Please see the relevant topic in the "Working with children" section for related policy, procedure or guidance. If the policy or procedures you are looking for are not listed under the various topics or below, please email Andrea Klingel, Policy and Performance Officer (aklingel@Lambeth.gov.uk).

How to write a Safeguarding Policy

Any organisation or group that works with children or young people or is in regular contact with them should have a Safeguarding policy with a clear set of guidelines about how they will keep children safe and to respond to child protection concerns. The NSPCC provides useful advice about how to write a Safeguarding policy and what to take into consideration; they also provide a Safeguarding policy template as a starting point. Once your organisation or group has an agreed policy, there should be a plan of action to make sure all adults and children are aware of, understand and can access the safeguarding policy.

Other guidance / policies / procedures

The Right to Choose: Multi-agency statutory guidance for dealing with forced marriage

Safer Lambeth Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) strategy 2016-2020

Section 11 audit

Section 11 (s11) of the Children Act 2004 places a duty on key bodies to ensure that their functions - and any that they contract out to others, are discharged “with regard to the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children”. 

The Section 11 audit tool is a self-assessment tool used by agencies to gauge their compliance to s11 requirements and it is based on the Pan-London s11 self-assessment tool.  The LSCB reviews the s11 audit of statutory services to check their compliance with s11 of the Children Act 2004 and the audit programme runs over 2 years. Statutory services can use the audit tool to monitor commissioned services’ compliance with the s11 criteria and any agency can use the tool to monitor the effectiveness of their own arrangements for safeguarding children at a strategic level.

If you have any queries in regard to the completion of the audit tool, please contact Maria Burton, LSCB Business Manager on 020 7296 7540 or email mfburton@Lambeth.gov.uk

Lambeth Section 11 audit programme

Section 157 / 175 audit (School safeguarding checklist)

Sections 157 and 175 of the Education Act 2002 places a statutory duty on independent and maintained schools to make arrangements to ensure that in discharging their functions, they have regard to the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and that any services they contract out to others are provided having regard to that need.

In fulfilling its statutory objectives under Section 14 of the Children Act 2004, the Lambeth Safeguarding Children Board is required to ensure that schools are meeting these duties effectively.

A Safeguarding checklist was developed to gather information to ensure that all schools and education settings in Lambeth have arrangements in place according to s157 / 175 and s11 statutory requirements. All schools and education settings complete this on an annual basis.

If you have any queries in regards to the completion of the Safeguarding checklist, please contact Denys Rasmussen, Safeguarding lead for Early Years and Primary schools on 020 7926 8915 or email drasmussen@Lambeth.gov.uk or Sarwan Singh Jandu, Safeguarding lead for Primary schools, Secondary schools and colleges on 0797 6490 051 or email at sjandu@Lambeth.gov.uk 

Good information sharing is vital when professionals are worried about children and young people. Numerous serious case reviews have shown us that a lack of appropriate and timely information sharing is a key issue and can mean that we are failing children and young people.

There are two essential factors to consider when working with children and young people:

• timely information sharing is key to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. It enables intervention that crucially tackles problems at an early stage
• if a child is at risk or suffering significant harm, the law supports you to share information without consent.

Generally, however, professionals should always seek consent to share information when it is right to do so and where this does not place a child or young person at risk.

Every person has a right to privacy under the European Convention on Human Rights (Article 8).

Unless there’s a statutory duty or a court order to share information, you’ll need to use your professional judgement based on the facts of the case to decide whether to share and what should be shared. When you’re making these decisions, the safety and welfare of the child must be your key consideration. You must have a clear and legitimate purpose for sharing information.

If you are worried about someone, you are allowed to talk with other professionals without fearing you are doing something wrong. Talking to each other and sharing information when trying to protect children or young people from actual or likely harm or to prevent a crime is lawful and in the substantial public interest.

Further details can be found in the Government's Information sharing guidance (March 2015) and

NSPCC's Information sharing and confidentiality guidance for practitioners

This statutory guidance covers the legislative requirements and expectations on individual services to safeguard and promote the welfare of children; and a framework for Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCBs) to monitor the effectiveness of local services. The document replaces Working Together to Safeguard Children (2013); The Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families (2000); and Statutory Guidance on making arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of children under section 11 of the Children Act 2004 (2007). Click here for the Guidance Working Together 2015

The main safeguarding policies and procedures are contained in the London Child Protection Procedures.

Please click on the link to download the following Lambeth Policies: Child Protection s47 Enquiries, Child Protection Conferences and Implementation of Child Protection Plans. These policies were updated and implemented since the 1st September 2015.