Safe Guarding Children Learning

Serious Case Review (SCR) which is now known as Safeguarding Practise Review (SPR June 2018) plays a vital role in helping local professionals and organisations to continually improve the way they work, individually or together, to keep children safe and free from harm. The Serious Case Review is the formal process that brings together information with all agencies involved with the child and the family leading up to the child’s death or serious harm. From the records a complete picture of the case can be drawn up in form of a final overview report. The final report should provide comprehensive analysis of what measures should be put in place in order to reduce the risk of the situation happening again. The retrospective review is the opportunity for learning and improvement.

Child R Serious Case review (February 2018), Child R was a seven-year-old boy reported to the police missing by his mother on the evening 26 July 2015 he was found on the 27 July deceased in a pipe on a building site he was known to visit frequently. It is not known how such a tragedy came about maybe from accidently falling or possibly hiding from people out searching for him. At the time this occurred Child R was subject of a child protection plan, there were also a number of agencies involved with child R and his family.

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It was reported at the time of the review (23rd February 2016) that some agencies were not authorised to share information emerging at Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference with relevant frontline professionals. (8.1 learning and improvement opportunity 1) The quality of notes taken during the MARAC (2014) minutes did not make evident the aims or appropriate consideration of child safety issues. The Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC) is an initiative designed to bring agencies together to discuss the safety and well-being of children and families that are at high risk of further serious harm or death. The Frontline case workers, care coordinators, head of schools and other agencies involved all should be properly debriefed from the MARAC meeting with key issues and plans emerging from the meeting. It is crucial that the child protection conference chair is as informed as possible so that decisions are made for the child in order to keep them safe. The MARAC coordinator had already acted on aspects of the process that required attention at the time of the SCR. The multi-agency risk assessment conference has been amended the meetings are now fully recorded and if required can be accessed. A copy of the recording will be sent to the child (if old enough), parent and all other participants in the Review process within one week of the review meeting. Copies of the recording should be noted in the child’s file.

One of the difficulties in evaluating the situation and why certain decisions were made about the child, was owing to a lack of attention to detail about the incident (The incident of 9 march 2015) in the Child Protection Incident report, which was recorded by frontline professionals. The Child Protection Incident Report did not require a police constable to record their assessment of the situation, such as the safety of the child or how the decision was made regarding the safe placement of the child or if removal from the family was required. The design did not have a position for the police constable to be able to deliberate and to make evident what he or she had known, understood and delivered what the expected responsibility conveyed by ‘The Children Act 1989’ stated. There was also nothing to prompt any record of why, in this case the threshold of a Care or Supervision Order had not been considered to be met. As agencies are subject to scrutiny following the unexpected deaths of a children the documents record core data and help to demonstrate on reflection that the best interests the child were preserved, also support professionals to demonstrate they did their jobs well. The Serious Case Review-Summary report (February 2018) recommended the review of The Child Protection Incident Form, with The Safeguarding Children Board and the South Yorkshire Police working together ensuring it captures the essential data necessary in the safeguarding responsibilities of a child. South Yorkshire Police have worked towards improving practice to safeguard children. The ‘vulnerability’ training programme had been developed to raise awareness and improve the skills of frontline police officers and staff. The training focuses on early intervention by equipping officers to identify signs of vulnerability and take effective action at the earliest possible opportunity. South Yorkshire police that attend an incident of domestic abuse that a child has been present or involved is to be spoken to and checked on by the officer attending and the report is then shared with social care. Posters have been put up in police stations in prominent places with information that officers can access on a daily basis.

All services that provide support for children and families are expected to provide those services in an environment that is safe. They are expected to have safeguarding policies and procedures, and to train their staff and volunteers to be aware of signs of abuse and neglect, and to raise issues of concern with their agency’s safeguarding lead or refer to children’s services. Working Together 2018 requires that anyone who has concerns about a child’s welfare should make a referral to local authority children’s social care and should do so immediately if there is a concern that the child is suffering significant harm or is likely to do so. The Barnsley Assessment Framework (BAF) aims to offer guidance and support to all practitioners working with children and families in Barnsley it reflects the different needs of practitioners working with children and families in Barnsley Social Care. This will sit alongside individual agency guidance and may be used to provide general assistance in assessment practice that can be applied to support intervention, it places greater emphasis on measuring what change has actually occurred rather than what parents stated. The purpose of Assessment Framework is to enhance support to practitioners who may lead or contribute to assessments of children and families at any level. All practitioners working with children and families should, therefore, be familiar with Working Together 2018 and this guide should be read in conjunction with that key document. Model for change forms the basis of understanding motivation to change this is cited within the current Barnsley Assessment Framework, development of the procedures for the child protection conference added in the consideration of capacity to change within the conferences and have new conference reports asking what professionals consider what harm and safety look like, and what the complicating factors and strengths are.

Multi-agency training is an effective way of bringing together professionals from different agencies to gain a better understanding of their roles and responsibilities for safeguarding and protecting children. Barnsley Safeguarding Children Partnership offers an extensive range of training courses to individuals and agencies who have a responsibility for safeguarding children, both online or face to face training, they also encourage colleagues in partnership agencies the chance to shadow social workers with a view for mutual understanding of responsibilities and roles.

Reference

1. Barnsley Safeguarding Children Partnership(2020) ‘Serious case reviews’[online] Available from: www.barnsley.gov.uk [Accessed 28th January]
2. Children Act 1989 [online]. Available from: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ [Accessed 28th January]
3. Child-R Serious Case Review-Summary report (2018)’Child R’[online]Available from: www.barnsley.gov.uk [Accessed 24th January]
4. Child-R Serious Case review-Summary report (2018)’Child R,8.1 learning and improvement opportunity 1’[online] Available from: www.barnsley.gov.uk [Accessed 31st January]
5. Child-R Serious Case review-Summary report(2018)’Child R,8.2The incident of 9 march 2015-learning and improvement opportunity 2’[online] Available from: www.barnsley.gov.uk [Accessed 1st February]
6. Child-R Serious Case review-Summary report (2018)’Child R,6.3 public protection unit.[online] Available from: www.barnsley.gov.uk [Accessed 1st February]
7. College of Policing (2020) How do you respond to the needs of vulnerable people? April 2017 [online] Available from:https://www.college.police.uk/News/College-news/Pages/police_transformation_fund.aspx[Accessed 2nd February]
8. Department of Education (2014) Assessing Parental Capacity to Change when Children are on the Edge of Care: an overview of current research evidence Research report June 2014 [online] Available from:www.gov.uk/government/publications [Accessed 1st February]
9. Doncaster Safeguarding Children Partnership online procedures(2016) Multi Agency review of child in need [online] Available from: https://doncasterscb.proceduresonline.com/index.html [Accessed 3rd February]
10. HMIC 2015. (July 2015) National Child Protection Inspection Post Inspection Review South Yorkshire Police 28 April - 1 May 2015 [online] Available from: https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/[Accessed 28th January]
11. Safeguarding children in Barnsley (2019) Multi-agency training[online] Available from: https://www.barnsley.gov.uk/[Accessed 4th February]
12. Working Together (2018)Working Together to Safeguard Children A guide to inter-agency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children-July 2018 [Online] available from: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/Working_Together_to_Safeguard-Children[Accessed 3rd February]