What is being done and why
Nationally
National Children’s Social Care Reform Agenda
The Department for Education has implemented a major reform programme shaped by the Opportunity Mission and Children’s Social Care Reform plans. Key strategic pillars include:
Prevent – Keep children safely with families wherever possible through initiatives like the Families First Partnership programme.
Support – Increase use of kinship care, improve support for foster families, and extend the role of Virtual School Heads.
Fix the Market – Ensure placements are high-quality and reduce excessive profit-making in children’s homes.
Key Enablers – Workforce development, better data-sharing, evidence-based practice, and embedding the Children’s Social Care National Framework.
Children’s Social Care National Framework
Four outcomes: children stay with families; support from networks; safety inside/outside home; and stable loving homes for children in care. With emphasis on multi-agency working, effective workforce support and strong leadership.
Locally
Local Safeguarding Partnership
The HSSCP Annual Report (2024-2025) identifies priority programmes:
- Engagement with children and young people
- Strengthening assurance processes
- Harm Outside the Home (contextual safeguarding)
- Consultation, engagement and development
- System-wide learning through audits, reviews and performance frameworks.
Hartlepool & Stockton Safeguarding Children Training Strategy
The Hartlepool & Stockton Safeguarding Children Training Strategy includes:
- Workforce development on child protection responsibilities
- Multi-agency training aligned to statutory guidance (Children Acts 1989/2004, Keeping Children Safe in Education 2024)
- Mandatory induction, supervision and ongoing practice improvement