Managing Allegations/Concerns in Relation to Adults who work with Children

Contact with the service may come from a variety of sources and routes i.e. via referral to the MASH or direct contact with the LADO AO. In both cases the LADO AO retains responsibility for making threshold decisions. Irrespective of the route of referral the LADO AO will ensure that cases are appropriately entered onto MOSAIC.

Where contact is made with the LADO regarding adults or volunteers who do not work with children or who are regarded as not being within the children’s workforce, these cases will be signposted and will not be recorded.

Where a contact is made about an adult working or volunteering with children but is considered outside the scope of the service and/or is below the level for formal LADO Advice, the LADO AO will take no further action but will record the contact against the organisation or an individual if a record exists.

On initial contact, the LADO AO will complete their ‘initial consideration’ against the criteria referred to in Section 3, Scope. The referrer will provide all relevant details as requested by the LADO AO and other available information to provide substance and clarity to the information provided. The LADO AO will gather information from relevant people including the employer and regulatory body to assist with this decision making.

When the information provided is a clear concern or allegation against an adult working or volunteering with children but is judged to be at a level that does not require a multi-agency response, such matters will be addressed by the employer on the advice of the LADO AO. These cases will be recorded as LADO Advice and a letter will be sent to the subject by the LADO AO, a template exists for this purpose. These matters may include, for example issues relating to disciplinary/capability, suitability/conduct or matters of a more minor nature.

When the information provided is a clear concern or allegation against an adult working or volunteering with children and it meets the criteria, the information will be recorded as a LADO Referral.

In most circumstances the LADO AO will discuss with the Team Manager MAS, MASH police and employer to agree the concerns meet the threshold for a Managing Allegation Meeting process and where the concerns relate to the abuse of a child a S47 Strategy discussion is required and will be held concurrently. In agreement with the Police and Team Manager MAS a letter will be sent to advise the subject of the referral by the LADO AO. A template exists for this purpose.
 
For those children currently allocated in Children’s Social Care, the existing Team Manager will join the S47 Strategy Discussion however all aspects of the investigation relating to the allegation against a professional will be allocated to a Social Worker in the MAS who will liaise with the allocated CSC Social Worker. If children from other Local Authorities are involved, the Team Manager MAS will liaise with the other Local Authority.

In exceptional circumstances, the LADO Referral may not lead to a Managing Allegations Meeting, this will be agreed on a case by case basis in discussion with the CSM MAS.

Working Together to Safeguard Children and Keeping Children Safe in Education require cases are resolved as quickly as possible, consistent with a fair and thorough process. This is in the interests of any child involved, the adult of concern as well as the employer in terms of best use of resources. Not adhering to this may result in complaints to the department.

The NSCP procedures, in line with KCSiE, note it is reasonable to expect 80% of cases will be resolved within one month, 90% within three months and all but the most exceptional within twelve months. This practice guidance reinforces this message in the interests of all parties.

If the alleged perpetrator who is the subject of the investigation is a current Children's Social Care member of staff or foster carer, then any enquiries by the MAS should be undertaken and managed by someone who has no personal or professional relationship with the individual. The person who becomes aware of the allegations in the first instance must ensure that the relevant Group Manager for the member of staff or foster carer and the Group Manager for Safeguarding Assurance and Improvement are made aware of the allegations immediately. It is the responsibility of the relevant Group Manager for the member of staff or foster carer to ensure that the relevant Service Director is made aware of the allegations.

Following the LADO/S47 Strategy discussion and when a Managing Allegations meeting is required, the adult of concern should be allocated to a social worker MAS and an electronic case record should be opened if not already present.

The children connected to this allegation will be allocated to the same social worker MAS.

If a child already allocated to a social worker makes an allegation, the Social Worker MAS will be responsible for all aspects of the investigation relating to the allegation. In exceptional circumstances the allocated worker may be enlisted to aid contact between the Social Worker MAS and the child. The Social Worker MAS will be a named worker on the mosaic front sheet and will liaise with the allocated social worker.

When the adult of concern has children, the children will be allocated to the Social Worker, MAS or as in paragraph above, if there is a currently allocated Social Worker.

Files of the adult and the children involved should be linked via personal relationships.

Should the Child and Family assessment identify the need for a Child in Need (CiN) plan the Team Manager will liaise with the DCPT/CDS Team Manager to arrange a CiN meeting for transfer.

When an ongoing risk of significant harm to a child is identified, consideration of the need to convene an Initial Child Protection Conference should be given. Where required, the Social Worker, MAS will progress a child’s case to Initial Child Protection Conference. Where a child protection plan is agreed or the need for ongoing work as a child in need is identified, the case will then transfer to DCPT/CDS.

Where the case is already open to children’s social care, the allocated Social Worker will take the matter to conference and the Social Worker MAS will provide information for the report.

The social worker MAS will provide a report to the Managing Allegations Meeting including details of the adult of concern, details of the child and highlighting the nature of the allegation or concern and any actions taken. See appendices for the proforma.

It is important that identified actions are followed through in identified timescales; to not do so will delay the conclusion of the process and may result in more Allegations meetings than required.

Once the LADO AO has agreed a Managing Allegations meeting, the allocated social worker MAS will e-mail the request to the CPC central administrator using the appropriate request form to convene the meeting. This request should be sent as a matter of urgency to reduce any inbuilt delays

This meeting should take place within 3 working days of receipt of the allegation where there is evidence or risk of significant harm, or 5 working days for other cases. In some circumstances an extended timescale may be needed, it will be the responsibility of the Strategic LADO to make this decision. Where safeguarding action is needed this should not be delayed to accommodate a Managing Allegations Meeting.

The CPC administrator will allocate one of the designated CPC on Mosaic and alert the Chair, TM MAS, SW MAS, LADO AO and add a case note to this effect with the name of the chair, venue and time. This will allow speedy access to the correct Mosaic record.

The Social Worker MAS will be responsible for ensuring that the appropriate people are invited to the meeting and for sending invites.

Attendees will include employers or voluntary agency managers, the police and, for example, with some sports or activity clubs, a national or local governing/regulatory body representative such as the safeguarding lead for the Football Association (FA) or the Scouting Association. A human resources (HR) or personnel representative will also be invited, as well as any other multi-agency representatives known to the child or adult of concern or relevant to the investigation. The invitation of key people is crucial to the effectiveness of the meeting in sharing key information and enabling informed decisions and recommendations.

In the time between the referral and the Managing Allegations meeting, any information gathering, or ongoing investigations should continue as agreed in the strategy discussion between the LADO AO and the MAS Team Manager and should be recorded on Mosaic.

If for any reason a Managing Allegations meeting may need to be postponed or cancelled this should be discussed with and agreed by the CSM Safeguarding Strategic and LADO in consultation with the ICS Service Manager. The decision, with reasons, should be recorded on Mosaic by the CSM Safeguarding Strategic and LADO and the relevant people notified by the social worker MAS that the meeting has been changed.

The following list of people should be considered for inclusion in the Managing Allegations meeting. It is expected those invited will attend with relevant records and information. The social worker, MAS will provide an overview report:

• Child Protection Coordinator (CPC);
• Social Worker, MAS;
• LADO AO, where required;
• Employer;
• Organisation’s Safeguarding Lead (e.g. for Scouts or Football);
• Human Resources Representative;
• The child’s SW and TM where currently allocated. Fostering/Residential Managers as required;
• Police;
• Legal (where appropriate).

Any practitioner with knowledge of the child such as:

• Education;
• Health;
• IRO;
• Youth Services;
• Guardian.

The Minuting Support Service will attend to take full minutes of the meeting(s); the meetings will also be recorded.

The initial Managing Allegations meeting as well as any further meeting will need to consider whether any action is required with respect to:

• Child Protection.
• Criminal Investigation.

Disciplinary procedures/HR processes.

The status of each of these processes will need to be reviewed and continued or discontinued at each stage of the Managing Allegations process as information becomes available.

The Managing Allegations meeting in addition to following the Agenda for Managing Allegations Meetings needs to consider the following information and issues:

• When an allegation is made by a Looked After child, the child’s parents or those with parental responsibility should be made aware of the allegation and their views gathered;
• The significance of any other previous concerns, complaints or allegations made against the carers or their family/members of the household. Any other relevant information about the adult. A chronology should be available;
• Details of other children living in placement or previously in placement where relevant and any information and actions in relation to them;
• Wider investigations required in relation to this adult and their contact with children;
• Consider how to feed back to the child and their family; how this should be facilitated and giving consideration to the investigation and the rights of the adult of concern, carers and the family.

The adult of concern will have received a letter from the LADO AO and in addition will be advised of the MAS Meeting detail and process by the Social Worker, MAS, The content and timing of this will depend on the need for confidentiality particularly if there is an active police investigation.
 
The views of the adult of concern must be fed into the Managing Allegations process by the Social Worker MAS. The Social Worker MAS should provide feedback to the adult of concern about the process, the content of this feedback should be agreed at the Managing Allegations meeting, particularly taking into account police views. The social worker, MAS should keep at least a minimum level of contact with the adult of concern, at least prior to and following a meeting. This is an important part of the process.

The adult of concern should be offered support by their employer where possible. The person with responsibility for these tasks should be agreed at the Managing Allegations meeting but it is anticipated that the social worker, MAS will liaise with other professionals as necessary to ensure that there is a flow of communication.

These meetings will be chaired by a Child Protection Co-ordinator through the Independent Chair Service and will be minuted and recorded by an administrator.

Following the Managing Allegations meeting; given there will be a delay in the minutes being available, within 24 hours the minute taker will send the Action plan including a summary of the recommendations and decisions, as agreed by the chair to all attendees. The CPC should note any difficulties arising in/from the meeting (i.e. key people not in attendance), onto a case note and send as an alert to the SW, and LADO AO to enable monitoring and tracking. The social worker and/or Team Manager, MAS should discuss any difficulties with the LADO AO, as appropriate.
  
The standard for minutes being completed is within twenty working days and they should be uploaded onto Mosaic within the relevant Mosaic episode.

The date of the meeting will be clearly recorded in the document title indicating whether or not it is the first, second or outcome meeting etc. For example, 27 October 2020 1st Managing Allegations meeting and name of adult.

During the whole process timescales should be set so cases are completed in a timely way taking into consideration the child and adult of concern. Any delays that may arise and the reasons need to be recorded within the Managing Allegations Meeting minutes.

The SW MAS, LADO AO and any other relevant parties, will be sent an e-mail to advise that the minutes are available to view. Any other parties not using Mosaic will be sent a hard or electronic copy of the minutes securely. Some caution may need to be exercised with regard to who receives copies of the minutes especially where there is a criminal investigation for example a small setting or organisation where there are no established safeguarding arrangements.

Redacted minutes will be completed by the Chair as required and uploaded onto Mosaic and identified as such.

Redacted minutes remove third party information and provide anonymised information which protects the privacy and welfare of vulnerable children and their families while balancing transparency and openness.

Following a request, the adult of concern would not generally be sent a redacted copy of the minutes until the conclusion of the whole process and where there is a criminal investigation and actual or potential criminal proceedings then it is highly unlikely that this will be agreed. Professional judgement needs to be exercised within this decision making though, generally by the CPC taking into account relevant views and information. The LADO AO and Team Manager MAS can provide advice on this. Advice can be sought from the Subject Access Request Team in complex cases.

Once there is sufficient information, the Chair should provide a clear analysis of the information and their rationale for the conclusion reached. They should consider all the potential outcomes (refer to criteria in 3.2) and this should be recorded clearly in the minutes.

The following outcomes used by all parties (as identified by the DfE in KCSIE 2020) should be considered and applied to each allegation:

• Substantiated - there is sufficient evidence to prove the allegation;
• False - there is sufficient evidence to disprove the allegation;
• Malicious - there is sufficient evidence to disprove the allegation and there has been a deliberate act to deceive;
• Unfounded - to reflect cases where there is no evidence or proper basis which supports the allegations being made;
• Unsubstantiated - there is insufficient evidence to either prove or disprove the allegation. The term therefore does not imply guilt or innocence.

The CPC will seek to gain consensus from the attendees regarding their analyses of the concerns in relation to the threshold criteria, and their view of the outcome. The final outcome of the meeting will rest with the CPC. Any dissent should be recorded in the minutes. Any significant dissent should be escalated to the CSM ICS and CSM Safeguarding Strategic and LADO.

Where a concern is substantiated, the Chair should clearly note which of the criteria set out in 3.2 is met and why, this should be recorded clearly in the minutes.

Where a concern is unsubstantiated, the meaning of this and the reason for the decision should be clearly explained by the Chair and again, clearly recorded in the minutes.
  
The LADO AOs contribute to quality assurance through consideration of the Action Plan and Minutes and will raise any queries/issues with the strategy meeting chair or CSM (strategic) as appropriate.

A concluding letter, content and timing to be agreed with the police where required, should be sent to the adult of concern confirming the outcome of the Managing Allegations meeting process. This should be completed as soon as possible on receipt of the final meeting minutes. The LADO AO will be responsible for this task.

The LADO AO will track and monitor until the conclusion of any police action and employer process.

A further meeting will only be convened if new information comes to light that has not been considered before in respect of the allegation or new allegations are received.

At the conclusion of all processes the LADO AO will record an outcome summary on Mosaic.

The outcome should make clear if the person of concern was:

• Dismissed;
• Convicted of any offence;
• Struck off any professional register or body or similar i.e. teaching, medical or fostering approval;
• Provided with additional training, supervision or guidance.

It should be clear that the person of concern is made aware of the outcome, how this was achieved and that a referral to DBS has been considered even if it is not appropriate to make such a referral. See 9.1 for details of responsibility for making DBS referrals.

Consideration will be given to which other parties need to be made aware of the outcome and who will undertake this. The Social Worker, MAS will advise the parent of the child/ren involved of the outcome with a focus on the investigation and actions taken rather than the outcome wording.

If there are disagreements about the direction of the case then the matter should be escalated. The matter will be addressed initially at Service Manager level and then, if necessary, at Group Manger level.

The LADO AO will be responsible for ensuring all adults of concern are opened and/or created on Mosaic irrespective of how the adults of concern are received.

For cases received by MASH, connected children will be opened and/or created by the MASH and passed to the TM Managing Allegation Service for allocation to a Social Worker MAS.
 
Information from Agencies will be uploaded onto Mosaic in a dedicated episode as well as onto case notes or documents.

The initial LADO AO case note on MOSAIC should state LADO referral or LADO advice in the title section.

Ongoing LADO AO activity should state LADO AO update in the title with a subheading advising of the type of activity i.e. tel call to police.

The following Mosaic steps record the Managing Allegations process on the adult of concern:

Allegations and Concerns – Initial Consideration – is initiated by the LADO AO and contains the details of the adult of concern, their employment and the information required to reach an outcome of LADO Advice or whether to progress to a LADO Referral and details of the Strategy Discussion (combined with S47 Strategy Discussion as required) which considers the need for an Allegations meeting.

Allegations and Concerns – Allegations Meeting – is initiated and completed jointly by the Minuting Support Service and the CPC allocated to the adult, with details of the meetings held.

Allegations and Concerns – Outcome – is initiated and completed by the LADO AO with details of the Allegations meeting outcome and outcomes for the Employer ad Police as appropriate.

Adult of concern record

All recording relating to the LADO process is to be entered on the Adult of concern’s record in Mosaic.

Professional judgement is to be used in considering what should be copied onto the child’s record. Minutes of the meetings and outcomes letters should not be copied onto the child’s record. It is important to create a link between the child and adult’s Mosaic records through personal relationships. This will ensure that all information is captured, there is an audit trail between the two records (or more if multiple children or adults) and to enable cross referencing where required.

The adult of concern’s Mosaic record should be a repository for the whole ‘picture’, particularly when relating to multiple victims where individual children’s case notes may not be cross referenced to another child’s record unless deemed appropriate. If, as a result of judgement of the worker, a particular piece of information should not be copied over to the other records, then a case note should be put on the other record to indicate relevant information is held on another file.

This practice is consistent with data protection practice and in the event of any access to record request; third party information will be removed.

The alert system on Mosaic should be used to notify the LADO AO, Child Protection Coordinator, social worker/s and manager/s to any update to the file [specify on the case note who the alert is being sent to]. This alert may be in addition to any e-mails or phone calls etc and these contacts will be recorded on Mosaic case notes. When involved, operational social workers and managers need to regularly check Mosaic for alerts to ensure there is no breakdown in communication and respond accordingly.

For urgent matters, this system should not be relied on and direct telephone contact should be made to ensure prompt awareness of relevant developments.

Mosaic Recording on Organisations

The LADO AO should upload a Word document with the information onto the documents section of the organisation that the employee works for.

This is particularly important (but not exclusively) for early years, private provider residential units and IFAs. Private provider residential units should be assigned to the head office address as they often open and close, change name or move premises. Case notes are not an available option but the information saved will indicate the name of the employee and child which will allow an audit trail for more information. This function will enable a degree of oversight into repeat referrals from particular settings which may need to be explored. The LADO AO would generally take responsibility for this action unless delegated.

It is important to add individual documents only when necessary so as not to compromise overall tracking of repeat referrals.

The following has been agreed as a modified process in response to complaints regarding the outcome and/or the Managing Allegations process. This covers both contemporaneous and non-recent allegations.

• The Service Manager MAS will lead the response to all complaints and will liaise with the Service Manager Independent Chair Service (ICSM) should the complaint relate directly to the Chair or outcome of the meeting;
• As with all stage 1 responses, consideration should be given to offering to meet with the complainant either as part of the initial response or following the written response at the request of the complainant;
• Where a complainant remains dissatisfied following the stage 1 response (and any attendant meeting), in circumstances where the outcome of the final meeting remains the central factor, the case holder within the complaints team will discuss with the Group Manager Safeguarding, Assurance and Improvement. Where felt appropriate the Group Manager will independently review the case before a decision is made about progression to stage 2. (This will be a file review);
• The outcome of this review will be:
  • Upholds the original decision;
  • Recommends a further Managing Allegations meeting;
  • A change to the outcome classification (this will only be an outcome in exceptional circumstances).
• The outcome of the review will be communicated to the complainant. If the complainant remains dissatisfied the complaints team will consider whether the case is eligible to progress to stage 2 of the complaints process.

The LADO AO, with administrative support, will be responsible for monitoring and tracking cases open to the LADO until the absolute conclusion of the case.

This monitoring role will be undertaken at least monthly and will be recorded on the case file. Where there are no other actions required except for example the outcome of a disciplinary or criminal process which is some months away then monitoring can be less frequent, this needs to be stated in the case note and a reason given.

The LADO AO and administrators will maintain a LADO AO data base to manage cases and tracking and monitoring.

LADO Advice cases do not generally require monitoring and tracking.

For cases on Mosaic tracking should be evidenced with a case note titled LADO AO tracking and monitoring.

Any activity which is e-mail based should be fully pasted onto the cases notes i.e. with date and time with the relevant heading to the case note.
 

Where an outcome has been achieved, the title on the case note should be LADO AO outcome.

The name and role of the person completing the tracking and monitoring should be added at the end of the case note in the event of copying of cases notes.