Roles & Responsibilities

Children and young people are best safeguarded when practitioners understand what is required of them. It is a statutory requirement practitioners work together to protect and safeguard the welfare of children and young people and make a co-ordinated approach to the care and support they provide.

Safeguarding the welfare of children and young people is everyone’s business, where organisations (which includes all agencies and associated groups) have specific roles and responsibilities.

This chapter must be read alongside the Children and Young People (Jersey) Law 2022and the commensurate statutory guidance. The statutory guidance explains statutory responsibilities, the role of corporate parents and specific responsibilities of different organisations in line with the law.

Practitioners must follow the Statutory Guidance on sharing information (which follows the

Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018) and follow Guidance and training for Jersey’s Children First and in the Children and Young People’s Law Statutory Guidance.

The role of the SPB is to:

• Co-ordinate what is done by each organisation participating in the Boards for the purposes of Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and adults in Jersey;
• Promote understanding of the need and means to protect children and adults from harm;
• Monitor and ensure the effectiveness of the safeguarding systems that are in place both within and between organisations in Jersey.

All agencies and organisations working with children, young people have a duty to promote and safeguard their welfare. The SPB Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) sets out expectations. The SPB is not a statutory body, however the MOU reflects the decision by the council of Ministers to establish parallel Safeguarding Adults and Safeguarding Children Partnership Boards. The purpose of the MOU is to ensure organisations have a clear understanding of the role of the SPB and make a commitment to co-operate with them, by providing the information the SPB require to fulfil their coordinating and monitoring functions and enable the Boards to hold agencies to account for their safeguarding practice and arrangements.

Jersey Children’s First (JCF) is the overarching framework which sets out how you should work together to ensure children, young people and their families can access the right help at the right time from right services. Where services have a statutory responsibility to work together. At the heart of the JCF is a commitment to early intervention which is coordinated around children and families when needed. Early intervention means providing support as soon as a problem emerges, at any point in a child and young person’s life. Please see the range of guidance and training for JCF here.

Safeguarding welfare includes:

• Protecting children from maltreatment;
• Preventing impairment of children's health or development;
• Ensuring that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care;
• Taking action to enable all children to have the best life chances.

Child abuse can take many forms. You should be aware of, and alert to, different forms of harm and abuse including physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse and neglect. 

Where a child (including an unborn child) or young person presents with a health or development need (see Statutory Guidance – Levels of Need) or where there is need to safeguard their welfare practitioners must:

• Where a child is at immediate risk of harm practitioners must call the Police on 999;
• Follow the SPB Children and Young People Safeguarding Referrals Procedure;
• Refer to the Children and Families Hub;
• Where a child may have been physically abused, suffered neglect or sexual abuse consideration must be given to following the Child Protection Medical Pathway and/or the Child Sexual Abuse Pathway;
• Where abuse is related to an adult at risk, practitioners must follow the SPB Adult Protection Procedures and raise a safeguarding concern with referral to the Single Point of Referral for Adults at risk of harm.

Practitioners should use the JCF Continuum of Need (a tool which supports professional judgment in the assessment of risk).

Where practitioners become aware or concerned in relation to Organised and Complex Abuse - SPB Jersey chapter on Organised and Complex Abuse gives practitioner advice on the actions to take.

SPB Jersey Core Procedures and Practice Guidance gives detailed advice and guidance on specific topics.

Sharing information is a key part of promoting the wellbeing of children and safeguarding their welfare. The Children and Young People (Jersey) Law 2022 Statutory Guidance sets out information sharing arrangements. The lawful basis for sharing information related to the promotion and support of wellbeing is consent. At this level of need, the practitioner should ask the child and/or parents for consent to share information before making a submission to the Children and Families Hub.

The lawful basis for sharing information necessary to meet a health or development need or a safeguarding need is the performance of a public function (see Statutory Guidance – Levels of Need). At these levels of need, you should not ask the child or parents for consent to share information when you make a submission to the Children and Families Hub because you have another legal basis to do so. You should, however, inform the child and parents of what information you are sharing with the Children and Families Hub and the reason you are sharing it prior to making a submission unless to do so would increase or create a risk of harm to the child. This is required to meet the lawful, fairness and transparency principle of the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018. You should give the child and parents the opportunity to say what they think about their information being shared and this should be recorded on the request for support form. 

There are some situations where being transparent about information sharing may put children at increased risk. You must consider whether it is appropriate to be transparent about the sharing in these circumstances and, if not, document your reasons for not telling individuals that their information is to be shared. In high-risk cases where there may be a resultant Police investigation, the timing of when to inform those with parental responsibility about the concerns may be taken at a strategy discussion. Further guidance on information sharing is provided in the Children and Young People (Jersey) Law 2022 Statutory Guidance where practitioners are guided to seek advice from their Designated Safeguarding Lead Practitioners.

Each agency must have a senior member of staff who is designated to take lead responsibility for safeguarding the welfare of children, young people (and adults where applicable). Where they are responsible for ensuring staff have a programme of role specific training, provide access to safeguarding supervision, and are available for advice and support. 

Designate Leads and Lead Practitioners will usually be responsible for co-ordinating and completing Safeguarding Practice Reviews (otherwise known as Serious Case Reviews/Rapid Reviews). Designate Leads and Lead Practitioners must have sufficient standing and seniority to ensure resulting action plans are followed and hold an accessible and clear record of their organisations action plan which demonstrates timely outcomes. 

All organisations should have a Safeguarding Children and Young People Policy and their policy must name a lead or designated person in the organisation who:

• Is responsible for updating and reviewing the policy;
• staff can access support and supervision with regards to any safeguarding concerns;
• is appropriately trained in Safeguarding commensurate to their role.

The SPB run courses which explain the role of Designate Safeguarding Leads and can be accessed here.

All staff who work with children and young people and their families, must be enabled by their organisation to attend training in safeguarding children and adults (on a yearly basis) commensurate to their role. It is advised staff use a combination of online, face to face and multi-agency training to get the best out of their safeguarding training.

Some organisations have their own mandatory training frameworks, with regards to Safeguarding Training:

• Children, Young People and Education must follow Keeping Children Safe in Education;
• Health Practitioners must follow the RCN Intercollegiate Guidance for Adults, Children and Looked After Children.

The SPB have a mapped on island multi-agency training framework, and organisations who do not have a safeguarding training framework in place, should use this framework.  The training framework provides the minimum standards expected by the SPB.

By using the SPB Multi-Agency Training Framework and SPB Training Programme, organisations can find the right course to suit their needs. Staff should discuss their training needs with their manager, where modules are set depending on the role, they have within the organisation. 

All agencies and organisations have access to inter-agency training provided through a variety of means. The SPB run course which are free of charge (a small number of courses incur a cost which the SPB recover – no profit is made). Click here for more information about the SPB Training Program.

All agencies and organisations must follow safe recruitment procedures. To ensure staff are recruited and selected in line with their agency / organisations policy, interviews are held, DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) and Police checks conducted and other procedures such as references are taken up to verify each person’s suitability to work with children and young people. 

Please see Guidance for Safe Recruitment Selection and Retention for staff and Volunteers for further information.

Organisations must have policies in place to deal with allegations made against staff or volunteers in relation to child protection matters. Please see Multi Agency Managing Allegations Framework for Children and Managing Allegations Framework for Adults here.

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.

Adult Services

Adult Mental Health Service

Affordable Housing Gateway

Alcohol & Drugs Service

Ambulance Service

Andium Homes

Brook Jersey

Children’s Social Care Service

Child Development and Therapy Centre (CDC)

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS)

Children, Young People, Education and Skills

Customer and Local Services

Dewberry House - Sexual Assault Referral Centre

Family Nursing & Home Care

Free from Domestic Abuse (FREEDA)

General Practitioners (Doctors)

Honorary Police

Health and Community Services

Infrastructure and Environment

Jersey Domestic Abuse Support (JDAS)

Jersey Care Commission

Jersey Child Care Trust

Jersey Employment Trust

Jersey General Hospital

Jersey Prison Service (La Moye Prison)

Jersey Sport

Jersey Youth Service

Justice and Home Affairs

Mind Jersey

NSPCC

States of Jersey Police

Probation and After-Care Service (JPACS)

Registered Childcare Providers

Shelter Trust

The Law Officers’Department

Viscount’s Department

Voluntary organisations and private sector providers play a key role in delivering services to children. They must have the arrangements described in place in the same way as organisations in the public sector and need to work effectively with the SPB.

Churches, other places of worship and faith-based organisations provide a wide range of activities for children and have a key role in safeguarding children and supporting families. Like other organisations who work with children they need to have appropriate arrangements in place to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.

For contact details - please see www.gov.je for Government of Jersey Departments and www.jod.je for additional details on other organisations. Where an agency or organisation is not listed and/or wishes to review their policy and procedures to have them included in this manual they are advised to contact the SPB:

Safeguarding Partnership Board
16 Britannia Place
Bath Street
St Helier
Jersey
JE2 4YS

Tel: 01534 442752
E-mail: safeguardingpartnershipboard@gov.je.