Unfitness to Plead Consultation Responses - Law Commission ...

liberating and immensely challenging but are extremely important to the ethos and
culture in which the organisation operates.
Within Kids Company we have developed an in-house safeguarding team. The team
was established in 2007 in direct response to the level of need in the client group. All
Kids Company services are client led and the safeguarding team came into being to
support key working staff or staff in schools who were not able to make referrals that met
the thresholds of children’s social care. It was established in recognition of the fact that
the client group that were presenting in large numbers at the street level centres were
often multiply traumatised and extremely high risk with not just one but several complex
and interlinked issues with which they needed support.
Kids Company is very clear about the role of the safeguarding team. It is a multidisciplinary
team who work to support front line staff and assist children or families in
crisis. The team are very clear that they have no powers of investigation and no statutory
powers; however we are also very clear that safeguarding children is everyone’s
responsibility. As such the Kids Company safeguarding team recognises the importance
of working together with both statutory services and in partnership with parents and
seeks to advocate and promote honesty, trust and best practice in this area. An integral
part of the work that the team undertakes is relationship or bridge building between
statutory partners and children and their families. The safeguarding team recognises the
importance of the Kids Company staff member who maintains a relationship with a child
or a family and the shades of grey that these workers negotiate to protect and keep vigil
over vulnerable children every day. The safeguarding team works in partnership with
front-line Kids Company staff in the street-level centres and schools in which we
operate.
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