CYSCP
Latest news
Stay up to date with the latest news relating to safeguarding children and young people in York.
Read our recent news:
- York St John Communities Centre: Services for Children and Young People
- City of York Safeguarding Children Partnership E-Learning Training is changing!
- Free Online Courses for Families
- New Free Programme - The Spear Programme
- Safeguarding Week 2025
- Partnership Documentation
- Hate Crime Conference, Wednesday 15 October 2025 - Booking Open
- Child Death Review Training
- City of York Safeguarding Children Partnership X account
- Young Carers
York St John Communities Centre: Services for Children and Young People
Published 11 September 2025.
Based on the York St John University campus, York St John Communities Centre offer a range of free and low-cost services for children and young people including counselling, coaching, support groups, community projects, training and events. They operate as a not-for-profit, values-led organisation, driven by their mission to make support more accessible, while providing excellent training and placement opportunities for students.
They offer the following services and support for Children and Young People:
- Creative Literacies Hub - The Creative Literacies Hub is a safe and welcoming environment for parents, carers and their children to engage in reading and writing activities. The programmes are delivered on Tuesdays from 3.30pm to 5.00pm and last for 6 weeks. They offer two programmes and families are welcome to enrol for one or both programmes
- Supporting Reading at Home - This free to access programme welcomes parents, caregivers, and children aged 5 to 11. During these workshops, parents and carers will learn techniques to assist their child in reading a diverse selection of texts
- Creative Writing Together - These free sessions are available to parents, caregivers, and children between the ages of 7 and 14. Throughout all 6 workshops, parents/carers and their child will participate in collaborative creative writing sessions. Across these sessions, various settings, characters, and plots, will be explored experimenting with different perspectives within their story universe
- 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. In offering these classes, it is hoped to enhance children's oral fluency in the languages they are learning, develop their confidence in using languages other than English, and instil a love for languages and heritage cultures where relevant. Classes are run on Saturday afternoons for 1 to 2 hours, depending on the number of students and are free to access
Get Involved
For current dates or to find out more information about these services visit York St John University's website. If a parent or carer would like to enrol their child, they can complete the self-referral form online and include the age of the child and the programme(s) you would like to enrol in. If you would like to get involved, or simply help spread the word, we’d love to hear from you. Visit www.yorksj.ac.uk/ysjcc to learn more or contact us at [email protected]. Please share our services with anyone who might benefit — together, we can continue creating change in our community.
City of York Safeguarding Children Partnership E-Learning Training is changing!
Published 10 September 2025.
From Thursday 11 September 2025, a new Safeguarding Children Partnership Awareness e-learning package will be available. Our current e-learning package has been reviewed and updated and a brand new course 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.
The new course will be accessible via the City of York Council training platform MyLO. If you already have an account on MyLO you just need to login as you usually would. If you have never used MyLO before you will need to create an account.
If you need to pay to access our e-learning course you will be directed to enter your payment details. The costs for this updated course will remain the same, £15. If you're unsure if you need to pay for the course, further information regarding costs is available on the partnership website: City of York Safeguarding Children Awareness E-learning.
It's planned that our old training portal will be discontinued. If you or your staff have completed our previous e-learning course, please download a copy of the certificate and save to your computer as soon as possible. The existing e-learning portal will not be accessible after Friday 26 September 2025. This means that all user data and previous course completion data will not be available after this date.
If you have any queries contact us on email: [email protected].
A reminder that the Partnership also offer free face-to-face training as follows:
- Safeguarding children: Shared Responsibilities and Procedures Working Together (previously A and B)
- Developing an Understanding of Harmful Sexual Behaviour
- Child Death Review Training
- Whole Approach System to Addressing Abusive Behaviours - 'Hard to Help' training
- Domestic Abuse Training
Free Online Courses for Families
Published 9 September 2025.
The City of York Council, in partnership with the Solihull Approach, is offering families free access to online courses through the ‘inourplace’ platform.
These courses have been developed by NHS professionals and are designed to support parents and carers at every stage of a child’s journey, from pregnancy and the early years, right through to the teenage stage and beyond. Each course provides evidence-based, non-judgemental learning that helps families understand child development, manage challenges, and strengthen relationships. Topics include brain development, behaviour, communication, and parental wellbeing, giving families practical tools and confidence as they navigate the ups and downs of parenting.
Be aware that from October, the Solihull Approach will be rebranded as ‘Togetherness’. If you come across this new name, it is the same trusted programme with a refreshed identity.
York families can register for the free courses online by entering the access code: RAISE. Further information is available on the RAISE York website.
If you're an agency working with families and would like pdf copies of posters and leaflets or images to share via social media email: [email protected].
New Free Programme - The Spear Programme
Published 29 August 2025.
The Spear Programme is a free, nationwide course that empowers 16-24-year-olds to get into work. They work with young people who are facing barriers to employment, such as leaving school with less than five GCSEs, facing mental or physical health challenges, or having a criminal record.
Over four weeks, they provide a variety of 1-1 and group coaching sessions, mock interviews, application support and CV workshops. Through coaching, they offer holistic and tailored support that enables young people to grow in confidence, courage and resilience. After the initial four weeks of intensive coaching, they provide up to a year of drop-in sessions and extra support. They know that their work truly makes a difference: 75% of those who complete the programme obtain employment, and are still there a year later.
If you'd like to find out more, do have a listen to what one of our previous Spear Trainees, John, has to say about our award-winning programme. The first programme starts on the 30th September, and the Spear Programme are accepting referrals now. Please refer by contacting Naomi, email: [email protected], with the name and contact details of a young person, or by completing the sign-up form on our webpage.
There is also a referrer networking breakfast on the 17 September, from 9.30am to 10.30am at York Vineyard Church (3 Fawcett Street, YO10 4AH). Everyone is welcome - if you'd like to attend, please let Naomi know so she can get in touch with a calendar invite.
Safeguarding Week 2025
Published 28 July 2025.
Safeguarding week 2025 is now complete, with over 65 sessions having taken place through the week, and over 2,200 people attending! Thank you to all who supported the week by presenting or attending.
We're already thinking about Safeguarding Week 2026, and we want the week to be better than ever. Therefore, we want to hear from you by completing the Menti Survey below. Whether you attended one of the 2025 sessions or not, we want to hear how we can make 2026 more impactful and wider reaching across all our communities.
Menti Safeguarding Week Survey
Feel free to circulate the survey among your networks, as we'd like to understand what format would be beneficial to professionals, communities, volunteers and members of the public.
Please complete the survey by Sunday 31 August 2025.
Partnership Documentation
Published 21 July 2025.
Children and Young People’s Voice and Involvement Strategy 2025–2028
A new Children and Young People’s Voice and Involvement Strategy 2025–2028 has been published and is now available on the Safeguarding Children Partnership website. This Strategy outlines York’s commitment to ensuring young residents are seen, heard and actively involved in shaping the services that support them. It is underpinned by our shared vision: “Every conversation starts with the child or young person. We pledge to work together with young people to ensure their voices are heard, valued and acted upon.” Details in relation to the launch of this strategy will be shared in due course. The Strategy can be found on the Patnership website by following the link, Children's Rights and Involvement Strategy.
JTAI Domestic Abuse Audit Learning briefing
During 2024 a multi agency audit was carried out in relation to Domestic Abuse. Any key learning raised from this multi-agency audit has been pulled together in the form of a briefing and is now available and can be found by following the link, Learning from Mulit-agency Audits.
City of York Safeguarding Children Partnership Procedure for Non-recent, Organised and Complex Abuse
The City of York Safeguarding Children Partnership Procedure for Non-recent, Organised and Complex Abuse has recently been updated. The Non-Recent Organised and Complex Abuse Procedure section of the Partnership website has been updated accordingly.
Hate Crime Conference, Wednesday 15 October 2025 - Booking Open
Published 1 July 2025.
Hate Crime Awareness Week will soon be upon us and to promote the valuable work that continues to progress across North Yorkshire. A Hate Crime Conference is being held at the Priory Street Centre in York on Wednesday 15 October 2025.
There are some wonderful guest speakers lined up to present to you on the day and the conference will offer attendees the opportunity to shape the York and North Yorkshire Hate Crime work landscape moving forward. A full agenda will be circulated nearer the date.
This is a free event; Light refreshments will be provided. Email: [email protected] with any specific dietary requirements.
Can we also ask that you forward this link to anyone within your organisation or any key members of your communities who may be interested in attending.
If you have any questions about the event, email: [email protected]. If you have any building or parking access requirements, let Lesley know.
The nearest car park can be found on Nunnery Lane. The nearest bus stops are located outside York Railway Station which is a 5 minute walk from the venue.
Book to attend the Hate Crime Conference.
Child Death Review Training
Published 26 June 2025.
New training dates have now been released for 2026 for Child Death Review Training. This course explains the statutory purpose of the Child Death Overview Panel. This includes the different components of the Joint Agency Response in to a child death and subsequent child death review. It touches on the role of the key worker and the Coroner and informs professionals on how best to support to bereaved families. In addition, professionals will be provided with an overview of the National Child Mortality Team and local data.
Training dates are as follows:
- Tuesday 16 September 2025, 2.00pm to 3.00pm
- Thursday 13 November 2025, 10.00am to 11.00am
- Thursday 29 January 2026, 10.00am to 11.00am
- Thursday 16 April 2026, 2.00pm to 3.00pm
- Thursday 18 June 2026, 10.00am to 11.00am
- Thursday 8 October 2026, 2.00pm to 3.00pm
These courses are delivered jointly with North Yorkshire Safeguarding Children Partnership and are available to book via their website.
City of York Safeguarding Children Partnership X account
Published 26 June 2025.
The Partnership X (Twitter) account has now closed.
To ensure you don’t miss out on updates from the City of York Safeguarding Children Partnership, we would like to encourage you and your colleagues to please sign up to the Partnership newsletter. The newsletter contains up to date information, for example multi-agency training, updates to multi-agency policies and procedures, new initiatives and dates for your diaries. The newsletter is sent out at the end of every month.
In addition, the website is regularly updated with our latest news on this page.
Young Carers
Published 26 June 2025.
Working Together to Safeguard Children (2023) highlights the importance of identifying, assessing, and supporting young carers.
Young Carers have recently delivered presentations at both our Partnership Development Day which was held last week and at our Education in Safeguarding Conference which was held in May 2025. The presentations delivered by these young people were extremely powerful. The video links below demonstrate the importance of identifying young carers:
Here is the Youtube link: How my life changed when I was identified as a Young Carer - York Carers Centre YouTube
Here is the Instagram Reel: How my life changed when I was identified as a Young Carer - YACsYork Instagram
The Partnership would like to encourage you to share these links within your organisations to enable young carers to be identified earlier and to enable them to access support from York Carers Forum.
A young carer is a child or young person up to the age of 18 whose life is affected by being a carer for someone with a:
- disability
- long-term illness
- mental health problem
- problem with drugs or alcohol
Young carers provide care 'above that normally expected of someone their age'. The responsibilities young carers take on can differ based on the situation, the extent and regularity of care required, and the structure and dynamics of the family.
Professionals can and should complete any Young Carers Assessments for families they are working with, conducting joint assessments alongside any other services such as adult social care where relevant.
Anyone can make a referral to the York Carer’s Centre, including:
- parents / guardians
- professionals and agencies
- young people can make the referral for themselves, however parental consent must be sought
For further information please contact The York Carers Centre on telephone: 01904 715490 or by email: [email protected].
Further information on Young Carers is also available on the partnership website.
If your organisation has not done so already they can pledge to take practical and meaningful action to support young carers and young adult carers so they can have the same life opportunities as other children and young people. Find out more about the Young Carers Covenant and how to sign up.
If anyone has any questions in relation to Young Carers Forum please email [email protected]