Quality and Assurance Performance Group / Audits

Working Together to Safeguard Children (2018) states that "the safeguarding partners should be clear how they will assure themselves that relevant agencies have appropriate, robust safeguarding policies and procedures in place and how information will be shared amongst all relevant agencies and the safeguarding partners".

The role of the Quality Assurance and Performance Group (QA&P) is to provide, on behalf of Our Safeguarding Children Partnership, an objective overview of the effectiveness of child safeguarding across individual organisations and multi-agency partnership working. 

The Quality Assurance and Performance Group:

• Monitors multi-agency data to assess the effectiveness of help being provided to children and families
• Oversees a multi-agency audit process and Section 11 reviews
• Monitors issues identified through Quality Assurance and Scrutiny Panels
• Develops new ways of determining and commenting on effectiveness

Audits provide an opportunity to:

• reflect on the quality of multi-agency working practice
• learn from and build on existing good practice and identify lessons learned. 

It is important that the learning arising from audits is shared across the partnership and audit findings are presented to the Practice Review Sub-group. Quality assured audit reports are shared with the Learning Group and other relevant work-streams. QA&P group members are responsible for the monitoring the implementation of the recommendations to ensure lessons learnt are embedded into practice to improve outcomes for children.

Audit programme 2021-22

Completed audit reports are available on request:

• Emotional Health & Wellbeing audit report
• Medical needs of CSA victims follow on audit report 
• Vulnerable Adolescents – non MACE children with identified exploitation needs – including Transition cases audit report
• Neglect audit report including deep dive follow on report

Quality Assurance and Performance Group terms of reference