UPDATE NO 495 04 March 2022

Public Law Outline toolkit – free SESLIP workshops NOW BOOKING

The course is aimed at team managers, service/district managers, heads of service and legal professionals and is free to SESLIP members. Join the colleagues from Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Portsmouth and West Sussex who have already booked.

Now booking: Cohort 1: 6 April (am and pm) and 27 April (am only) OR Cohort 2:  11^th May (am and pm) and 25^th May (am only). For more information contact Alison Smailes (details below)

Liberty Protection Safeguards – Question and Answer Sessions from LGA

LGA have organised a series of Q&A sessions for staff who want to know more about the proposed Liberty Protection Safeguards scheme. 

Thursday 24 March 9.30am-11.00am for a South East session. Monday 14 March or Thursday 24 March, both 3pm-4.30pm, for national sessions. 

APPG for Looked After Children and Care Leavers publishes Spotlight Report

On 22 February, the All Party Parliamentary Group for Looked After Children and Care Leavers published its Spotlight Inquiry. 

The report calls for Increased support for care leavers and new legislation to reduce out of area placements as essential elements of the reform of the children’s social care system.

The full report is here; a fact-sheet is here 

DfE Children’s Workforce Statistics for 2021

On 24 February DfE published Children’s social work workforce statistics for reporting year 2021

It shows that the national agency worker rate has remained relatively stable at 15.5% (up from 15.4% from 2020). In the SE there has been a slight reduction at 16.2% (down from 17.3%)

Future dates for network meetings

Lead Members Group: Joint meeting with DCSs on NHS Integrated Care Systems. Fri 8 April 9:30am. More from Alison Michalska (contact details below)

Data Benchmarking: Tuesday 15 March 10:00am More information from Alastair Lee (contact details below)

Adoption and Special Guardianship Leadership Board: Monday 25 April 10.30am-12noon More information from Rebecca Eligon (contact details below)

AD Education: Friday 18 March 10:00am. More information from Chris Owen (contact details below)

AD Safeguarding: Friday 11 March 10:00am. More information from Mark Evans (contact details below)

QA Network: Wednesday 16 March 2:00pm – 5:00pm. More information from Amanda Meadows (contact details below)

Fostering Network: Wednesday April 27 2022 10-11.30am More information from Rebecca Eligon (contact details below)

SEND SE19: 22 March 2022 (LAs only) more information from Tracey Maytas (contact details below)

Early Help: More information from Rebecca Eligon (contact details below)

Early help: concepts, policy directions and multi-agency perspectives

On 10 February, Ofsted published Early help: concepts, policy directions and multi-agency perspectives, a study conducted on their behalf by Research in Practice.

The report covers: what is known about current early help provisions; debates in policy direction; and agency perspectives on early help.

The full report (93 pages) is here.

Serious youth violence: County lines drug dealing and the Government response

On 4 February, the House of Commons Library published Serious youth violence: county lines drug dealing and the Government response by Tirion Havard

This briefing focuses on serious youth violence and county lines drug dealing. The Government has made ‘rolling up county lines’ a priority for the police in recent years. 

The full report is here (27 pages)