Children’s Policies & Guidance
On this page, you will find policies, procedures and guidance for professionals who work with children in Herefordshire.
National, regional and local policies, procedures and guidance are held on the West Midlands Child Protection Procedures Site. See tab below for information on how to access the site and for additional local resources.
Herefordshire has adopted Signs of Safety as its overarching practice model for working with children across all partner agencies in Herefordshire. Click on the tile below to find out more about Signs of Safety and access tools, guidance and resources.
Herefordshire Safeguarding Children Partnership has developed a Toolkit to share tools, tips, and approaches for listening to the Voice of the Child at all levels of a service – from front-line practice to service planning and self-assessment. Click on the tile below to access the HSCP Voice of the Child Participation Toolkit.
Additional resources and guidance for professionals in Herefordshire can be found in the tabs below:
Visit our GET SAFE Child Exploitation page for more information about child exploitation and trafficking, and useful resources for schools, families and children: GET SAFE/Child Exploitation
Read the Herefordshire Safeguarding Children Partnership’s approach to tackling Child Exploitation in the Child Exploitation Strategy 2022 - 2025.
Guidance and Tools for Practitioners can also be found here
Refer to the West Mercia Pathway for Children who Go Missing from Home, Care or Education –View the pathway here
There is also regional guidance about Children Missing from Care, Home and Education, for all local authorities in the West Midlands.
Visit the Child Neglect Resources page for resources and tools for practitioners to understand, identify, and respond to child neglect.
The HSCP has published a Neglect Strategy – see HSCP Child Neglect Strategy 2024-2027_Final
There is also guidance for West Midlands authorities on Child Neglect – see Child Neglect regional guidance
Graded Care Profile 2 is a tool to help professional assess child neglect. Professionals in Herefordshire can access training on how to use Graded Care Profile 2 by booking on courses via www.herefordshirecpd.co.uk.
For resources and tools, see Child Protection Conference Pack
For more information about Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews: Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews
For more information about Domestic Abuse, tools and pathways, go to Domestic Abuse
The Early Help Assessment (EHA) provides a method for assessing needs for children and young people to support earlier intervention and to improve joint working and communication between practitioners.
For more information about Early Help in Herefordshire, see Early Help Herefordshire
For more information about Early Help Assessments for professionals, visit the Herefordshire Council website here
Read our learning briefing on Honour-Base Abuse and Violence – Honour Based Abuse - Learning Briefing
For more information, see:
West Midlands Procedures: Honour-Based Abuse
Karma Nirvana – Helpline, Training, Campaigns
You can find a short assessment to be used by front line practitioners from all partner agencies in Herefordshire when there are concerns around home conditions that are likely to impact on children who live there here:
Read the joint working protocol between Herefordshire’s Children’s Social Care, Commissioning and Housing Solutions for care leavers here:
Herefordshire Council Joint Working Protocol for Care Leavers
Read our learning briefing on understanding the duty to refer homelessness to
Public Services:
Homelessness Duty to Refer - Learning Briefing
Voluntary, community, faith-based, and provider organisations organisations make a huge contribution to supporting and enriching the lives of adults, children and young people in Herefordshire.
All organisations working with adults, children and young people and / or their parents and carers should have robust policies and procedures to ensure that they are safe, workers know and understand their roles and responsibilities and how to respond appropriately if they have concerns about a person’s safety or welfare.
Note – Some of the information below specifically refers to children and young people, but may also be useful for organisations and providers working with adults.
Resources for voluntary and community groups
NSPCC
The NSPCC has developed guidance and a wall chart called ‘Are They Safe?’ specifically for voluntary and community groups. These set out expectations and responsibilities for settings and help to identify areas where improvement may be required.
NSPCC has developed a safeguarding standards and guidance for safeguarding children, young people and adults aged 0-25 in the voluntary and community sector.
NSPCC self-assessment tool can be used to help audit your organisation’s current child protection arrangements.
The Charity Commission
The Charity Commission has a range of guidance and instructions that apply to charities in relation to their safeguarding arrangements. See Safeguarding and protecting people for charities and trustees.
Safe Recruitment
If you run a voluntary, faith or community group you need to make sure that people who work for you (either paid or voluntary) have been recruited using correct recruitment and vetting procedures. By following the correct procedures you will be preventing unsuitable people from working with children and young people in your organisation.
Organisations must also ensure they have in place safe recruitment policies and procedures, including Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks for all relevant staff, including agency staff, students and volunteers working with children.
DBS checks will provide information about an individual’s criminal history, to help determine whether a person is a suitable candidate for a particular role. There are different levels of DBS checks. See DBS check eligibility guidance for the charity sector and overseas aid organisations for more information. You should also check if the job role is eligible for DBS checks by referencing the DBS check – eligible positions guidance.
HVOSS (Herefordshire Voluntary Organisations Support Service)
HVOSS provide information, guidance and support to voluntary community organisations and groups in Herefordshire. They offer a range of support services to ensure that charities, community groups, village hall committees, sports and leisure clubs and social enterprises can thrive and continue to make a huge contribution to life in the county. For more information visit their website http://www.hvoss.org.uk/
A LADO referral must be completed where there are concerns that a person who works with children
has:
- Behaved in a way that has harmed a child, or may have harmed a child;
- Possibly committed a criminal offence against or related to a child; or
- Behaved towards a child or children in a way that indicates s/he is unsuitable to work with
children. - A person has behaved or may have behaved in a way that indicates they may not be suitable to work with children
This is in connection with the person’s employment or voluntary activity.
Visit LADO/Managing Allegations for Referral instructions and guidance
The Herefordshire LADO can be contacted as follows:
Email: LADO@herefordshire.gov.uk
Tel: 01432 261739
Herefordshire has published guidance on Child on Child Abuse – see Herefordshire Multi-agency Child on Child Abuse guidance
For more information, go to Right Help, Right Time Levels of Need
Trauma-Informed Practice and ACES Briefing
To learn more, check www.herefordshirecpd.co.uk for training opportunities, or check out these resources:
E-learning: ACEs (acesonlinelearning.com)
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) – YouTube
Working definition of trauma-informed practice – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Learning resources & events on trauma | Research in Practice
Introduction – Trauma-informed practice: toolkit – gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
The Herefordshire Safeguarding Children Partnership has subscribed to the West Midlands Child Protection Procedures. National, regional, and local policies and procedures that apply to professionals in Herefordshire can be found on the West Midlands Child Protection Procedures site. To access local Herefordshire policies and procedures:
- Select “Herefordshire” in the partnership tab,
- Go into “Content,”
- Scroll to Section 3, which holds the local policies and procedures
Section 1 contains national guidance, and Section 2 contains regional West Midlands procedures, policies and guidance.