Multi-agency working

Norfolk Safeguarding Children Partnership

In Norfolk, the Norfolk Safeguarding Children Partnership (NSCP) is led by the 3 delegated safeguarding partners who work together with other local agencies including the voluntary sector to make sure that children are protected from harm and that their welfare is promoted. The NSCP has robust independent scrutiny arrangements to ensure that people working with children carry out their safeguarding responsibilities as required by the law.

The work of the NSCP is underpinned by the government document 'Working Together to Safeguard Children (opens new window)' (2023).
 

Multi-Agency Chronologies (MACS)

The Norfolk Safeguarding Children Safeguarding Partnership has adopted the use of Multi-Agency Chronologies (MACS). A chronology is a series of significant events and changes that occur in a child's life - the child's felt and lived experience. Completing a chronology includes the fundamental need to decide what constitutes a 'significant event' and how much detail to include in an entry, comprehensive or succinct?

A written chronology should provide a summarised account of significant life events for the child, and their immediate family network based upon your agency's contacts; the impact an event has had on the child, any action taken. The chronology is a summary of information that gives an "at a glance" overview of the child's life, both positive events and outcomes and negative harmful events and outcomes; a chronology does not replace case notes or records which should include more detailed information.

Practice guidance and webinars are now available to professionals to provide tailored guidance on writing chronologies as part of the child protection conference report. These webinars can be accessed in the Genogram & Chronologies Resource and Guidance section on the Norfolk Continuum of Need Guidance page of the NSCP website. 

Norfolk Continuum of Needs Guidance

The Norfolk Continuum of Needs Guidance sets out our approach to keeping children in Norfolk safe and protected from harm. This guidance replaces the previous Threshold Guide and is designed to ensure that across the continuum of need professionals consider that the right help is given to the right children at the right time and for the right duration.

This document incorporates recent changes made around how our services are organised. Nationally and locally, we are still trying to make sense of world events and ensuring that children's safety and wellbeing remains a social imperative. This iteration of guidance has been designed to continue to improve the conversations we have when we are concerned about children and ensure that professionals know the best support route so that the issues children and families are facing can be managed as early as possible.

Norfolk Guidance to Understanding Continuum of Needs