Partnership becomes Devon Safeguarding Children Partnership
From 5 September 2023, the Partnership will be changing its name from Devon Children and Families Partnership (DCFP) to the Devon Safeguarding Children Partnership (Devon SCP).
This name change reflects a re-focus of the Partnership to place stronger emphasis on safeguarding and child protection – the Partnership previously held a much broader scope of delivering the Children and Young People’s Plan 2019-2023.
The move is designed to reduce the risk of duplication and make more efficient use of resources for the statutory partners. Additionally, the shift in function means that the Devon SCP will more closely align with the other regional safeguarding children’s partnerships in Torbay, Plymouth, Cornwall and Somerset.
The re-focus and name change was agreed by the Partnership Executive in April 2023, with the Executive agreeing to align the focus of the Partnership with the multi-agency Improvement Board Priorities. An additional fourth priority has also been included.
The priorities of the Devon SCP are:
- Improving outcomes of pre-birth services and for infants
- Improving partnership working in compliance with Working Together, focusing on areas of shared responsibility and multi-agency responses to families
- Improving response to adolescent need through developing multi-agency contextual safeguarding approaches
- Improving the partnership response to domestic abuse to prevent harm to children.
Chair of the Partnership Executive, Roy Linden, said:
“We want all children and families to get the right support, in the right place, at the right time and for children feel safe, listened to. And we believe that this re-focus will better help us to meet these aims.
This is a small but significant change that underscores our commitment to safeguarding and protecting the most vulnerable among us. Through this strategic shift, we are making our own approach more efficient, while also aligning ourselves more closely with other safeguarding partnerships across the South West.”
The Devon SCP will operate with a reduced number of subgroups, with the core work of the Partnership continuing through the change management process and the business plan for the rest of the financial year 2023/2024. We will be publishing an updated structure chart of the Partnership on our website by the end of September.