Strengthening Child Protection

Sharing Information in Multi-Agency Settings

Thompson, Kellie, Kellie Thompson

• Publisher: Policy Press
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781447322511
• eBook ISBN: 9781447322535
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Work
• Index: Social Sciences

Following high-profile Serious Case Reviews into the tragic deaths of children, including Victoria Climbie, Peter Connelly and Daniel Pelka, information sharing has now become a moral and political imperative for safeguarding the welfare of children.

What prompts information sharing and how do we get it right? This accessible book challenges widely held assumptions about information sharing in child welfare that facts about risks to children are clear and that sharing them with other professionals is a straightforward process. End-of-chapter questions prompt reflection and ensure direct practice relevance.

This is essential reading for academics and policy makers, students on post-qualifying child protection courses, social workers, managers and all other professionals tasked with safeguarding children.

APPENDIX 1

Children & Young People’s Department

Children in Need Model

Level 4

Children at risk of significant harm / or has suffered abuse and for whom there is continued risk.

Child in household where parents/carers have mental health, substance dependency or domestic abuse issues which put child at risk of significant harm. | Persons identified as posing a risk to child identified as living in the house. | The child’s life is endangered. | There is evidence of serious or significant injury or illness. | The possibility of non-accidental injury. | Evidence of gross neglect. | Children who are persistently missing from home and who put themselves at significant risk. | Actually homeless and no housing agency able or willing to assist. | Unsanitary or dangerous home conditions. | Sexual exploitation and/or abuse. | Serious injury/harm/abuse to self or other. | Seriously challenging behaviour. | A child abandoned. | Life threatening drug abuse. | Trafficked child. | Risk of long-term psychological damage/deprivation. | Significant impairment of physical/emotional development. | Damaging history of separations. | Children at risk of forced marriage. | Children who abuse other children.

Level 3

Children whose vulnerability is such that they are unlikely to reach or maintain a satisfactory level of health or development.

Level 3b

Children with disabilities. | Children with high level needs whose parents, for whatever reason, are unable to meet those needs. | Children from families where there has been one serious or several significant instances of domestic violence. | Children where a CAF Action Plan has had no significant impact. | Children who have been subject to a CP Plan, or who have been previously looked after where there are new/further concerns. | Children with high level/unassessed needs whose parents have a history of non-engagement with services, or fail to recognise concerns of professionals. | Pregnant women where the safety of the unborn child might be compromised. | Children in families experiencing a crisis that is likely to result in a breakdown of care arrangements. | Persistent and serious offending. | Unaccompanied asylum seekers.

Level 3a

Children who are persistently going missing from home. | Children with a significant emotional and/or behavioural disorder. | Young carers. | Children with chronic absence from school. | Children in families without permanent accommodation. | Children with chronic ill health/terminal illness. | Children involved in substance misuse. | Child in households where parenting is compromised as a consequence of parental discord, mental health, substance misuse or domestic abuse, although child’s needs are not at a high level. | Children and young people involved in acrimonious contact/residence disputes. | Children who are experiencing adverse effects from bullying.

Level 2

Disadvantaged children who would benefit from extra help to make the best life chances. Services operating at a preventative level.

Parents unable to secure some aspects of health or development; poor health; poor school attendance. | Inappropriate age related behaviour which is difficult to handle. | Inhibited/restricted development opportunities in own home and community. | Demands of caring for another person undermining aspects of health and development. | Poor standard of physical care or health causing concern; unhealthy diet; unsatisfactory accommodation. | Insufficient stimulation to achieve full potential; no opportunities to play with other children; experiencing difficulties in relationship with peers. | Scape-goating or victimisation causing emotional harm including continual/regular periods of stress, conflict, tension causing instability and insecurity in relationships; absence of appropriate stimulation. | Relationships strained; normal health and development constrained by environmental circumstances and/or limited play opportunities.

Level 1

All children within the borough and who are routinely in receipt of community services. Assumes backdrop of universal Education and Health services.

APPENDIX 2

Multi-agency interview schedule used in phase two of data collection

1. How does your workload come in to you?
2. How do concerns or issues about a child/family arise?
3. What do you understand to be your main role?
4. What do you understand as your subsidiary/secondary role?
5. Could you give me an account of a typical case from beginning to end and tell me why this is case is regarded as ‘typical’?
6. Could you give me an account of a untypical case from the beginning to end and tell me why this case is not regarded as typical?
7. Do you think that your case examples could be dealt with by an alternative agency or in a different way (e.g. using informal networks more)?
8. What are your agency’s strengths in working with vulnerable families?
9. What are your agency’s limitations in working with vulnerable families?
10. What information do you need to deal with or identify any concerns and issues regarding children and families (i.e. growth charts, education records, housing records and so on)?
11. Is that (information) the same for others you work with?
12. Do you think practices vary with regards to what information is needed to deal with or identify c oncerns and issues with children and families? If yes, how do practices vary?
13. What kinds of records do you keep? When and how are these records used?
14. What are your policies and procedures regarding record keeping generally (i.e. filing system, which bits of cases are kept/filed and which information is disregarded)? How is the IT system/telephone used/depended on?
15. Do you accept information given to you? When would you research the information further and how would you do this?
16. What information would you consider is hard to get hold of?
17. What information would you consider is easy to get hold of?
18. What concerns or issues would lead you to refer to social services? Could you give two or three examples of these concerns (and all the details) and tell me how you were first alerted to these concerns and also what you did?
19. What information do you feel you need to confidently refer to social services (i.e. a comment, a report from another professional, discussion with a supervisor to reach agreement whether to make a referra)l?
20. What are your expectations of social services once you have made a referral to them?
21. What is your understanding of social services’ referral process and threshold criteria?
22. When would you seek more or further information from a child in relation to information you’ve been given that causes concern?
23. When would you seek more or further information from a carer in relation to information you’ve been given that causes concern?
24. Are there any concerns or issues that you would refer to agencies other than social services? (Think of some examples and ask what information the professional being interviewed needs to do that – would they discuss this with a supervisor, does certain information make concerns straightforward?
25. Do you think the referral process is working?

References

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Table of contents

• Coverpage
• Title page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of figures and table
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword
• one: Introduction
• two: The significance of ‘information sharing’ in safeguarding children
• three: So, what is this thing we call ‘information’?
• four: Understanding professional information need and behaviours
• five: How is information shared in ‘everyday’ practice?
• six: Putting pieces of the ‘jigsaw’ together to establish a ‘full’ picture
• seven: Professional relationships with information
• eight: Emotion information: working with hunches, concerns and uncertainty
• nine: Conclusion
• Appendix 1: Children in need model
• Appendix 2: Multi-agency interview schedule used in phase two of data collection
• References