Amendments

January 2024

Updated Chapters
Chapter Title	Details
Safe Use of the Internet, Social Media and Photographs	This chapter has been refreshed and additional links added in Further Information.

July 2023

Updated Chapters
Chapter Title	Details
Health Care Assessments and Health Recommendation Plan	Information in relation to allergies has been added into Section 2, Health Recommendation Plans.
Provision and Preparation of Meals	Information in relation to allergies has been added into Section 1, Responsibility and Risk Assessments.
Home Remedies and First Aid	Section 3, Allergies has been added.
Calderdale Missing Child Policy	This chapter has been updated to incorporate Ofsted feedback. Information in relation to Philomena Protocols has been added into Section 3, When a Child is Missing from Care.
Allegations Against Staff and Volunteers	This chapter has been amended in line with revised Keeping Children Safe in Education. A new Section 2, The Difference Between an Allegation of Harm and a Concern has been added.
Self Harm and Suicidal Behaviour	This chapter has been amended to include a link to Self-harm: Assessment, Management and Preventing Recurrence NICE Guidance into Further Information.
Staffing and Safer Recruitment	This chapter has been amended in line with revised statutory guidance Keeping Children Safe in Education. Information has been added to note that Keeping Children Safe in Education provides that copies of a curriculum vitae should only be accepted alongside an application form as a curriculum vitae on its own may not provide adequate information. Information in relation to online searches has also been added.
New Chapters and Features
Chapter Name	Details
Supporting Children and Young People with Disabilities	This chapter has been added to the manual.

January 2023

Updated Chapters
Chapter Title	Details
Providing Personalised Care	This chapter has been updated.
Case Recording	This chapter has been updated.
Contact with Parents/Carers/Siblings and Others	Section 3, Supervised Contact has been updated to reflect a finding by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman that the supervisor's observations of the contact must be clearly recorded in the child's record and shared with the parents within 3 months of the visit.
Safe Use of the Internet, Social Media and Photographs	This chapter has been updated.
Advocacy, Independent Visitors and Independent Reviewing Officers	This chapter has been updated.
Leisure and Activities	This chapter has been updated.
Health and Wellbeing, Health Notifications and Access to Services	This chapter has been updated.
Positive Relationships and Behaviour Management	This chapter has been updated.
Use of Restraint and Physical Interventions	This chapter has been updated.
Searching Children/Bedrooms	This chapter has been updated.
Safeguarding Children and Young People and Referring Safeguarding Concerns	This chapter has been updated.
Surveillance and Monitoring	This chapter has been updated.
Staff Qualifications	This chapter has been updated.
Staff Supervision and Appraisal	This chapter has been updated.
Care and Placement Planning	This chapter has been updated.
Children Looked After Reviews and Disruption Meetings	This chapter has been updated.
New Chapters and Features
Chapter Name	Details
Equality and Diversity	This chapter has been added to the manual.
Consultation and Participation	This chapter has been added to the manual.
Female Genital Mutilation	This chapter has been added to the manual.
Recording and Reporting of Accidents	This chapter has been added to the manual.
Health and Safety	This chapter has been added to the manual.
Risk Assessment and Planning	This chapter has been added to the manual.
Leadership and Management	This chapter has been added to the manual.
Staffing and Safer Recruitment	This chapter has been added to the manual.

July 2022

Updated Chapters
Chapter Title	Details
Staying in Touch - Safe Use of the Internet, Social Media and Taking Photographs	A link to Children’s Commissioner Guidance: Talking to Your Child About Online Sexual Harassment has been added. A link to the Childnet Parents and Carers Toolkit to assist with talking to children about online safety has been also added.
Health Care Assessments and Health Recommendation Plans	A link to NHS guidance Why Pays? has been added in the Related Guidance section.
Use of Restraint and Physical Interventions	A link to Ofsted Guidance: Positice Environments Where Children Can Flourish has been added.
Countering Bullying and Peer Abuse	This chapter has been amended to reflect Keeping Children Safe in Education Statutory Guidance, the outcome of Ofsted’s thematic report, Review of sexual abuse in schools and colleges (June 2021) and the Domestic Abuse Act 2021. See Section 2, Definition of Bullying and Peer Abuse and Section 3, Responding to Bullying.
Allegations Against Staff and Volunteers	KCSIE highlights the importance of sharing and responding to any concerns, about the behaviour of an adult who works with children, no matter how small. This chapter has been revised to also consider low level concerns, with a new section added in relation to the differences between an ‘allegation’ and a concern.
Placements and Admissions	This chapter has been amended to note the importance of a child’s belonging’s being transferred in appropriate luggage and to add a link to the NYAS ‘My Things Matter’ Report – support and respect care-experienced children and their belongings when they move. (See Section 3, Planning).
New Chapters and Features
Chapter Name	Details
Moving to Another Placement	This chapter has been added to the manual.

January 2022

Updated Chapters
Chapter Title	Details
Residential Child Care – Key Principles	This chapter has been given a general refresh.
Staying in Touch - Safe Use of the Internet, Social Media and Taking Photographs	A link has been added in Related Guidance to the NSPCC Report Remove Tool and the UK Council for Internet Safety (UKCIS) Digital Passport.
Preparation for Leaving Care	This chapter has been amended to include local guidance around residential staff keeping in contact with young people that have left care. Section 3, Contact has been amended and needs to be reread.

July 2021

Updated Chapters
Chapter Title	Details
Blood Borne Viruses (BBVs)	This guidance has been reviewed and updated throughout.
Recognising Abuse and Neglect	This chapter has been updated to reflect changes from the revised Working Together to Safeguard Children.
Referring Safeguarding Concerns	This chapter has been updated to reflect changes from the revised statutory guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children.
Allegations Against Staff and Volunteers	A fourth bullet point has been added into Section 1, Introduction to reflect the revised guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children. The new bullet point means this procedure now also covers situations where an individual has behaved or may have behaved in a way that indicates they may not be suitable to work with children. This is to capture concerns around transferable risk; for example where a person who works in the home is involved in a domestic abuse incident and this may have implications for their suitability to work with children.
Staff Qualifications and Employment Checks	A note has been added regarding the checks which employers must carry out to ensure that any person applying to work in the home has the right to work in the UK. See Section 3, Safe Recruitment and Employment Checks.
New Chapters and Features
Chapter Title	Details
Child Criminal Exploitation and County Lines	This new guidance provides information on Child Criminal Exploitation, including county lines. It describes the signs and indicators that children are being exploited, and offers guidance for staff in Children's Homes on how they can respond to keep children safe from harm linked to criminal exploitation.

January 2021

Updated Chapters
Chapter Title	Details
Notification of Serious Events	This procedure has been updated to reflect the latest Ofsted guidance for social care providers on the types of incident which they consider to be serious, and which therefore will require notification to the regulatory authority. New sections have been added on the quality of notifications and learning from notifications.
Staff Qualifications and Employment Checks	This guidance has been reviewed and updated as required. Section 3, Safe Recruitment and Employment Checks is new.
New Chapters and Features
Chapter Title	Details
Surveillance and Monitoring	This new chapter provides guidance on the use of surveillance and monitoring equipment in Children's Homes. It is based on information published by Ofsted.

July 2020

Updated Chapters
Chapter Title	Details
Allegations Against Staff and Volunteers	This procedure has been reviewed and updated as required.

January 2020

Updated Chapters
Chapter Title	Details
Staying in Touch - Safe Use of the Internet, Social Media and Taking Photographs	The Young Person’s Acceptable Use Agreement and Calderdale Internet Safety Policy for Children Looked After which link from this guidance have both been updated.
Notification of Serious Events	This procedure has been reviewed throughout and extensively updated as required to reflect the latest advice from Ofsted in relation to the notification of serious events.

July 2019

Updated Chapters
Chapter Title	Details
Recognising Abuse and Neglect	Section 6, Sexual Abuse and Section 8, Bullying (including Online/Cyberbullying) have been reviewed and completely updated.
Safeguarding Children and Young People from Sexual Exploitation	Links have been added to resources for practitioners working with children who have been, or are at risk of, Child Sexual Exploitation published by Barnardos and Research in Practice.
Care and Placement Plans Guidance	This guidance has been reviewed throughout and updated as required. Information in relation to Pathway Plans has been updated to reflect that care leavers can request support from local authorities up to the age of 25 years.
Preparation for Leaving Care	This chapter has been updated to add clarification in relation to Qualifying Young People. See Section 1, Definitions.
New Chapters and Features
Chapter Title	Details
Leaving Care and Life Skills (Calderdale Guidance)	This document have been added to the manual.

January 2019

Updated Chapters
Chapter Title	Details
Residential Child Care – Key Principles	Section 3, Achieving the Key Principles has been updated to reflect the UK General Data Protection Regulations and Data Protection Act 2018, and explains that children in residential care should be helped to understand the types of personal information which is kept in their case records, what it is used for, who it will be shared with and how long it will be kept for. The child's right to access their case record should also be explained to them.
Children’s Guide	This chapter has been updated ollowing publication of the UK General Data Protection Regulations (UK GDPR) and Data Protection Act 2018 to recommend that Children's Guides contain information for children and young people on the data / records which the home keeps on them, as well as explaining the right of children and young people to access their case file.
Information Sharing	This guidance has been reviewed and updated throughout to reflect Working Together to Safeguard Children (2018) and the revised DfE Information Sharing Advice for Practitioners Providing Safeguarding Services to Children, Young People, Parents and Carers.
Case Recording	This guidance has been reviewed and updated following publication of the UK General Data Protection Regulations and Data Protection Act 2018.
Access to Records	This guidance has been reviewed and updated to reflect the Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulations (UK GDPR).

July 2018

Updated Chapters
Chapter Title	Details
Contact with Parents/Carers/Siblings and Others	Section 2, Different Types of Contact has been updated to take account of the ways in which social media and mobile communication are used by young people in care to have contact friends and family members.
Health Care Assessments and Health Recommendation Plans	Section 1, Health Care Assessments has been updated to include additional information on situations when children and young people can provide their own consent to health care assessments and treatment.
Smoking and Alcohol	This chapter has been extensively updated. A new Section 1.1, E-cigarettes/Vapes has been added.
Offending and Anti-Social Behaviour – Guidance on when to Involve the Police	This chapter has been updated to include a link to the Calderdale protocol for reducing criminalisation of children looked after.
Recognising Abuse and Neglect	This guidance has been reviewed and updated to reflect current Government guidance on safeguarding children, details have been added in relation to the responsibility which is shared among all professionals to keep children safe and promote their welfare.
Referring Safeguarding Concerns	This guidance has been reviewed and updated throughout to reflect current Government guidance on safeguarding children and emphasises that keeping children safe and promoting their welfare is a responsibility of all staff working in the home, not just managers and key workers.
Safeguarding Children and Young People from Sexual Exploitation	Section 1, Introduction has been revised throughout to include additional information on the nature of child sexual exploitation and its impact on young people. Section 2, Indicators of Possible Sexual Exploitation has also been included to reflect the complexity of child sexual exploitation including situations where young people are both perpetrators and victims of abuse.
Identifying and Supporting Children and Young People Vulnerable to Violent Extremism including Radicalisation	Section 1, Introduction / Definitions has been updated to include additional information for staff on what is meant by the term extremism; an explanation of the processes by which young people can be exposed to the messages of extremist groups has also been added.
Self Harm and Suicidal Behaviour	Section 2, Planning and Prevention has been updated to provide additional guidance for staff on how to respond to young people in our care who are feeling suicidal or who are self harming. A note has also been added on the importance of offering appropriate support to staff members and other young people living in the home when incidents of self harm have taken place.
Children Looked After Reviews	This guidance has been reviewed throughout and updated to include additional detail on the circumstances in which Independent Reviewing Officers (IROs) should look to bring forward a child’s Looked After Review. See Section 2, Frequency of Looked After Reviews for full details.

January 2018

Updated Chapters
Chapter Title	Details
Social Visits (Including Overnight Stays with Friends)	This guidance has been reviewed throughout and substantially updated.
Allegations Against Staff and Volunteers	This guidance has been reviewed and updated as required.
Role of Appropriate Adults	A link has been added to the Calderdale Appropriate Adults Protocol which has been agreed between Children and Young People’s Directorate (CSC including EDT and YOT), Adult Health and Social Care and West Yorkshire Police (Calderdale District), and sets out the agreement on the provision of Appropriate Adult services for young people and vulnerable adults whilst in the West Yorkshire Police Service (Calderdale) custody suite and describes the duties and responsibilities of the respective agencies.

August 2017

Updated Chapters
Chapter Title	Details
Case Recording	A note has been added into Section 17, Records Must usually be Retained After Closure, to remind all staff that no children’s social care records should be destroyed while the National Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse is on-going.
Advocacy and Independent Visitors	This chapter has been updated to add a link to the Children's Society ‘Advocacy Services for Children and Young People – A Guide for Commissioners'. The guide summarises the legislative requirements placed on local authorities in relation to the provision of advocacy support to Children in Need and Children Looked After.
Use of Restraint and Physical Interventions	Information has been added into Section 4, Staff Training and Criteria for using Physical Interventions, to clarify when a child may be prevented by staff from leaving the home (for example if the child is at risk due to gang activity, substance misuses or as a result of sexual exploitation). Any measure of measure of restraint used in these circumstances must be proportionate and in place for no longer than is necessary to manage the immediate risk. In such situations, staff should use their professional judgement, supported by their knowledge of each child's risk assessment, an understanding of the needs of the child and an understanding of the risks the child faces. Professional judgements may need to be taken quickly.
Calderdale Missing Child Policy	Section 2, Definitions has been updated to reflect the College of Policing’s revised definition of missing and absent. Links have been added to the following documents: What to do when a child goes missing – A guide for professionals (Calderdale Council); Appendix 1: Missing from Care Incident Form, and the Missing Children / Young People Flowchart which summarises the actions required when a child is missing and assessed as high risk, medium risk, low risk or no apparent risk (absent).
Safeguarding Children and Young People from Sexual Exploitation	Section 1, Introduction, has been updated to take account of the change of definition in: Child Sexual Exploitation: Definition and Guide for Practitioners (DfE, February 2017).

June 2016

Updated Chapters
Chapter Name	Details
Safeguarding Children from Radicalisation and Extremism	A link to the to Education Against Hate website has been added to this procedure. The website, developed by HM Government, contains practical advice for parents, teachers and school leaders on protecting children from extremism and radicalisation.
Correspondence, Communication and Social Networking	A link to recently published practical guide for parents and carers whose children use social media has been added. The guide contains information on the risks young people might face through using social media and offers practical tips on how to minimise these risks.
Advocacy and Independent Visitors	This guidance has been reviewed and updated throughout. Section 1.2, Duties of an Advocate is new.

December 2015

Updated Chapters
Chapter Name	Details
Notifiable Events	This guidance has been updated to reflect the new Children’s Homes Regulations and Quality Standards and Working Together to Safeguard Children.
New Chapters and Features
Chapter Name	Details
Safeguarding Children from Radicalisation and Extremism	This new chapter contains information for staff working in residential homes on the risks faced by children and young people who are exposed to extremist material and / or radicalised. It highlights the key indicators which staff should be alert to, and explains the action which should be taken where there are concerns about the behaviour of any young people in our care.
Removed Chapters
Consent for Absence From School.

August 2015

Updated Chapters
Chapter Name	Details
Care and Placement Planning	Section 3, Placement Plans has been updated to reflect that staff working in our homes should seek to develop close working relationship with other professionals involved in protection of the child/young person. It is also the responsibility of the home to seek to work with those in the wider system to ensure that each child’s needs are met.
Looked After Reviews	This chapter has been updated to reflect the publication of the new Children’s Homes Regulations and Quality Standards. To prevent any delay in supporting the child/young person, the new regulations require that a worker from the home also take notes at the Looked After Review. In addition the Registered Person should be able to evidence what they have done to achieve engagement, including any actions taken to escalate concerns.
Leaving Care and Transition	The following has been added to Section 3, Key Responsibilities - Staff in the home must assist in the pathway planning process and help the young person prepare for transition by developing self help skills needed to live independently.
Education	This chapter has been updated to reflect the Children's Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and Quality Standards.
Sanctions	This chapter has been updated to reflect revised Children’s Homes Regulations and Quality Standards. Information has been added into Section 4, Monitoring and Recording use of Sanctions to require that the Homes Manager reviews the use of sanctions / additional measures to determine: Whether sanctions were used appropriately; and The effectiveness of the sanction imposed. If the review identifies that sanctions have proved ineffective, then other alternative methods should be applied.
Physical Intervention	This chapter has been revised throughout to reflect the Children's Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and Quality Standards; it should be re-read.
Searching Children/Bedrooms	Section 1, Searching has been updated to reflect that bedrooms should not be generally entered without the child’s permission.
Countering Bullying	Section 4, Countering Bullying Day to Day has been updated to reflect the requirement for the registered person to ensure a process is in place to respond to allegations of bullying.
Contact with Parents and Siblings	Section 3, Cancellation of Contact has been updated to require that where a decision to cancel contact is made at the weekend/bank holiday to cancel contact, the EDT social worker should notified; this should be followed up with the allocated social worker on the first working day after the weekend/bank holiday.
Correspondence, Communication and Social Networking	A new section on Web Enabled or Internet Technology/Social Networking has been added to this chapter.
Monitoring Quality	This chapter has been updated throughout to reflect the Children's Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and Quality Standards; it should be read in full.
Countering Bullying Guidance	This guidance has been updated to include reference to online / cyberbullying. A link has also been added to recently published Department of Education advice for parents and carers on cyberbullying.
Children's Homes (England) Regulations 2015 (including the Quality Standards)	This link has been updated.

December 2014

Updated Chapters
Chapter Name	Details
Notifiable Events	This chapter has been updated in line with the revised Schedule 5 of the Children's Homes Regulations 2001 as amended by the Children's Homes and Looked after Children (Miscellaneous Amendments) (England) Regulations 2013.
Monitoring Quality	This chapter has been updated in line with the Children's Homes and Looked after Children (Miscellaneous Amendments) (England) Regulations 2013; A new section 1 Suitability of Premises has been added, and Section 2, Regulation 33 Visits, has been updated throughout in accordance with the revised Regulation 33.
Advocacy and Independent Visitors	References to the Children's Rights Director have been replaced with the Children's Commissioner. Contact details for the Children's Advocacy and Independent Visitor Service have also been updated.