DCFP Safeguarding Magazine – September 2017

69 Pages·2017·1.19 MB·English

Sept 2017

safeguarding children in devon

Contents
Welcome

Early help or MASH…? .......................................... 3
Welcome to the September 2107 version of Threshold tool ..................................................... 3
the magazine. Thank you to those of you Early help & MASH ............................................... 4
Top tips for a MASH enquiry ................................. 4
who have taken the time to write to tell us
Think Family ....................................................... 5
how useful you find this resource. It is
Risk and uncertainty ............................................ 5
always heartening to hear how much you Information Sharing ............................................. 6
value the magazine. Please continue to let Forms of abuse ................................................... 7
us know about your ideas and suggestions Identifying abuse ................................................. 9
Child protection process ....................................... 9
for articles and improvements.
Escalation policy ................................................. 11
Private fostering ................................................. 12
You will have noticed a new logo at the top
Family Group Conferences ................................... 13
of the page – the Devon Safeguarding Assessing risk in unborn children .......................... 14
Children Board has now become the Devon A Child’s First Year.............................................. 14
Children and Families Partnership. For the Attachment and Vulnerability ............................... 15
Thematic Review - Infants ................................... 16
time being the website remains as the
Adolescence ....................................................... 17
DSCB whilst we develop a new website but Emotional and mental wellbeing ........................... 20

all other documentation and references will Young people, drugs and alcohol .......................... 22
be to the new partnership. Online safety and abuse ...................................... 22
Bullying, cyberbullying and sexting ....................... 23
The Kent serious games, mentioned in the Missing children .................................................. 26
Recognising and Responding to Sexual Abuse ........ 27
previous edition, are now up and running
Thematic Review – Child Sexual Abuse ................. 28
and you can book places through the DSCB Child Sexual Exploitation and MACSE .................... 29

website. The sessions are either half or full County Lines ...................................................... 32
days, run as interactive workshops and Friends and gangs .............................................. 32
Children in care .................................................. 33
with numbers limited to no more than 12
Leaving care ...................................................... 34
delegates. There are 3 packages:
Youth Offending ................................................. 34
PREVENT agenda and CHANNEL process ............... 35
• Rosie 2 looks at a complex multi- Disability ........................................................... 36
generational family with neglect being Fabricated or Induced Illness (FII)........................ 38
the primary concern. Listening to children ........................................... 39
Competence (Fraser / Gillick) ............................... 39
• Zak considers the radicalisation of a
The Mental Capacity Act & Advocacy ..................... 40
young man who has just left home to
Working with men .............................................. 41
go to University, in particular his online Modern slavery................................................... 42
activities Culture and religion ............................................ 43
• Lottie (a 15 year old girl) is being “Honour” based violence and FGM ... ..................... 43
Domestic violence and abuse ............................... 45
drawn into sexual exploitation. There is
Parental mental ill health ..................................... 49
focus on her life online but also how her Disguised Compliance ......................................... 50
relationship develops with her abuser. Poverty ............................................................. 51

Parental substance misuse .................................. 52
Serious games are a new and immersive Parental learning difficulty ................................... 53
way of learning with the opportunity to Safety at work / LADO’s and Whistleblowing .......... 54
Culture of openess .............................................. 56
really involve yourself in the lives of the
Recording .......................................................... 56
people involved. The sessions are being
What's in a word? ............................................... 57

held at different locations around the Chronologies ...................................................... 57
county and so you should find one near you Genograms ........................................................ 58
Courts ............................................................... 59
without too much difficulty.
Focus On Serious Case Reviews. .......................... 60
Serious Case Review Summaries ........................ 601
Sally Yeo, DCFP
John Woodhouse, dialogue
NEW

What’s changed in this edition? NEW
We continue to welcome your feedback as this informs development of the next
edition of the magazine. We have updated / added the following sections (look for
the star next to the relevant section on the page):
• Adolescence (p.17) – we have added a new section to show how trends
relating to teenagers are changing over time as well as a link to a video for
young people about the impact of break-ups.
• Impact of social media on children’s mental health (p.21) – section
added to consider the latest research in this area.
• Bullying (p.23) – new section added to look at this frequently occurring
issue. Consideration on p.24 also given to whether bullying and cyberbullying
are two separate issues.
• Child Sexual Exploitation (p.30) – link to video asking professionals to
consider the impact of terminology.
• “Honour” based violence (p.43) – section added to consider the impact on
male victims.
• Operation Encompass (p.48) – new section to advise on this latest
development in information sharing around domestic abuse.
• Poverty (p.51) – section added to consider a potential impact of poverty on
older teenagers and how it may affect them finding a place to live.
• Safety at work (p. 54) – section added to consider what to do if there are
low level concerns that do not trigger a referral to the LADO.
• What’s in a word (p.56) – new section looking at the impact of
communication on our perceptions of what is happening with service users.
Finally from p.64 onwards we have added summaries about two new serious case
reviews. Neither relate to Devon directly, however we have added these as they
consider issues that may not normally arise – the first considers work with clients
who are challenging and the second considers radicalisation.

Learn more…

Look for this icon. It indicates training courses you can access to learn
more about the subject.

There are also hyperlinks throughout the magazine to source documents
for further reading.

dialogue produce the Devon Children & Families Partnership
magazine. Contact us at [email protected] for
safeguarding training, consultancy or suggestions for the
magazine
2
Begin with the family… Early help or MASH…?
Bringing up children is a challenging but We all have a responsibility to work together
rewarding task. None of us get everything to improve children’s lives. Safeguarding
right all the time, and some of us need concerns always need to be considered by the
additional help to help our children achieve Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub:
their potential. Sometimes this is because the
child has additional needs, sometimes it is
around our abilities as people and parents,
sometimes it is the situation we live in that
makes things hard.
At these points Devon offers additional
support, through early help, the special
educational needs or disability pathway, or

safeguarding work. This document helps
highlight some of the issues people may face Threshold tool
and the factors that might help or hinder our
work with them. This tool is designed to help us understand
the needs of Devon’s children, to think
Throughout all of this we must work to ensure
through who should be involved and to clarify
we keep children and their parents at the
when to take action. It has examples of need
centre of what we do. The more complicated
at each level to help you determine how to
the family situation, the harder this can be to
respond.
achieve.
The best people to keep children safe are
usually those who know them best, often their
parents. In almost all circumstances we
should ask for their consent to work with
them, unless to do so would place a child at
additional risk of significant harm or the
young person has the age and understanding
to decide for themselves.
This should be the starting point, working to
understand the problem from the children’s
Download the tool from the DCFP website to
and parents’ perspectives, then working out
help you think through needs and decide how
who is best placed to support the family with
to respond. Watch our short video on the site
a well constructed plan.
to see an example of how to apply the tool in
practice.
We hope this magazine helps you in
understanding the needs, forming a plan and
working with families to achieve change for
their children.
See our video on
How to use the
threshold tool

3
Early help such emergencies out of office hours call 0845
6000 388.
Early Help is a term used to describe the
Your enquiry will be considered by MASH’s
earliest intervention that a family receive in
referral coordinators and decision-makers
response to emerging additional needs of a
with a written response within 48 hours.
family member/s. When a family’s needs
increase, more than one service may be
Top tips for a MASH enquiry
required to meet the needs. Early help is the
name given to the way services work
• Consent should be obtained from the
together, in a co-ordinated way to support the
family to make the enquiry, unless it is
family. If we do this well, fewer children
a child protection matter and to seek
should need statutory risk assessments.
consent would put the child at further
risk of harm
The Devon Early Help Assessment is a tool
• The enquiry form should be completed
used by all partners in Devon to assess the
as fully as possible, including:
Early Help needs of a family and individual
basic information about child's name
family members. It is a multi-agency o
and date of birth
gathering of information in order that any
family details including dates of birth
additional needs within a family can be o
and family household composition
understood and the process of providing or
ethnicity and language of children
accessing support can begin. This will mean o
and parents
that the family and everyone involved can
identification of adults with parental
make a plan to provide that support. Part of o
responsibility and surnames if they
that process may include a Team Around The
are not the same as the parents
Family (TAF) meeting taking place, with the
address and telephone number of the
family to discuss the help they need and who o
family and carers and any other
will provide it.
significant adults and GP details
The Early Help process has changed – more schools or early year settings
o
information can be found here: attended
http://www.devonsafeguardingchildren.org/w name of key professionals, such as
o
orkers-volunteers/early-help/ health visitors, GP and any health
professionals
You can learn more o nature of the concerns including any
family history known or available to
about early help on
referrer.
our elearning
• Enquiries made by telephone should be
course
followed up with a completed enquiry
form within 48 hours – this helps
MASH ensure that the information recorded in

the MASH is the same as the
If you have a safeguarding concern on a child information you are providing.
not already open to children’s services, you • As a professional you need to be clear
should complete a written enquiry to the why you are referring it the MASH, and
multi-agency safeguarding hub (MASH). You’ll why the enquiry is being made now.
need to think about getting consent to this –
there’s more on this and guidance on filling in
the form on the DCFP website. If a child is in
imminent danger or needs urgent
accommodation, call on 0345 155 1071. For

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Risk and uncertainty
Think Family
We are constantly working in areas of risk and
The Children Act 2004 states that all services
uncertainty. We are required to make
should be working around the needs of
professional judgements based on the
children and their families, and that parents /
information available to us, whilst
carers needs should not be seen in isolation of
acknowledging how our own value base may
the child’s needs.
be impacting on those decisions. We also
The presence of parental needs does not remain all too aware that the wrong decision
necessarily mean that their parenting ability may have significant consequences for all
will be impacted, but there is a need for involved.
agencies to work together to make sure this is
Morrison (1990) referred to the concept of
the case. When considering the impact on
professional dangerousness:
the children there is also the need to
determine whether the child is a young carer.
The process whereby professionals
involved in child protection work can
To make sure that this happens within defined
behave in a way which either colludes
timescales there is a need for adult’s and
with or increase the dangerous
children’s services to work closely together.
dynamics of the abusing family.
The Think Family Protocol sets out what needs
How therefore do we ensure that we are
to happen to achieve joint assessments in
addressing risk and not colluding? Human
Devon, in essence:
nature is such that we will always try to see
• Risk assessments undertaken by adult the best in a situation (rule of optimism),
services consider the risks to any however we should look for the strong
children in the home evidence to support this view before acting on
• Clear communication between agencies it.
• Understanding of the impact of parental
Munro (2011) stated:
issues on parenting
• Services that work together and
Building strong relationships with
understand each other’s thresholds and
children and families with compassion is
timescales
crucial to reducing maltreatment, but
trust needs to be placed with care, and
The protocol is clear that where joint
‘respectful uncertainty’ towards
assessment is required, Children’s Services
families, and interest and curiosity in
will be the lead agency but work closely with
their narratives, needs to be part of the
other agencies with close planning from the
practice mindset.
outset.
In other words, in order to manage the risk
and uncertainty, as professionals we should
be asking ‘what if …’ and ‘what does this
mean for the child’.

5
If none of the three criteria above are met,
Information Sharing
you must seek consent.
A key factor in many serious case reviews is
Consent can be either explicit or implicit and
that a good standard of practice has not been
should always be informed (i.e. the person
in evidence when professionals have been
giving consent knows why information is
recording, sharing, discussing and analysing
being shared, what information will be shared
information in order to make an assessment
and what the implications are).
of the needs of a child or the risks to the
child. It is crucial to understand the Implicit versus explicit consent: A GP
significance of the information shared and to refers a patient to a specialist with their
take appropriate action in relation to known agreement. The GP will assume that the
or suspected abuse or neglect. Often it is only patient has given implicit consent to share
when information from a number of sources information with the specialist by agreeing to
has been shared that it becomes clear that a the referral. A family support worker starts
child has suffered, or is likely to suffer, working with a family. At the start of their
significant harm. work they go through a form with the family
to get written agreement as to which other
In deciding whether there is a need to share
professionals they can speak with (e.g.
information, you need to consider the
school, health visitor). This is explicit
requirements on you including:
consent to share information with these
• Whether the information is confidential professionals.
• If it is confidential, are there grounds
Research (2016) recognises that information
for sharing it without getting consent
sharing is not necessarily easy with issues
first?
including:
Usually you should always get consent before
• differing understanding of vulnerability
information is shared, unless:
leading to concerns not being recorded
• there is evidence that the child has / shared
suffered, or is likely to suffer, • over reliance on the positive picture
significant harm; that the families paint of themselves
• there is reasonable cause to believe • fears over the risks to the relationship
that a child has suffered, or is likely to with the family
suffer, significant harm;
Cultures of organisations therefore can have a
• there is evidence to suggest that if you
significant role to play in whether information
sought consent a child or adult may be
is shared or not – what do you do when it is
harmed;
not child protection – do you always seek to
• there is evidence that action may need
share information? What stops you and why?
to be taken to prevent or detect a
crime meaning that it may not be
appropriate to ask for consent.

If you decide to share information then you
must record your decision, the context in
which the information was shared and the
reasons for your decision.
For further information…
• See the SWCPP pages relating to Information sharing and Consent and Confidentiality
• Re ad the government guidance – Information sharing: Advice to practitioners providing safeguarding
services to children, young people , parents and carers
6
• See 2016 research Information sharing to protect vulnerable children and families.
Interagency working Forms of abuse
Throughout Working Together 2015 the Abuse takes many different forms and can
emphasis is on inter-agency working, from mean different things for different children.
the point of early help through to the
The links below provide specific information
implementation of child protection plans.
about signs and symptoms of abuse, but the
Safeguarding is everybody’s responsibility, key question is what am I seeing and what
and key to this is agencies working together does it mean for this child? Some
towards a common goal. professionals may see certain children on a
regular basis and be able to tell when
In his progress report following the death of
something is wrong, others may have to rely
Baby Peter, Lord Laming (2009) stated:
on a more general knowledge of child
development to know when to be concerned.
Relationships are crucial; it’s not about
structures, it’s about making it work
Many serious case reviews have identified the
out there for children.
following themes:
We are all in roles which require us to build
• Start again syndrome – although there
relationships with colleagues, peers, families
has been previous involvement with the
and children. Good inter-agency working
child, this is not taken into consideration
uses these skills and means that judgements
when considering new information
and decisions are better informed.
• Silo thinking – think around the problem,
rather than just from the point of view of
For example, when considering whether a
your agency. Sometimes the biggest risk
three year old child is at the right
to the child is not from the presenting
developmental level for their age, if you have
issue, but from other issues in the
a relationship with the health visitor then you
background. For example the child has a
can discuss your observations linked with
known history of being physically abused,
their professional knowledge and the mutual
but that they are also being neglected is
knowledge of the family to form an informed
not picked up as everyone is focusing on
view about what you are seeing.
the physical abuse.
Good inter-agency working should also
Neglect
include an element of challenge of colleagues.
Such challenge should be constructive, but Neglect is the most prevalent form of abuse in
ultimately the presence of challenge should the UK with almost half of all children being
ensure that decisions are made on a firm on child protection plans for neglect. The
foundation of evidence (therefore reducing NSPCC suggest that 1 in 10 children have
the risk of decisions being made on an over- experienced neglect. Neglect can be life
optimistic viewpoint). threatening and should be treated with as
much urgency as other categories of abuse.
We often intervene later with neglect,
sometimes because no single incident acts as
a trigger, instead neglect builds up over time.
We need to understand the cumulative effects
of neglect and actively review the concerns to
understand the level of harm caused.
NSPCC research into serious case reviews
identifies that for health professionals missed

7
appointments can be a key indicator of Research has also identified that
neglect. The research suggests that marking professional’s confidence in dealing with cases
appointments as “Did Not Attend” does not of sexual abuse is lower than when dealing
identify the real issue which is that children with other forms of abuse, so it is important
are not being taken to appointments, and in that you get help and support as needed. The
some cases repeated non-attendance can lead reach of offenders has increased significantly
to withdrawal of services. with the internet: harm can be inflicted from a
distance and with relative anonymity. Ensure
Some areas are encouraging staff to rethink
questions on internet safety are considered.
“Did Not Attend” and to instead identify
missed appointments as “Was Not Brought”
Child Sexual Abuse
thereby refocusing the issue onto the adult’s

care of the child. training at the DCFP
website

A short video looking at this issue can be

found at: https://youtu.be/dAdNL6d4lpk
Physical abuse

Emotional abuse
Ph ysical abuse includes inappropriate
ch astisement and premeditated abuse.
The effects of emotional abuse can also be

Where parents have smacked children it will
cumulative – use chronologies to track this.
be abuse where the child has been
Emotional harm can be present in all forms of
injured/bruised or an implement used.
abuse, and can have significant long term
effects on a child’s mental health, education, As part of growing up children will get bruises
future expectations and ability to relate to and other injuries, however these are more
others. As with neglect, emotional abuse likely in some areas than others, for example
needs to be proactively considered to ensure most accidental bruises are seen on bony
that the need for a referral can be identified parts of the body (e.g. shins, knees and
sooner. elbows). Children can also have fractures of
certain bones (e.g. rib) without any bruising.
Emotional Abuse &
Neglect training at the Bruises cannot be aged accurately, with

DCFP website research suggesting that 50% of people who
aged a bruise by its colour were wrong with
their estimate.

T he DCFP has published its neglect With any injury, if you are uncertain the
s trategy for 2017-2020. The strategy recommendation is that medical advice is
c an be found here:
For further information on the types

of abuse
http://www.devonsafeguardingchildren
.org/latest-news-updates/new-dscb- • Look at Working Together 2015 for
neglect-strategy-2017-2020/ more information on definitions
• Refer to SWCPP for more information
on definitions of abuse / signs and
symptoms
Sexual abuse
• If you are a medical practitioner look
at the NICE guidelines on when to
The impact of being sexually abused can be
suspect child maltreatment
lifelong, with estimates suggesting that child
• For further information about all
sexual abuse cost £3.2bn in the UK in 2012
types of abuse search the NSPCC
(in terms of service provision to help
website for general information and
survivors through their experiences).
specific themes.

8
sought, usually from a doctor or other to MASH. If the referral relates to a potential
appropriately trained member of medical child protection matter, then a strategy
staff. meeting will be called (if this is not possible
due to time constraints then as a minimum a
Ideally any injuries should be recorded on a
telephone discussion must be had).
body map marking location, size and
appearance. The purpose of this meeting is to consider the
referral, share information about the child and
Identifying abuse the family in a confidential environment and
make decisions about whether child protection
Often the first indication is your general enquiries are required, and what the plan for
feeling that something is not right. It is these enquiries should be. All strategy
important that this is recognised for what it is meetings should as a minimum have Police,
and that it is followed by an active process of Social Care and Health with other agencies
enquiry in order to work out why you feel attending as appropriate. You may be asked
something is not right. to attend a strategy meeting and you will be
expected to share information held by your
This process should involve looking at what
agency as well as taking an active role in the
you know about the child and what it is about
discussions about what happens next.
their current presentation that is causing
concern. Once you have established this then Child protection enquiries
you can talk with your line manager /
Also known as s47 enquiries (after the
designated lead or talk to MASH about your
relevant section of the Children Act 1989),
concerns.
Social Care will be the lead agency for
undertaking and completing the assessment
Child protection process
that forms the backbone of the enquiries. All
agencies who have involvement with the child
and family will be expected to contribute to
Enquiry
the assessment. The assessment will look at
all the children in the household and assess
level of need and risk.
MASH The outcome of child protection enquiries can

be as follows:
• Concerns not substantiated – i.e. there
Strategy is no information to back up the initial
concerns. This does not mean that
other needs will be ignored, but that
there is no continuing need for the child
Investigation protection process
• Concerns substantiated but child not
suffering or likely to suffer significant
harm – i.e. something happened that
ICPC meant the child was harmed or at risk

of being harmed, but the carers have
taken measures that will protect the

child (e.g. the abuser has left the
When you have a concern about a child being home). As with the previous point this
at immediate risk of harm you make a referral does not necessarily mean that the
child does not have needs that require

9
a service, just that there are felt to be develop a trusting and positive working
no ongoing child protection matters relationship with them. We will help them
• Concerns substantiated and risk of child identify their own strengths and resources
suffering or likely to suffer significant and be crystal clear about what we are
harm – i.e. there are concerns that worried about and what we need to do
there is ongoing risk to the child which together to bring about positive change.
needs agencies to act together to Parents, families and children must be central
reduce the risk and bring about change. to and not a passive recipient of each stage of
This outcome will lead to a case assessment and planning.
conference being called.
If you are asked to attend a child protection
If the decision by Social Care is that there is case conference you will be expected to know
no need for a case conference but another the information that your agency holds and
agency disagrees, then this decision can be submit this in a written report at least 2 days
challenged and a conference requested. before the conference, having shared this with
the family at least 3 working days before the
Child Protection Case Conferences
conference. At the conference you will be
The case conference involves the family and required to provide key information on what
all the professionals involved coming together you are worried about, what is going well and
in a meeting chaired by a person independent what the planned outcome should be
of the case. Devon uses a strengths based (including timescales).
approach which has been shown to increase
Professionals and family members will then be
participation from families and improve their
asked to make a judgement about the
understanding of what needs to change in
potential risk of future harm using a scale –
order to bring the plan to an end.
this judgement should be based on the
Strengths-based approaches concentrate on information shared during the conference and
the inherent strengths of individuals, families, the safety plan put forward. Dependent on
communities, groups and organisations, whether the threshold for risk and likelihood
deploying personal strengths to aid recovery, of significant harm is met a decision will be
change, empowerment and resilience. made as to whether a child protection plan is
required.
The model balances a rigorous exploration of
danger/harm alongside indicators of strengths If the decision is that there is no continuing
and safety but is strongly focused on risk, a plan may still be drawn up so that
harnessing, developing and targeting those support is provided to the family, but the case
positive areas far more intensively and will drop out of the child protection process.
deliberately.
Core Groups
The model depends upon a collaborative
Where a child is made subject of a child
approach in which families receive a strong
protection plan, a core group consisting of the
and explicit message that we will try to
child (if old enough), parents and main
agencies will be drawn up. The core group
Relevant training on the strengths
will meet for the first time within 10 working
based model is still available to all days of the initial conference and then every
professionals who may be involved in four weeks thereafter.
the child protection process – please
Chaired by the social worker, the core group
see the DCFP website for more
is responsible for making sure that the plan is
information.
put into action and everyone works together
to reduce the risk.

10