What to do if you are worried about a child

The Children’s Reception team (CRT) are a team of children’s social care childcare practitioners based in Fareham. They are responsible for the processing of referrals where concerns about a child have been identified. CRT manage all referrals from a range of individuals, including professionals, families and carers, who have a child welfare or more serious child protection concern.

CRT are the first point of contact within Children’s Services where staff will triage the information referred, where risk and protective factors will be considered, and individual outcomes identified. CRT staff will use the  Hampshire and Isle of Wight Safeguarding Children Partnerships and Children’s Trust Thresholds Chart  to determine whether the child’s case is closed with no further action, transferred on to Early Help for Level 2 and 3 intervention or whether the child’s case needs additional enquiries to be made within the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH).

If you work in an acute frontline setting and need to confirm whether there are any known or open safeguarding concerns before you discharge a child to the care of a parent/carer, you can use the CRT Professionals’ telephone number or Out of Hours number to establish this information.

Both CRT and Out of Hours will be able to direct you to the allocated social worker if the child already has an allocated worker. If you decide that you are discharging a child and believe they require additional services or support, then you will need to complete the  Inter-Agency Referral Form  (IARF). This will be processed by CRT.  

Information to support you can be found on the Isle of Wight Safeguarding Children Partnership website page Worried about a child . In an emergency, please call the Police on  999. If you have an immediate safeguarding concern for a child or young person that has suffered significant harm or is likely to suffer immediate significant harm, then contact should be made with CRT by telephone and supplemented with an  Inter-Agency Referral Form (IARF).

Video on how to make a good quality Inter Agency Referral – coming soon

Examples of ‘good’ quality IARFs – coming soon:

Yes, you should always make parents/carers aware, prior to contacting CRT, that you will be  contacting CRT due to concerns or worries about a child,. Whilst it is appreciated this may impact upon parental/professional relationships it is important that parents/carers understand your concerns and reasons why you have contacted CRT.

DO NOT advise the parents of the referral if you believe that doing so would put the child or parent/carer at more risk of harm.

CRT/MASH in this instance will be able to provide additional advice to you on an individual basis.

Members of the public can contact CRT and remain anonymous if they would prefer. Whilst CRT/MASH will always do their utmost to keep the identify of individuals anonymous there are, on occasions, times when the information provided by the referrer may lead the parent/carer to identify for themselves who they believe the referral has come from. CRT/MASH would not knowingly divulge this information.

Professionals are not able to remain anonymous if they are making a referral to CRT in a professional capacity. Professionals are expected to discuss referrals being made to CRT with the parents/carers involved prior to contacting CRT.  Professionals should not discuss the referral with a parent/carer if the child is being placed at immediate risk of harm or has suffered significant harm.

The preferred method for referrals is the use of the  Inter-Agency Referral Form (IARF). The IARF should be used for all enquiries about a child or family and for making child protection referrals.

On cases where immediate safeguarding/child protection concerns are evident, professionals are required to make initial telephone contact with CRT using the telephone number below and supplement the telephone call with a completed Inter-Agency Referral Form  (IARF).

If you are a professional and have concerns because you think that a child might be being neglected and/or abused and you want to talk to someone or ask someone to find out what is going on, you should contact CRT on the following number:

• IOW Professionals Line:  0300 300 0901  during office hours 8.30am to 5.00pm Monday to Thursday, 8.30am to 4.30pm on Friday.
• IOW Public Line:  0300 300 0117  (24 hours)
• Out of Hours service:  0300 555 1373  at all other times.

CRT staff will complete a full case summary on the information that has been provided in the IARF and/or telephone conversation. CRT will complete the relevant risk assessments and make a recommendation to the team manager for further enquiries to be completed in MASH, or the child’s case to transfer to Early Help, or to be closed.

CRT will record all information that is provided to the service. CRT will create an electronic file for the child concerned where the referral information will be stored electronically. Therefore, if you contact CRT for any reason you will need to be aware that any information you have provided will be documented accordingly.

The IARF inbox is monitored by CRT staff between 8.30am to 5.00pm Monday to Thursday and 8.30am to 4.30pm on Fridays. All IARF’s are triaged by CRT staff as they enter the inbox during these hours. If you submit an IARF outside of these hours, then they will be triaged the next working day.

If you want to make a child protection referral, then this  MUST  also be telephoned through to CRT via the Professional Line/Out of Hours telephone number to avoid any delay with the case waiting to be triaged.

Following the triaging of the IARF, CRT will seek to deal with your enquiry as soon as possible. IARF’s will usually be managed within 24 to 48 hours, however during peak busy periods this time may increase. CRT will contact you if they require additional information to process your IARF.

When you submit an IARF you will be provided with a reference number. You will also be given the opportunity to save a PDF version of the completed IARF for your records.

Feedback will be sent on referrals for children living in the Isle of Wight Local Authority area only when a case has progressed for additional checks in MASH and a decision made to close a case.  Unfortunately the Isle of Wight Council are unable to provide feedback on cases closed prior to any checks or for cases progressing for further assessment. 

To ensure feedback is only sent when it is appropriate to do so, referral feedback will not be sent automatically when:

• Members of the public, without parental responsibility, make referrals.
• Sending feedback might endanger the child(ren) or referrer.
• No valid email address was supplied by the referrer.
• Professionals provide a personal, rather than a work email address.
• The referrer has asked not to receive feedback.
• The case is already known to Children’s Services. In such instances, the allocated worker will be in contact.

Please ensure you check your junk mail. Emails will be sent from  csreferrerfeedback@hants.gov.uk (Please not this inbox is not monitored)

You will not receive feedback from CRT. You will only receive feedback on a referral if it goes on to MASH and if MASH resolve the matter and close it.