About Us

Home
About Us

Stoke-on-Trent has always been a city with a strong identity – one that our residents are rightly proud of. We are now strengthening our partnership arrangements to safeguard children.

As a partnership we will provide leadership and joint accountability to provide protection, support and representation for those in greatest need.

We believe in prevention and that it is better to act before harm occurs, while seeking the least intrusive response appropriate to the risk presented.

We aim to provide local solutions through services working with their communities, we will promote a child centered approach and continue to do our best to listen to the views and understand the needs of children and families in Stoke-on-Trent. We will do our best to ensure people are supported and encouraged to make their own decisions with informed consent, but where children need to be protected, we will take decisive action to safeguard them.

What is the Safeguarding Children Partnership?

The Stoke-on-Trent Safeguarding Children Partnership (SoTSCP) oversees how organisations work together to safeguard and promote the wellbeing of children and young people in Stoke-on-Trent and ensures statutory guidance within Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023 is delivered.

Stoke-on-Trent Safeguarding Children Partnership is led by three statutory safeguarding partners who hold equal responsibility for safeguarding children in our area. The statutory safeguarding partners are:

Stoke-on-Trent City Council
Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care Board (ICB)
Staffordshire Police

Education providers (schools, academies, colleges) are ‘relevant agencies’ that must work with the above partners, sharing information and complying with local arrangements.

The purpose of the local safeguarding children partnerships is to support and enable local organisations and agencies to work together in a system where:

Children are safeguarded and their welfare promoted.
Partner organisations and agencies collaborate, share and co-own the vision for how to achieve improved outcomes for vulnerable children.
Organisations and agencies challenge appropriately and hold one another to account effectively.
There is early identification and analysis of new safeguarding issues and emerging threats.
Learning is promoted and embedded in a way that local services for children and families can become more reflective and implement changes to practice.
Information is share effectively to facilitate more accurate and timely decision making for children and families.

Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023

Priorities

We have a strategic business plan for Stoke-on-Trent Safeguarding Children Partnership 1st January 2022- 31st March 2026, This will be reviewed annually.

The safeguarding partnership has identified two overarching strategic priorities, three practice priorities and three assurance priorities:

Strategic Priorities

Lead and embed effective Partnership arrangements to safeguard children.
Develop and implement a Quality Assurance and Scrutiny Framework.

Practice Priorities

Child Exploitation
Neglect (Graded Care Profile 2)
Safeguarding young children aged 0-2.

Assurance Priorties

Missing Children
Serious Youth Violence
Child Mental Health

Governance and Structure

The Stoke-on-Trent Safeguarding Partnership Executive has been established to lead the local Multi-agency Safeguarding Children Arrangements required by Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023

Lead Safeguarding Partners (LSPs)
Designated Safeguarding Partners (DSPs)

With five subgroups

Quality Assurance subgroup
Education subgroup
Learning & Development subgroup
Review subgroup
Child Exploitation and Missing subgroup

The Stoke-on-Trent Safeguarding Children Partnership will also work closely with other Partnerships and Boards in the city which include:

Children, Young People and Familes Strategic Partnership Board
Stoke-on-Trent Early Help and Prevention Board
Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Adult Safeguarding Board
Stoke-on-Trent Health and Wellbeing Board
Stoke-on-Trent Community Safety Partnership
Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Domestic Abuse Commissioning Board

Safeguarding arrangements

Stoke-on-Trent Multi-Agency Safeguarding Arrangements (MASA)

Multi-agency Safeguarding Arrangements (MASAs) are the statutory framework for the protection of children from abuse, neglect and exploitation. The core objective is to foster collaboration amount local organisations and agencies, ensuring a cohesive and effective response to children and young people at risk of harm. Robust communication, seamless information sharing and tailored service delivery to promote the welfare of children are all key elements to an effective multi-agency safeguarding response.

For each Local Authority area in England, there are three statutory partners. The Lead Safeguarding Partners (LSPs) in Stoke-on-Trent are:

Jon Rouse, Chief Executive, Stoke-on-Trent City Council
Simon Whitehouse, Chief Executive Officer, Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care Board
Rebecca Riggs, Acting Chief Constable, Staffordshire Police

Operational delivery of the MASA is delegated to:

Delegated Safeguarding Partners

Neil McDonald, Director of Children’s Services, Stoke-on-Trent City Council
Heather Johnstone, Chief Nursing and Therapies Officer, Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care Board

Victoria Lee, T/Detective Chief Superintendent, Staffordshire Police

Stoke-on-Trent Safeguarding Children Partnership are required to publish the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Arrangements, which have been updated in response to revised statutory guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023.

Annual reports

Local Safeguarding Children Partnerships are required to publish a report at least once in every 12-month period.

Annual Report 2024-2025
Annual Report 2023-2024

Below you can find the link to the latest annual report from when the joint arrangements with Staffordshire were in place:

https://www.staffsscb.org.uk/about-us/annual-reports/

Scrutiny and Quality Assurance

We take a variety of approaches to scrutiny and quality assurance in order to reassure ourselves about the effectiveness of multi-agency working across the partnership.