How Durham Children's Social Care will Update the tri.x Procedures Manual Including Durham's Resource Library

Welcome to the electronic Procedures Manual for Durham's Children's Social Care.

The electronic format has been designed to make the procedures easy to access and allows you to skip readily between linked sections via hyperlinks.

Please do not make copies of the Manual or parts thereof as these are likely to become out of date. If for any reason you do need to print any procedure, please discard of this within 72 hours.

'Using this Manual' explains how the Manual has been constructed and the key features which have been included to assist you in navigating the chapters.

The manual is laid out as following

• Procedures – this contains the procedures that meet the national social work requirements and are in line with the legislation and statutory guidance;
• Durham's Resource Library – this contains local guidance, tools, practice standards, forms, research and other information that supports and complements the main procedures; when you click the Resource Library button on the top toolbar you will find links to all the contents of the library. It is important that you use these areas in your practice;
• The Durham Safeguarding Children's Partnership have a range of guidance and procedures on safeguarding that practitioners should access and follow in their everyday practice. These can be accessed from the button on the top toolbar titled DSCP Procedures. You should also refer to this supplementary guidance that includes guidance on Domestic Abuse, Missing, Extremism and a range of safeguarding topics as well as the multi-agency child protection processes such as child protection conferences, management of allegations etc. You will also find tools for direct work with children here.

The Children's Social Care Manual is permanently available via this link and via Durham County Council's Intranet page. The manual also includes a link to Durham Children's Safeguarding Partnership (DSCP).

The manual is updated on a regular basis, this is currently managed by the Professional Practice Manager, within Safeguarding and Professional Practice together with tri.x.

The tri.x manual contains relevant procedures for practitioners and managers within Children's Social Care and is updated every 6 months. The updated procedures usually 'go live' each May and November however, this is subject to change.

Following an update, the table of amendments in 'Using this Manual' includes a comprehensive list of the updated and new chapters for each edition of the manual and the nature of the amendments.

Where the manual has been updated, if a Chapter has been significantly amended or is new, it will be indicated in the Contents List and at the top of the relevant Chapter. This will also be communicated via email.

We require all practitioners and managers to 'Register for Updates' by clicking the button on the home screen, you will be notified by email whenever any updates are made to the manual. You will also receive our regular Policy Briefings, which provide updates on matters of topical interest.

The manual will be updated by the Senior Management Team supported by the Professional Practice Manager every six months however, if there are changes to the law, process or procedure outside of these updates, these will be held within Durham's Resource Library until the next scheduled tri.x update.

When a procedure requires some updating, please inform the Professional Practice Manager, at the earliest convenience. Please refer to the Editing Guidance to ensure that all updates or new additions to the procedure manual are compliant with tri.x requirements.

Durham's Resource Library will be updated on a regular basis and does not need to be undertaken by tri.x as this is managed within Durham's Children's Social Care. Durham's Resource Library includes the following sections:

• Covid19;
• Operating Procedures;
• Practice Standards, Toolkits and Guidance;
• Communication and Engagement with Children and Young People;
• Signs of Safety;
• Assessed and Supported Year of Education (ASYE);
• Leadership Academy;
• Induction and Supervision;
• Staff Wellbeing;
• Supporting Practice.

Each section allows practitioners a simple navigation around the documents available, if you have anything to add to Durham's Resource Library or have any suggestions, please contact the Professional Practice Manager, Laura.Armstrong@durham.gov.uk.

If you notice or experience any issues with the tri.x manual or Durham's Resource Library, you should contact Stephen Coburn, stephen.coburn@durham.gov.uk.