SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN TRAINING FOR ELECTED MEMBERS

Naomi Knott - Professional Development Services - 2015

Purpose of Training

Provide an overview of the role of elected members in relation to Safeguarding

Understand the terms Safeguarding and Child Protection

Brief overview of key considerations in Child Safeguarding

The Plymouth Picture Where to go next for more information

ROLES, RESPONSIBILITIES & GOOD PRACTICE

Elected Members

Role / Responsibilities of Elected Members in Safeguarding

Councillors have a responsibility to:report concerns about a child to the appropriate bodyavoid situations that may be misinterpreted and lead to allegations of inappropriate behaviour.inform the relevant officers if they have a concern and need advice on reporting abuse, or if they are concerned about a colleague potentially perpetrating abuse Immediate danger - If a child or vulnerable adult is in immediate danger then contact the police

Good Practice for Councillors

Not all councillors will have direct contact with children as part of their roles.

However some will as part of their ward councillor role or for civic duties

It is important that councillors operate within a safe working environment for children and vulnerable adults.

If councillors adhere to the principles of safe working, this benefits the work and reputation of the council by developing an open and positive climate.

Performing Councillor Duties

Councillors should ensure that they do not have contact with vulnerable children on their own in their role as a councillor.

Some councillors may have this level of contact in their employment or in a voluntary capacity, and will have been required to have a disclosure and barring service check to undertake this.

It is important that members avoid unsupervised contact with a vulnerable person to prevent the risk of an allegation of inappropriate behaviour

Whistle-blowing (institutional abuse)

Serious concerns about poor practice in the organisation or the council’s approach to safeguarding should be addressed by referring using the Council’s Whistleblowing Policy.

 Councillors may represent the council on outside bodies. If a councillor has a safeguarding concern that relates to the behaviour of officers or trustees within these organisations, these concerns should be reported to the organisation.

They should also make the relevant senior officer for each outside body aware of their concerns.

The Lead Member for Children’s Services (LMCS)

Section 19 Children Act 2004 requires local authority to designate Lead Member for Children’s Services.

The LMCS has political responsibility for the leadership, strategy and effectiveness of local authority children’s services.

The LMCS is also democratically accountable to local communities and has a key role in defining the local vision and setting political priorities for children’s services within the broader political context of the Council.

WHAT IS SAFEGUARDING AND CHILD PROTECTION

Definitions

Child Protection

Child protection is the process of protecting individual children identified as either suffering, or likely to suffer, significant harm as a result of abuse or neglect.

Child abuse involves acts of commission and omission, which results in harm to the child. The four types of abuse are physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse and neglect.

Difference between Safeguarding and Child Protection

Safeguarding, and promoting the welfare of children, is a broader term than child protection.

It encompasses protecting children from maltreatment, preventing impairment of children's health or development, and ensures children grow up in safe circumstances.

Child protection is part of this definition and refers to activities undertaken to prevent children suffering, or likely to suffer, significant harm.

What is Abuse

‘The violation of an individual’s human and civil rights by any other person or persons’ (Department of Health, 2000)

Abuse commonly occurs within a relationship of trust or responsibility and represents an abuse of power or a breach of trust.

It includes bullying and domestic violence. Abuse may be perpetrated in a family or

institutional or community setting, by those known to the individual victim or, more rarely, by a stranger.

What does ‘Promoting Welfare’ Mean?

Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is defined as:

protecting children from maltreatment preventing impairment of children’s health

or development ensuring that children are growing up in

circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care

taking action to enable all children to have the best life chances.

How should professionals work together?

Statutory Guidance - Working Together to Safeguard Children 2015 published by the Department for Education

local authority chief executives & children’s social work

local safeguarding children board chairs teachers and education staff health service professionals and adult services police officers voluntary and community sector workers in

contact with children and families

What is Physical Abuse?

Hitting, shaking, pushing, kicking, throwing, poisoning, burning or scalding, drowning, suffocating, punching, biting, deliberate burns, stabbing, strangulation, unnecessary or inappropriate restraint and other forms of assault.

Medical mistreatment such as withholding or inappropriately altering or administering medication or other treatments, and fabricating the symptoms of, or deliberately inducing, illness.

2001 Adam/Ikpo Mwosa

The headless, limbless body of a boy aged between five and six was found floating in the river Thames

Nigerian child trafficked to Germany and later Britain by traditional witch doctors who sacrificed him in the name of magic.

Psychological or emotional abuse:

Deprivation of social contact or deliberate isolation, overprotection and limitation of exploration and learning, being made to feel worthless or inadequate,.

Humiliation, blaming, verbal abuse, lack of privacy or choice, use of coercion, using threats or fears to over-ride a person’s wishes

Treating an adult as if they were a child.

It may involve serious bullying.

Neglect

Neglect features in 60% of all Serious Case Reviews.

Lack of care, deprivation of necessary personal care, failure to protect from harm, failure to provide adequate food, clothing and shelter (including exclusion from home or abandonment), failure to provide access to appropriate medical care or treatment, removal of aids to daily living.

Neglect of or unresponsiveness to a child’s basic emotional needs.

2008 Khyra Ishaq

‘Khyra dropped down as she walked after a spirit got into her body, it was evil and it was trying to control her body because Khyra had accepted it as a friend’ Kyra’s Sibling

Khyra and five other children in the couple's care were starved, beaten and tortured in house bursting with food. Kyhra withdrawn from school for ‘home education’. The family believed in spirit possession.

Better assessment and information sharing might have helped prevent

Hamzah Khan died 2011

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-24388175

Unknown and Invisible: did not participate in routine universal services, persistent DV & Neglect

Hamzah Khan's mummified remains were found in squalor at their Bradford home in September 2011 after he died due to severe malnutrition

Sexual Abuse

Involves forcing or enticing a vulnerable individual to take part in sexual activities including prostitution whether or not they are aware of what is happening.

This may include non contact activities such as watching or producing online images, and watching sexual activities.

Child Sexual Exploitation CSE

Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) is illegal activity by people who have power over young people and use it to sexually abuse them.

This can involve a broad range of exploitative activity, from seemingly 'consensual' relationships and informal exchanges of sex for attention, accommodation, gifts or cigarettes, through to very serious organised crime.

Hidden from view and going unnoticed, vulnerable young girls and boys are groomed and then abused, leaving them traumatised and scarred for life

Lara McDonnell’s Story

Lara was one on the six girls the Operation Bullfinch Serious Case Review focuses on.

Operation Bullfinch, Oxford, culminated in seven men being convicted of around 60 offences against six children.

Lara subsequently wrote her own account of what happened to her.

Her understanding of her experiences led her to make the following observations:

Lara’s Voice

‘The level of manipulation and coercion was shocking. Me and the other girls were brainwashed so effectively and thoroughly that none of us possessed free will.’ ‘We were owned, we were hollow husks- our will belonged to the men’.

‘Singled out and isolated , we did not engage with anyone. The links we built with our abusers were based on a web of threats, addiction and compulsion’.

Lara’s Voice

“It was like Stockholm syndrome- the psychological phenomenon whereby victims of kidnapping start to display positive attachment to their captors.

None of us was capable of making decisions for ourselves and we were made to believe that what we were doing we were doing willingly. The men are paedophiles who are experts in grooming vulnerable girls……..”

Lara’s Voice

“It was only after I broke away from the gang that I began to realise the deep psychological control they had exerted over me. I had believed what happened to me was my own fault; I didn’t see myself as a victim. Often I felt a duty to protect them.

They made me feel that I was the problem and I deserved to be treated the way I was, which I now know was ridiculous.

I only really came to terms with the fact I wasn’t to blame when I heard the details given at the trial- it was like a veil was lifted from my eyes.”

Long term effects of abuse include

emotional difficulties such as anger, anxiety, low self-worth

mental health problems such as depression, eating disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), self harm,

problems with drugs or alcohol disturbing thoughts, emotions and memories that cause

distress or confusion poor physical health struggling with parenting or relationships learning difficulties, lower educational attainment,

difficulties in communicating behavioural problems and criminal behaviour

Information Sharing and Serious Case Reviews

Sharing information helps keep children and young people safe.

Serious Case Reviews highlight the need for effective and timely information sharing so that risks and strengths can be accurately assessed.

Serious Case Reviews help us learn lessons from serious events to develop practice and systems to better protect children

Daniel Pelka - died in March 2012

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-24106823

Delays in recording information, delays in sharing information, challenges in managing the volume of information, parallel challenges in schools and health visiting.Poor quality social care assessments lacking detail and inadequate chronologies

Starved and beaten for months before he died in March 2012, at his Coventry home

It can happen anywhere…

Keanu was born in Torbay, Devon, and the SCR found Torbay's Children's Services should have been aware of the risks even before his birth.

It states: "There was enough information available to raise concerns that the unborn child was likely to be at risk of suffering significant harm.”

The toddler was found with 37 injuries including a fractured skull and torn abdomen, in Ward End, Birmingham. His mother was subsequently convicted and imprisoned.

The SCR concluded: "If a child protection plan had been in place, there would have been more robust arrangements to safeguard and promote Keanu's interests.“ [2011]

Learning from Keanu

"Professional over optimism" A lack of "professional curiosity" in questioning

information A lack of confidence among professionals in

challenging parents and other professionals Poor communication between and within agencies. A lack of analysis of information Shortcomings in recording systems

In a comment that echoes those made after the death of starved four-year-old Daniel Pelka the report says that Keanu had become "invisible".

Not Every Death is Preventable

Andrew Webb, from the Association of Directors of Children's Services, said: "There is something about the human condition which leads to parents killing their children."

“50 to 70 children died at the hands of their parents or carers every year.” (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-23528650)

Even when multi-agency practice is exemplary, not every child death or injury is preventable

Learning from Serious Case Reviews enables us to reflect on policies, procedures and practices and to continually improve

Remember that the Process of Child protection ‘Protects’

There were 68,840 looked after children at 31 March 2014 – an increase of 1% compared to 31 March 2013. 50% were boys and 50% girls

Most (72%) came to social service's attention due to abuse or neglect and 51,340 (75%) were in a foster placement

There were 5,050 looked after children adopted during the year ending 31 March 2014, an increase of 26% from 2013. The average age was 3 years and 5 months.

72% were placed for adoption due to abuse or neglect, 15% due to family dysfunction, 5% because the birth family was in 'acute stress'

Where can I get further Training?

Plymouth Safeguarding Childrens Board (PSCB) run multiple courses.

The training reflects lessons from Serious Case reviews and the outcomes of national enquiries to present contemporary thinking and best practice.

All training is multi -agency. How do I access the training? For further information email

safeguardingtraining@plymouth.gov.uk or telephone 01752 307535

Further Reading

Statutory Guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children 2015

Local authorities have overarching responsibility for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all children and young people in their area. They have a number of statutory functions under the 1989 and 2004 Children Acts which make this clear, and this guidance sets these out in detail.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/419595/Working_Together_to_Safeguard_Children.pdf