Safeguarding and Protecting Children

Ann Stuart

AIMS: To introduce the basic concepts of

safeguarding and protecting children

Learning Outcomes

• Ability to define the key principles pertaining to safeguarding/child protection practice;

• Ability to name the obvious and less obvious signs and symptoms that might indicate abuse;

• Knowledge of the legislation and guidance that underpins your work

• Ability to manage safeguarding concerns about the children of service users and vulnerable adults

• An understanding of the role of Children’s Social Care and how to make a referral to them or seek advice from them

‘All children have the right to be safe from harm and abuse’

‘All children have the right to be safe from harm and abuse’

A child is someone who has not reached their 18th birthday

(Children Act 1989 and Children Act 2004)

The London Child Protection Procedures 2010

• 2.7.1 – 2.7.18 outlines the role of Housing

• Housing authorities / associations often hold significant information about families where there is a child at risk of harm. In the case of mobile families they may have more information than most other agencies. Housing authorities / associations have an obligation to share information relevant to child protection with LA children’s social care. Conversely LA children’s social care staff and other agencies working with children can have information which will make assessments of the need for certain types of housing more effective.

• Housing authorities are key to the assessment of the needs of families with disabled children who may require housing adaptations to participate fully in family life and reach their maximum potential. Each local authority will have an individual approach to this area.

• LA housing staff should be alert to child protection issues when dealing with reports of anti-social behaviour by young people which might reflect parental neglect or abuse.

Why is ‘child protection’ a difficult issue?

• For you as professionals who work with adults

• For parents and carers

• For children

QUIZ – setting the scene• What is the child population of Islington?• Where does Islington come in the deprivation index?• How many child protection referrals (‘contacts’) do

Children’ Social Care receive each month?• What’s the difference in life expectancy between those

living on the left and right sides of the Holloway Road? (Facing north from Highbury Corner)

• How many children in Islington have a CP plan?• What are the 3 predominant factors in CP?• Who can make a child protection referral to Children’s

Social Care?

What do we mean by ‘Abuse’?

What are the four categories and how are they defined?

Significant HarmSignificant Harm• ‘...is the threshold which justifies compulsory

intervention in family life in the best interests of children’

• ‘Harm’ means ill treatment or the impairment of health or development, including harm suffered by seeing or hearing the ill-treatment of another

• ‘Development’ means physical, intellectual, emotional, social or behavioural development

• ‘Health’ means physical or mental health• ‘Ill-treatment’ includes sexual abuse and forms of ill

treatment which are not physical

Categories

• Physical Abuse – May involve hitting, shaking, throwing, poisoning, burning, drowning, suffocating, scalding or otherwise causing physical harm to a child. Physical harm may also be caused when a parent or carer fabricates the symptoms of, or deliberately induces illness in a child.

Categories• Sexual Abuse – Involves forcing or enticing a child or young

person to take part in sexual activities, not necessarily involving high levels of violence, whether or not the child is aware of what is happening. Activities may involve physical contact including assault by penetration (rape or oral sex) or non-penetrative acts such as masturbation, kissing, rubbing and touching outside clothing. They may include non-contact activities, such as involving children in looking at, or in the production of sexual images, or watching sexual activities, or encouraging children to behave in sexually inappropriate ways, or grooming a child in preparation for abuse (including via the internet). Sexual abuse is not purely perpetrated by adult males. Women can also commit acts of sexual abuse, as can other children.

Emotional Abuse Emotional abuse is the persistent emotional ill treatment of

a child such as to cause severe and persistent adverse effects on the child’s emotional development. It may involve conveying to others that they are worthless or unloved, inadequate or valued only insofar as they meet the needs of another person. It may include not giving the child the opportunity to express their views, deliberately silencing them or ‘making fun’ of what they say or how they communicate. It may feature age or developmentally inappropriate expectations being placed on children. These may include interactions that are beyond the child’s developmental capacity, as well as over-protection and limitation of exploration and learning, or preventing the child from participating in normal social interaction.

It may involve seeing or hearing the ill treatment of another. It may involve serious bullying causing children frequently to feel frightened or in danger, or the exploitation or corruption of children. Some level of emotional abuse is involved in all types of maltreatment of a child, though it may occur alone.

NEGLECT Neglect is the persistent failure to meet a child’s basic

physical and or psychological needs likely to result in the serious impairment of the child’s health or development. Neglect may occur during pregnancy as a result of maternal substance abuse. Once a child is born it may involve a parent or carer failing to provide adequate food and clothing, shelter including exclusion from home or abandonment, failure to ensure adequate supervision including the use of inadequate care- takers, or the failure to ensure access to appropriate medical care or treatment. It may also include neglect of or unresponsiveness to a child’s basic emotional needs.

Some Statistics

• Approximately 1 child dies from abuse and neglect each week in England;

• The majority are aged birth – 12 months;• On average less than 1% of the child

population has a child protection plan;• The majority of children with child protection

plans are under the age of 12 What does this suggest?

One Local Authority(Child population of 42,000)

• At the end of March 2010 there were how many children with CP plans?

• The number had risen by 1/3 since May 2008. Why is that the case?

• Have a guess at the break down by category – highest and lowest

This is how it looked

• 57 Neglect• 53 Emotional Abuse• 3 Physical Abuse• 2 Sexual Abuse

Any thoughts?

In March 2010 there were 44,500 children with child protection plans in England

Coventry 264

Birmingham 1,483

Manchester 655

York 103

Rutland 21

Norfolk 727

City of London 0

Haringey 316Tower Hamlets 273 DoE figures February 2011

Children in Need

• Coventry 5,965• Birmingham 21,698• Manchester 3,110• York 2,305• Rutland 411Etc etc…

31st March 2011

• Neglect 18.700• Emotional Abuse 12.300• Physical Abuse 4.500• Sexual Abuse 2.500• Multiple categories 5.000

Domestic Violence

• On average 2 women each week are killed by a male partner or former partner;

• In any one year there are 13 million separate incidents of physical violence or threats of violence against women from partners or former partners;

• Domestic violence accounts for between 16 – 25% of all reported violent crimes

• 54% of reported U.K. rapes are committed by a woman’s current or former partner

• There is "a strong overlap between physical, sexual and emotional abuse of children and domestic violence, and high proportions of those experiencing abuse from parents also experienced frequent violence between carers. The findings demonstrate the importance of identifying and addressing domestic violence as a predictor of child maltreatment."Cawson, P. (2002) Child maltreatment in the family: the experience of a national sample of young people. London: NSPCC. p.78.

• There is a strong correlation between domestic violence and child maltreatment:

• 45% women and 26% men had experienced at least one incident of inter-personal violence in their life times...

• However, where there were more than 4 incidents (on-going domestic or sexual abuse) 89% of the victims were women (Walby & Allen 2004)

• 30% of domestic violence starts in pregnancy• Domestic violence has been identified as a prime cause of

miscarriage or still-birth (Lewis & Drife 2001, 2005)• Only 23% - 35% of domestic violence incidents are reported

to the police• Women are at greatest risk of homicide at the point of

separation or after leaving a violent partner (Lees, 2000)

CHILDREN• At least 750,000 children a year witness DV (DOH 2002)

• Nearly three quarters of children on the CP Register live in households where domestic violence occurs (DOH 2002)

• Children who live with domestic violence are at increased risk of behavioural problems and emotional trauma and mental health difficulties in later life

• In 75%- 90% of incidents of domestic violence, children are in the same or next room.

• 30% - 60% children living with DV also experience physical abuse (Hester et al 2000, Humphreys & Thiara 2002)

Children with disabilities• Are 3.4 times more likely to be abused than non-

disabled children• Are 3.8 times more likely to be neglected• Are 3.8 times more likely to be physically abused• Are 3.1 times more likely to be sexually abused• Are 3.9 times more likely to be emotionally abused

This large scale study of 40,000 children concluded that 31% of disabled children had been abused compared to a prevalence rate of 9% among the non-disabled population. (Safeguarding disabled children: practice guidance DCSF #23)

Why are disabled children more vulnerable to abuse?

Child Sexual Abuse...Hidden

The research undertaken by Cawson et al for the NSPCC in 2000 said that:

• 1 in 5 girls suffers some form of sexual abuse during childhood

• 1 in 7 boys suffers sexual abuse in childhood• USA and Sweden say one in six children (2008)• Sexual abuse is rarely a one-off event• More than 36% of recorded rapes are committed

against children under 16 (NCS 2006)• Radford 2012 reports no change in these figures

ChildLine

During 2008/2009 ChildLine counselled 16,094 children who had phoned about sexual abuse.

There was a 42% increase over the preceding 4 years.

In 2007 ChildLine received 6,000 calls from children alleging rape. 465 of that number were under the age of 7.

Less than 1% of children experienced abuse by a professional

Only 4% of the children who rang ChildLine about sexual abuse said that they had been abused by a stranger

In 2000 Cawson et al’s research indicated that 38% of sexual abuse was perpetrated by brothers or step brothers. That is now thought to be in the region of >45%

The number of calls to ChildLine about abuse perpetrated by women has risen by 1/3 over the last 3 years

Children are rarely abused by strangers

Why don’t they tell us?

When asked, young people have said:• It’s no one else’s business• I was ashamed• I was too frightened• I thought it was normal• I didn’t want everyone to know• I didn’t want the family to be split up

• It was my fault• I didn’t think anyone would believe me• I didn’t want him/her to be punished/sent to

jail• I love him, he’s my dad

Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children

Is not a new term. It was introduced by the 1989 Children Act and is defined as:

Protecting children from maltreatment – abuse or neglect and

Preventing the impairment of the child’s health or development

1989 Children Act

‘The welfare of the child is paramount’ Section 47 requires local authorities to make

child protection enquiries if they have reasonable cause to suspect that a child in their are may be suffering or is likely to suffer significant harm.

Section 27 requires Children’s Services (LAs) and other organisations to assist in the exercise of these functions

Section 17 – Children in Need

Section 17 places a duty on Children’s Services to provide services to children who are in need in their area.

Services are provided to prevent children suffering significant harm and to support and strengthen families

Main messages of the 1989 Children Act

• The welfare of the child is paramount• Children are generally best brought up in

their own families...with both parents involved and without resort to legal proceedings

• The Local Authority has a duty to support these principles through services provided in partnership with families...and through the provision of services to ‘Children in Need’

• The Local Authority has a duty to protect children and to investigate where there is reason to suspect that a child may be suffering significant harm

• High quality substitute parenting where this is necessary – registration and inspection of foster carers, children’s homes, child minders and day care provision

• Children have a right to be consulted about decisions made about them and their wishes and feelings must be taken into account

• A child’s language, race and religion must be taken into account when services are being planned or decisions made about the child’s future

• Delay in decision-making is bad for children

• Local Authorities are accountable for their actions there must be clear complaints procedures and channels for challenging

• The introduction of the term ‘Parental Responsibility’

2002 Education Act Section 175 and 157

• Places a statutory duty on schools and FE colleges to ‘have measures in place to safeguard and promote the welfare of children’.

2004 Children ActEvery Child Matters

‘Safeguarding is everyone’s business’• The 2004 Children Act came about as a result of the

death of Victoria Climbie in 2001• Victoria was trafficked into the country for the

purposes of benefits and housing• She was known to 4 local authorities including

Housing Departments, 2 NHS Trusts, 2 Police CAITs, NSPCC, a faith group and there had been two detailed anonymous CP referrals which were not followed up

Neil Garnham QC described ‘The worst case of child cruelty this country has seen’...

Lord Laming presided over a public inquiry and made 108 recommendations...

The London Child Protection Procedures were written as a proactive response to Victoria’s death. 32 London boroughs signed up to them.

The Green Paper ‘Every Child Matters’ introduced the five outcomes for children

Safeguarding became everyone’s business

• Section 11 requires that all agencies discharge their functions having regard to the need to safeguard children and promote their welfare:

At strategic level – Local Safeguarding Children Boards and

At operational level - your organisation and you as practitioners

Section 11 complements Section 175

Serious Case Reviews – older children

Recent research into Serious Case Reviews found that:• Older children are perceived as ‘Hard to help’• Suicide was the known or probable cause of death for 14 of

the 161 children• Agencies run out of strategies• There is a reluctance to assess children as mentally ill or with

suicidal intent• Better joined up services with adults services are essential if

older children are not to slip through the net.

Pitfalls –themes from SCRs‘Deferring to hierarchies’‘Professional dangerousness’‘The Rule of Optimism’Lack of supervision and support‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’ fab idea

but time-consuming and difficultLack of trust between agenciesLack of understanding of other agencies roles and

responsibilities

• Professionals fail to focus on the needs of the child/ren

• People do not read files• Outcomes are not measured• ‘Thresholds’• Information is not shared• Information is not recorded• Assumptions

• A vulnerable adult is someone aged 18 or over:• Who is, or may be, in need of community

services due to age, illness or a mental or physical disability

• Who is, or may be, unable to take care of himself/herself, or unable to protect himself/herself against significant harm or exploitation

(Definition from the Department of Health 2002)

Who is a ‘Vulnerable Adult’

It could be:•An older person•A person with mental health problems•A disabled person•A person with learning difficulties•A person who has suffered brain damage•A person who misuses

How?

• Physical abuse• Sexual abuse• Emotional or psychological• Financial or material• Neglect• Discriminatory abuse• Institutional abuse

Missing the point

52

We don’t do ambiguity

‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’What are the barriers?

Safeguarding children, safeguarding staff

Good Practice minimises risks to children and to professionals – what are the key points in the following areas of practice for you?

• ‘Professional Boundaries’• Working in partnership with service users• Information-gathering and information-sharing • Confidentiality and recording• ‘Whistle-blowing’• Managing disagreement with other professionals• Dealing with a disclosure of abuse from a child or vulnerable adult What is available to help and support you with these issues?

Early intervention and prevention

• The CAF process – a means of gathering and storing information to identify and meet the needs of children (over and above universal services) at an early stage, in partnership with parents and to avoid multiple assessments

..

..

22

VULNERABLE CHILD WITH SOME ADDITIONAL NEEDS

11

CHILD ACHIEVING EXPECTED OUTCOMES

44

VULNERABLE CHILD WITH

ACUTE OR HIGHLY COMPLEX

NEEDS

33

VULNERABLE CHILD WITH MULTIPLE & COMPLEX NEEDS

UNIVERSAL SERVICES CAF ASSESMENT NOT REQUIRED

TARGETED SERVICES WITHIN,

ALONGSIDE OR OUTSIDE

UNIVERSAL SERVICES

CAF ASSESSMENT CONSIDERED /

REQUIRED

TARGETED AND COORDINATED

SERVICES

CAF ASSESSMENT REQUIRED POSSIBLE CHILDREN’S SOCIAL CARE ASSESSMENT MAY BE REQUIRED

SERVICES

HIGH THRESHOLD

CHILDREN’S SOCIAL CARE ASSESSMENT

REQUIRED

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Your intervention should be designed to reduce the risk factors and increase the

protective factors the child/young person is subject to

ISLINGTON CONTINUUM OF NEED AND INTERVENTIONIn partnership with the London Continuum of Need

Referral and Advice ServiceMunicipal Office, 222 Upper Street, N1 1XR, T: 020 7527 7400 F: 020 7527 7043 (the vast majority of notifications to CSC about children come to this team)

Disabled Children’s ServiceMunicipal Office, 222 Upper Street, N1 1XR, T: 020 7527 3366 F: 020 7527 3883(all notifications to CSC about children with disabilities)

Whittington Hospital Social Work TeamWhittington Hospital, Magdala Avenue, N19 5NF, T: 020 7288 5260 F: 020 7288 5262(all notifications about inpatients and unborn children booked in to WH)

SO....

• SHARE YOUR CONCERNS with your named person for safeguarding/child protection

• ASK ADVICE FROM CSC WHEN NECESSARY• RECORD YOUR CONCERNS AND

CONVERSATIONS• CONSULT OTHER AGENCIES• DON’T WORK IN ISOLATION• We all hold pieces of the jigsaw!