The participants in the LADO Strategy Meeting should be sufficiently senior to contribute all relevant available information about the allegation, child and accused person. The participants must also be able to make decisions on behalf of their agencies. The meeting will be chaired by the LADO or another manager from the authority’s Safeguarding Unit and participants could include:
- Relevant Social Worker and their Manager;
- Supervising Social Worker/adoption social worker if allegation is made against a foster carer/prospective adopter;
- Manager from the Foster/Adoption Service Provider when an allegation is made against a foster carer/prospective adopter;
- Investigating police officer
- Legal advisor if appropriate
- Paediatrician if appropriate
- DSM for the employer/establishment concerned
- Senior Representative of the employment agency or voluntary organisation if the member of staff or volunteer has been placed by them, unless it is alleged that they have colluded or failed to respond to previous complaints
- Those responsible for regulation and inspection where applicable e.g. OFSTED
- Human Resources representative as appropriate
- Where a child is placed by or resident in another authority area, relevant representatives from that area
The LADO Strategy Meeting should:
- ensure that, where appropriate, immediate arrangements have been or are made to protect the child/ren involved and any other child/ren possibly affected;
- if not already instigated, decide whether there should be a Section 47 enquiry and/or police investigation and consider the implications of such enquiries;
- consider whether an organised or multiple abuse investigation is applicable;
- consider the future needs of the establishment and strategies where abuse is considered to be widespread;
- consider whether any parallel disciplinary process can take place and agree protocols for sharing information;
- agree the sharing of information for disciplinary or suitability processes, including the use of any record of video interviews;
- consider the current allegation in the context of any previous allegations or concerns;
- where appropriate, take account of any entitlement by staff to use reasonable force to control or restrain children, for example, Section 550a of the Education Act, 1996;
- plan enquiries if needed, allocate tasks and set time-scales;
- decide what information can be shared, with whom and when;
- consider what support should be provided to all children who may be affected directly or indirectly;
- decide how the child(ren), if sufficiently mature should be helped to understand the processes involved and be kept informed about the progress of the case;
- ensure that investigations are sufficiently independent;
- make recommendations where appropriate regarding suspension or alternatives to suspension;
- consider what support should be provided to the accused person and any other colleagues who may have been affected;
- should the allegation breach the accused person’s Professional Code of Conduct consider when the allegation will be referred to the accused person’s regulatory body;
- agree protocols for reviewing investigations and monitoring progress by the LADO having regard to timescales;
- consider issues for the attention of senior management, for example, media interest, resource implications, possible claims for compensation and alerting insurers;
- agree dates for future strategy discussions/meetings if required.
The meeting will conclude with agreed actions, specification of persons responsible for such actions and specified timescales for completion.
The minutes of the meeting will be distributed within a maximum of 15 working days.
If the Strategy Meeting was not chaired by the LADO, the Chair of the Strategy Meeting, and any subsequent reviews, must provide the information to the LADO within 3 working days of the meeting taking place.
Where the accused person works for another organisation the Local Authority Designated Person will need to inform the Senior Manager within that organisation who has overall responsibility for ensuring these procedures are followed at an operational level of the outcome of the Strategy Meeting.
