About us
Who we are and what we do
The Westmorland and Furness Safeguarding Children Partnership (WFSCP) is a multi-agency body responsible for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children across the Westmorland and Furness area.
Established on 1 April 2025, WFSCP replaces the former Cumbria-wide arrangements, reflecting a move to more localised, place-based safeguarding partnerships.
Our partnership is underpinned by the statutory guidance, Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023, which requires three key statutory partners to work together:
- Westmorland and Furness Council
- Cumbria Police
- Integrated Care Boards
- North East and North Cumbria ICB
- Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB
We bring together local organisations to make sure children are safe, supported, and able to thrive.
We don’t deliver services ourselves. Instead, we support and strengthen how services work together by:
- working together – we bring partners together around a shared vision to protect children and improve outcomes
- promoting learning – we learn from real experiences and share what works, so we can improve how we support children
- supporting professionals – we help frontline staff reflect, challenge thinking, and make decisions in the best interests of children
- encouraging inclusion – we work to understand and respond to children’s different experiences, especially where they face disadvantage
- challenging each other – we create a safe space for open, respectful challenge to improve the quality of our partnership working
The partnership is managed and coordinated by a small business team
- Hayley Clarke, Safeguarding Children Partnership Manager
- Jenna Lodge, Partnership and Improvement Officer
- Sally Mallinson, Partnership and Improvement Assistant
Published arrangements
Information about our Safeguarding arrangements (PDF , 2.3MB) can be found within the linked document.
Partnership vision and values
Vision
Westmorland and Furness Safeguarding Children Partnership works together to create the right conditions for all children and young people in Westmorland and Furness to grow up safe, supported and protected. We do this by creating a strong, supportive and accountable multi-agency safeguarding partnership that places children and families with a particular focus on those who are most at risk of harm at the centre of all we do.
Values
The partnership will work collaboratively to achieve this vision, supported by the following shared values: -
- child-centred and needs-led: we place children and young people at the heart of everything we do. Our work is driven by what matters to them, recognising their individual needs, voice, identity and lived experience
- prevention and early intervention: we act early to prevent harm and respond proportionately. We use evidence, intelligence and insight to target support where it’s most needed
- empowerment and voice: we listen to and engage with children, young people and families – and empower them with the tools and support to keep themselves safe. We co-produce services and solutions with them, ensuring their voices shape what we do
- high support and high expectations: we create a culture of high support, high challenge and high ambition across the partnership – improving outcomes and holding each other to account for the quality and impact of our work
- collaborative, transparent and honest partnership working: we build strong, inclusive, relationships across agencies based on mutual respect, honesty and shared purpose. We challenge respectfully and learn continuously together
- professional curiosity: we promote a culture where practitioners are curious, confident and supported to ask the right questions, explore concerns and seek the right help for children and young people
- equity and fairness: we ensure that support is proportionate to need. Resources are targeted to reduce inequalities and protect the most vulnerable
- evidence-informed decision making: We use data, evidence and local intelligence to understand needs, risks and impact. We continuously learn and improve practice across the partnership
- shared accountability: everyone across the safeguarding system understands their role and is clear on how we work together. We agree shared priorities and take collective responsibility for the difference we make
- effective information sharing: we create systems and cultures that ensure information is shared confidently, consistently and effectively to safeguard children and young people
Our partnership priorities are informed by the previous CSCP safeguarding partnership priorities and previous scrutiny and assurance undertaken.
Partnership members and structure
Members
The statutory safeguarding partners in Westmorland and Furness are:
- Westmorland and Furness Council
- Cumbria Police
- Integrated Care Boards
- North East and North Cumbria ICB
- Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB
In addition to our Statutory Safeguarding partners, our partnership includes input from our relevant agencies, including, Education, NHS Provider Trusts, Public Health, Adult Social Care, National Probation Service, CAFCASS and representation from the Voluntary, Community, Faith Sector.
We also benefit from the insight of an independent scrutineer, whose role is to challenge and assess the effectiveness of our arrangements. This independent oversight helps ensure accountability and supports continuous improvement across all safeguarding partners.
Meeting structures
At the strategic level, the WFSCP is led by the Lead Safeguarding Partners (LSPs) from the three statutory agencies.
Supporting this, the Safeguarding Accountability Board provides a partnership forum to drive safeguarding priorities and monitor multi-agency effectiveness.
Beneath this, a number of collaborative subgroups, made up of professionals from various organisations, develop policies, procedures, and guidance.
Task and finish groups carry out detailed work, with outcomes shared widely to ensure consistent and effective safeguarding practice across the partnership.
A copy of our indicative meeting structure is below. Further details regarding specific meetings can be found within our published arrangements.
This image displays the organisational structure of the Westmorland and Furness Safeguarding Children Partnership (WFSCP), highlighting how various groups and meetings are connected.
CSCP Annual Report
Please read the Cumbria Safeguarding Children Partnership Annual report 24/25.
Contact us
The best way to contact the WFSCP business unit is via email on wfscp@cumbria.gov.uk
Newsletters
Previous editions of our joint newsletter with CSCP can be found here
Moving forward we will be publishing a WFSCP newsletter. To sign up to our mailing list and receive future newsletters and correspondence relating to the partnership, please navigate to the following link and complete the online form.