Using this Manual

This is the new procedures manual for Darlington Children Services and it replaces all previous Darlington Children Services Procedures. Any copies of those old procedures should be discarded.

The Darlington Safeguarding Partnership Procedures can also be accessed from the menu at the top of the home page and should be read alongside this manual.

Please contact Policy.Queries@darlington.gov.uk with any suggested additions or amendments, or with any other issues, e.g. broken links, to the manual.

This manual will be updated regularly, and a summary of the changes can be accessed via the 'Amendments' button on the Home page. You will also find the details of the next planned manual update in this section.

If you would like to suggest a change to the procedures manual discuss your suggestion with your line manager in the first instance.

This manual contains a local resource section which can be accessed via the navigation bar. If there is a resource you think should be added, talk to your manager in the first instance. The nominated administrator for this area will be able to access online training in the use of the area from tri.x.

This library is populated and maintained locally and not by tri.x.

tri.x will not be responsible for content which is added into this area, and any concerns should be directed to the contact person with responsibility for the procedures.

The manual is accessed by readers who may find terms that they are not familiar with. Therefore, a glossary of definitions is available under the resource tab.

There is also a National Contacts resource populated with details of key national agencies and organisations likely to be relevant to procedure users.

Every effort has been made to ensure regulatory compliance. If you discover any errors or omissions, please alert your manager.

We recommend that you register with us to automatically receive notifications when this manual is updated and a monthly newsletter containing articles that may be of interest. Click on the 'Register for Updates' button on the home screen, to complete and send your details to us.

We will manage your data respectfully and in accordance with your preferences, and we will never share your data with other organisations for marketing or other purposes.

The content of this website can be accessed, printed and downloaded in an unaltered form, on a temporary basis, for personal study or reference purposes. Content printed or downloaded may not be sold, licensed, transferred, copied or reproduced in whole or in part in any manner or in or on any media to any person without the prior written consent of tri.x and Darlington.

tri.x is committed to ensuring its platform is accessible to all users and has embedded accessibility into its design, development, and testing processes. The platform is currently partially conformant with WCAG 2.2 Level AA, meaning most content meets accessibility requirements, with ongoing improvements to areas such as form behaviour, colour contrast, control sizing & responsiveness.

Accessibility is regularly reviewed through internal assessments, automated testing tools, audits, and user feedback, with amendments evaluated on each release. tri.x supports modern browsers and assistive technologies and now includes a text-to-speech feature to further support users with visual impairments. Users are encouraged to report any accessibility issues so they can be triaged and addressed in future releases.

For more information, please see the Accessibility Statement for tri.x online.

The Manual is intended to be viewed online to ensure only the most up-to-date procedures are used. However, there will be times when hard copies of chapters will need to be printed. The printer icon at the top of every page will link to the printer setup page.

It is recommended that this manual is viewed with the latest browsers, with Java Script and cookies enabled for maximum compatibility and functionality.

Recommended browsers are:

• Microsoft Edge (Windows 10);
• Google Chrome;
• Mozilla Firefox;
• Apple Safari.

This manual has been tested on a variety of mobile devices to ensure that it displays correctly. If you are using an older mobile device it is possible that the manual will not display correctly.

If you would like the text to be larger, resize the text under the accessibility options, alternatively if you would also like the buttons and the rest of the layout to be enlarged you can use the zoom function within your browser.

The majority of devices have the functionality to download a shortcut to the homescreen by loading the site with the 'url', using the upload function, and tapping 'Add to Home Screen'. The functionality may vary between devices; please refer to the manufacturer's instructions.