safeguarding deaf children messages from thematic inspections and surveys pat o’brien hmi national...

Safeguarding deaf children

Messages from thematic inspections

and surveys

Pat O’Brien HMI

National adviser for social work practice

Surveys and thematic inspections

Protecting disabled children

Services for deaf children

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Protecting disabled childrenExplored the effectiveness of work to protect disabled children and young people at all stages from early support to the identification of and response to child protection concerns.

12 local authorities

173 cases examined, this included 15 deaf children

A little background

Disabled children are more vulnerable to abuse.

Research suggests that disabled children are 3.4 times more likely to be abused.

The day to day impact on them of poor parenting is likely to be greater than for their non-disabled siblings.



Children with a disability are less likely to be the subject of a child protection plan than other children in need.

The children in need census as at 31 March 2012 showed that there were 369,400 children in need in England of whom 51,800 (14%) were recorded as having a disability. 42,850 (11.6%) of children in need were subjects of child protection plans of whom 1,360 (3.2%) were recorded as having a disability.


Findings- early support

When early concerns for children’s welfare or emerging risks arose, in most cases these were tackled well.


Case studyConcerns

The development of a child diagnosed with a significant hearing impairment and subsequently with sight impairment was being avoidably impaired through the parents’ reluctance to help their child to use hearing aids and spectacles. There were also concerns that the child was not eating sufficiently. The parents were socially isolated and resistant to support. The child’s health appointments were cancelled

How this was tackled

The peripatetic teacher for the deaf took the role of the lead professional and coordinated an action plan with the teacher for visual impairment, the health visitor, the nursery teacher and the social worker for the deaf to tackle the concerns.

Outcomes

Patient multi-agency work with the parents resulted in significant improvements for the child who now uses the aids, attends a pre-school setting regularly and has made good progress overall.


Response to concernsIn the majority of cases appropriate and timely decisions were taken by children’s social care to assess and investigate concerns referred to them. However, in a sizeable minority of cases decisions were taken that no further action was needed by children’s social care. These decisions were not appropriate given the extent of the concerns. In most of these cases there was a history of concerns including domestic violence, neglect or parental mental health difficulties


What should you do if children’s social care do not respond?

Be persistentRaise it with your safeguarding lead


Recognising neglect

When disabled children were receiving services from children’s social care as children in need too often there were delays in recognising that the threshold for child protection had been met. Most of these cases related to neglect concerns.

Services for Deaf Children

This small good practice survey of 13 deaf children highlights the key factors underpinning effective joint working across agencies with deaf children and the positive impact that this has had on their lives.


Features of good practice

Children were central to the work.

In the best case examples assessments were multi-agency and considered all the child’s needs.

Children’s views were sought and respected and they were included well in assessments and planning.

Parents and professionals worked in partnership

Parents felt supported



What does all this mean for you?

Stay child focused

Be assertive

Know that you can make a difference to ensuring that deaf children are safeguarded and protected

safeguarding deaf children messages from thematic inspections and surveys pat o’brien hmi national...

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