When monitoring the safeguarding of children and young people, it’s crucial that agencies work together to ensure that the vulnerable don’t fall through the gaps. Safeguarding software can help better align local authorities to schools and other settings involved in monitoring safeguarding by making it easier to share concerns.
Although multi-agency collaboration has long been a priority for monitoring child wellbeing and safeguarding, recent high-profile cases relating to safeguarding failures have provided a stark reminder of the risks when one agency doesn’t share information appropriately with others.
Navigating a complex system
When it comes to multi-agency collaboration, it’s a complex picture for all agencies to navigate. The referral threshold for social services is extremely high, as is the demand put on these services in the face of ongoing budget and resource pressures. The Independent Review of Children’s Social Care called for the government to clarify multi-agency safeguarding arrangements and include schools as a ‘statutory safeguarding partner’. Concerns have also been raised about the potential changes to data regulations and how this could impact how data is shared across relevant agencies.
In its recent education whitepaper, the government promised a range of measures to improve the sharing of information between organisations, reinforcing the need to focus on and improve communication between agencies.
So, how can safeguarding software improve multi-agency collaboration?
A report from the Home Office states that multi-agency collaboration leads to increased efficiency and ultimately better outcomes for children. Put simply, safeguarding software makes it easier to share concerns with other agencies.
CPOMS Engage is a software system that allows local authorities, schools and other relevant parties to record and monitor their safeguarding concerns in one place, providing complete transparency and building a full picture of an individual child’s safeguarding needs. The software helps to create a joined-up response, making it easier to recognise and respond to safeguarding concerns via an agreed share contract through seamless, secure transfer between systems. This then helps make the relevant referral process much more efficient.
CPOMS Engage also allows teams to track issues and concerns and share them across different departments within a local authority, such as virtual schools, social care/early help, and domestic abuse teams. And if a child moves from one local authority to another, CPOMS Engage allows the authorities to quickly share information with one another. This ensures that students are always supported and don’t fall through the gaps. It gives the new local authority a full picture of their history so staff can make informed decisions about the support they may need.
The key benefits:
If you’re considering implementing safeguarding software, understanding the benefits will help you make the case for this at your agency. Here’s three benefits to remember:
- Enable accurate and efficient information sharing – saving time without compromising on the quality of information sharing.
- Create a full picture of an individual child’s safeguarding needs – enabling concerns to be identified earlier.
- Ensure better outcomes for children – be in the best possible position for effective joint decision making with other settings and coordinated action.
To find out more about how CPOMS Engage could help you, get in touch with our team today.
