Berkshire West Multi-Agency Safeguarding Arrangements

Berkshire West partners are strongly committed to the shared responsibility to safeguard and protect children and young people. Berkshire West benefits from excellent inter-agency engagement, and proactive leadership, of this shared safeguarding agenda. We commit to working as partners to ensure all children and young people can live safe, happy and positive lives, achieving their potential and being respectful to others.

Please click on the below link to view our arrangements.

Revised BWSCP Multi-Agency Safeguarding Arrangements - February 2023
BWSCP Multi-Agency Safeguarding Arrangements

Please click on the below link to view our child and young person friendly version of our arrangements.

BWSCP Multi-Agency Safeguarding Arrangements - CYP Version

How we will work together

Berkshire West leaders recognise that the crucial work of the partnership often rests on how senior leaders work together to support and challenge each other, to identify risk and mitigate it together, and to problem solve systems issues. Senior leaders in Berkshire West will seek to model, a restorative approach to safeguarding leadership, clearly defining risk and keeping the child at the centre of decision making.

In order to promote the welfare of, and safeguard, Berkshire’s West’s children and young people effectively, we will:

Listen with care to our children and young people, and to each other
Hold each other to account through respectful support and challenge
Collaborate and co-operate with each other to improve outcomes for children
Spot problems and difficulties early, problem solving together, recognising we have shared responsibility for our children
Identify risks in our system and mitigate them together
Be efficient and timely in our responses to each other and to needs arising from our local communities
Recognise that each locality area (Reading, Wokingham and West Berkshire) are different and Independent Scrutiny needs to operate differently in each area, but also recognise that we have much to learn from each other and ultimately are stronger together.

Our foremost priority is that children and young people are safe and protected from harm, living happy fulfilled lives and achieving their potential.

Berkshire West partners are committed to understanding that the different decisions they make, the way services or support is organised, makes to positively improving outcomes for children. In particular senior leaders anticipate that a measure of success of these shared arrangements for safeguarding will be the extent to which partners problem solve and find solutions together, to improve outcomes for children. This will include effective partnership challenge and support. Where risks are identified they will be closely monitored, together, in partnership.

Please click on the below link to view our partnership structure chart.

Berkshire West Safeguarding Children Partnership Structure Chart

The Berkshire West Safeguarding Children Partnership provides administrative support for a number of meetings outlined in our structure chart.

Please click on the below link to view our Serious Incident Notification pathway process.

Serious Incident Notification Pathway

The Terms of Reference can be found below:

Berkshire West Safeguarding Children Partnership Executive Group

Pan Berkshire Children Policy & Procedures

Berkshire West Case Review Group

BWSCP Guidance for Statutory Case Review Process

Berkshire West Learning & Development

Berkshire West Section 175