Capital Ambition is active in supporting London resilience and increasing capacity in relation to safeguarding children. This includes creating a pool of additional capacity at Assistant Director of Children's Services level to act as both a rapid-deployment capacity for boroughs in need, and as a resource to strengthen London's safeguarding services more generally.
In December 2008, Leaders' Committee requested a review of safeguarding arrangements in London. Capital Ambition, the London Safeguarding Children Board, Chief Executives and London Directors of Children's Services have coordinated work to identify priorities for improvement and investment.
The resulting programme was funded by Capital Ambition for a total of £574k to develop the capacity in London to help build and strengthen our overall resilience in the area of child protection and to increase the sector's capacity given the scale of involvement and level of intervention prescribed in Haringey. This illustrated how essential it is to find a way of providing additional resource assistance to councils who are identified as requiring it. As a result, three London Regional Safeguarding Advisers have been recruited (starting April 2010) to act as rapid-deployment capacity for boroughs in need and as a resource to strengthen London's safeguarding services more generally.
Other CA-funded projects include:
- Developing Lead Members, Leaders and Scrutiny Chairs awareness of their roles and responsibilities around safeguarding children
- Identifying triggers and mechanisms for alerting senior managers / members to service weaknesses
- Developing the role and recruitment of Chairs of Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCBs)
- Development and implementation of a programme to look at the needs of sexually abused children in London.
Scoping training needs and delivering a package of support to local authority legal safeguarding children services.
Benefits to you
- 3 new London Regional Safeguarding Advisers to increase the capacity of local authorities and their to respond to safeguarding issues as they arise
- More effective leadership and intervention in relation to safeguarding
- Increased capacity and better support for London Local Safeguarding Children Boards to keep children safe
- An increased understanding of the needs of children in London.
Project id: CA174
Status: Active
Contact: Caroline Dawes caroline.dawes@londoncouncils.gov.uk
