About Us
If a child is in immediate danger please call 999
Welcome to the Barnet Safeguarding Children Partnership website.
Our aim is to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people in Barnet, and to achieve this we work collectively to improve safeguarding practice and respond to local issues.
We welcome professionals, volunteers, parents, carers, and - most importantly - children and young people to our website. We hope the different sections help you to understand our work and provide useful information about local services and how to tackle abuse and neglect.
Our vision
Our vision is to enable children, young people and families to thrive and achieve, and a core part of our approach is to foster resilience. We aim to create a Family Friendly Borough, a place where children and young people excel and enjoy living.
We bring together a broad spectrum of organisations in Barnet who work with children and young people and our new board structure has allowed us to collaborate more effectively with a range of partners. We strive to work closely with children and young people, as well as practitioners and volunteers in Barnet, to hear their views and experiences and use this to shape our priorities.
Our purpose is to support and enable local organisations and agencies to work together in a system where:
- children are safeguarded and their welfare promoted
- partner organisations and agencies collaborate, share and co-own the vision for how to achieve improved outcomes for vulnerable children
- organisations and agencies challenge appropriately and hold one another to account effectively
- there is early identification and analysis of new safeguarding issues and emerging threats
- learning is promoted and embedded in a way that local services for children and families can become more reflective and implement changes to practice which are shaped by the experiences and concerns of Barnet children and families
- information is shared effectively to facilitate more accurate and timely decision making for children and families.
The statutory safeguarding partners in Barnet
David Pennington Director Safeguarding , NHS North Central London ICB
Cath Shaw, Interim Chief Executive, London Borough of Barnet
Tony Bellis Detective Superintendent, Head of Public Protection, NW BCU, Metropolitan Police.
We coordinate our activities through our board structure which involves all our local partners. To find out more about what we do, please take a look at our annual reports and multi-agency safeguarding arrangements.
We have recently undergone our first annual independent scrutiny. Please find the report, produced by our Independent Scrutineers, here which outlines our effectiveness
Get in touch
We'd love to hear from you, if you have any questions, suggestions or comments about the work of Barnet Safeguarding Children Partnership please drop us an email at bscp@barnet.gov.uk.
BSCP Annual Reports, Independent Scrutiny Reports & Business Plans
Our annual reports are published in line with Working Together 2023
BSCP is pleased to publish its most recent annual report publication covering the period October 2023 - March 2024. This is an addendum report to our substantive annual report (found below) and makes us compliant with Working Together 2023. It can be found here /assets/aba491f3/bscp_annual_report-addendum_2024-final_-sept.pdf
Our next annual report, covering the period April 2024 - March 2025 will be published soon after September 2025.
In the meantime, our addendum provides insight into key learning and impact upon the local system of practice change and, for the first time, an overview of outcomes as a result of our focus upon shared safeguarding themes of: Safer Sleeping, FGM, Recruitment & Retention and Family Networks.
BSCP is also pleased to publish its latest independent scrutiny report dated January 2025. Tasked with scrutinizing the effectiveness of our multi agency safeguarding arrangements, it was outlined by the team of scrutineers that: "There are strong partnership arrangements to ensure that children in Barnet are safeguarded and their welfare promoted. Our judgement is that the Multi-agency Safeguarding Arrangements for Barnet Safeguarding Children Partnership continue to comply with Working Together 2023, and that the partnership is well placed to take forward the changes in the Children Wellbeing and Schools Bill. The BSCP Annual report addendum for 2023/24 was seen by the scrutineers and continues to focus on impact and outcomes for children and young people and covers the areas required by Working Together 2023 for reporting. "
Our 2025/26 Business Plan can also be found here which outlines our shared safeguarding themes and priorities for the next year.
Previous Annual Reports can be found here:
2020-21 Annual Report
2021-22 Annual Report
2022-23 Annual Report
Multi Agency Safeguarding Arrangements
Working Together 2023 sets out the following requirements for the Multi Agency Safeguarding Arrangements (MASA). They must include:
- Arrangements for the safeguarding partners to work together to identify and respond to the needs of children in the area
- Arrangements for commissioning and publishing local child safeguarding practice reviews
- Arrangements for independent scrutiny of the effectiveness of the arrangements.
These arrangements and all the information relating to them will be published on the Barnet Safeguarding Children’s Partnership website and are detailed henceforth within this document.
These arrangements will be subject to review and will be updated at least annually. You can find our MASA here
Our Boards
If a child is in immediate danger please call 999
We have a number of boards which provide strategic oversight and deliver the work of Barnet Safeguarding Children Partnership. Our multi-agency partners including Barnet Council, Metropolitan Police Service, North Central London CCG, health providers, education and the voluntary sector are represented across the boards.
The terms of reference set out in more detail the objectives and membership of each of the groups, as well as how the boards interlink to improve safeguarding of children and young people in Barnet.
If you have any questions about our board structure or would like to raise an item for consideration at one of our boards, please email BSCP@barnet.gov.uk.
The Leadership Forum provide strategic direction for the Partnership with a membership of the three senior leaders from the London Borough of Barnet, Metropolitan Police Service NW BCU and NHS North Central London ICB. The Leadership Forum oversee all of the Partnership's activities and receive regular updates from the subgroups. Chairing is rotated yearly between the 3 statutory safeguarding partners. Terms of reference here.
The Performance and Quality Assurance Panel has a crucial scrutiny and assurance function, reviewing multi-agency performance data and a range of annual reports including from the MASH, LADO, Tackling Youth Violence & Exploitation, Barnet Education & Learning Services annual report. PQA takes an active role in monitoring and advising many of the BSCP activities, including multi-agency audits, the training programme, Section 11 audits, Professional and Young People Forums and thematic deep dives. It also receives regular reports from the Voluntary, Community and Faith Sector subgroup. Terms of reference here.
The Learning and Thematic Review Group is an independently chaired meeting looking at serious safeguarding incidents and deaths involving children and young people. It undertakes Rapid Reviews, oversees local Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews and other bespoke learning activities, and monitors the implementation of recommendations. It also reviews national Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews and other relevant learning and good practice to implement in Barnet. Terms of reference here.
The Voluntary, Community and Faith Sector Group has recently been reinvigorated in Barnet with a new strategy and terms of reference. Its membership consists of larger community groups from Barnet and umbrella organisations which represent the VCF sector. Its aims are to bring the voice and knowledge of VCF organisations to the Partnership, as well as to improve safeguarding practice across the sector and increase engagement with Partnership activities and training.
For a visual guide to our Boards and our governance please click here.