Because of the law, the Keeping Bristol Safe Partnership is responsible for; keeping children safe, and making sure they are happy and healthy. The Working Together to Safeguard Children are the rules that government have set so that people who are working with children know what they must do to keep them as safe as possible. The main bit of the law says that professionals need to talk to each other and work together when they are worried about a child. That means that teachers need to talk to social workers, and doctors and nurses need to talk to social workers, and social workers need to talk to health visitors- everyone has to talk to each other and pass on any information when they are worried about a child. This is because people used to have lots of different information that they didn’t share, but that information was like a puzzle and all the pieces are needed to understand what is going on in a child’s life. This job was done by the Bristol Safeguarding Children Board before Keeping Bristol Safe Partnership was made.
A law that people working with adults need to follow is the The Care Act 2014. This protects adults who might be less able to keep themselves safe, like elderly, or adults with additional needs. The Keeping Bristol Safe Partnership checks that adults are being looked after properly and that the law of the Care Act 2014 is being followed. This used to be checked by the Bristol Safeguarding Adults Board, but is now the job of the Keeping Bristol Safe Partnership.
The police are also part of the Keeping Bristol Safe Partnership and the law they have to follow is the Crime and Disorder Act 1998. There are a lot of different groups involved in helping to make Bristol safer and they all have to follow the law too. The Keeping Bristol Safe Partnership is also responsible for making sure that people who work in the community to make it safe, including the police, are doing their job properly and that everyone is doing the best they can. This was done by the Safer Bristol Community Safety Partnership before.
After the government brought out new laws written in the Children and Social Work Act 2017 and Working Together, they felt it was better for all three of the old groups to join together because they were all talking about the same problems anyway. So, in June 2019 the Keeping Bristol Safe Partnership was made, by joining the Bristol Safeguarding Children Board, the Bristol Safeguarding Adult Board, and the Bristol Community Safety Partnership, becoming one big group in September 2019.
The KBSP Strategic Plan 2023 -2026 explains the goals the KBSP are working towards.
The KBSP Constitution and Terms of Reference Document explains what the KBSP has to do. This document is under review (December 2024) and will be republished in early 2025.
