Local Safeguarding Children Board

The Children Act 2004 followed the publication on 08.09.03 of the Governments formal response to the Victoria Climbie inquiry and it’s green paper “Every Child Matters”. Every Child Matters proposed changes in policy and law to maximise opportunities and minimise risk for all children.

The overall aim of The Children Act 2004 is to create clear accountability for Children’s Services, enable more effective joint working and to secure a better focus on Safeguarding Children.

The principal legislative changes introduce duties on Local Authorities to make arrangement through which key agencies co-operate to improve the well being of children.

The setting up of a statutory Local Safeguarding Children Board (under sec.13 of The Children Act 2004) to replace the non statutory Area Child Protection Committee (ACPC) is a corner stone to the implementation of the proposed changes.

This conference served as the formal launch of the Isle of Wight LSCB, and was an important opportunity for participants to consider the changes, discuss the barriers to implementation, and familiarise themselves with the core concepts of Lead Professional, Common Assessment Framework, Supervision, Policy and Common Values.