Section 11 and 175 Audits are now LIVE!

This year, Wirral Safeguarding Children Board (WSCB) has introduced a new way to undertake the annual Section 11 audit of safeguarding arrangements in partner agencies. Instead of a single lengthy audit completed once a year we have broken the audit up into six themed ‘bite size’ sections with one tested every couple of months. The schedule will be the same for schools and colleges who complete the Section 175 audit.

What is Section 11?

The WSCB is the key statutory body for co-ordinating and ensuring the effectiveness of arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children in Wirral. It is the duty of the WSCB to hold agencies to account in terms of their safeguarding arrangements and practices.

The WSCB uses a variety of ways to test the strength of safeguarding arrangements across agencies in Wirral but one of the key ways is by the use of an annual safeguarding audit called the Section 11 Audit (for agencies) and a Section 175 Audit (for schools and colleges).
Section 11 was issued under the Children Act (2004) and has been reinforced in Working Together to Safeguard Children 2015. Section 11 places duties on a range of organisations and individuals to ensure their functions, and any services that they contract out to others, are discharged having regard to the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.

Topic 1:  policies, procedures and thresholds (deadline 31/07)

• Section 11 please follow this link
• Section 175 (for nurseries, schools, colleges and other providers of education/training) follow this link

Topic 2: Child Exploitation & Missing (deadline 31/10)

• Section 11 please follow this link (tbc)
• Section 175 (for nurseries, schools, colleges and other providers of education/training) follow this link (tbc)

For more detailed information about the process, including the schedule for the year ahead please see our Section 11 page.