Independent Scrutineer, Halton Safeguarding

**Salary**: £600 per day, (inclusive of expenses) for 30 days per year

**Location**:Halton

**Accountable to**: Halton Safeguarding Children’s Partnership Executive Board

**Key purpose of post**

1.1 - To provide scrutiny and challenge and form a central part of the wider system of independent scrutiny to judge the effectiveness of the multi-agency safeguarding arrangements.

1.2 - To use feedback and information from partner organisations and children young people and families to evaluate how well the safeguarding partners are providing strong leadership and drive continuous improvement.

1.3 - To act as a critical friend, encouraging reflection on practice and providing a line of sight for the HSCP into the lived experiences of children and young people.

1.4 - To ensure partnership working enhances the identification of learning and its embedding into multi-agency practice, including arrangements to identify and review serious child safeguarding cases.

1.5 - To ensure that quality assurance and learning into practice does not occur in silos and identifies the impact safeguarding system learning and changes make to improving outcomes for children and young people.

**Anticipated outcomes of Post**

2.1 - The HSCP operates effectively and exercises its functions as set out in the

Children and Social Work Act 2017 and Working Together (2018).

2.2 - The HSCP has a clear focus and priorities as set out in its business plan, and

that these are delivered.

2.3. - A robust performance-monitoring framework and culture across the partnership

that ensures that all agencies performance can be monitored, evaluated, and improved is embedded.

**Key duties and accountabilities of the post**

3.1 - Responsible for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children at all times

3.2 - To ensure the HSCP benefits from a distinct, independent, and objective voice representing the views of all partners, children, and families.

3.3 - To provide independent challenge and holding to account of the HSCP and its partner agencies.

3.4 - To inform, contribute to and support the HSCP’s wider system of independent scrutiny.

3.5 - To report to and attend meetings of the HSCP Lead Partners as necessary and agreed with safeguarding partners

3.6 - To facilitate the effective operation of HSCP Board and Sub-Groups, including chairing of partnership meetings and ensuring they are fulfilling their functions effectively and with integrity.

3.7 - To provide independent oversight, analysis, and challenge of the HSCP quality assurance activities.

3.8 - To scrutinise the effectiveness of implementation and embedding of findings and outcomes of multi-agency safeguarding learning reviews providing challenge to and oversight of the development of any changes to system delivery.

3.9 - To provide independent oversight and scrutiny on serious child safeguarding cases ensuring reviews are undertaken rigorously in line with statutory guidance and acting as liaison between the HSCP and the National Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel on cases relating to children, and act as an advisor to the HSCP regarding responses to the National Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel upon conclusions reached within HSCP Rapid Reviews.

3.10 - To seek assurance that effective safeguarding performance management, audit and quality assurance mechanisms are in place within partner organisations to enable the HSCP to fulfil its statutory objectives and identify and measure its success, impact, and outcomes.

3.11 - To hold partner organisations to account for effective implementation of recommendations identified from multi-agency safeguarding learning reviews and serious child safeguarding practice reviews.

3.12 - To support the development of child-focussed innovation and service improvement in system delivery.

3.13 - To maintain focus on the impact of service arrangements on outcomes for children and young people and ensure that children/young people’s voice and experience informs system learning.

3.14 - To provide for the HSCP a line of sight into frontline practitioner experience, strengths, and challenges.

3.15 - To contribute to the content of the HSCP’s annual report on the effectiveness of safeguarding arrangements for children and young people and their performance.

3.16 - To aid in dispute resolution within the HSCP.

3.17 - To seek assurance that workforce development embeds the findings and outcomes of multi-agency safeguarding learning reviews and serious child safeguarding practice reviews.

Closing date: 10 September 2023.

**Salary**: From £600.00 per day

Work Location: In person

Application deadline: 10/09/2023