Child protection and safeguarding
How can I report a concern?
If you are concerned that a child or young person is at significant risk of harm, contact the Duty and Assessment team.
How are concerns investigated?
If a child needs protection, our specially trained staff will normally investigate together with the police. We may arrange a child protection conference where the family of the child and professional staff can share information and agree ways to protect your child.
One way of doing this is to agree a child protection plan which will outline what needs to change and what help will be recieved. The plan will also help to inform all the professionals working with the family so they too can support the family's needs.
Across Sussex, there are a numer of procedures in place on how to protect a child or young person if they are at risk of abuse
Child protection procedures
A Vetting and Barring Scheme was launched in October 2009 which aims to stop unsuitable people from working or volunteering with children or vulnerable adults:
Please note: as of June 2010 the coalition Government has decided to remove the the requirement to register with the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) for the moment, until further decisions about re-modelling the scheme have been made.
You can download full details of our child protection and safeguarding procedures from Czone, the website for people working in Children's Services in East Sussex:
Are you looking after someone's child?
If you look after somebody else's child and are not a close relative, then this is known by law as private fostering.
You must notify us if you look after this child, or have arranged for your own child to be looked after, if the child is under 16 and stays with the private foster carer for more than 28 days.
Safe parenting
Every family experiences difficulty from time to time and this can test parents. When more pressures come along, these can make a hard job nearly impossible. There are some ways that you can make it less stressful and a more rewarding experience:
What is child protection and safeguarding?
East Sussex Children's Services has a legal duty to protect children and young people who are at risk of abuse, whether this is physical, emotional, sexual, discriminatory or through neglect.
The East Sussex Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) is working to ensure there are effective methods for identifying, reporting, investigating and managing the protection of children. We take all allegations of abuse seriously and believe all children have the right to be safe and secure. Under the Children Act 2004 we are working to ensure:
- all those working with children and young people know what to do if they are worried about a child's safety
- when concerns are reported, action is taken quickly and sensitively to support the child and their family
- agencies working with children work effectively and follow legal guidelines.
For more about responsibilities and procedures generally, see the Department for Chidren, Schools and Families (DCSF) website:
The Children Act 1989 and 2004 sets out the law governing our responsibilities:
