Partnership Membership

In Windsor & Maidenhead, the 3 Lead Safeguarding Partners (LSPs) are:

• Chief Executive of Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead
• Chief Executive of the Frimley Integrated Care Board
• Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police

 The lead safeguarding partners will: 

• meet on a quarterly basis
• agree on ways to co-ordinate their safeguarding services
• act as a strategic leadership group in supporting and engaging others, and
• will implement local and national learning, including from serious child and adult safeguarding incidents

In Windsor & Maidenhead the lead safeguarding partners delegate their functions, but they remain accountable for any actions or decisions taken on behalf of the RBWM All-Age Safeguarding Partnership.  The lead safeguarding partner for each agency has nominated a senior officer to have responsibility and authority for ensuring full participation in these arrangements.

 In Windsor & Maidenhead the delegated officers from each statutory agency act as Delegated Safeguarding Partners (DSPs), they are the:

• Executive Director, Children's Services and Education (Achieving for Children)
• Executive Director of Adult Social Care and Health (Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead Council)
• Chief Superintendent, Head of the Local Command Unit for Berkshire East (Thames Valley Police)
• Deputy Chief Nurse Safeguarding/Designated Nurse for Safeguarding Children (Frimley ICB)

 The Delegated Safeguarding Partners are empowered to:

• speak with authority for the safeguarding partner they represent
• take decisions on behalf of their organisation or agency and commit them on policy, resourcing and practice matters
• hold their own organisation or agency to account on how effectively they participate and implement the local arrangements

The DSPs, working together, assume primary responsibility for implementing the local multi-agency safeguarding arrangements and providing strong leadership to ensure these are effective in bringing together the relevant partner agencies.

In the event an issue arises which requires a clear, single point of leadership, the lead safeguarding partners (LSPs)  will decide on who will take the lead.  This would be agreed at their quarterly meetings, or virtually, by all three lead safeguarding partners depending on the urgency and circumstances of the situation.

All three LSPs have equal and joint responsibility for local safeguarding arrangements.

The delegated safeguarding partners (DSPs) for the three lead partners meet regularly as an Executive Steering group and invite representation from Education and Probation in recognition of the important roles they have in ensuring effective multi-agency safeguarding arrangements in Windsor & Maidenhead.

The DSPs focus on driving improvement in practice and delivering the agreed priorities and ensuring the practices of police, health, education and local government Children’s, and Adults' services professionals are as effective as they can be.  Like the LSPs, DSPs must act as a team and not be a spokesperson for their agency alone.

The decisions made by DSPs should be reported back to the LSPs by the Executive Steering group. The executive group members should not need to refer upwards to LSPs to seek approval for operational decisions or changes in the arrangements of multi-agency services, including the sub-structure of the RBMW AASP.

The Executive Steering group will be held to account through the scheme of delegation to:

• provide evidence about the quality/performance of multi-agency practice
• update on the progress of meeting the RBMW AASP priorities
• identify and anticipate new challenges to the work of multi-agency teams
• direct the RBMW AASP support team to minimise bureaucracy and duplication
• provide analyses of trends in practice from intelligent interpretation of data
• report on the engagement of schools and other relevant partners
• respond to messages from learning reviews
• report on the performance of the support team and use of allocated budgets
• advise on any issues DSPs cannot agree on

Membership of the Executive Steering Group includes representatives from:

• Achieving for Children (Children’s Social Care, Health and Education)
• Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead (Adult’s Social Care)
• Thames Valley Police
• Frimley Integrated Care Board
• Frimley Healthcare Foundation Trust
• Berkshire Healthcare Foundation Trust
• South Central Ambulance Service
• Healthwatch
• Cabinet Member for Adult Services, Health & Housing Services
• Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, Education & Windsor
• His Majesty’s Prisons and Probation Service
• Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead Housing & Public Protection
• Abri Housing
• Royal Berkshire Fire & Rescue Service
• Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass)
• AidHour (commissioned independent scrutiny service)

Additionally, an independent person is part of this group to provide unbiased oversight.

Executive Steering group meetings are chaired by the DSPs for the three lead safeguarding partners on a rotating annual basis.

The RBWM All-Age Safeguarding Partnership Manager supports the Executive Steering group in the delivery of its functions.  Executive Steering group meetings are minuted by an RBWM business support officer.

Members of the Executive Steering group chair the four main sub-groups of the RBWM AASP to provide leadership, oversight and scrutiny of the activity of the Safeguarding Partnership.

The lead safeguarding partners have agreed the level of funding secured from each partner, and any contributions from each relevant agency to support the local arrangements.  The lead safeguarding partners make payments towards expenditure incurred in conjunction with local multi-agency arrangements for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, adults and young people.  Details of the RBWM’s AASP annual budget can be found in the corresponding Annual Report.

It should be noted that financial contributions are just one way the LSPs provide resources to the RBWM All-Age Safeguarding Partnership.  Executive Steering group members contribute their time and expertise to the partnership as members of sub-groups. Nominated representatives also lead on Task and Finish work.

The partnership support team sustains the implementation of the multi-agency safeguarding arrangements. The support team will:

• facilitate meetings and support work of the Executive Steering group and sub-groups
• work with chairs of sub-groups and ‘task and finish’ groups to progress areas of focus to help ensure that outputs are delivered in a timely way
• bring strategic leads from the relevant safeguarding partners together to drive forward arrangements
• promote best multi-agency practice to improve outcomes for children, adults, young people and families
• support partners in the dissemination of local and national learning including from serious adult and child safeguarding incidents
• support the work of independent scrutineers and ensure findings are fed into the Performance and Evaluation sub-group
• support the delivery of multi-agency practice audits
• lead on the development of multi-agency policies, procedures and practice guidance
• design, commission, co-ordinate and evaluate multi-agency training
• facilitate reporting of performance data and analysis by partner agencies to measure impact
• co-ordinate communications (including website management) in connection with the local multi-agency safeguarding arrangements
• facilitate engagement and consultation activity to inform the work of the multi-agency safeguarding arrangements

The RBWM AASP support team staff are employed by Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead as the host employer on behalf of the lead safeguarding partners.

Relevant agencies are named in the ‘Relevant Agencies Regulations’  and are under a statutory duty to co-operate and collaborate with the lead safeguarding partners.  Relevant agencies are those organisations and agencies whose involvement the lead safeguarding partners consider is required to safeguard and promote the welfare of local children, adults and young people.

Relevant agencies will receive up to date information annually about the expectations of engaging with and supporting the multi-agency safeguarding arrangements.  In addition, roles and responsibilities of sub-group members are described in the terms of reference for each group.  The list of relevant agencies is reviewed annually.

When selected by the safeguarding partners to be part of local safeguarding arrangements, relevant agencies must act in accordance with the arrangements.  Representatives from relevant agencies who sit on the sub-groups are expected to:

• make a commitment and prioritise attendance at meetings and on the occasion they are unable to attend, identify an appropriate deputy who is authorised to enact the group members’ responsibilities
• have the seniority to make decisions on behalf of their area of responsibility and ensure the delivery and implementation of the local arrangements
• be in a position to access and share the information necessary to inform collective action
• be critically reflective, strengths-based, solution-focussed and child-centred within discussions to shape and influence practice
• lead specific work streams
• take responsibility for identified actions and give oversight to these up to completion.

Relevant agencies are required to participate in multi-agency auditing as part of the Quality Assurance Framework and to provide assurance about single-agency action to embed learning as part of the Learning and Improvement Framework.

Relevant agencies are also required to contribute to the Rapid Review process following a serious incident and, where necessary, contribute to local child and adult safeguarding practice reviews.

Section 11 of the Children Act 2004 places a statutory duty on key organisations to self assess the extent to which they meet safeguarding requirements and standards. This means they have a duty to ensure their functions, and any services they contract out to others, are discharged having regard to the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. The LSPs in Windsor & Maidenhead will ask their identified relevant agencies to undertake the above self assessment every three years to provide the necessary assurances their safeguarding duties are being fulfilled.

Each of the 3 Safeguarding Partners regards all schools (including independent schools, academies and free schools), further education colleges, early years providers, and other education providers in Windsor & Maidenhead, as relevant agencies.  As designated relevant agencies, schools, further education colleges, early years providers and other education providers in Windsor & Maidenhead, are under a statutory duty to co-operate with these multi-agency safeguarding arrangements.

Schools, further education colleges, early years providers and other education providers will be engaged as relevant agencies in a range of sub-groups and ‘task and finish’ activities.

Local health service providers include:

• Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and West Berkshire
• Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
• Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust
• Frimley Integrated Care Board
• Frimley Healthcare Foundation Trust

RBWM also commissions school health and health visiting services from Achieving for Children.  The lead safeguarding partners regard the above health providers as relevant agencies.

The RBWM Voluntary and Community Sector Partnership represents the community and voluntary sector in these multi-agency safeguarding arrangements.  Key safeguarding messages will be communicated to non-commissioned Voluntary and Community Sector organisations via RBWM's communication channels.

Representation on RBWM All-Age Safeguarding Partnership sub-groups is not sought from the following national organisations: UK Visas and Immigration, British Transport Police. However, engagement does takes place where necessary, for example when scoping agency involvement following a serious incident and through completion of the safeguarding self-assessment.

Organisations and agencies who are not named in the relevant agency regulations, whilst not under a statutory duty, should nevertheless co-operate and collaborate with the lead safeguarding partners, particularly as they may have duties under Section 10 and/or Section 11 of the Children Act 2004.

Windsor & Maidenhead does not have any Youth Offender institutions within its boundary, although young people from Windsor & Maidenhead may be placed in custody elsewhere. Those young people will be subject to these arrangements.

In engaging with relevant agencies the lead safeguarding partners will be aware of their own responsibilities under the relevant information law and have regard to guidance provided by the Information Commissioner’s Office when issuing and responding to requests for information.