Structure of the Partnership

There are now four organisations in Northamptonshire who are jointly responsible for the partnership arrangements for keeping children safe: North Northamptonshire Council, West Northamptonshire Council, Northamptonshire Police and Northamptonshire Integrated Care Board.

These four organisations form the strategic leads group which leads on the partnership. The strength of local partnership working relies on safeguarding partners working collaboratively and robustly with relevant agencies to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. In addition to the four main statutory partners there are a number of other relevant agencies who will continue to work as part of the partnership.

These working relationships have been built on over previous years and their membership of the Strategic Partnership Group and Sub Groups will continue. These include, schools, the emergency services, NHS trusts, early years settings, probation services, secure settings and many more local agencies working with children and young people.

The partnership also includes Lay Members, whose role is to represent the local community and members from the Voluntary and Community sector.

Independent Scrutiny

The partnership has an Independent Scrutineer whose role it will be to:

• Review the Partnership’s annual report.
• Review audits and performance data, including Section 11 and Section 175 audits.
• Determine the effectiveness of arrangements to identify and review local child safeguarding reviews.
• Involvement in the escalation and conflict resolution process.
• Have regular direct contact with frontline practitioners to receive frontline practice feedback.
• Ensure the voice of the child is at the heart of all aspects of safeguarding and receive direct feedback from children, young people and their families to monitor the effectiveness of their voice and experiences with performance and practice.
• Embed scrutiny as a positive process and measure throughout the partnership with learning as the outcome.
• Ensure informed challenge from elected Members takes place.

Partnership Sub Groups:

• Child Death Review
• Child Exploitation
• Neglect
• Local Learning Review
• Quality & Governance 
• Training & Development
• Communications

 

Last updated: 12 April 2023