Well hello,
It’s Penny here, your Independent Chair of the Birmingham Safeguarding Children Partnership; a role I’ve fulfilled since 2016. It’s a role that involves convening partners, supporting, challenging, assuring, and providing some scrutiny. My mandate comes from the senior leaders of the Local Authority, Police and Health, and I regularly chair a meeting of the Senior Leaders from Birmingham City Council, NHS Birmingham and Solihull, West Midlands Police, and Birmingham Children’s Trust – or, as I refer to them, the Big 4. Each year I have written a partnership Accountability Report and presented it to the Safeguarding Leaders Assembly and Local Authority Scrutiny Panel and Practitioner Forum.
BSCP Website
It’s been a busy time for safeguarding over the past few months. If you haven’t had a look please do visit the BSCP website which we have redesigned to make it more accessible and easy to navigate and you will find lots of valuable information on there.
Practitioner Conference on Domestic Abuse
Each year we hold a Practitioners’ Conference, building on our commitment to support and invest in practitioners and we try to make it topical and relevant. This year’s was held at Millennium Point and was very well received with an excellent line-up of speakers and workshops ranging from coercive control to the impact of domestic abuse on the child in utero.
It was so valuable that the Domestic Abuse Commissioner, Nicole Jacobs, stayed throughout the day and contributed to the final question panel. If you missed the conference, or wish to rewatch or share the keynote speeches, they have all been uploaded to our Conference Resources webpage.
Webinar on Child A
As part of our commitment to be a learning system supporting the best in leadership and quality of practice, we organised a webinar to disseminate the learning from the Local Safeguarding Practice Review on Child A we published in October 2023. This unique and tragic story focussed on a long history of trauma, neglect, exclusion and violence in the story of this 13-year-old, who went on to fatally stab her mother’s partner. The learning included the importance of recognising and working with the child’s culture and racial identification and preventing “adultification”; seeing primary exclusion as a red flag meriting partnership action; it reinforced the essential quest to understand and connect with the child’s experience of life. Please do read the briefing and if possible, watch the webinar delivered by the Report author, Joanna Nicholas and Jahnine Davis; a National Panel member and Leading Specialist in Adultification.
Safeguarding Leaders Assembly
We gather Leaders from across partner organisations twice a year in a Safeguarding Leaders Assembly (SLA) with the purpose of assurance and development. We held our last session at the MAC in November its focus was one of our four priorities for 2023-25, namely safeguarding “children out of sight”. We are concerned that there are many children who are not accessing early years or school provision, and therefore miss out on the care and concern of health, family support and education professionals. Of course, some may be benefitting from excellent home schooling, but sadly very many more are certainly not. You can read more about what was covered in the latest bulletin.
Executive Board
We meet as an Executive Board bi-monthly, and this year we have returned to our pre-pandemic habit of being hosted by partners in different parts of the City. This month we were at the Women’s Hospital and our first hour was spent hearing about developments and the impact of Early Help and Early Intervention in the hospital. It’s always powerful to meet and hear directly from colleagues, to better understand the challenges, solutions and value their contributions. I’m still inspired by the previous meeting held at Adderley Primary School, a UNICEF Rights Respecting school, where the first hour saw us being taken around the school in small groups, led by young ambassadors. The walk, the walls, and the PHSE lessons we saw were so impactful.
The Challenge and Opportunity of Change
As I write my blog, Andy Couldrick (CEO of the Birmingham Children Trust) has just presented his final blog, valuing his time as the Executive Head of the Trust, welcoming the new CEO, James Thomas, and looking forward to sustaining his commitment through taking on the non-Executive Chair of the Trust. I have summarised my appreciation for his leadership on social media:
“Warm congrats on your time in Brum establishing the Trust with its focus on quality relational practice; valuing staff; hearing the voice of children and young people; partnership in action and learning by experience, research and listening. Glad you are staying; taking on the Chair role.”
I welcome James Thomas as CEO of the Trust and wish him well, expecting that he will build on the progress of the “Good” Children’s Trust, navigating the times we are experiencing including the Council’s S114 challenge; the cost-of-living pressures on families; the unacceptable exploitation and violence that many adolescents are facing, to name but a few. He joins a strong Safeguarding Partnership, with a shared commitment to make a difference to our four key priorities:
Priority 1: Ensuring effective implementation of ‘Working together to Build Strong Family Foundations’ (Childhood Neglect Strategy 2022-2026).
Priority 2: Assuring a coordinated and coherent inter-agency response to children impacted by domestic abuse and violence in families.
Priority 3: Developing a joint approach to understanding and responding to children who are, and who become, invisible to services.
Priority 4: Enhancing anti-discriminatory practice, by improving partnership focus on the work we do, in the context of equity, equality, diversity and inclusion.
James will join Sue Harrison (Director of Services, Birmingham City Council), Lisa Stalley-Green (Deputy CEO, NHS Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board) and Richard North (Chief Superintendent, Birmingham West Midland Police) in leading the Multi-Agency Safeguarding arrangements in Birmingham.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
For us in our blended international family and ten grandchildren, the celebrations started early with a pub lunch gathering a couple of weeks ago as our youngest grandchild and her dad (my son) and mum will be spending Christmas with maternal grandparents in Portugal. For the actual festive days we will be busy cooking and celebrating with the family staying at home, nearby. Playing with our growing collection of schliech animals and wild animal bingo will definitely be on the agenda!
I know that this time of year is one of the busiest for all of you, whether in schools, health settings, early years, social care, family support or undertaking criminal investigations and preparation for court. I want to thank you for all you do and to reinforce the truism that we are stronger together, working in partnership, sharing information and a sense of responsibility for safeguarding, which as we know, is everybody’s business.
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| December 2023 |
Well hello,
It’s Penny here, your Independent Chair of the Birmingham Safeguarding Children Partnership; a role I’ve fulfilled since 2016. It’s a role that involves convening partners, supporting, challenging, assuring, and providing some scrutiny. My mandate comes from the senior leaders of the Local Authority, Police and Health, and I regularly chair a meeting of the Senior Leaders from Birmingham City Council, NHS Birmingham and Solihull, West Midlands Police, and Birmingham Children’s Trust – or, as I refer to them, the Big 4. Each year I have written a partnership Accountability Report and presented it to the Safeguarding Leaders Assembly and Local Authority Scrutiny Panel and Practitioner Forum.
BSCP Website
It’s been a busy time for safeguarding over the past few months. If you haven’t had a look please do visit the BSCP website which we have redesigned to make it more accessible and easy to navigate and you will find lots of valuable information on there.
Practitioner Conference on Domestic Abuse
Each year we hold a Practitioners’ Conference, building on our commitment to support and invest in practitioners and we try to make it topical and relevant. This year’s was held at Millennium Point and was very well received with an excellent line-up of speakers and workshops ranging from coercive control to the impact of domestic abuse on the child in utero.
It was so valuable that the Domestic Abuse Commissioner, Nicole Jacobs, stayed throughout the day and contributed to the final question panel. If you missed the conference, or wish to rewatch or share the keynote speeches, they have all been uploaded to our Conference Resources webpage.
Webinar on Child A
As part of our commitment to be a learning system supporting the best in leadership and quality of practice, we organised a webinar to disseminate the learning from the Local Safeguarding Practice Review on Child A we published in October 2023. This unique and tragic story focussed on a long history of trauma, neglect, exclusion and violence in the story of this 13-year-old, who went on to fatally stab her mother’s partner. The learning included the importance of recognising and working with the child’s culture and racial identification and preventing “adultification”; seeing primary exclusion as a red flag meriting partnership action; it reinforced the essential quest to understand and connect with the child’s experience of life. Please do read the briefing and if possible, watch the webinar delivered by the Report author, Joanna Nicholas and Jahnine Davis; a National Panel member and Leading Specialist in Adultification.
Safeguarding Leaders Assembly
We gather Leaders from across partner organisations twice a year in a Safeguarding Leaders Assembly (SLA) with the purpose of assurance and development. We held our last session at the MAC in November its focus was one of our four priorities for 2023-25, namely safeguarding “children out of sight”. We are concerned that there are many children who are not accessing early years or school provision, and therefore miss out on the care and concern of health, family support and education professionals. Of course, some may be benefitting from excellent home schooling, but sadly very many more are certainly not. You can read more about what was covered in the latest bulletin.
Executive Board
We meet as an Executive Board bi-monthly, and this year we have returned to our pre-pandemic habit of being hosted by partners in different parts of the City. This month we were at the Women’s Hospital and our first hour was spent hearing about developments and the impact of Early Help and Early Intervention in the hospital. It’s always powerful to meet and hear directly from colleagues, to better understand the challenges, solutions and value their contributions. I’m still inspired by the previous meeting held at Adderley Primary School, a UNICEF Rights Respecting school, where the first hour saw us being taken around the school in small groups, led by young ambassadors. The walk, the walls, and the PHSE lessons we saw were so impactful.
The Challenge and Opportunity of Change
As I write my blog, Andy Couldrick (CEO of the Birmingham Children Trust) has just presented his final blog, valuing his time as the Executive Head of the Trust, welcoming the new CEO, James Thomas, and looking forward to sustaining his commitment through taking on the non-Executive Chair of the Trust. I have summarised my appreciation for his leadership on social media:
“Warm congrats on your time in Brum establishing the Trust with its focus on quality relational practice; valuing staff; hearing the voice of children and young people; partnership in action and learning by experience, research and listening. Glad you are staying; taking on the Chair role.”
I welcome James Thomas as CEO of the Trust and wish him well, expecting that he will build on the progress of the “Good” Children’s Trust, navigating the times we are experiencing including the Council’s S114 challenge; the cost-of-living pressures on families; the unacceptable exploitation and violence that many adolescents are facing, to name but a few. He joins a strong Safeguarding Partnership, with a shared commitment to make a difference to our four key priorities:
Priority 1: Ensuring effective implementation of ‘Working together to Build Strong Family Foundations’ (Childhood Neglect Strategy 2022-2026).
Priority 2: Assuring a coordinated and coherent inter-agency response to children impacted by domestic abuse and violence in families.
Priority 3: Developing a joint approach to understanding and responding to children who are, and who become, invisible to services.
Priority 4: Enhancing anti-discriminatory practice, by improving partnership focus on the work we do, in the context of equity, equality, diversity and inclusion.
James will join Sue Harrison (Director of Services, Birmingham City Council), Lisa Stalley-Green (Deputy CEO, NHS Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board) and Richard North (Chief Superintendent, Birmingham West Midland Police) in leading the Multi-Agency Safeguarding arrangements in Birmingham.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
For us in our blended international family and ten grandchildren, the celebrations started early with a pub lunch gathering a couple of weeks ago as our youngest grandchild and her dad (my son) and mum will be spending Christmas with maternal grandparents in Portugal. For the actual festive days we will be busy cooking and celebrating with the family staying at home, nearby. Playing with our growing collection of schliech animals and wild animal bingo will definitely be on the agenda!
I know that this time of year is one of the busiest for all of you, whether in schools, health settings, early years, social care, family support or undertaking criminal investigations and preparation for court. I want to thank you for all you do and to reinforce the truism that we are stronger together, working in partnership, sharing information and a sense of responsibility for safeguarding, which as we know, is everybody’s business.
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