East Sussex Safeguarding Children Partnership – Monthly Digest (December 2025)

This latest roundup of ESSCP news includes highlights from recent publications, information about forthcoming events and training, and other snippets of useful information from the ESSCP and partner agencies. Go to News – ESSCP which is updated throughout the month with the latest information and learning.

The ESSCP business team would also like to wish you a lovely festive break and a happy start to the new year. We look forward to working with you in 2026!

Family D LCSPR & DHR learning briefing

The East Sussex Safeguarding Children Partnership (ESSCP) and East Sussex Community Safety Partnership (ESCSP) undertook a joint Local Child Safeguarding Practice Review (LCSPR) and Domestic Homicide Review (DHR) in 2023. ‘Clare’ was 47 when she was killed by her son ‘Adam’, aged 17. The Review is known locally as ‘Family D’.

The report is awaiting sign-off by the Home Office Quality Assurance Panel. To ensure that learning is shared to enable prompt practice change, last week we held two learning briefing sessions – which 230 professionals attended (our largest turnout for a learning briefing session!). We have also produced a learning briefing will set out the headline learning from this review: https://www.esscp.org.uk/Clare-Adam-Family-D-LCSPR-DHR-Learning-Briefing-FINAL-04.12.2025.pdf

Please do discuss the learning in your next team meeting or group supervision.

Safer sleeping messaging over Christmas

Over the past few years there have been several tragic sudden unexpected deaths of infants (SUDI).  Each one of these child deaths brings with them unimaginable trauma and pain for families, friends, communities and professionals.  Sadly, some of these deaths are preventable.  The risk factors for SUDI are well recognised, and the steps parents can take to reduce the risk are generally shared with parents and carers by professionals including social workers, midwives, and health visitors.

When you visit families with babies please ask them to think about their sleeping arrangements over the festive season: Routines often change over the festive season. People visit friends and relatives, have more to drink and often go to bed at a different time. It may be more difficult to access a safe sleeping space for a baby. More information can be found on our website here: Advice for Parents – Every Sleep Must be a Safer Sleep

The Lullaby Trust has useful information for parents about Safer sleep on holiday | The Lullaby Trust and in Cold weather | The Lullaby Trust

Best practice in safeguarding and child protection

We were delighted to welcome over 50 professionals to our first ‘Best Practice in Safeguarding and Child Protection’ celebration event on 3 December – celebrating the outstanding work happening across East Sussex. The event was about recognising the dedication, expertise and compassion that underpin safeguarding every single day. More information can be found here:

Review of Pan Sussex multi-agency safeguarding arrangements

The three Sussex safeguarding children partnerships have commissioned an Independent Scrutineer to complete an evaluation of current multi-agency safeguarding arrangements. If you are a member of the Partnership Group or a subgroup Chair please take 10 minutes to complete this short survey:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MASA2025-26

Safeguarding month – taster learning session evaluations

Over 350 professionals attended one of our eight ‘taster learning sessions’ that were delivered in November as part of our ‘Safeguarding Month’. These included sessions on Incels, harmful sexual behaviour, supporting unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, group-based child sexual exploitation, and safeguarding electively home educated children.

Thank you to those who took time out of their busy schedules to prepare and deliver those sessions (we are very lucky to have colleagues to do this!) and those who attended. If you attended one of those sessions you still have time to complete our course evaluation: East Sussex Safeguarding Children Partnership: Safeguarding Month 2025 feedback – Fill in form

Centre for Child Sexual Abuse

The Centre for Child Sexual Abuse are holding six free online sessions to support safeguarding partners to reflect, plan and lead the implementation of the  recommendations for safeguarding partners in England, set out in the 2024 National review into child sexual abuse within the family environment.

Each workshop will take a closer look at the recommendations, covering topics from improving professional knowledge, skills and practice, to how to talk to children about sexual abuse. To find our more please click here: CSA Centre of Expertise; New Webinar Series: Strengthening multi-agency leadership – ESSCP

SPOA Presentation Dates

The SPOA team has published their SPOA presentation dates for the rest of 2025 and 2026! These 1-hour sessions are super helpful for anyone who wishes to learn about the role of SPOA, what makes a good referral, and there’s the opportunity to ask questions. All of the future dates can be found on our website here:  SPOA presentations for 2025 and 2026 – ESSCP

ESSCP training and learning opportunities

From 1^st September 2025 all multi-agency training provided by the East Sussex Safeguarding Children Partnership (ESSCP) is FREE to attend for all organisations across East Sussex.

Please see some of the current East Sussex Safeguarding Children’s Partnership (ESSCP) training opportunities for winter 2025: https://www.esscp.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Multi-Agency-Training-Opportunities-v2.pdf. New upcoming courses include ‘child protection in a multi-agency context’, understanding self-harm in children and young people’, ‘the importance of professional curiosity and challenge’.

eLearning courses covering mental health, child sexual abuse, domestic abuse, alcohol and drug misuse, and much more are available on our dedicated eLearning website: East Sussex County Council: Log in to the site (learningpool.com)

The National Child Safeguarding Panel are hosting a free webinar on “How can we better assess risk of harm to children in private law proceedings?” on Wednesday 11 February 2026, 4pm – 5pm. This webinar will focus on child safeguarding and private law proceedings in response to a number of recent and high-profile reviews the Panel has seen with the impact of proceedings on children as a key theme. This was an issue highlighted in our recent Child E LCSPR (due to be published in the new year). You can sign up here: Webinar: Assessing risk of harm to children in private law proceedings Tickets, Wed 11 Feb 2026 at 16:00 | Eventbrite

Local briefings and newsletters

• The Family First programme has published their December 2025 Newsletter: Family First Partners Newsletter – December 2025. The newsletter includes information on the Family First helpline, introduces the Team Around the Family coordinators, and includes highlights from the recent workshop with the VCSE.
• The Sussex Child Death Overview Panel has published it’s Winter-CDRP-Newsletter which includes learning from the deaths by suicide and self-inflicted harm, preventing HSV in babies, and local and national training opportunities (Password is ESSCPAR123)
• The Safeguarding Adult Board has published it’s Safeguarding Adult Board December Newsletter.  This latest roundup includes information on the launch of Sussex Police’s survey on violence against women and girls, 16 days of activism against gender-based violence, and details of local training opportunities.
• The Safeguarding & Children in Care Team in NHS Sussex produce a monthly newsletter which can be accessed here: Safeguarding and looked-after children newsletter – NHS Sussex. Updates include details on the change in details for MASH health inboxes, rapid review learning, and reaching out to those bereaved by suicide at Beachy Head.
• The Safer Communities Partnership has published their Safe in East Sussex Autumn 2025 Newsletter. The newsletter includes information about 16 Days of Activism, White Ribbon Day 2025, and keeping communities safe.

National Updates

The UK government has announced the launch of a new strategy for reducing child poverty. The strategy brings together information about the action that the government has already taken, alongside new measures to increase family incomes, reduce essential costs and strengthen local services to try to address the root causes of child poverty and provide immediate support to families living in poverty. The aim is to lift an estimated 550,000 children out of poverty by 2030. The strategy is UK-wide, although some policies and measures apply to specific nations only. Alongside the strategy, there is a monitoring and evaluation framework and various supporting documents including research and analysis: Over half a million children to be lifted out of poverty as government unveils historic child poverty strategy – GOV.UK

Foundations has produced a new practice guide on parenting support for families of 11-to-18-year-olds experiencing adversities. It draws on a review of the existing evidence on parenting programmes to summarise the circumstances, experiences and preferences of families and to provide recommendations around the best-evidenced interventions for improving a range of child and parent outcomes. The guide is designed to support senior leaders and practitioners in local authorities in ensuring effective practice and improving how services are commissioned, developed and delivered: Parenting Through Adversity (11–18) – Foundations

The Youth Endowment Fund (YEF) has published the second report in its series on young people’s experiences of violence in England and Wales. The report uses data from a survey of nearly 11,000 13-to-17-year-olds to explore violence in teenagers’ relationships. Findings include: of the teenagers who reported being in a relationship in the past 12 months, nearly two in five had experienced some form of relationship abuse; emotional abuse, including a partner monitoring their location or checking their phone or social media, was the most commonly reported abuse; girls were slightly more likely than boys to experience relationship abuse; and nearly four in five teenagers said their experience of relationship abuse affected their day-to-day lives. The report highlights evidence of the success of specialist education in helping teenagers build healthy relationships: Violence in relationships | Youth Endowment Fund

Ofsted has published its annual report for the academic year 2024-25. The report presents findings from Ofsted’s own research and analysis alongside evidence from its inspections of schools, colleges and providers of social care, early years, and further education and skills in England. Findings include: nearly nine in ten local authorities have placed children in unregistered children’s homes because they could not find suitable placements; and compared with 2023-24, 19% more children are missing education entirely. The report includes a chapter focused on specific challenges facing 10-to-17-year-olds, including: the shortage of placements able to meet adolescents’ complex needs; and the higher risk of serious youth violence facing children who have special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and children with social, emotional and mental health needs: Ofsted annual report 2024/25: education, children’s services and skills – GOV.UK