Voluntary/ Community/Faith /Third Sector

The Third Sector- voluntary, community and faith organisations make a huge contribution to supporting and enriching the lives of children and young people in Solihull.

This section provides information for professionals and volunteers working in the sector to support working with children and young people. This is designed to help you keep up to date with developments in safeguarding.

All organisations working with children and young people and/ or their parents and carers should have robust policies and procedures which will ensure that children are safe, workers/ volunteers/ people in a position of trust know and understand their roles and responsibilities and how to respond appropriately if they have concerns about a child or young person’s safety or wellbeing.

Ensuring that all organisations, third sector, voluntary, community, faith and statutory sector work effectively together is essential when working with children and young people. Please see our multi-agency policies and procedures that are intended to promote close working between safeguarding agencies to facilitate early intervention to meet the needs of children and their families, and reflect current legislation, accepted best practice and comply with the government guidance; Working Together To Safeguard Children 2018

Policies and procedures should be frequently reviewed and updated to ensure they meet emerging requirements and challenges. It is important that this website is consulted on a regular basis to ensure practice and multi-agency working is guided by the most up to date procedures.

The SSCP provide at least one free place on all of the multi-agency training modules for the Solihull voluntary/ third sector, anyone attending should have completed a safeguarding awareness beforehand.

Effective sharing of information between practitioners and local organisations and agencies is essential for early identification of need, assessment and service provision to keep children safe. Serious case reviews (SCRs) have highlighted that missed opportunities to record, understand the significance of and share information in a timely manner can have severe consequences for the safety and welfare of children. (Working Together 2018) The SSCP provides further information on information sharing here.

The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) are hosting a range of safeguarding information and resources developed by the voluntary sector.