Executive Summary
- This Annual Local Authority Designated Office (LADO) report provides quantitative and qualitative evidence relating to the LADO Service in Devon County Council during the period 1 April 2023 to 31 March Overall, the information and data describe a stable and developing service which continues to aspire to achieve safe outcomes for children and young people in Devon.
- The LADO service in Devon has a collaborative approach, based on an understanding that the LADO provides restorative challenge and scrutiny whilst co-ordinating the response to concerns that an adult who works with children may have caused them or could cause them harm. LADOs in Devon continue to model a relational approach based upon “High Challenge, High Support” in their work with social work colleagues and partner agencies. The LADO service continues to embed a restorative, relational practice-based approach and believe this is the most effective approach to safeguard children, in line with the Restorative Devon framework. We believe that this restorative practice approach includes the ability to challenge robustly and effectively.
- The LADO Service continues to contribute towards Devon’s improvement journey ensuring a robust and timely response to concerns that an adult who works with children may have caused them or could cause them harm. The LADO service has achieved this by progressing concerns in a timely way and ensuring accurate and analytical records are kept.
- This report sets out the profile of the work activity undertaken by the service during the year. A total of 1445 notifications, comprising of 993 referrals and 453 advice requests, have been received by the service during the period April 2023 to March 2024. This is a significant increase from the 847 for 2022 – 23 and 575 for the year 2021 – 22. This is a 70% increase from the previous year.
- The report provides a more detailed profile about the work undertaken by the service, including the nature of the concerns, the referral source and outcome as well as highlighting a range of achievements and a summary of progress in 2023-24, which include:
- A continued stable, committed and knowledgeable team of permanent LADOs who develop and support positive working relationships with our partner agencies.
- The roll out of the updated Eclipse LADO forms which has strengthened the quality of the work undertaken within the service and enabled consistent recording of outcomes.
- The delivery of quarterly high quality online training about the role of the LADO and the referral process alongside developing training to be delivered alongside Ofsted to regional providers.
- Developing resources to support partners to improve the quality of their risk assessments and internal investigations.
Purpose of LADO Service and Legal Context
The Managing Allegations Against Adults Who Work With Children Procedure applies to a wider range of allegations than those in which there is reasonable cause to believe a child is suffering, or likely to suffer, significant harm. It provides a structure to consider allegations or concerns related to behaviour towards a child indicating an adult may pose a risk of harm or may not be suitable to work with children.
The Keeping Children Safe in Education (2023) and Working Together to Safeguard Children (2023) guidance provide the statutory framework for the LADO and outline the following criteria to be applied when there are concerns about an individual who works with children who has:
- Behaved in a way that has harmed a child, or may have harmed a child;
- Possibly committed a criminal offence against or related to a child;
- Behaved towards a child or children in a way that indicates they may pose a risk of harm to children;
- Behaved or may behave in a way that indicates they may not be suitable to work with children.
These concerns may relate to either a person’s work or volunteering or to their behaviour outside of the work setting. If the threshold for LADO oversight is met, the response to these allegations or concerns will involve one or more processes and procedures:
- Child Protection processes;
- Criminal Investigation;
- Internal investigations/Disciplinary procedures / HR processes
The LADO provides advice and guidance to employers, organisations and other individuals who have safeguarding concerns about the behaviour of an adult within the wider children’s workforce. Included in this group are volunteers, agency staff and foster carers as well as people who may be in a position of authority/oversight within religious, education or volunteering settings and have regular contact with children.
Profile of LADO Service and Workload
Every Council has a statutory responsibility to have a LADO who is responsible for co-ordinating the response to concerns that an adult who works with children may have caused them or could cause them harm. Within Devon the service consists of:
- 1 FTE Service Manager, who also has responsibility for the IRO and Child Protection Chairs service
- 2x FTE LADO’s
- 1x 0.8 FTE LADO
- 1x 0.5 FTE LADO
In total there are four LADOs in Devon (3.3FTE). The team are an experienced group of professionals, many of whom have had previous experience of management in other areas of Children’s Services. The team are active members of the Southwest LADO network and the Southwest Network of the National LADO Network.
The National LADO Network has produced a set of standards for use across the country to develop consistency of practice and this is used in Devon as the basis for the work undertaken by the service. The Department for Education, alongside the National LADO Network, is drafting a LADO handbook that will shortly be open for consultation. The handbook will provide guidance to standardise LADO activity across different Local Authorities.
Profile of work activity
Since April 2023 there have been 1445 contacts in total, 993 referrals and 453 advice requests. This is a significant increase from the 847 for the whole year of 2022/23 and 575 for the year 2021/22. This shows a significant increase in the number of contacts being captured and recorded on our LADO system ensuring a clear paper trail and line of sight regarding LADO activity.
LADO data and the ability to report from this data has significantly improved since we have introduced our new LADO recording system within Eclipse. We now record an outcome where there is LADO oversight if LADO threshold is met- rather than it showing as being advice only if there was no meeting. Matters that were closed after advice only fall in to 2 categories now:
- Advice only- when a decision can be made that threshold is not met quickly on the information provided or after one conversation.
- Consultation and Evaluation- when a decision that threshold is not met is made after further information is received and the LADO has to follow up with other agencies- e.g., Police or social care, parent/child view etc.
The marked increase in the number of referrals to the LADO service has also been experienced by colleagues in other settings. Whilst further work is required to understand this increase in demand upon the service it is likely that this is due to wider systemic issues including the lack of suitable accommodation for children who are not able to live at home, challenges in recruiting and retaining experienced and skilled social care staff and disruption in education settings. Further to this, there are themes around a number of organisations, many of them residential providers, referring to LADO when the issue is a practice issue and the contacts end in advice only. This is an issue nationally and locally we are addressing this through working collaboratively with Ofsted and the Southwest LADO Network. Devon LADOs are developing training on the role of the LADO and managing low level concerns to be delivered at an Ofsted training day for residential providers.
The data shows that the busiest month for referrals in this reporting period is February and March 2023. There is not a consistent pattern in levels of referrals to LADO month by month, although it is not uncommon to see a reduction in the number of notifications during the school holidays. These seasonal variations are likely due to less children and young people being seen by professionals during this time as they are not in school and may be taking part in less activities outside of the home.
The LADO service does not have any cases open from 2022 -2023, indicating that the drift and delay that was previously evident within the service has been addressed and matters are concluding in a timely way. 22 referrals from 2023 – 2024 remain pending.
The majority of the concerns relate to behaviour, standards of practice and practice issues. This may be as a result of more complex needs and presentation of children as well as demographic changes in the childcare and education workforce. The increased visibility of the LADO service, through the online training sessions, is likely to have impacted on increased referral rates.
The guidance in Keeping Children Safe in Education (2022) details that the LADO should be contacted by a school if they are unsure whether low-level concerns shared about a member of staff meet the harm threshold. Examples of low-level concerns include being over-friendly with children; having a favourite; taking photographs of children on their mobile phone; engaging with a child one to one in a secluded area and using inappropriate sexualized, intimidating, or offensive language. The LADO service records low level concerns and ensures that the adult is aware that contact has been made regarding the concerns. This allows the service to identify any patterns of behaviour or concerns should further referrals be received.
The LADO service is contacted by employers for consultation in relation to complaints from children and their families about the conduct of a professional. A number of regulatory bodies have expectations that safeguarding concerns, which are not likely to meet threshold however would meet the criteria for low level concerns, should be referred to the LADO. This contributes to the number of referrals with the outcome of advice only.
The has been a significant increase in the number of referrals in relation to suitability in 2023-2024, with 57 referrals being received compared to 22 referrals the previous year. This is an increase of more than 100%. At present these are recorded when there is no child involved in the concern, and the allegation is in respect of conduct towards another adult or behaviour in an individual’s personal life that could indicate that there would be a transferable risk to children. Further work will be undertaken to understand any themes or trends in this increased referral rate.
The source and subject of referrals continues to be heavily weighted towards education and residential care. The number of referrals from education has remained consistent however there has been an increase of 25% in the number of referrals from residential providers. This is likely due to the complex needs of the children living within these residential settings, and the amount of direct and one to one contact time professionals spend with them. This increase may also reflect the difficulties in finding suitable placements for children in care resulting in situations escalating due to staff not having the appropriate skills or experience to support and care for traumatised and distressed children. A significant proportion of these referrals do not meet LADO threshold and are in relation to practice issues and training needs. Referrals from this sector will continue to be monitored to evaluate the impact of the training due to be delivered with Ofsted.
There has been an increase in the number of Managing Allegations Meetings in the last 12 months, although this needs to be seen in the context of the increase in notifications. 8.6% (124 cases) of notifications in 2023-2024 resulted in a Management Allegations Meeting. In 2022-2023 this was 8.1% and in 2021-22 this was 7.4%. This low conversion rate reflects Devon’s practice model where meetings are convened if it has been assessed that it is beneficial or necessary to do so. This mirrors practice from other LADO services in the Southwest LADO network including in Bristol, Somerset, Cornwall and Torbay. The data indicates that there is consistency in applying threshold decisions throughout the work of the service over time and the slight increase in 2023-2024 is due to more robust analysis supported by the improved reporting system.
Quantitative information about the LADO Service
The LADO service operates a duty system and there is a dedicated duty LADO each working day. The duty LADO will respond to all matters that are referred to the LADO within one working day so that immediate safeguarding actions can be put in place if required.
With all referrals, the primary concern for the LADO is the safeguarding of the child and any other connected children. The initial response is to ensure that the subject of the allegation does not continue to have unsupervised contact with children if it is considered unsafe for this to happen. It is the employer’s responsibility for decision making around suspension, however the LADO task is to provide advice and guidance on this matter.
100% of the 90 Managing Allegations Meetings were held within the 5-day timescales during the reporting period. This is the second year running that 100% of meetings have been held within timescale, indicating that the positive working relationships with partner agencies supports effective and timely decision making.
The LADO continues to consult with those of who have contact with any child who has made an allegation or who may be considered at risk from a professional, to seek the child’s views so that these can inform the decision-making process. Children and families are kept informed of the LADO process usually via the referrer. The LADO process gives consideration as to what support the child and their family may need, who is best placed to provide this, who will keep them informed of progress and outcome. The safety and welfare of children is the primary focus of the LADO and where there are any safeguarding concerns a referral is made to MASH. The LADO works in partnership with employers and the police as to who is best placed to inform the person of concern that they have been referred to the LADO and the outcome of the referral. The LADO offers guidance on this.
The nature of the role means that the LADO continue to deal with sensitive information and seek guidance on the sharing of this as appropriate through the Information Governance team, HR colleagues and LADOs in other areas. The LADO has a legal duty to share information with regulatory bodies such as the Disclosure and Barring Service, the General Medical Council, and the Teaching Regulatory Agency, Social Work England, HCPC etc.
The LADO works closely with key stakeholders. This includes monthly meetings with commissioning services to contribute to effective information sharing and good governance alongside attendance at the wider Peninsular Regional Commissioning Group Meetings. The LADO attends monthly meetings with the Local Authority Education Department regarding thematic safeguarding discussions for both mainstream schools and independent education providers.
At times, the LADO responds to concerns of a sensitive nature that may attract public interest either by virtue of the media profile of an individual or because of information being shared that raises concerns about the safeguarding practices of an organisation. In these cases, the LADO provides alerts and updating information to senior managers.
There continues to be issues with police progressing investigations in a timely manner and this delays final outcomes being reached. This does not affect decisive interim safeguarding decisions being made but it does impact on the timeliness of final decisions. One of our LADOs has recently concluded a case where the police investigation took 4 years.
A peer review of the LADO service was completed by Dorset in July 2023. This was undertaken as part of a Sector Led Improvement Programme agreed between Dorset and Devon Councils. Devon Council had identified the need for a review of the service following the Independent Review of the Response of Devon County Council’s LADO Service to Allegations of Abuse completed in September 2022. The Dorset review found that the team had a high level of skill and expertise and there was evidence of good practice in the service. Risks were well managed; Management of Allegations Meetings were effective and well attended by other agencies; good quality advice and guidance was provided when criteria for LADO involvement was not met and there was effective oversight of any trends or patterns in contacts. Learning was identified in respect of the quality of recording of analysis to inform decision making; a lack of clear criteria and processes that are understood by partners. Recommendations included updating and refining the workflow, criteria and online information; develop a system for seeking feedback from stakeholders and further work to review referrals about Devon and Cornwall Police. These recommendations are being implemented within the service.
Impact and Outcomes for Children and Young People
A greater ability to record and report LADO contacts has enabled the organisation to have an increased insight into the roles and responsibilities of our LADO team, but additionally, has allowed the LADO team to become involved with our partner agencies in a supportive role in ensuring that they are educated and well equipped in managing and responding to allegations against professionals who may pose a risk to children.
A focus of work in the reporting period has been on education and training to increase wider knowledge of the LADO role and the responsibilities of both statutory services and the third sector in referring concerns to safeguard children. The service has delivered quarterly online training events and there has been over 100 attendees. The information and guidance on the Devon County Council website about LADO was updated in March 2023 and will continue to be reviewed on an annual basis
Summary of Achievements of LADO Service during 2023-2024
The LADO Service has remained largely stable within the year and has a permanent workforce. A number of the LADOs have been in the team for some years. With the challenges in the workforce across the sector this has proved invaluable in providing a safe and consistent service. The restructure within the service has been completed, with a permanent Service Manger joining in September 2023.
Regular training and development sessions have been undertaken by the LADOs throughout the year including quarterly IRSO meetings with their Child Protection Chair and IRO colleagues; peer group supervision sessions and monthly team meetings. The IRSO service mornings have provided an opportunity for the LADOs to contribute towards the development of the service plan and engage in activities to support embedding the restorative practice framework. The peer group supervision sessions promote reflection and develop practice. In addition, the LADOs are able to attend the 7 Pillars of Practice training that is being delivered by the Social Work Academy as well as the county wide Children’s Social Care Staff conference in November 2023 which developed the 6 statements of purpose. The LADOs continues to develop restorative practice within the service.
The roll out of the updated Eclipse forms has further strengthened the quality of the work undertaken within the service and enabled consistent recording of outcomes where there is LADO oversight if threshold is met, rather than the record showing as being advice only if there was no meeting. Outcome letter templates have been developed and support effective information sharing following the conclusion of the LADO involvement. The timeliness of the service has remained good, despite the increasing demand and no additional capacity.
LADOs within the service are developing training to co-present with Ofsted to residential providers about managing low level concerns. Once the training has been delivered the impact will be monitored and evaluated through the number of and type of referrals received within the service. The quarterly online training is embedded and well attended, supporting wider professional understanding of the role of the LADO and the referral process.
An internal investigation and risk assessment proforma has been developed and is shared, where appropriate, with partner agencies to support them to improve the quality of their risk assessments and internal investigations.
Work has begun with Devon and Cornwall Police and the Southwest LADO Network to review the level of referrals about officers from the force and to develop clear written guidance for LADO involvement with officers for whom there are concerns about practice or conduct.
The LADOs receive regular monthly supervision, in line with Devon Children’s Services supervision policy.
LADO Service – Areas for Development 2024-2025
The quality of LADO analysis and oversight will continue to be a focus of improvement work within the service. To support safe outcomes work needs to be timely and consider the static and dynamic risk factors. The progress that is made within the service in respect of analysis and recording will continue to be monitored throughout the next year through audits, supervision and feedback.
The LADO Service needs to continue to develop in quality assurance activity in line with the Devon Children’s Services Quality Assurance Framework. A LADO specific quality assurance template will be developed, in line with the 7 Pillars of Devon’s Restorative Framework and the National Lado Network minimum standards (2017). The quality assurance process will include audits, feedback from key stakeholders and peer moderation. Peer moderation will support closing the learning loop by ensuring that relevant learning is shared and thus support ongoing practice development. This will be completed within the first two quarters.
The service will continue to work with Devon and Cornwall Police and the regional LADO network to develop clear written guidance for LADO involvement with police officers for whom there are concerns about practice or conduct. This will identify any training needs and ensure consistency of practice across the area. This will be completed within the first three quarters.
Further work will be undertaken with partners to support ongoing practice improvement in relation to LADO enquiries and ensure that guidance is current and reflects good practice. This will include working with the fostering service to review and update the relevant fostering policies that relate to LADO; review and update the LADO practice standards and practice guidance; develop clear workflows and a suite of template documents for referrers. This information will be uploaded to the Devon website to provide clarity about the LADO process. To be completed within the first three quarters.
The development of written guidance for external partners alongside internal guidance to support and strengthen the effective information sharing between LADO and Commissioning. To be completed within the first three quarters.
To support practice improvement guidance to be developed on the LADO response to allegations against elected officials. This will support a consistent response across the service and be in line with the National LADO Handbook, which is due to be published in 2024. This will be completed in the first three quarters.