The Portsmouth Safeguarding Children Partnership (PSCP) provides the arrangements under which the Safeguarding Partners and relevant agencies work together to coordinate their services to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in Portsmouth.
There are three organisations in Portsmouth (termed Safeguarding Partners) who are jointly responsible for the partnership arrangements, they are Portsmouth County Council, Portsmouth Clinical Commissioning Group, and Hampshire Constabulary.
The Portsmouth Safeguarding Children Partnership will hold itself true to two key principles;
The strength of local partnership working is built upon the safeguarding partners working collaboratively together with all other relevant agencies and services in Portsmouth who come into contact with children and families.
The relevant agencies for the PSCP arrangements are named as:
At the heart of the arrangements is a commitment from all agencies to work together to keep children safe in Portsmouth and to continuously improve and learn how to best do this.
The purpose of the partnership is to support and enable local agencies to work together in a system where:
Everything we do is underpinned by two key principles:
1. Safeguarding is everybody’s responsibility – for services to be effective each professional and organisation should play their full part
2. A child centred approach – for services to be effective they should be based on a clear understanding of the needs and views of the individual children whilst recognising the support parents and carers may require.
The Partnership is collectively responsible for the strategic oversight of local safeguarding arrangements. It does this by leading, coordinating, challenging and monitoring the delivery of safeguarding practice by all agencies across the city.
The PSCP has a range of committees in place to help identify emerging issues and respond to agreed priority areas. Our current committees and their Chairs are as follows:
The PSCP also commissions task and finish groups as necessary to deliver actions.
In recognition of the fact that many of the organisations we work with cover a larger geographical area, we also work closely with the Local Safeguarding Children Partnerships in Hampshire, Isle of Wight and Southampton. This arrangement is collectively referred to as ‘HIPS’ and the current committees under this arrangement are:
The four LSCPs work collaboratively to produce the Safeguarding Children Procedures Manual that all those working (in a paid or voluntary position) with children and families in Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and/or Southampton should have due regard of.
The PSCP also works closely with the HIPS Child Death Overview Panel to ensure that any matters relating to the death, or deaths, which are relevant to the welfare of children in Portsmouth are considered and acted upon where appropriate.
The Child Death Overview Panel document sets out the arrangements for the review of all child deaths across the Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton (HIPS) areas.
The PSCP Business Unit consists of:
You can contact us by email: PSCP@portsmouthcc.gov.uk or call 023 9268 8646
The PSCP Training Team consists of:
You can contact us by email: pscptraining@portsmouthcc.gov.uk or call 02392 834404
Please do not use this phone number to report concerns about children, the team only deals with Partnership and training related enquiries. If you are concerned about a child please contact the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub
Worried about a child – If you are concerned that a child or young person has suffered harm, neglect or abuse, please contact
Portsmouth Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH)
If a child is at immediate risk of harm, call the Police on 999.
