, to improve our approach to safeguarding across the City. The Centre of Excellence would assist in the monitoring of plans and share effective practice across the City. To take this work forward, The KBSP Business Unit will set up a partners’ meeting in June 2021. If you would like more information on the Section 11 audit process, please contact olwen.kelly@bristol.gov.uk
Adult Self-Assessment
The KBSP are working in partnership with South Gloucestershire, BANES, North Somerset, and Somerset in developing an Adult Self-Assessment audit process for Safeguarding Adults across the region. Similar to the Children’s Section 11 audit for Safeguarding Children, the Adult Self-Assessment (ASA) will provide evidence to the KBSP that organisations providing services to adults are operating in line with Adult safeguarding procedures and that adults accessing services are involved in shaping and improving services. The ASA will be launched in Autumn so watch this space for further updates. If you want more information on the ASA please contact olwen.kelly@bristol.gov.uk
KBSP hosted a webinar on 26th March looking at the 12 rapid reviews that have taken place in Bristol since the process was introduced in June 2018. The webinar focused on the learning on the following key themes:
The webinar included information about the rapid review process and how it fits into the national Child Safeguarding Practice Review arrangements, as well as demographic information about the Bristol rapid reviews, There was a specific focus on what we have learnt and how the reviews have affected safeguarding practice in the City.
The webinar recording is available to watch on the KBSP website: https://bristolsafeguarding.org/training/webinars/
The KBSP Business Unit is currently going through a period of transition within the training team. For this reason, the full training programme has been put on hold until further notice.
The team is however organising limited sessions on the Working Together course and the Advanced Child Protection Training for Safeguarding Leads & Specialist Practitioners. These are being delivered by a freelance trainer, who’s delivered these courses with the KBSP previously. These courses are limited to those with refreshers outstanding from 2020 and any staff in urgent need of safeguarding training (e.g. a new job role, etc).
If this relates to you, please visit the training page on the KBSP website for more details on how to apply for training.
You can also email the training team at kbsp.training@bristol.gov.uk with your name, job title, organisation and the email address you would like them to contact you through, and they will add you to the KBSP training mailing list for updates and bulletins - Continued updates will be sent to all of those currently on our mailing list regarding further available training.
City-wide qualification: An introduction to advocacy and mentoring skills
Following consultation with agencies around an advocacy service within child protection, it was requested a city-wide advocacy qualification was created for people with lived experience. Working alongside the Community Learning Team, a qualification, named; An introduction to advocacy and mentoring skills, has been created. It is a free 6 week course, funded by WECA (West of England Combined Authority). It includes 6 courses that cover English, maths, IT skills, advocacy and mentoring, safeguarding, lone working, and communication skills.
The second part of the qualification will be a mixture of courses from various agencies. The course is aimed at adults within the City who have lived experience of using services. We already have parents who have experienced child protection processes, and care leavers, signed up for the first cohort who started on 22nd April. For further information, please contact Jennifer.wills@bristol.gov.uk (KBSP), or lucy.fieldhouse@bristol.gov.uk (Community Learning Team).
Experts by Experience: Parent Participation Officers
We’re really excited to welcome two parents who have been recruited to the Child Protection Conference Development Board. They are graduates of the parenting courses run by Families in Focus and will be paid at an hourly rate equivalent to those around the table. They will be partners with the rest of the board, using their lived experience to contribute to the meetings.
Domestic Abuse Forum
Plans are in place to run a city-wide DVA survivor and victim forum. This forum will be a space for consultation, co-production, and conversations to help shape services.
Discussions have also begun around creating a perpetrator forum in Bristol. The purpose of the forum is to create a space in which people who have caused harm, but own their behaviours and have shown insight, are consulted with about how we can reduce harm and prevent perpetration of abuse and violence and what interventions we could implement at a younger age to. This is in line with Bristol being an ACEs and trauma-informed City.
Are you OK? workshop
Videos of the presentations are available on the KBSP website within the Are you Ok? Campaign section.
The Shadow Board have compiled a report from the discussions that took place within the workshop. The final report is with the Executive for discussion. A shortened version of the report will be available on the KBSP website, along with feedback from the Executive.
Shadow Board update
The Shadow Board have drafted a communication strategy. This will be widely available once it has been signed off by the Shadow Board and discussed with the Executive.
The Shadow Board continue to recruit and will be working with Boomsatsuma to create a video to be circulated.
The Shadow Board are organising drop-in sessions regularly for open discussions with young people about topics, including domestic abuse and social politics.
This month we have been sorry to say goodbye to Jacqui Jensen, who after making extremely valuable contributions to the partnership has stepped down from her role as Executive Director: People at Bristol City Council. We are however delighted to announce the appointment of Hugh Evans upon as Interim Director. Stepping into the role of Head of Adult Services is Stephen Beet, who we would like issue a very warm welcome. We would also like to congratulate Ann James on her promotion to the Interim Statutory DCS role and Fiona Tudge to the role of Interim Deputy Director role for Operations at Bristol City Council
At Avon and Somerset police, Andy Bennett left the role of Bristol Police Commander and Mark Runacres has been appointed to this role.
We’d also like to wish Lindsey Macintosh the very best in her role as Clinical Director. Lindsey has made many key contributions to the Keeping Bristol Safe Partnership and we’d like to say a sincere thank you for her hard work, dedication end expertise.
Finally, at the CCG, we would like to congratulate Faye Kamara as the new Head of Safeguarding.
