Local Safeguarding Children Board

In Plymouth we want to make sure that children and young people feel safe and cared for. We hope that this website is useful to those who want to know more about the work of the Plymouth Safeguarding Children Board (PSCB).

This Web site is accessible to children and young people, families and communities as well as people working with children.

Child protection

Plymouth is one of 11 Local Safeguarding Children Boards throughout the South West responsible for commissioning a new regional child protection handbook based on Every Child Matters Working Together 2006. The first section of the new guidelines came into force in January 2007 and can be downloaded from the South West Child Protection Procedures website.

The new handbook will be complete at the end of March 2007. Please visit the South West Child Protection Procedures website for a quick preview.

Plymouth Safeguarding Children Board

The Children Act 2004 requires each local authority to establish a Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) to replace the previous Area Child Protection Committee. The LSCB is the key statutory mechanism for agreeing how the relevant organisations will co-operate to safeguard and promote the welfare of local children, and for ensuring the effectiveness of what they do, both as individual agencies and in partnership.

The Plymouth LSCB held its inaugural meeting in March 2006. All agencies will now contribute to the five key outcomes for children identified by Every Child Matters:

• be healthy
• stay safe
• enjoy and achieve
• make a positive contribution
• achieve economic well being

In Plymouth this includes: Children’s Social Care, Health, the Police, Devon and Cornwall Probation, The family Court Advisory Service (CAFCASS), National Children's Home (NCH), National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue, Naval Personnel and Family Service and Royal Marines Welfare, the Voluntary Sector, Youth Offending Team and Connexions.

Children’s rights

The Safeguarding Board are committed to respecting all children and young people and the promotion of their rights. We want children to feel valued and for all adults to believe that:

Safeguarding children is everyone’s responsibility.

Child protection procedures

Plymouth is one of 11 Local Safeguarding Children Boards throughout the South West responsible for commissioning a new regional child protection handbook based on Every Child Matters Working Together 2006. The first section of the new guidelines came into force in January 2007 and can be downloaded from the South West Child Protection Procedures website.

The new handbook will be complete at the end of March 2007. Please visit the South West Child Protection Procedures website for a quick preview.

Documents

To view these documents you might need to download some software. Visit our downloads page for more information.

Plymouth Safeguarding Children Board communication strategy - a document setting out how Plymouth's Safeguarding Board will get its messages to people in the city. File format Adobe Acrobat (pdf) - 165KB