Guidance for Professionals

Local Guidance

• Pan-Berkshire Multi-Agency Safeguarding Arrangements for adults and children are designed to help staff provide a consistent response to concerns about abuse or neglect.
• All-age Safeguarding Protocol is designed to help professionals work effectively together to achieve better outcomes for adults, children and their families across all areas.
• Bracknell Forest Children Thresholds Guidance 2025-28 helps those working with children and their families, consider the best response to emerging concerns. 
• Bracknell Forest Child Neglect Strategy 2023-26 provides practice tools to support the pan-Berkshire guidance.
• Multi-Agency Risk Framework has been designed to manage high risk cases that fall outside of the statutory framework.
• Making Safeguarding Personal (MSP) involves an outcome focused, person centred approach to safeguarding adults.
• Hoarding Protocol to assist with a consistent to identify, assess and coordinate support and reduce risks for adults with a hoarding disorder or related behaviours.
• Missing People Multi-Agency Response Guidance (MISPER) puts multi-agency coordination at the heart of preventing and responding to missing people in all settings.
• Bracknell Forest Self-assessment Safeguarding Tool together with our guidance below is designed to help organisations reflect on how robust their arrangements are for a range of safeguarding scenarios.
• 'Too Important to Get Wrong' An organisational commitment to safeguarding and what ‘good’ looks like.
• Domestic Abuse and Suicide Risk Support Toolkit (Berkshire, May 26) supports professionals to recognise and respond to suicide risk where domestic abuse is a factor.
• Bruising/ Suspicious Marks on Children Not Independently Mobile provides guidance if this is observed and a leaflet for parents.
• Working Together to Protect Children cue card provides local information if you have any concerns that a child may be at risk of harm or neglect.
• Supervision: Safeguarding Policy and Guidance provides minimum standards for the supervision of staff working with children and families.
• Our leaflet ‘how to safely choose clubs, groups, help and support for children’ outlines how to identify safe, good quality services and support.
• Our leaflet ‘how to safely choose care, help and support for adults’ outlines how to identify safe, good quality services and support.

We have a range of information on the following themes:

• Child Injury Prevention
• Keeping your baby and child safe
• Domestic abuse
• Exploitation
• Fire Risks
• Hoarding and self-neglect
• Neglect
• Hypothermia recognition and prevention
• Making Safeguarding Personal (MSP)
• Preventing radicalisation
• Scams and fraud prevention

We also have details of local safeguarding referral routes that practitioners may wish to use such as CAMHS, CMHT, domestic abuse, substance misuse, fire risks etc.

National Guidance

• Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023 provides legislative requirements placed on individual services to safeguard children.
• The Care Act 2014 statutory guidance document sets out how a local authority should go about performing its care and support responsibilities.
• Making decisions on the duty to carry out Safeguarding Adults enquiries provides support on when a concern requires an enquiry under S42 of the Care Act (2014).
• Adult safeguarding Practice questions identifies a number of challenging safeguarding dilemmas and aims to make clear how these should be handled within the new legal framework.
• Sharing Information is a guide to help share the right information, at the right time, with the right people.
• Gaining access to adult suspected to be at risk of neglect or abuse
• Multi-agency statutory guidance on female genital mutilation for those with statutory duties to safeguard children and vulnerable adults.

Resources

• Adults at Risk Programme (ARP) is a training package from Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service to help protect vulnerable adults living in the community from the risks of fire.
• National Referral Mechanism for Modern Slavery is a framework for identifying and referring potential victims of modern slavery and ensuring they receive the appropriate support.
• Victims First Specialist Service Support can provide support for those identified as potential victims of modern slavery and exploitation.
• CAFCASS have developed a range of Top Tips for professionals working with children i.e. those with a disability, autism, transgender, separating parents, mental health and more.
• Bracknell Forest Public Health provides guidance, advice and local support for health and wellness.
• Bracknell Forest Community Network works with partners in the mental health and wider health and care systems to support remain socially included and support them in preventing relapses.
• Advice for people who arrange their own care so they know what to expect from good care.
• Guidance for visiting people in care homes lists things you might look out for or want to talk about with the person you are visiting, or other people involved in their care and support.

 If you think that a child or adult with care and support needs is at risk of being harmed or neglected please report your concerns.