Dorset Safeguarding Children Partnership

In July 2024, the decision was made to separate the Pan-Dorset Safeguarding Children’s Partnership into two partnerships; one covering the Dorset Council area and the other covering the Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole (BCP) area.

Each Safeguarding Children Partnership has a statutory responsibility as set out in the Working Together to Safeguard Children guidance (2023) for leadership and multi-agency co-ordination of “arrangements to work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children”.

The website has been re-structured into sections for each Safeguarding Children Partnership. For information from the Dorset Safeguarding Children Partnership please click here. For information from the BCP Safeguarding Children Partnership please click here.

There is some activity that will remain as Pan-Dorset and this includes the multi-agency child safeguarding training offer, our core safeguarding policies and procedures based on national guidance and our child death review process. For information on the Pan-Dorset activity please click here.

Working Groups (BCP)

As set out in Working Together (2023), the Lead Safeguarding Partners (LSPs) hold overall accountability for the multi-agency child safeguarding arrangements in their local area. The Lead Safeguarding Partners are the Chief Executives of Local Authorities, Chief Executives of the ICBs and Chief Officers of police forces. The LSPs for the BCP Safeguarding Children Partnership will meet three times a year to deliver their joint functions as set out in Working Together (2023).

For the BCP Safeguarding Children Partnership, the LSPs are:

  • Graham Farrant, Chief Executive Officer, BCP Council
  • Patricia Miller, Chief Executive Officer, Dorset Integrated Care Board (ICB)
  • Amanda Pearson, Chief Constable, Dorset Police 

The delivery of multi-agency safeguarding functions and processes should be delegated to the Delegated Safeguarding Partner (DSP). Working Together (2023) sets out that the DSP should be sufficiently senior to be able to speak with authority, take decisions on behalf of the LSP and hold their sectors to account. 

For the BCP Safeguarding Children Partnership, the Delegated Safeguarding Partners are: 

  • Cathi Hadley, Corporate Director – Children’s Service, BCP Council
  • Pam O’Shea, Interim Chief Nursing Officer, NHS Dorset 
  • Mark Callaghan, Assistant Chief Constable, Dorset Police

The delegated responsibilities of the LSP’s will be delivered by the DSPs through the BCP Partnership Meeting for the BCP Safeguarding Children Partnership, which the DSPs attend. These meetings take place three times per year and chaired by the DSP for the Local Authority. 

Sitting beneath the BCP Partnership Meeting is the Quality Assurance Learning Group (QALG) which will drive the activity of the Partnership’s sub-groups. Chairs from the focused sub-groups and task and finish project groups will attend the QALG to report their activities and escalations. 

Core Functions 
BCP Child Safeguarding Practice Review Groups  Reviews all serious incidents involving children and young people where abuse and neglect is suspected, commissions Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews (formerly SCRs) and individual multi-agency case reviews to gather and disseminate multi-agency learning. 
BCP Quality Assurance Group (QALG) Oversees and co-ordinates the place-based multi-agency safeguarding children quality assurance cycle.
Safeguarding in Education Working GroupThis group focuses on safeguarding in education arrangements.
Pan-Dorset and Somerset Child Death Overview Panel (CDOP) Combined with Somerset area from August 2018, this group carries out the statutory requirement to review the deaths of all children Pan-Dorset/Somerset to identify any modifiable factors and disseminate local/national learning from these.

The Partnership will commission additional Task and Finish Groups to carry out specific projects or pieces of work as required. These will often be related to the Partnership’s current priority areas, or arise in response to findings from reviews completed.