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1.2.14 Escalation Process

SCOPE OF THIS CHAPTER

Safeguarding children and promoting their welfare is the paramount concern of Children Social Care services. Subsequently as child care professionals bound by a professional code of conduct it is our responsibility to challenge decisions that we believe:

  • Compromise the safety of children or place them at risk of harm;
  • Are not understood or not in a child's best interests.

This should be done in an open and transparent way that is inclusive and at a level that develops understanding, a collective responsibility and learning to improve our practice and decision-making.


Process

The following process should be followed in instances where staff are concerned for the welfare of children and young people and wish to raise their concern to an appropriate manager of sufficient seniority to ensure the child's welfare is promoted and safeguarded:

  1. Where a staff member has a concern in relation to a child(ren)'s welfare, they should discuss this with their immediate line manager in the normal way and in accordance with operational procedures.

    If the staff member's line manager does not share the concerns of the staff member, and/or does not act on them sufficiently and therefore the worker continues to have concerns for the child's welfare; the respective staff member should record the presenting issues and actions/decisions taken and raise their concerns with the respective Service Manager.  It is expected a written record of this discussion/meeting is made;
  2. Alternatively, a worker could raise the issue with a Principal Officer from the Quality Assurance Unit (a record of this meeting should be made by the IRO/Principal Officer) who may already have some involvement with the case. If the worker did contact the Principal Officer in this context, the Principal Officer is to notify the QAU Service Manager who would, in turn, notify the relevant Service Manager;
  3. If either the Service Manager or Principal Officer (QAU) is notified of an escalation issue, a meeting should be convened with all the relevant personnel as soon as possible (within 3 days) with the aim of seeking a resolution to the concern. There should be a written outcome of this discussion that is distributed within one working day and placed on the child's file.  The meeting could be chaired by the Service Manager QAU if this is felt to be more beneficial. A copy of the issue and actions taken should be shared with the Children & Families Services Manager/Service Director for Safeguarding and Specialist Services;
  4. If agreement is not reached at this meeting, the Children & Families Services Manager will then meet with all concerned.  Again a written record of this discussion and decisions taken is to be placed on the child's case record and sent to all parties;
  5. The Service Manager (QAU) will produce a quarterly report on escalations under this process to DMT.

NB The following are key principles to apply when operating this procedure:

  • Where the staff member believes their concerns are of such significance that to discuss with their Line Manager or a Principal Officer in QAU would not be appropriate they can 'escalate' their concern to the Quality Assurance Unit Service Manager, Children & Families Services Manager or Service Director for Safeguarding and Specialist Services; 
  • In all instances where a staff member raises a concern they will be treated without prejudice;
  • In addition should the staff member's concern relate to the actions and behaviours of another staff member they can refer to the Council's Whistleblowing and Confidentiality Procedure.

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