HSCP & HIPS Newsletter
Newsletters
Keeping Our Children Safe
Foreword
Welcome to the latest edition of the HSCP newsletter, Keeping Our Children Safe.
This edition brings with it lots of important news and updates including the recently published Yearly Report 2022/23, celebrating the three-year anniversary of our virtual training offer and the publication of the updated FAQs on child protection record transfers in educational settings, which includes a new template for confirming records have been received.
I am most excited to announce the inaugural Safeguarding Children Week which will be taking place on 9 to 13 October 2023. Hampshire Safeguarding Children Partnership and Isle of Wight Safeguarding Children Partnership have devised this joint initiative to bring together agencies and organisations across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight to raise awareness of important safeguarding issues and give practitioners the knowledge and confidence to identify and respond to safeguarding concerns.
Safeguarding Children Week 2023 will feature different safeguarding themes each day which professionals will be able to access every morning. This will include the launch of several new toolkits, including a HIPS Child Exploitation Toolkit, which, if you haven’t already booked on, you still can – click here for more information.
We do hope you share the enthusiasm we have for our first ever Safeguarding Children Week and that the resources will be helpful and easily applied to your practice. Please do share the information and encourage colleagues to participate. If you have any questions or suggestions on how we can make it even better, please get in contact at hscp@hants.gov.uk.
Scott MacKechnie
Independent Chair and Scrutineer
Hampshire Safeguarding Children Partnership
Keeping Our Children Safe
Foreword
Welcome to the spring edition of Keeping Our Children Safe.
As the independent chair and scrutineer for the HSCP, I know it has been a very busy few months for the partnership. We have published the HSCP Training Brochure for 2023-24 and launched several toolkits for professionals – and parent/carers. A relatively new initiative, our focus on providing tools and resources for parents ensures that safeguarding messages are reaching all our audiences for as much impact as possible.
The latest Training Brochure features all the fully funded multi-agency events that are available to practitioners, including virtual courses, face-to-face courses, webinars, workshops and eLearning materials. Since its inception in mid-2020, the online aspect of our training has grown substantially, with over 10,500 professionals registered with a training account and over 21,500 training sessions being accessed. If you have not yet registered for a free training account, please click here to register now.
The Harmful Practices Toolkit was launched on 6 February, which also marked the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). The Toolkit provides practical resources to identify and respond to children who have experienced, or are at risk of, harm related to a harmful practice, including breast ironing/flattening, ‘honour’ based abuse, forced marriage, child abuse linked to faith & Belief and FGM.
March saw the launch of the Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton (HIPS) Safeguarding Children Partnerships Child Sexual Abuse Strategy and associated online Toolkit. The HIPS Child Sexual Abuse Strategy aims to provide a co-ordinated approach to preventing child sexual abuse, and improve the identification, protection, and support for victims, survivors and their families. There were some really great inputs on this day to support the implementation of the strategy and I looking forward to local implementation updates.
And in recognition of the negative impact, ongoing and unresolved parental conflict can have on children’s mental health and long-term life chances, a Strengthening Parental Relationships Toolkit for practitioners was launched last month. The Toolkit equips professionals with the tools to identify and work with families where parental conflict might be becoming destructive. A Parent & Carer’s Strengthening Parental Relationships Toolkit was also launched for professionals to signpost families for further help and resources.
Do take some time to browse through these valuable resources and please let us know if you have any feedback or suggestions at hscp@hants.gov.uk.
Scott MacKechnie
Independent Chair and Scrutineer
Hampshire Safeguarding Children Partnership