Board Priorities, Structure & Subgroups

Membership of the Executive Safeguarding Partnership Board will consist of senior directors from the three statutory partners (Health (ICS), Police and Local Authority) for both Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and will look at both adults and children’s safeguarding.

The Executive Safeguarding Partnership Board is the overarching countywide governance board for both the children’s safeguarding agenda and adults safeguarding agenda.

The Executive Safeguarding Partnership Board is a high level, strategic board that will primarily focus on safeguarding systems performance and resourcing. This Board will have the statutory accountability for safeguarding in both local authority areas.

Two Safeguarding Partnership Boards (one for adults and one for children) sit below the Executive Safeguarding Partnership Board and are responsible for progressing the Executive Safeguarding Partnerships Board’s business priorities through the business plan. They will authorise the policy, process, strategy and guidance required to support the Executive Safeguarding Partnership Board priorities and effective safeguarding. The two Safeguarding Partnership Boards will scrutinise, challenge and maintain an overview of the state of children’s and adults safeguarding in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

There are two Quality and Effectiveness Groups (QEG), (one for adults and for children) which scrutinises safeguarding effectiveness and co-ordinates improvement activity. This takes place through scrutiny of quality assurance activity (both single and multi-agency), performance management information and overseeing of action plans. The QEG will regularly report to the Executive Safeguarding Partnership Board and the two Safeguarding Partnership Boards on what is working well and where there are areas of improvement.

The Safeguarding Adults Review Group (SAR), is responsible for commissioning the undertaking of Safeguarding Adults Reviews (SARs), on behalf of the Safeguarding Partnership under the Care Act 2014.

The group commissions and oversees the completion of the SAR process, working with involved professionals from start to finish, communicating with service users and families and commissioning the author of the final SAR report before developing action plans as a result of recommendations made in terms of practice by the independent author.

In addition to this role, the group may undertake reviews that does not meet the requirement for a SAR, with a view to gathering further learning that can be shared and disseminated amongst members of the Safeguarding Partnership.

The group undertakes reviews of cases where there is a serious cause for concern as to the way in which the Authority, their Board partners or other relevant persons have worked together to safeguard the child; and to advise on lessons that can be learnt.

The group will also identify and manage Multi-Agency Reviews of cases which do not meet the statutory Child Safeguarding Practice Review criteria but can provide valuable information about how organisations are working together and identify improvements.

Reviews all child deaths up to the age of 18, excluding those babies who are stillborn and planned terminations of pregnancy carried out within the law by collating information on each child. The panel determine whether the death was deemed preventable, had modifiable factors that may have contributed to the death and makes recommendations to the Safeguarding Partners, or other relevant bodies, promptly so that action can be taken to prevent future such deaths where possible.

Time limited task and finish groups will be established to progress themed areas, e.g. child sexual abuse,
criminal exploitation.

Each group will be responsible for producing resource packs for practitioners which include strategies/ guidance, training, leaflets and tools.

When establishing a task and finish group consideration will be given to the group being a cross cutting children’s and adults group.