UPDATE NO 497 18 March 2022

Consultation on Mental Capacity Act Code of Practice and implementation of Liberty Protection Safeguards. Closes 7 July 2022

On March 17, DfE, MoJ and DHSC launched a consultation on proposed changes to the Mental Capacity Act 2005 Code of Practice and implementation of the Liberty Protection Safeguards. There is a LPS contacts page here. 

LGA have organised a Q&A session on this topic on Thursday 24 March 9.30am-11.00am for a South East session. The consultation document is available here. You can respond to the consultation here. The consultation closes on 7 July.

System Leadership – CYP Mental Health 28 April 3pm NOW BOOKING

NHS (England), The Staff College and SESLIP have organised a 2-hour online workshop “System Leadership in Children and Young People’s Mental Health – a south-east region perspective” 3pm-5pm on Thursday 28 April.  

This event is FREE and aimed at all strategic leaders from partner agencies, commissioners and providers. You can book here

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 60+ colleagues from across the region 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)

Berkshire West Safeguarding Children Partnership – Independent Scrutineer job advert

Berkshire West Safeguarding Children Partnership (covering Reading, West Berkshire and Wokingham council areas) are advertising for an Independent Scrutineer. Closes 31 March 2022.

This a consultancy position for approx 35 days per year at £600 per day. If you would like more information about this challenging and exciting role, please contact: Deborah Glassbrook, Executive Director for Children’s Services, Brighter Futures for Children.

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 12 July 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 6 May 10:00am. More information from Chris Owen (contact details below)

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

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

Fostering Network: Wednesday 27 April 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)

Memorandum of Cooperation on Agency Workers – going live on 1 April 2022

On 10 March 2022 and event was held to brief social work agencies about the new south east memorandum of cooperation on agency workers, which will come into force across all 19 south east local authorities on 1 April 2022.

As part of the MoC update we are also working with colleagues from the London equivalent of SESLIP (LIIA) to research why people choose agency work and what local authorities can do to persuade them to join the permanent work force. We have completed a focus group attended by over 40 agencies workers and are also asking agency workers to anonymously complete a survey. Please could help us in this work by distributing the link to the survey to your agency staff.