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This month’s newsletter covers a good cross
section of things in which the Board has been involved. In particular, we hear
from children at Aldermoor Farm primary school and from our young advisers at
Sherborne Fields Special School. The
Board’s last meeting was held at Aldermoor Farm where the children gave us
valuable insights into how schools can teach children to keep themselves safe. At
the adult end of the spectrum, we hear about how the Children and Families
First service supports children with particular difficulties. And we also look at the continuing and
developing work across the city to protect children and young people from
radicalisation and child sexual exploitation.
Janet Mokades
Independent Chair,
Coventry Safeguarding Children Board
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 We feel really pleased that we have been asked to write a
regular piece for the newsletter. We are also very happy to have been asked to
be advisers to the board. We will do our best to help everyone and answer any
questions we can.
Alongside all of the courses we work on at school we also
have the opportunity to take part in other really good things that we get lots
of benefits from. Some of our students take part in independent travel
training. This is where they are taught to travel to and from school independently.
This gives us a good skill that we can use when we get to college. We also have
a Duke of Edinburgh course that lots of students are involved in. We learn lots
of skills here and it’s a real challenge but lots of fun. Another good thing that
we have in the 6th form is our work experience placements. We learn
what it will be like to have a job and be responsible.
The three of us are all on the student council and we have
been really busy with this this year. We produced our DVD about feeling safe
and showed the board in their meeting. We have introduced a buddy system in
school which is going great. We are just about to finish another DVD we have
been making about the value we have at Sherbourne.
Recently we attended a meeting at Coventry City Council
House to give our opinion on travel arrangements for all of us students about
how we get to school and back. This went really well and they took on board all
of our comments.
Another meeting we have lined up is with University
Hospital. Their staff were impressed with the signs and symbols we use at
school and want us to help them with their children’s department to make it
easier for children with a disability to know where they are going in the
hospital. We are looking forward to helping with this.
We are really busy but we love our work at school and when
we get the chance to help out others
Aaisha, Ben & Joel.
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Courses are selected each term for follow up after 3
months to ask if participants found them useful and whether they have been able
to use learning in practice.
The following are examples of how training has had a
direct impact on outcomes for children, taken from the latest course to be
evaluated:
Domestic
Violence and Abuse and Safeguarding Children
- A Children and Families worker in a school
has used learning from the training to be more aware of non-verbal responses
when talking to victims and to make sure that conversations take place in a
secure environment. She has also helped a family to understand about the impact
on children and to source support in a safe way. She has also made sure that
she shares concerns with her manager.
As a result of this one
victim has shared that she now has more understanding of how all types of
domestic abuse can impact on her children, not just witnessing physical
attacks. This person has also engaged with support agencies and is more aware
of the support available.
- A Learning Mentor in another school found
that the training helped her recognise and spot warning signs in adults and
children. She has worked with her Designated Lead to support a family and this
has included monitoring the children in school. The training also increased her
confidence in working with this family around the liaison with Social Care and
outside agencies and supporting the victim through a court hearing.
We'd like to thank Aldermoor Farm Primary School for hosting our recent Board meeting. While there we had an informative tour of the school by the Headteacher and a group of children spoke to the Board members about 'what makes us feel safe'. Some of the pupils responses were as follows:
“My friends make me feel safe at school.” – Diana, Year 1
“I did a health and safety walk with Miss Flowers to look
for hazards around school. By looking
for hazards we could then make them safe so that nobody got hurt.” – Keira,
Year 2
“The teachers make me feel safe at school because they will
always help me.” – Craig, Year 3
“I feel safe at school because our school is always locked”
– Shane, Year 4
“My poster is about rules that keep us safe. Some of the rules are:
- Don’t run in the corridors – this prevents
accidents
- Be kind and helpful to everyone – this make
everybody feel comfortable
- Don’t damage property - it won’t be fair for
everyone else
By following these rules we can keep our school environment
a safe and happy place.” - Sabrina, Year 4
“At school we are taught about e-safety and how to stay safe on the internet” –
Lawand, Year 5
“Every year we complete the Protective Behaviours course. The key themes of this course are:
- There is nothing so awful that we can’t talk
about it with someone
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We all have the right to feel safe all of the
time” - Natasha, Year 6
“Protective Behaviours teaches us how our bodies warn us if
we are not feeling safe. Butterflies in
our tummy, sweating, our heart beating fast and feeling sick are just a few of
our early warning signs. We are also
taught to make a network of adults who we can trust, who will listen to us,
believe us and help us.” - Tyrone, Year 6
 On 20 April, the
two safeguarding boards held a highly successful joint conference looking at
the issues of safeguarding and radicalisation. With over 100 people
present – there was good representation from across agencies involved in
safeguarding including:-
- Social Care
- Schools
- Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust
- Voluntary and Community Sector
The conference which included contributions
from Sara Khan from Inspire, and local agencies looked at:-
- Knowledge and understanding of national best practice in tackling
radicalisation
- Awareness of the local risk, priorities and links to safeguarding
- Clarity on what to do if they have concerns and who to report them to”
Through group discussions,
attendees then had the opportunity to discuss what more could be done to help
improve local resilience to extremists. At the end of the event – over 40
individual pledges were made by delegates. Examples of these pledges include:-
- Delivering Prevent training and awareness raising within their own
organisation.
- Securing new resources and materials that will assist colleagues
- Engaging students and parents in discussions around the risk and appropriate
protective behaviours
- Reviewing the organisation safeguarding policy and referral pathway to ensure
that Prevent is fully incorporated.
- The Voluntary and Community Sector will organise Prevent briefings and training
events for the community sector.
We will be in contact with those
who gave pledge to see if they need any further support following the event to
progress the pledge and to help assess the impact of the event.
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 West
Midlands Police, West Midlands Fire Service and Coventry City Council are
working together with Coventry Primary Schools to design the art work for
speeding signs soon to be installed in the City. Local school children will be
asked to enter a competition which involves drawing images set to be printed
underneath the new speed zone signs, the concept is intended to remind drivers
that the reason for speed control in some areas is to protect those who are most
vulnerable to inconsiderate and dangerous driving. The competition will be
judged by local residents and the media appeal underpinned with behavioural
change message aimed at drivers and other road users.
For more information on road safety: http://talesoftheroad.direct.gov.uk
Inspector Steve Malone
West
Midlands Police
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The LSCB has a shadowing programme
for Board Members, or staff in partner organisations to learn more about the
work they do. The Board team has also been undertaking shadowing,
including a day at Children and Family First:
Working for the Coventry Local Safeguarding Board (LSCB)
means that I have to work alongside a wide range of different people from
different organisations. Each organisation has its own way of working and
culture. So that I can understand some of this variety and do my job better, I
set off for a day shadowing the Children and Family First Team, based in
Canley.
Everyone was really friendly and keen to tell me all about
their work. I found out about some of the tools they use to assess the needs of
families that come to them for help and how they measure success. It is
difficult to evidence the impact of improved parenting or a cleaner house on
children, but this exactly what the team is trying to do.
I went to a local school and met with some learning mentors,
who were discussing attendance figures. The media will have you believe that
schools and local authorities are quick to move fine parents when children miss
school. However, I saw evidence to the contrary. A table of professionals
committed to ensuring each child received their entitlement to an education and
working creatively to help them re-engage with school life.
I also sat in on a team around the family (TAF) meeting. I
had imagined these would be formal and daunting, but my preconceptions were soon
proved wrong. We sat in a warm, brightly decorated room and offered tea. There
were workers from lots of services who were supporting the family in different
ways and, of course, the family themselves. Afterwards the children were able
to express how important it felt to be part of decisions. I was struck by the
care and compassion shown by all the professionals and the time that was
dedicated to helping the family to help themselves. The workers were brilliant
at having difficult conversations with the family in a way that still made them
feel listened to.
Thank you to everyone in the Children and Family First Team
at Canley. I had a great time and learned so much.
Eira Hale
Quality
Assurance Manager
Coventry
LSCB
 18 March 2016 was National Child Sexual Exploitation Awareness Day. The aim of the day was to highlight the issues surrounding CSE; encouraging everyone to think, spot and speak out against abuse and adopt a zero tolerance to adults developing inappropriate relationships with children or children developing inappropriate relationships with other children. The Horizon team wanted to do something on the day that would not only be a one –off but would be something that could be developed over the next 12 months. The team decided to launch a CSE pledge across the city asking people to know the signs of CSE and how to report concerns.
During the week commencing 14 March the team visited a variety of locations across the city including Coventry City football club, Coventry Blaze ice hockey team, University Hospital, Coventry City Council Senior Leadership meeting, Westwood School for engineers and hotels raising awareness of the pledge and asking individuals and organisations to sign it.
The pledge will be rolled out over 12 months and before the Summer holidays the team will be asking schools to deliver a CSE content and to get the children in their class to sign it. The children will then be tasked with taking pledge postcards home for their parents to sign and return to the school.
To sign the pledge please visit www.coventry.gov.uk/cse . If you would like any materials to help promote the pledge within your organisation please contact Rebekah.eaves@coventry.gov.uk.
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