Welcome to Haringey Multi-Agency Safeguarding Arrangements

      

Message on behalf of the three statutory partners

Welcome to the Haringey Safeguarding Children Partnership Multi Agency Safeguarding Arrangements

Our HSCP MASA Plan 2024 has been compiled following the requirements of Working Together 2023. It sets out how we will further embed our safeguarding arrangements and ensure through our local threshold agreements that help, and support is offered at the earliest opportunity to enable children, young people, and families to achieve positive outcomes and enable them to reach their full potential wherever possible.

In Haringey, the partners are fully committed to keeping children and young people at the heart of all of our activities and will seek every opportunity to involve them and their families in the decision- making, planning, commissioning, design, development, delivery, and evaluation of services that affect their daily lives. This will include our independent scrutiny arrangements in which children and young people’s experiences will be fundamental in quality assurance.

Strategic Leadership and Accountability

Strong, joined-up leadership and clear accountability is critical to effective safeguarding, bringing together the various organisations and agencies. It is therefore important that the head of each statutory safeguarding partner agency plays an active role in these arrangements. They (hereafter ‘Lead Safeguarding Partner’ or ‘LSP’) have been named because they are able to:

• speak with authority for the safeguarding partner they represent
• take decisions on behalf of their organisation or agency and commit them on policy, resourcing, and practice matters
• hold their own organisation or agency to account on how effectively they participate and implement the local arrangements 

Confirmation of strategic leadership following the London Model 

• In relation to the police, the LSP is already defined as the Chief Officer of Police.
• For local authorities, the LSP should be the Head of Paid Service, also known as the Chief Executive, and for ICBs the LSP should be the Chief Executive.
• Each LSP is responsible for discharging their own statutory and legislative duties to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. As leaders of their organisations and the statutory safeguarding partners, it is for LSPs to assure themselves that their local arrangements are effective and keep children safe. This includes systems of assurance and accountability within each of their organisations, including inspection findings.
• LSPs are jointly responsible for ensuring the proper involvement of and oversight of all relevant agencies, and should act as a team, as opposed to a voice for their agency alone (Working Together 2023). 

The LSPs can delegate their safeguarding duties (but not their responsibilities) to three key strategic Designated Safeguarding Partners (DSPs) who are: 

• Haringey Local Authority – Corporate Director of Children’s Services
• North Central London Integrated Care Board - Director of Safeguarding and Looked After Children
• Metropolitan Police Service - Detective Chief Superintendent North Area Borough Commander (Haringey and Enfield) 

In addition, the HSCP Independent Scrutineer will attend in their role as a critical friend, to provide support and challenge, but not as a decision maker. 

Executive Group meetings are chaired by the DSPs for the three lead safeguarding partners on a rotating annual basis. For the year 2025/26, the Corporate Director of Children’s Services will take on this role. In 2026/27 the Police will take the Chairing role and in 2027/28, the role will be carried out by Health. 

In addition, the Partnership has a nominated Independent Scrutineer – who will attend the Executive Group meetings in their role as a critical friend, and to provide support and challenge ,but not as a decision maker. 

There will be 2 meetings each year between the LSPs and the DSLs. 

We look forward to working with you to ensure that our children and their families in Haringey receive the best possible start in life and the best possible care and help when they need it.