B&NES Community Safety & Safeguarding Partnership
About Us
Welcome to the Bath & North East Somerset (B&NES) Community Safety & Safeguarding Partnership (BCSSP) website.
The BCSSP is a multi-agency partnership which has been established to fulfil the statutory functions of the Local Safeguarding Children’s Partnership, Safeguarding Adult’s Board and Community Safety Partnership.
Our core function is to work effectively with our partner organisations with joint purpose to keep children and adults safe and look at how to protect communities across B&NES.
The partnership began in September 2019 when new laws made by the government required changes to the way we worked before. B&NES created a community safety and safeguarding arrangement to maximise how partners work together.
As the BCSSP was formed from merging three different statutory areas of work, we must ensure that our practice is compliant with the responsibilities set out in the frameworks for each of these areas.
Community Safety
Community Safety Partnerships were introduced by Section 6 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and bring together local partners to formulate and deliver strategies to tackle crime and disorder in their communities. Responsible authorities that make up a Community Safety Partnership are the Police, Fire and Rescue Authority, Local Authorities, Health Partners, and Probation Services.
Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs) aim to reduce crime and the fear of crime, address risk, threat and harm to victims and local communities and facilitate the empowerment and strengthening of communities through the delivery of local initiatives.
Safeguarding Children
Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023 sets out that the three safeguarding partners (B&NES Council, Avon and Somerset Constabulary, the B&NES Swindon and Wiltshire Integrated Care Board have a joint and equal duty to work together as a team to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children in the local area and to include and develop the role of wider local organisations and agencies in the process.
Strong, collaborative leadership and timely decision-making are crucial to the effectiveness of multi-agency working and to identify and address system issues. The three safeguarding partners are responsible and accountable for this in their local areas.
Safeguarding Adults
The Care Act 2014 requires every local authority to establish a Safeguarding Adults Board (SAB) for its area. The SAB operates at a strategic level, helping and protecting adults in its area from abuse and neglect through co-ordinating and reviewing a multi-agency approach across all member organisations. The approach the SAB takes directly influences how frontline safeguarding operations are undertaken in member organisations.
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How does BCSSP operate?
BCSSP operates through a delivery group model made up of multi-agency partners who develop policy, procedures and practice guidance for professionals and volunteers who work with children, young people, families, adults at risk and wider communities across B&NES. The delivery groups also seek assurance from partners to ensure they are operating in line with statutory requirements.
The BCSSP is led by Fiona Field, who is the Independent Chair of the BCSSP. She is there to check that work is completed and if there are things which could have been done better. She leads partners to achieve the priorities of the BCSSP.
The partnership also has an Independent Scrutineer who is responsible for holding partners to account and providing scrutiny of the community safety and safeguarding arrangements developed by the five statutory partners. Our partnership structure can be accessed HERE.
Our Members
The BCSSP statutory members for Safeguarding are
In addition to these members, for matters of community safety, the following also hold statutory responsibilities.
The wider partnership is made up of members from other groups that work directly in the community:
Our Published Arrangements
Our published arrangements are currently under review.