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December City of York Safeguarding Children Partnership Newsletter

This month we start with a message from our Independent Scrutineer, Mel John-Ross:

As 2025 draws to a close, I want to convey to you all on behalf of the City of York Safeguarding Children Partnership (CYSCP), our thanks and appreciation, for everyone’s contribution over the year, to safeguarding children in York.

An enormous amount of collaborative work has progressed over the last 12 months, with a shared and relentless commitment to early help, support and protection, keeping children safe within their families and local communities, wherever possible. Every day, colleagues from across all agencies work together in prioritised children’s needs.

There is much for the safeguarding children partnership to celebrate and feel proud of, as reported in Ofsted’s Inspection of City of York Council Local Authority Children’s Services (ILAC) earlier this year, which found strong multi agency practice and a mature safeguarding partnership.

However, the partnership remains an ambitious one for all children, young people and families and 2026 will see further progress, taking forward together the national reforms and Families First programme, which aligns with our vision, for all children and young people to get the best start in life, are happy and healthy, stay safe and develop the skills and relationships they need to thrive into adulthood.

My thanks to everyone for their invaluable contribution this year. May I wish you all, a much deserved, peaceful and restful festive break.

Mel John-Ross, City of York Safeguarding Children Partnership Independent Scrutineer.

For further information about the Partnership and the role of our Independent Scrutineer visit the Partnership Website.

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Webinar: Assessing risk of harm to children in private law proceedings – by Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel

The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel are hosting their first webinar of the new year on Wednesday 11t February 2026, between 4.00pm and 5.00pm.

This webinar will focus on child safeguarding and private law proceedings in response to a number of recent and high-profile reviews the Panel has seen with the impact of proceedings on children as a key theme.

In particular, they will be considering the Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review for the tragic death of Sara Sharif to draw out key learning for improving national child safeguarding practice.

The event will be led by Panel Chair, Sir David Holmes, and Panel Member, Jenny Coles, with guest speakers Theresa Leavy, National Director of Operations at Cafcass and Rachael Wardell, Executive Director for Children, Families and Lifelong Learning at Surrey County Council.

Register for the Assessing risk of harm to children in private law proceedings – by Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel webinar.

Learning Masterclass: Voice of the Child

Professionals working with children and young people in York are the target audience for this training.

This online lunchtime learning masterclass is designed for professionals working with children and young people across all sectors. Explore the importance of truly hearing and responding to the voices of children in a way that is meaningful, respectful, and impactful.

Whether you’re in social care, education, health, youth work, or any role supporting children and young people, this session will strengthen your practice and reinforce the critical value of seeing the world through the eyes of the child.

Details:

  • Wednesday 28 January, midday until 1.00pm
  • Tuesday 3 March 2026, midday until 1.00pm

Go to the Learning Masterclass: Voice of the Child course page on MyLO and click ‘access this course’ at the top of the page and then ‘sign up’ next to the date that you want to attend.

Trauma Informed Care Programme E-Learning

The Trauma Informed Care Programme E-Learning package can be accessed online.

Training Overview

This is a concise 45-minute session designed for professionals who have direct or regular contact with children and young people who may have been affected by trauma, whether this is known or not.

The objectives of the training are to:

  • define trauma and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and examine their potential impact
  • strengthen understanding of trauma-informed practice and care, with a focus on effective responses to support children and young people
  • highlight available sources of support for both staff and colleagues

Additional Information:

  • all training is free of charge
  • please disseminate this information across your organisations and professional networks

Should you require any further information, email: [email protected].

If you have any queries regarding course availability, if a course is full, waitlists or cancellations, email: [email protected].

ARC Champion Training (2 Day) – Two Day ARC Training (Pre-Requisite to becoming an ARC Champion)

Overview

2-day Trauma Informed Training, arrival at 9.00am for a 9.30am start. Course runs 9.30am to 4.00pm on both days.

Aims:

  • define complex trauma and identify at least 3 consequences of early complex trauma exposure
  • define Trauma Informed practice
  • identify and briefly describe the 3 domains of the ARC framework
  • identify and briefly describe the 8 core targets of the ARC framework
  • identify the importance of engagement with service user and identify ways in which engagement can be built
  • identify and briefly describe the role of routines and psychoeducation in trauma-informed practice
  • identify key members of the caregiving system within the participant’s own system and/or with their client population
  • identify at least one way that the core attachment targets apply to the participant and/or providers within the participant’s system
  • identify one way to support safe caregiving systems for trauma impacted youth
  • identify the skills needed to make meaning of Children and Young People’s behaviours
  • identify the ways in which caregivers can respond to Children and Young People’s behaviour to meet needs and address the needs for felt safety
  • identify at least 2 key targets of intervention for supporting youth regulation
  • identify at least 2 activities that can be used to support regulation
  • identify and describe at least one aspect of self and identity that may be impacted in trauma exposed youth
  • describe one “entry point” for supporting decision-making in youth
  • Iidentify at least one strategy or activity that can be used to target executive functioning
  • describe at least one phase of trauma experience integration, as defined by the ARC framework

An in depth 2-day training course for all staff who have direct or regular contact with Children and Young People who may be affected by trauma.

This level of training will support those working on a daily basis with Children and Young People. This training is delivered by national trainer Kati Taunt and offers the opportunity for those attending to become ARC Champions within their own service areas.

Dates:

ARC Training for Senior Leaders (Session 1)

Senior Leadership Training, arrival at 9.00am for a 9.30am start. Course runs between 9.30am and 1.00pm (half day with half day follow-up).

Aims:

  • have a scientific understanding of what trauma is and how it lives in the nervous system of people who use our services and the staff we are managing
  • to understand the impact of trauma on organisational systems, including the signs and symptoms of trauma in staff and clients and what the system is doing to traumatise the staff
  • be confident in the value Trauma Informed leadership and Trauma Informed care will add to your service
  • know how to move beyond offering trauma treatment services to leading Trauma Informed organisations
  • be able to integrate knowledge about trauma into your policies, procedures, and practices
  • understand how to monitor the effectiveness of a Trauma Informed care system

2-half day training sessions aimed at Senior Leaders from our Stakeholder and Partnership Organisations across the 6 places of the Humber and North Yorkshire region who can really effect organisational change. Once Leaders have attended the ARC training, we hope that this will give them a greater understanding of the ARC Framework, to enable them to support their staff in implementing a Trauma Informed approach and some of them becoming ARC Champions.

Dates and times:

You must attend Session 1 before attending Session 2.

Due to the financial cost of us providing this ARC training a fee of £50 for non attendance will be paid for a training session where no prior cancellation is sent through to the training admin team.

Free Online Courses – Togetherness

We’re excited to share a valuable resource available free of charge to York residents – Togetherness – the new home of the Solihull Approach and the inourplace platform.

Developed by NHS clinical psychologists alongside parents and practitioners, Togetherness offers trusted, evidence-based online courses to help families better understand and support emotional wellbeing in everyday life.

York residents can access a personalised page at togetherness.co.uk/mul/york, featuring a wide range of flexible learning pathways, including:

  • understanding your child from toddler to teenager
  • understanding your child with additional needs
  • understanding your teenager’s brain
  • understanding your own adolescence (for teens and pre-teens)

Courses are available for all ages – from pregnancy through to 19 years – and are designed to strengthen family relationships, support child development, and improve emotional health. All courses are free for York residents using the access code: RAISE.

Togetherness has created a selection of promotional materials to help raise awareness of these courses.

If you’d like digital slides for schools or community settings, or specific resources for a course, email: [email protected].

Please share and signpost to this free resource with all parents, carers and young people you work with.

Further information about Togetherness free online learning is also available on the RAISE York website.

Further Safeguarding Children Partnership Training

A reminder that the Partnership offer e-learning training for all our professionals.

The new Safeguarding Children Partnership Awareness E-Learning package has been produced which is more in depth and up-to-date.

If you're working with children and young people in the City of York we would encourage you to access this e-learning training.

Feedback received to date on the new course has been positive so we would encourage you to share with your colleagues.

If you have any queries email: [email protected]

Further information in relation to our Safeguarding Children Partnership training is available online.

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A recent multi-agency audit has highlighted that partners are not aware of the Safeguarding Children Partnership Language Pledge.

All partner organisations within the City of York Safeguarding Children Partnership made a commitment to sign up to the ‘language pledge’.

This commitment was made in 2024 by senior leaders from partner agencies following a powerful presentation delivered by children and young people on the impact of language when working with children and young people.

The language pledge is on the partnership website and we would encourage everyone to review and discuss in your team meetings and with your colleagues.

Remember it's important to not only make these commitments when speaking with children and young people but in our day to day practice with other professionals.

It's important to raise awareness of the language pledge to fully embed this across the Partnership.

We need your help to do this and we appreciate your support to do this for our children and young people.

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Do you know what Private Fostering is? Would you know if a child you are working with is being Privately Fostered? Would you know what to do?

Private fostering is a private arrangement made by a child’s parent, or someone with parental responsibility, for the child to live with someone who is not a close relative.

If a child or young person is staying with someone who isn’t a close relative for more than 28 days in total then it could be a private fostering arrangement. Find advice for professionals around Private Fostering.

Do I need to tell anyone if I suspect a child is being privately fostered?

Yes. City of York Council Children’s Social Care must be notified of any private fostering arrangements. This is to ensure that children in private fostering arrangements are seen and spoken to and their welfare is checked to make sure that children do not suffer abuse or neglect. They will also ensure that the person or people caring for the child and the child’s parents get the help and support that they need.

Information and resources are available in relation to Private Fostering are available on the partnership website.

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In partnership we are striving forward with our Families First reform journey across York to deliver Family Help, a Multi-Agency Child Protection Team and strengthen Family Group Decision-Making.

Thank you to everyone that completed the Families First workforce survey. Our Workforce group is currently reviewing and analysing this information to share across the subgroups and inform our Partnership Workforce Development Plan. Once reviewed we will provide an overview in a future newsletter.

Find the December Families First newsletter which is focused on Family Group Decision-Making.

This Family Group Decision-Making, is defined by the Department of Education as a family led meeting. This is an umbrella term where a family network is provided all the resources, adequate preparation, relevant information, a safe and appropriate environment, and private family time to make a plan to respond to concerns about a child’s safety or wellbeing.

A family’s network is defined to be those people ‘naturally’ in the family’s life. This includes family members and friends with whom the family have close relationships and with whom they wish to seek further connection and reach out for help and support. Right from the onset if there are any additional needs, partners should be thinking about who supports the family and who is in the network.

We have currently have a graduated response in York – Family Network Meeting, Family Group Conference and Friends and Families for Life.

We're currently consulting with families around terminology and would welcome your views and the view of families you work with. If you'd like to provide feedback, email: [email protected] by Friday 9 January 2026.

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The Children’s Society has published its annual report examining children’s wellbeing in the UK. The report looks at the latest figures and trends in children’s subjective wellbeing based on survey data, peer consultations with children and young people, and consultations with professionals across the children’s sector.

Findings indicate that children’s happiness with their life as a whole has declined, with average happiness scores significantly lower in 2022 and 2023 than when the survey started in 2009 and 2010. There has also been a steep decline in children’s average happiness related to school and schoolwork. Policy recommendations include calls for more programmes tackling gender stereotypes; whole-school approaches to wellbeing; and restoring and expanding youth services.

The ‘The Good Childhood Report’ is available online.

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The UK Safer Internet Centre has created new educational resources on the safe and responsible use of AI ahead of Safer Internet Day 2026. The resources have been designed for use with children and young people of different age groups from 3 to 18-years-old. The resource packs, available in Welsh and English, include presentation slides and activities.

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York’s Healthy Child Service have been celebrating being awarded a Certificate of Commitment, their first step towards gaining recognition from the UK Committee for UNICEF (UNICEF UK) Baby Friendly Initiative.

The award is a reflection of the service’s commitment to increase breastfeeding rates and improve care for all mothers in relation to infant feeding and relationship building across the city of York.

More information about the Healthy Child Service is on RAISE York website.

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Many families are facing money challenges at the moment, and winter can feel a trickier time with increased energy costs and festive pressures.

There’s lots of help and support available locally. Visit the York Talk Money website for further information.

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The NHS wants to hear about your urgent dental care experience

The NHS Yorkshire and Humber Dental Commissioning team is inviting you to take a short, anonymous survey to share your experiences with NHS urgent dental care.

This will help to better understand people’s experiences with NHS urgent dental care and to improve services across the region.

Your feedback will help improve quality and access to dental services across the Yorkshire and Humber region. All responses submitted will be anonymous.

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A reminder in relation to some of the services offered by York St John Communities Centre:

Groups and Drop-ins

Breastfeeding Group

Treasure Chest aims to provide new families a chance to talk with peer supporters as well as other families who are breastfeeding or combination feeding.

10.30am to midday at York St John University’s Chapel on Campus. This group is free to attend and takes place every Tuesday. Find out more about the Breastfeeding Group.

Bereavement Support Group

A free online support group for people who are bereaved or experiencing grief. This group is facilitated by York St John Communities Centre. It takes place between 4.30pm and 6.00pm online every Tuesday for 10 weeks, commencing on Tuesday 24 February 2026. This group is free to attend. Find out more about the Bereavement Support Group and complete a self-referral for the Bereavement Support Group.

Bereavement Café

Come along to one of our cafés for bereaved people, to help you understand what you are going through. This is facilitated by York St John Communities Centre. It takes place between 1.00pm and 3.00pm at York St John University Campus. It's free to attend and the next date is Wednesday 10 December 2025. Find out more about the Bereavement Café.

Children and Young People

Community Language School

The Community Language School caters to the language learning needs of children aged 6 to 13 years from migrant, multilingual families as well as those for whom English is currently the only language in use.

Classes are run on Saturday afternoons for 1 to 2 hours at York St John University Campus and they are free to attend.

The classes take place during the school year which typically runs from September to May with breaks from December to January, and March to April.

Find out more about the Community Language School and complete a referral for the Community Language School. Additionally, apply to volunteer for the Community Language School.

Creative Literacies Hub

A free service which welcomes parents, carers, and their children, who would like to learn effective ways of approaching reading and creative writing. We have 2 programmes you can attend: Supporting Reading at Home, and Creative Writing Together.

Doors open from 3.30pm but sessions will start nearer to 4.00pm to allow for the school run. Sessions end at 5.00pm, and both programmes last for 6 weeks.

This service is available at York St John Communities Centre and is free to attend. Dates are to be confirmed.

Find out more about the Creative Literacies Hub and refer yourself to the Creative Literacies Hub.

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The Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) has published a new report exploring children’s experiences of violence in England and Wales as part of its annual Children, violence and vulnerability research.

The Youth Endowment Fund surveyed nearly 11,000 13- to 17-year-olds about their experiences. Findings include: physical assault was the most common type of violence experienced; while half of the teenagers in the survey said they had witnessed violence in person, even more said they had encountered it online with 70% seeing real-world violence shared on social media in the past year; and 82% reported seeing social media posts about harming specific groups such as migrants or people of certain ethnicities or sexualities.

The report includes calls for social skills training, mentoring and sports programmes to help reduce violence in the real world and help children navigate content online.

Read the report on the Youth Endowment Fund website: The scale of violence affecting children.

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Sunday 11 January 2026 – National Human Trafficking Awareness Day

Human trafficking – does it really happen in North Yorkshire or the City of York?

Human trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of people through force, fraud, coercion or deception, with the aim of exploiting them for profit.

Further information about human trafficking is available on the North Yorkshire Police website.

In January and early February there are a number of awareness days in relation to mental health. A reminder that York have now launched a new mental health roadmap for York.

Residents can now use a new interactive “mental health roadmap” to find the right support for themselves or their loved ones.

The website provides information about the different types of services in the York area.

Monday 19 January 2026 – Brew Monday 2026

On Brew Monday, the third Monday in January, Samaritans reminds everyone to reach out for a cuppa and a catch-up with the people you care about.

Today’s the day. The day you put the kettle on. The day small talk turns into big talk. The day you break open the biscuits and the taboos.

The day you remind everyone how good human connection feels. How easy it is. And what a difference it can make.

Let’s prevent suicide with a cuppa and a catch-up this Brew Monday. Because for many, tomorrow’s too late.

Monday 2 February to February 8 Sunday 2026 – Sexual Abuse and Sexual Violence Week

Sexual Abuse and Sexual Violence Awareness Week is an annual event that aims to raise awareness about the issues of sexual abuse and sexual violence, provide support to survivors, and encourage a broader dialogue on preventing these forms of harm. In this article, we’ll delve into the event’s purpose, dates, ways to get involved, its history, and the associated hashtags.

Sexual Abuse and Sexual Violence Awareness Week is a dedicated week-long campaign that focuses on addressing sexual abuse and sexual violence. It aims to challenge societal norms, stereotypes, and misconceptions surrounding these issues while providing a platform for survivors to share their stories and find support.

Thursday 5 February 2026 – Time to Talk Day

Time to Talk Day is the nation’s biggest mental health conversation. It’s a day for all of us to come together to talk, listen and change lives.

Talking openly and honestly can be the first step towards better mental health for everyone. It can reduce stigma and help people feel comfortable enough to seek help when they need it.

Friday 6 February 2026 – International Day of Zero Tolerance of FGM

Female genital mutilation (FGM) comprises all procedures that involve altering or injuring the female genitalia for non-medical reasons and is recognized internationally as a violation of the human rights, the health and the integrity of girls and women.

Monday 9 February to Sunday 15 February 2026 – Children’s Mental Health Week

Place2Be’s Children’s Mental Health Week 2026 will take place from Monday 9 February to Sunday 15 February 2026!

The official Children’s Mental Health Week 2026 resources are available for you to download! Whether you’re a primary school, secondary school, family, community group or workplace, we’ve got activities and resources for you.

The theme for Children’s Mental Health Week 2026 is ‘This is My Place’, and our aim is to support the systems around children and young people to help them feel they belong.

Tuesday 10 February 2026 – Safer Internet Day

This year’s official theme: Smart tech, safe choices – Exploring the safe and responsible use of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Whether you're a school, nursery, youth group, library, police service, or wider, UK Safer Internet Centre have created educational resources to support educators in delivering messages about Artificial Intelligence that are suitable for all ages.

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Newsletter sign-up

Please let your colleagues know they can sign up now to receive our newsletter.

If anyone has any items for newsletters going forward, please let us know on email: [email protected].