Children doing a jigsaw

Children subject to a Child Protection Plan for 2 years or more

When children are identified as being at risk of continuing significant harm, they are made subject to a child protection plan at a child protection conference. This significant harm might be physical harm, sexual harm, emotional harm or neglect.
The child protection plan is agreed by the professionals and family members attending the child protection conference, and progress on this plan is monitored and reviewed at set intervals, through core group meetings and review child protection conferences. A child will no longer remain subject to a child protection plan once they are no longer at risk of significant harm.
Further information about child protection plans and child protection conferences can be found on the West Sussex Safeguarding Children Board website, which can be accessed by clicking on this link: SCP - Safeguarding Children Partnership

February 2021 performance

The increase in the number of children subject to Child Protection Plan for 2 years or more increased by 1. This remains an area of particular attention from senior managers in Children’s Services and subject to regular reviews.
The ongoing improvements in this part of the service have maintained good levels of performance.   The frequency and quality of management oversight and close monitoring of child protection plans as part of the quality assurance processes is part of supporting achievement in this area.
We aim to have children on a child protection plan for as short a time as possible, as targeted interventions by professionals working alongside the family should be effective in reducing the risk of significant harm and protecting the child. 

Actions

 Children subject to a CP plan for more than 9 months (2nd review meeting) continue to be reviewed by group managers and escalated to legal gateway meetings where significant progress and reduction of harm is not being achieved. This now includes children subject to a CP plan for 16 months post the third Review Child Protection Conference to ensure a focus on pace with with child protection planning.
There has been a recent review of all children subject of a Child Protection Plan over 15 months, which has captured those plans over 2 years.  This has seen all the cases reviewed and clear plans put in place, including presentation at the Legal Gateway Panel to consider escalation to the Public Law Outline (PLO).   These cases will then continue to be tracked through the Court/ PLO tracker to ensure the plans remain on track and within agreed timescales.