Dear colleagues

Welcome back after half term. I know the next few weeks will be very busy as we come to the end of the school year.

I wanted to draw your attention to two articles in the Bulletin this week; the first relates to changes to our Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) arrangements.

Following new legislation, regulation and statutory guidance, there are significant changes being made nationally to safeguarding governance arrangements.  There are now three statutory Safeguarding Partners – the local authority; local police service and NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups – responsible for the effectiveness of local safeguarding children arrangements.  All local areas have been required to review the operation of their existing LSCB and publish new arrangements by June 2019. Any changes must be implemented by September 2019.

Surrey’s review of existing arrangements has led to a number of key changes including:

• A new Safeguarding Children Partnership that will be established and led, jointly and equally, by the County Council, Surrey Police, and Guildford and Waverley CCG (acting on behalf of all CCGs and NHS Providers in Surrey). 
• The Partnership will establish and implement a strategic safeguarding children plan for the county and will adopt a more robust approach to performance management and quality of services delivering the plan.
• Surrey’s current Local Safeguarding Children Board will be replaced by the new Partnership.
• The three statutory Safeguarding Partners will form a new Executive Group for the Partnership, joined by representatives from the county’s schools and colleges; district and borough councils; and the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner. Third sector representatives will attend the Executive on an issue by issue basis.

The addition of a representative of our county’s schools indicates the very important role you play in the safegaurding system. Please do take a few minutes to read the fuller update which can be found here.

I also want to introduce you to our Interim Head teacher of the Surrey Virtual School for looked after Children. Glinys joined Surrey after the Easter break and is a former Head teacher and school improvement specialist with significant experience in the education of vulnerable learners. Glinys will be seeking opportunities to meet with Head teachers and other groups in the coming weeks to set out the vision for the future of the Virtual school, highlight our current priorities and  explore how we can work together to support looked after children and post looked after children and young people to do their very best. 

The full introduction and the Surrey Virtual School team structure can be found here.

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