We recognise the most important influence in a child’s life is family. Children who grow up with safe, stable and nurturing relationships form stronger friendships, develop greater resilience, achieve more in school and are more likely to build positive relationships throughout their lives.
We are child focussed in our intent but recognise that the most effective way to help and protect children is to work alongside the whole family. Therefore strengthening families is central to our aims as we know that families have greater capacity for change when we work with them as partners. This is part of an evidence based approach known as Restorative Practice.
We aim to embed a culture across our workforce where dignity and respect is the basis for our interventions. Every member of staff will understand the principles of Restorative Practice and its ethos will underpin all of our work and align to the borough vision of ‘Forging a Future for all’.
Dudley Family Safeguarding
Partnership Board
A partnership board has been set up to oversee the development and implementation of the Family Safeguarding model in Dudley.
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"...families become involved with children’s social care because they are parenting in conditions
of adversity, rather than because they have caused or are likely to cause significant harm to their
children. We have a shared obligation to help families raise their children."
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Membership is made up from the following organisations:
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Dudley Council
Black Country Integrated Care Board
Dudley Integrated Health & Care NHS Trust
Black Country Healthcare Trust
Dudley Council for Voluntary Services
Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust
Probation Service
Black Country Women's Aid
Change Grow Live
West Midlands Police
Dudley Safeguarding People Partnership
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A partnership charter exists to establish and sustain the Family Safeguarding approach to safeguarding children in the Dudley Borough.
By signing up to this Charter, partners are committing to:
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Keeping more children within their families in line with the vision of the Children Act 1989.
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Placing specialist adult domestic abuse, mental health and substance misuse workers within children’s services under the direction of the social work team manager, ensuring continuity in provision of staff in the event of long-term absence or poor performance/conduct.
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Providing their staff with personal and professional supervision and development from their respective disciplines and being responsible for Human Resources matters.
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Adapting recording methods and information sharing approaches to enable identification of measurable impacts of Family Safeguarding and contribute to performance monitoring and reporting.
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Implementing group supervision arrangements to ensure shared ownership and understanding of the work we are undertaking with individual families.
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Taking part in any local or national evaluation of Family Safeguarding
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Exploring funding mechanisms across the partnership to ensure sustainability of the approach if the model demonstrates these outcomes in our area.
This charter covers commitment to the Family Safeguarding Approach for a minimum period of 2 years, with
agreement to review every 12 months.
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