Safeguarding, learning and development

Children and young people in Plymouth
Are safe to play
And learn
And grow
When everybody works together
To make it so

The multi-agency approach

There are more than 7,000 people in Plymouth who do jobs that have a responsibility towards children: teachers, school meal assistants, nursery nurses, doctors, social housing workers, police officers, childminders, social workers, foster carers, children's services managers, play workers, parenting advisers, family support workers, education welfare officers, youth workers, volunteer advisers, health visitors, paediatricians, probation officers, policy advisers.....the list is huge!

Our aim is for everybody to work together to safeguard children. We are developing ways of working, learning opportunities and formal training to bring people together to share knowledge, experience and best practice.

Working together

Working together is often difficult and complex and requires adaptability and a readiness to keep up to date with the changes.

We encourage a multi-disciplinary approach to safeguarding and child protection. We recognise that different practitioners have different priorities, specialist languages and ways of seeing. A health worker has been trained in medical science and will focus on a child's health needs, a teacher will be concerned to ensure a child is in education and learning, a youth worker will encourage a young person to be independent and fulfilled, whilst a police officer will seek to ensure a child is not the victim of crime, or becoming involved in crime. They will each see the same child from a different perspective.

Ways of seeing

We encourage everybody who works for children to consider how each other work, their priorities and ways of seeing. Every child has many attributes and abilities. No one person can know or meet all the child's needs. To support every child well, we need to share information and work in partnership with parents, colleagues and children to ensure their rights and needs.

The child's welfare is paramount

For the very best support and care, every child and young person should be at the centre of our activity - the priority and purpose of our work. The law now requires everybody to act to ensure the child’s welfare is paramount, whatever other concerns we have about the adults we work with, or other pressing demands on our time.

Children's rights

Child-centredness is at the heart of our safeguarding agenda. At all times, children and young people are the purpose of all our work. Children and young people need to be understood, their needs recognised, their voices heard and their development assured through nurture, support and care.

UK Law and Best Practice are underpinned by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Human Rights Act, seeking to ensure that children are respected and do not suffer prejudice or discrimination. Children are developing towards adulthood, but not inferior to adults. They are three dimensional human beings with vulnerabilities and resilience. We encourage respect for children's rights.

Professional development

The Plymouth Safeguarding Children Board (PSCB) provides opportunities for professional development. We organise multi-agency conferences for practitioners, with lead professionals offering the most up to date research and practice guidelines.

The PSCB is also a major training provider in Plymouth, taking lessons from Serious Case reviews and the outcomes of national enquiries to present contemporary thinking and best practice. All our training is devised and presented by leading practitioners from specialist agencies in Plymouth, to ensure a multi-agency approach to learning and professional development, and to be able to answer your practical questions and learn from your experiences and concerns.

Training programme

PSCB runs multi-agency professional training at approved levels of learning focussing on procedures and specialist intervention and support. We do not offer single agency or awareness raising courses. All our training programmes are constantly evaluated and regularly updated.

All successful participants receive an accredited certificate of achievement, accepted for professional registration requirements. Individual course outlines are available on the training courses pages. For further information email pscb@plymouth.gov.uk or telephone 01752 307535.

Learning log [83KB]

Criteria for child protection planning [91KB]

The guiding principles of PSCB [89KB]

PSCB training application form [96KB]

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