Somerset LSCB

Somerset Safeguarding Children Partnership

 

The partnership responsible for safeguarding children in Somerset has been redesigned and is now up and running as of 29 September 2019, as part of new arrangements introduced nationally.  The statutory changes mean that Somerset County Council is no longer the single lead for co-ordinating safeguarding arrangements for children, and there is a tripartite responsibility for safeguarding children in the local area.

 

Three organisations – the Somerset County Council, Avon and Somerset Constabulary and Somerset Clinical Commissioning Group – now have joint and equal responsibility to safeguard children and young people, under the name of the Somerset Safeguarding Children Partnership.

 

The new partnership builds on the strong multi-agency working of the Somerset Safeguarding Children Board and secures future arrangements for safeguarding and improving outcomes for children and young people. The Somerset Children’s Trust has merged with the new safeguarding arrangements for children to create efficiencies, and the new multi-agency partnership will to take oversight of the delivery of the Somerset Plan for Children and Young People (2019-2022).

 

The Somerset Safeguarding Children Partnership will work with ‘relevant agencies’, who have safeguarding responsibilities under Section 11 of ‘The Children Act’ (2004), as described in ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’ (2018).