Our Organisational Structure

We know that strong leadership and the right structures are critical for the new arrangements to be effective.

Working Together to Safeguard Children (2023) names the local authority chief executive, the accountable officer of a Integrated Care Board and a chief officer of police as the lead representatives with accountability under the legislation.

The lead representatives may delegate the responsibility and authority for ensuring full participation with these arrangements to a senior officer, but remain accountable for any actions or decisions taken on behalf of their agency.

In Lewisham, the lead representatives have named the following delegated safeguarding partners to work together to promote multi agency safeguarding within the borough of Lewisham:

NHS Lewisham Integrated Care System (ICS)
Ceri Jacob
Place Executive Lead

London Borough of Lewisham
Pinaki Ghoshal
Executive Director for Children and Young People

Metropolitan Police

Simon Dilkes
Detective Superintendent, Public Protection, Southeast BCU

Together with Senior Safeguarding leads , they will form the LSCP Executive Partnership which will be responsible for:

• Setting the vision, strategy and policy direction for Lewisham’s safeguarding arrangements
• Ensuring wider accountability across services
• Delivering a fully accountable multi agency system for safeguarding and protecting children in all settings

The Executive Partnership will meet bi-monthly and will be supported by, and work closely with, the LSCP Network Group. The LSCP Network Group meets twice a year and provides an opportunity for greater collaboration across the LSCP Executive Partnership and the Senior Strategic Safeguarding Leads across other relevant partner agencies in Lewisham who are responsible for safeguarding children. Members from the below organisation are included in the Network Group. 

Organisation	Representative
London Borough of Lewisham - Joint Chair	Executive Director for Children and Young People
NHS Lewisham Integrated Care Board - Joint Chair	Managing Place Director
Metropolitan Police - Joint Chair	Detective Superintendent Safeguarding
Children's Social Care	Director Children’s Social Care
Community Safety	Director of Public Protection and Safety
Commissioned Children’s Services including Children’s Centres	Director of Families, Quality and Commissioning
Early Years, Primary, Secondary and Post 16 Education, SEND and inclusion	Director of Education Services
NHS Lewisham Integrated Care Board	Designated Nurse for Safeguarding Children
NHS Lewisham Integrated Care Board	Designated Doctor for Safeguarding Children
Schools and Academies	Headteacher and Governor Representative
NHS England	Director of Nursing for South London
South London and Maudsley NHS Trust	Lead Clinician
Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust	Chief Nurse
Metropolitan Police	Detective Chief Inspector, Safeguarding
Probation	Area Manager
Public Health	Director of Public Health
Housing	Director of Housing
Community	Phoenix Community Housing
Local Authority	Cabinet Member for School Performance and Children’s Services

Our Safeguarding Children Partnership governance chart

LSCP Business Unit

The day to day work of the LSCP will be undertaken by LSCP Business Unit reporting to the Head of Safeguarding and Quality Assurance in the Council. The unit will provide organisational and administrative support for the Executive and Network Group and well as sub groups and be responsible for the day to day running of the Partnership.

A member of Business Unit will have responsibility for supporting with data analysis to ensure understanding of need, emerging issues and relevant service performance, in particular answering the questions:

• How much have we done?
• How well did we do it?
• What difference has it made?

Arrangements with Greenwich and Bexley

Lewisham, Greenwich and Bexley will have discrete Multi-Agency Safeguarding Partnership Arrangements but the three boroughs will work closely together to share learning and improve innovation, collaboration and efficiency.

At the most senior level, this will work through a Tri-borough Strategic Leadership Group that will meet twice annually to consider the areas where a Tri-borough focus can most efficiently and effectively improve safeguarding and where possible align priorities.