Parents as Safeguarding Partners Benchmarking Tool– feedback from pilots Jan – April 2018

We successfully launched the benchmarking tool last week and have had a number of enquiries from organisations wanting to be part of the pilot as well as organisations keen to progress this important area of work.  Whilst developing the benchmarking tool, we asked several safeguarding partners across the county to trial the tool and answer the following questions.  This was so we could ensure that the tool itself and its questions was fit for purpose.  We didn’t ask organisations to evaluate the actions and impact as this is a longer piece of work and one we are aiming to do from September with Safeguarding Partnerships.

Questions 1. What were the factors that influenced your decision to complete the tool? 2. How easy is the benchmarking tool to complete? – scale 1-4 response 3. How long did it take to complete the tool? 4. How did you complete the tool 5. Did parents directly or indirectly contribute to the completion of the tool? 6. To what extent did the tool enable you to identify what is working well in your area with regards to engaging parents in tackling CSE? – scale of 1-4 response 7. To what extent did the tool enable you to identify areas for development in your area with regards to engaging parents in tackling CSE? – scale of 1-4 response 8. What actions have/will you take as a result of completing the benchmarking tool? 9. To what extent do you think these actions will lead to improved outcomes for children and young people? (-scale of 1-4 response

Feedback

Overall everybody using the tool found it straightforward to use, not too onerous and the sections and questions enabled them to identify strengths and gaps in their work with parents. The majority carried out the tool at both strategic meetings where they could cover commisssioning, policy development and oversight and then took it to CSE sub groups or similar to cover the operational elements of the tool.  It was felt overall that this was needed to embed the tool and influence strategic thinking whilst making sure that practice is being aligned. All areas could identify future actions and one had directly involved parents in the assessment.

 Quotes from Safeguarding Partners

“It helped us think about what we needed to be doing with parents”

“It gave us food for thought”

“We found it really helpful, good to do multi-agency input”

“The scoring system 1 – 4 made it harder to decide where to assess ourselves so more conversation was needed which was good”

If you are wanting to be a pilot area for the next stage where through a simple evaluation we aim to measure the effectiveness and impact of the tool then please get in touch for more information.  If you have downloaded the tool from our website we would be really keen to know how you get on, if you have found it helpful, what could be improved and what we can do to support you. We can then go on to share this learning with the network through anonymised case studies.

Maria Cassidy Response Unit Parental Engagement Lead

Tel: 07399 449 041

[email protected]