These 2024-2026 priorities reflect our desire to improve the collective effectiveness of agencies in four key areas:
Structural Inequalities (aligned with current Disproportionality and Inequality):
Themes around intersectionality, structural racism, and disproportionality are consistently present. The need for a better understanding of these systemic issues and their impacts on various groups, coupled with a drive for more inclusive and equitable practices, was a common thread in the feedback.
Family Wellbeing (Early Intervention and Prevention):
There's a strong emphasis on the need for early identification and intervention in various issues impacting children's welfare. This includes shifting from reactive to proactive approaches, focusing on preventative strategies, and the need for multi-agency collaboration for early help and support
Social Emotional Mental Health (SEMH), Special Educational Needs Disability (SEND) and Inclusion:
The mental health of children, especially those with SEND (SEND Projection Report, 2022), is a prominent concern. The rise in mental health issues, including SEMH (Joint Strategic Needs Assessment 2023), and their link to various factors like online safety, domestic violence, poverty, and neglect is repeatedly highlighted. This also highlighted a refocus of Transitional Safeguarding and how can the Partnership link these issues in a SEND and SEMH capacity.
Neglect and Parental Factors:
Neglect and issues arising from parental factors such as mental health (also developmental trauma), substance misuse, and domestic abuse feature prominently. This suggests a need for improved strategies and tools to assess and address neglect, along with a more trauma-informed approach to parental issues. Understanding new contributing factors such as supervision on online activity. Whilst the ISCP acknowledges that this has long been a priority, it was felt that we needed a strategy and a toolkit for Neglect in order to better assess how effective we are at its threshold and measuring the effectiveness.