Child Protection (CPN) Notifications for Children and Young People by the Police Protection Unit (PPU) Detective Sergeant where a Child or Young Person has an allocated Children's Social Worker

This guidance is for all practitioners (paid or unpaid) who work with children (including the unborn child), those who work with adults who are parents/carers and who therefore hold responsibility for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children.

This chapters is intended to be read alongside the Children and Young People (Jersey) Law 2022, the commensurate Statutory Guidance and the Jersey Children’s First Framework (JCF).  Practitioners must follow The Statutory Guidance on sharing information which follows Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018.

Where a child or young person is  brought to the attention of the police, and there may be concerns  for  their health or development or there is a need to safeguard their welfare (and the child has no allocated children’s social worker) this is managed through SPB Child Protection Procedures, The SPB Children and Young Person Safeguarding Referrals Procedure where a referral must be placed with the Children and Family Hub.

As noted this guidance relates to cases where a Child or Young Person already has an allocated Children’s Social Worker:

• Where any child or young person comes to the attention of the police on more than three occasions this results in a CPN being created, where the child or young person already has an allocated children’s social worker the Detective Sargeant from the PPU will “flag” this to their children’s social worker;
• The “flag” will be in the form of an email to the Social Worker with a summary of the 3 incidents of concern. The Detective Sergeant will ensure a line of communication is created between the police and the allocated Children’s Social Worker and a Planning Meeting will be requested;
• Emails (“flags”) from PPU and to the allocated Social Worker which include a CPN attachment will also have ‘copy in’ to the Social Worker’s Senior Practitioner/Team Manager, to ensure essential information is not sitting, un-actioned, in an inbox because the Social Worker is not in the office. (Where an agency sends information by email, they need to ensure the information has been received. The sending agency must ensure the receiving agency has received the information and follow up if they have not heard a suitable response in timescale commensurate to risk);
• A Planning Meeting (Multi-Agency Meeting) will be called where there are ongoing concerns for a child or young person and the concerns are related to their behaviour;
• This Planning Meeting will not relate to one single incident, it will relate to a number of incidents. A multi-agency response will be required, where a multi-agency plan of action will be formed to reduce risks and to safeguard and protect the child or young person’s welfare;
• Planning Meetings are for ongoing concerns and can be attended by any agency involved with the child or young person who is able to provide proportionate information and offer supportive actions;
• The planning meeting will normally Chaired by a Children’s Social Care Team Manager or Senior Practitioner, the meeting will require minutes and actions shared. Communication between agencies is crucial and once the initial discussion have taken place a Strategy Meeting may be called to discuss how the child(ren) and/or young person(s) and families are to be managed and safeguarded;
• The need for a Strategy Discussion/Meeting will normally be determined by Children’s Social Care. A Strategy Discussion/Meeting will take place after specific incident(s) where a child or young person is considered at risk of harm or significant harm and where there is a need to determine if the Minister has a duty to investigate (see Article 42 Enquiry);
• It is expected that all Strategy Meetings will take place within timescale commensurate to the risks, and within at least three working days (to enable evidence to be gathered within a forensic window where physical, sexual abuse or neglect is concerned);
• A Children’s Social Care Senior Practitioner will chair this meeting, preferably the Team Manager of the allocated Social Worker. Any agency that cannot attend a Strategy Meeting will be expected to send a report detailing the information that their agency holds to the Chair of the Strategy Meeting;
• The strategy discussion/meeting will consider actions required to reduce risks to the child or young person and where there has been risk of physical abuse, sexual abuse, sexual exploitation or neglect, consideration must be given to whether a Child Protection Medical and/or Child Sexual Abuse Medical is required;
• Practitioners should have access to regular Internal Agency Safeguarding Supervision;
• Agencies should consider multi-agency reflective supervision where cases are complex, stuck or drifting;
• Professional challenge should be welcomed and partnership working depends on resolving professional difference and conflict as soon as possible. Where staff experience professional differences, they must follow the SPB Resolving Professional Difference/Escalation Policy clearly noting the date when the process is started to conclusion and resolution date.

• Child Protection Medical Assessment Pathway
• Child Sexual Abuse Pathway