Statutory Safeguarding Compliance Officer (SSCO)
The person who makes sure every case is lawful, safe and evidence-led.
Right now, there is no one in the UK or Irish system whose job is to ensure that agencies follow the law when handling abuse, safeguarding or child protection.
That absence is the reason children are handed to abusers, victims are punished, and evidence is ignored.
The Statutory Safeguarding Compliance Officer (SSCO) is the mandatory professional assigned to every serious domestic abuse, child protection and coercive control case.
Who the SSCO Is
The SSCO is a legally trained safeguarding specialist with:
- Expertise in domestic abuse and coercive control
- Training in risk, trauma and victim psychology
- Authority to enforce law and safeguarding thresholds
- Independence from police, courts and social care
They do not answer to any agency — only to the law.
What the SSCO Does
The SSCO is responsible for ensuring that every case is handled lawfully, safely, and based on evidence, not bias.
- Reviews evidence and safeguarding risk
- Confirms DASH and 8-Step-to-Murder analysis
- Prevents professional bias and misinformation
- Ensures PD12J and the Children Act are followed
- Intervenes when a case becomes unsafe
- Ensures criminal behaviour is not downgraded as “family conflict”
- Stops protective parents being punished
- Blocks children being placed with known abusers
- Removes obstructive professionals from decision-making
Why It Matters
Every catastrophic failure in safeguarding begins the same way:
- someone ignores the evidence
- someone minimises the risk
- someone believes the abuser
- someone silences the victim
The SSCO is the person who stops it.
Outcome
- Victims are heard
- Evidence is respected
- Children are protected
- Law is upheld
- Failures cannot be hidden
The SSCO ensures that what has been allowed for decades cannot happen again.