Key points
To decide what to do next, you should talk to the designated manager within your own agency. This will probably be your line manager, though it could be a designated person with child protection responsibility. Share your concerns and discuss any differences of opinion.
How to do it
It may help to look at the supplementary guidance contained in these procedures, signs and symptoms of possible child abuse. as well as being aware that there are further suggestions under ‘supplementary guidance’.
The following questions will help you and your manager decide what to do next:
- what is your concern?
- how long have you been concerned?
- who else has concerns?
- what do you think could be happening to the child?
- list a range of possible things that could be happening, rather than jumping to one conclusion. How could you find out whether each of these possibilities is true?
- what information do you have already?
- what have you already done to address your concerns?
- have you discussed your concerns with the parents and the child or young person?
- if yes, what did they say?
- if no, why not?
- what would be the possible impact on the child?
- Your manager should question you about the reasons for your concerns.
If you still have concerns but are not sure what action to take, you (or your manager) could contact someone in another agency and discuss the situation (without mentioning the child’s name). This may help you decide what to do next.
Lessons from research
Research by Eileen Munro points out that people tend to make a judgment about other people, or a situation, very quickly. Once they have done this, they tend to focus on information that confirms their view while ignoring information that contradicts it. Because of this, when discussing a case the manager should ask the worker to consider other points of view.
Reder and Duncan, in their work on serious case reviews and child death inquiries, identify what they call ‘closed professional systems’ where workers develop fixed views of a case, or where polarisation takes place between two different groups of workers with different views. Sometimes one person’s views are given too much weight, or there can be confusion about who is doing what. It helps to take an objective view of the professional dynamics and check if everyone is clear about their role. See Reder P and Duncan S: Lost Innocents: a follow up study of fatal child abuse (1999).
Newly gathered information is sometimes seen in isolation rather than considered alongside previously known facts. Certain facts are then selected as important, to fit the worker’s view of the family, rather than asking if there could be missing information or other explanations. All the information should be checked and evaluated.
Alerting indicators of inadequate parenting are poor take-up of ante-natal care and irregular attendance at school or early years services. See Bullock R: Learning from past experience: a review of Serious Case Reviews (2002).
