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Barnsley Safeguarding Children Partnership
Barnsley Safeguarding Children Partnership is the organisation responsible for agreeing how services and agencies work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people in the borough, and ensuring that they do so effectively.
The Children and Social Work Act 2017 and Working together to safeguard children 2023 places this responsibility on the three 'safeguarding partners' - the police, the local authority, and health - to formulate the local arrangements for partnership arrangements for safeguarding children in their respective geographical areas.
The partnership replaced the Barnsley Safeguarding Children Board on 1 April 2019 following the Wood Review and the revised 'Working together to safeguard children 2018' guidance. It brings together senior representatives from the key statutory, voluntary, and community sectors with a responsibility for delivering services to children and young people, and has had an independent scrutineer since November 2021.
The chair of the partnership is accountable to the three safeguarding partners through the Chief Executive and Director of Children's Services. Each agency representative involved in the work of the partnership is accountable to the governing body of their own agency.
Role of the partnership
Members of the partnership work to keep children and young people in Barnsley safe from harm, particularly those who are most vulnerable, and to make sure that they:
- feel secure
- are well cared for
- are able to reach their full potential
They also provide support and training for those who work with children and young people, in whatever capacity, to make sure that they're fully aware of their roles and responsibilities in relation to safeguarding, and that they're appropriately qualified.
The Barnsley Safeguarding Children Partnership brings together the three lead partners (the local authority, police, and South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board, to plan and work together with other partners in order to protect and safeguard children in the local area. Changes from the 2023 statutory guidance are reflected in our multi-agency safeguarding arrangements 2024-26, published in December 2024.
Our aim is to be more effective together than we are as separate agencies. This is in our shared and equal duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people of Barnsley.
Partnership member agencies
Barnsley Safeguarding Children Partnership is made up of members from a range of agencies:
- Independent chair
- Safeguarding partners:
The following organisations are partnership members with a duty to make arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of children:
- South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
- Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
- NHS England
- South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue
- National Probation Service
- CAFCASS
- IDAS
- Berneslai Homes
- Children’s social care service (Barnsley Council)
- Legal Services (Barnsley Council)
- Public Health (Barnsley Council)
- Youth Offending Team (Barnsley Council)
- Barnsley College
- Healthwatch Barnsley
- Head teacher representative – Barnsley primary schools
- Head teacher representative – Barnsley senior schools
- Barnsley Council cabinet spokesperson (participant observer)
Partnership sub-groups
The partnership structure has a number of sub-groups that bring extra focus to particular issues and priorities. This structure is reviewed regularly and amended if necessary to ensure multi-agency contribution to priority areas.
Read more about the domestic abuse sub-group.
Statutory safeguarding children guidance
Working together to safeguard children 2023 is statutory guidance from the government on inter-agency working to promote the welfare of children. It replaces the previous statutory guidance from 2018. You can read a summary of the statutory guidance changes on the NSPCC website.
In Barnsley, we develop our strategic priorities each year. This is so we can continue to implement the requirements set out by the government.
We have subsequently developed further guidance, including an update to the child death review arrangements which form part of the statutory guidance.
Defining and guiding the work of the partnership
The following documents define and guide the work of the partnership through the year:
- Working together to safeguard children 2023 (GOV.UK)
- Working together to safeguard children 2023: child-friendly version (GOV.UK)
- Multi-agency safeguarding arrangements (MASA)
- Barnsley Safeguarding Children Partnership business plan 2025-26
- Barnsley Safeguarding Children Partnership self-assessment audit 2024
- Safeguarding children annual report
- Children and Young People Plan 2023-26
Annual report
Our safeguarding children annual report is a document we have a duty to produce. It gives an annual update on what we've delivered from our strategic plan.
Safeguarding news
Keep up with the latest safeguarding news and events by reading our safeguarding newsletters.
