Section 11
Compliance with the requirements set out in Section 11 of the Children Act 2004 is a mandatory requirement for most organisations involved with children and young people.
Improving the way key people and bodies safeguard and promote the welfare of children is crucial to improving outcomes for children. Section 11 places a duty on key persons and bodies to make arrangements to ensure that in discharging their functions they have regard to the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.
Lincolnshire Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) considers that all partners, including the Local Authority, covered by the key duties under Section 11 must be able to demonstrate to the Board that they are compliant. Those organisations commissioned to deliver statutory functions on behalf of statutory LSCB partners must also clearly demonstrate Section 11 compliance. There will be a range of other organisations who receive funding to deliver services; where they are not delivering statutory functions, the LSCB will not require Section 11 compliance, however, within this context it will expect, through contractual arrangements, all organisations to demonstrate Safeguarding Standards which will be the same as the standards explained in Section 11; the difference is the need to demonstrate safe practice and it is not a statutory requirement.
Within Lincolnshire Section 11 and Safeguarding Standards compliance is monitored using both Strategic and individual Case File Assessments. Compliance monitoring is undertaken in conjunction with an LSCB Moderator who may both assess and assist the organisation in improving their performance. Relevant organisations are strongly encouraged to undertake their own assessment to check compliance, even if they have not yet been scheduled to do so by LSCB
The Strategic Level Assessment (see downloads) provides a series of questions which probe the organisation’s compliance with the key requirements of Section 11, and by completing this and grading your organisation’s performance you will gain an understanding of how compliant you are and where areas of improvement are needed.
To assist you in this process a Grading Criteria and Working Guidance for Completing the Assessment (see downloads) provides examples of evidence that may be relevant to your organisation. It is not prescriptive and you can provide alternative examples so long as they demonstrate that you have met the criteria.
LSCB want to ensure organisations are putting Section 11 and Safeguarding Standards into practice. The Case File Assessment Toolkit (see downloads) requires organisations to select three current case files, or examples of interaction with children and young people, and examine how they meet the criteria.
For those organisations compiling a Section 11 Self-Assessment or Safeguarding Standards evidence portfolio a series of guidance documents (see downloads) are available: Portfolio Guidance Notes; Strategic Level Assessment Index; Case File Assessment Index and a Document List Index.
