Welcome to the Southend, Essex & Thurrock (SET) Procedures Manual

The Southend, Essex and Thurrock Safeguarding and Child Protection Procedures are underpinned by Working Together to Safeguard Children (2026), which sets out what should happen in any local area when a child or young person is believed to be in need of support or at risk of or subject to harm.

These procedures relate to any child, defined as anyone who has not yet reached their 18th birthday. The fact that a child has reached 16 years of age, is living independently or is in further education, is a member of the armed forces, is in hospital or in custody in the secure estate, is in Foster Care or is in an Adoptive family does not change their entitlements to services or protection.

These procedures replace all existing versions of the Southend, Essex and Thurrock (SET) Safeguarding and Child Protection Procedures. Older versions may still show up in online searches but should not be used.

The term practitioners is used throughout the document; this term is used to cover anyone who works, volunteers or has contact with children, young people, parents/carers and wider family networks.

Effective safeguarding arrangements should aim to meet the following key principles:

• Safeguarding is everyone's responsibility: for services to be effective each individual and organisation should play their full part; and
• A child centred approach: for services to be effective they should be based on a clear understanding of the needs and views of children;
• Practitioners must not discriminate against any child, and safeguarding arrangements must remain sensitive to protected characteristics^*.

For further details, please contact the ESCB support team (escb@essex.gov.uk) or call 0333 013 8936.

Please note that the Amendments page will display an error message until the second version of the manual is published and there are amendments to show.

^{*The Equality Act 2010 defines protected characteristics}