The purpose of a Child Safeguarding Practice Review (CSPR) is to determine whether there are any lessons to be learnt from the way in which practitioners and organisations worked together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people in a particular case.
In a recent CSPR the following lessons were identified. Practitioners and teams should discuss these lessons and implement the necessary changes in their practice.
Learning Point
All practitioners should ensure that families are as informed as they can be, about all interventions, proposed and agreed in multi-agency child protection discussions and fully understand expectations of them and of other practitioners. This can be achieved through meetings which are timely, effectively chaired, structured, and purposeful.
How to enhance your practice
Read the One minute guides on Preparation for initial child protection conferences and What is a child protection conference on the Leeds City Council website.
SMART planning will support practitioners to structure their meetings to keep families informed and engaged.
Restorative practices enable those who work with children and families to focus upon building relationships that create and inspire positive change. Creating change sometimes requires challenge as well as support. See the One minute guide on the Leeds City Council website.
Learning Point
Practitioners should consider how childhood experiences, adverse effects and trauma can impact on the vulnerability of children and young people and address this within assessments. This should not just relate to the presenting problems but to hidden complexities that are affecting and influencing young people.
How to enhance your practice
All practitioners should have understanding, knowledge and skills to ensure that childhood experiences drive practice, which is trauma informed, in line with the Leeds Trauma Informed Strategy.
Explore the Compassionate Leeds: Trauma-Informed Practice Information Hub on the MindMate website.
Read Compassionate Leeds: Trauma awareness, prevention and response strategy for children, young people and families available as a pdf on the Mindmate website
Learning Points
All practitioners should recognise and respond appropriately to the cumulative effect of physical and emotional harm when new/ concerning incidents occur, and to routinely consider whether a CP medical is necessary, to ensure appropriate interventions are put in place.
All practitioners should have the skills and expertise to appropriately challenge decisions relating to CP medicals, where there are professional disagreements surrounding those decisions.
How to enhance your practice
Make sure that you are aware of the Leeds Multi-Agency Procedure for Professionals Requesting Child Protection Medicals.
Follow the guidance in the Concerns resolution process when challenging professional disagreements.
It is vital that everyone in organisations and agencies working with children and families, including those who work with parents / carers, work restoratively, collaboratively, and effectively and understands the role they should play and the role of other practitioners when responding to neglect.
It is important for practitioners to be aware of the Was not brought approach in Leeds.
Learning Point
A robust and effective model of safeguarding supervision should be in place for all practitioners with a mechanism applied to judge the effectiveness of individual, peer and group supervision. Remedial measures should be initiated where shortfalls are identified.
How to improve your practice
Regular reflective supervision should be encouraged as without robust management oversight analysis and critical thinking then Practitioners are essentially gathering information rather than forming professional judgments to ensure children remain safe. There are also benefits in using peer supervision and formulation.
The Minimum Standards for the Supervision of Staff and Volunteers Working with Children, Young People and Families guidance provides minimum standards for the supervision of staff and volunteers working with, or whose work brings them into close contact with, children, young people and families. It also clearly defines the responsibilities of supervises in relation to their role.
Read the One Minute Guide on Supervision on the Leeds City Council website
Kolbs Cycle of Reflective Practice is a useful tool for managers to use in reflective supervision with staff who work with children, young people or families.
Rethink Formulation is a strengths-based, collaborative process to assessing, planning and evaluating our work with children, families and other professionals. It supports restorative and relational working in Leeds as part of our Leeds Practice Model.
Learning Points
All practitioners should ensure they are adequately prepared to meaningfully contribute to strategy and other multi-agency meeting discussions and to challenge partners where strategy/multi-agency discussions are not managed in a way which promotes the safety and wellbeing of children.
All practitioners must assure themselves that they are satisfied of the quality and impact of meetings, judging the progress towards achieving and delivering agreed safety plans.
How to enhance your practice
Read the Top Tips for Strategy Discussions. This checklist/top tips provides guidance for multi-agency practitioners. This has been written to assist in practice when undertaking strategy discussions.
Make sure you are aware of the Concerns Resolution process. This process outlines the steps to be taken when there are disagreements between practitioners from differing agencies in relation to concerns about the safety and welfare of a child or young person, and / or action being taken to safeguard a child or young person.
Using SMART planning can help practitioners to avoid drift and lack of progress. It allows for plans to be reviewed regularly ensuring the best outcomes for the child or young person.
Learning Points
All practitioners should be skilled in information seeking and sharing, to underpin a professionally curious approach to practice in their direct work with children and families.
All practitioners should adopt the use of appropriate language which adequately describes risk and enables steps to be put in place to keep children safe.
How to improve your practice
Practitioners should familiarise themselves with the Information Seeking guidance within the Information Sharing tool box.
Practitioners need to have a questioning, challenging and curious approach to open conversations with children, language has the capacity to influence practice and managers across agencies need to challenge language such as physical chastisement and understand the impact on children.
Professional curiosity is where a practitioner explores and proactively tries to understand what is happening within a family or for an individual, rather than making assumptions or taking a single source of information and accepting it at face value.
A lack of professional curiosity can lead to missed opportunities to identify less obvious indicators of vulnerability or significant harm. Practitioners should understand what it means to be professionally curious.
Learning Point
When domestic abuse is occurring within a household all practitioners should ensure that children are identified as victims in their own right with interventions put in place which are targeted to address the harm resulting from this.
How to enhance your practice
See the Barnardo’s website for information on Children affected by domestic abuse.
See the Safer Leeds website for Information for practitioners working in domestic violence and abuse.
Learning Point
Practitioners need to have a questioning, challenging and curious approach to open conversations with children, language has the capacity to influence practice and managers across agencies need to challenge language such as physical chastisement and understand the impact on children.
How to enhance your practice
The Practitioner’s Tool Kit is a resource for practitioners when working with children and families. The Tools support practitioners in their day to day work, to identify and understand what is going on within a family.
Children, young people and their parents and carers have a right to be involved in decisions that affect their lives. Having a voice and influence means they feel that their voices are listened to, valued and can influence decisions and actions.
A briefing from the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel, Multi-agency safeguarding and domestic abuse sets out key findings from a thematic analysis of rapid reviews and local child safeguarding practice reviews where domestic abuse featured.
Physical punishment is using any physical force to punish a child for wrongdoing. There is no justification for smacking or physically punishing children. A helpful resource for practitioners to assist you when working with families is available on request.
Learning Point
Where suicide/bereavement and loss has been experienced, all practitioners should recognise the impact of these on children. This should be a key focus of discussion in all strategy and multi-agency meetings to ensure appropriate safety plans are agreed, and actions arising are completed.
How to enhance your practice
A pathway and guide for professionals working with children and young people in Leeds who have been bereaved, produced by the NHS, sets out a citywide approach to addressing the needs of children/young people who have experienced bereavement, describes the integrated pathway in Leeds for a child/young person who has been bereaved and provides staff with clear guidelines about how to support a child/young person.
A Child Bereavement animation and supporting information on the Mindmate website can be used as a training tool for staff who work with children and young people in Leeds, with the aim of improving the support offered following a bereavement. The 4 and half minute film includes advice from young people in Leeds who have experienced the death of someone close to them and a brief explanation of the local pathway for support.
For suicide bereavement services see the Leeds Mind website.
Compassionate Leeds: Trauma-Informed Practice Information Hub can be found on the MindMate website.
Learning Point
All practitioners should be encouraged to access training to support ongoing professional development and the delivery of best practice.
How to improve your practice
Practitioners should take advantage of the training opportunities via the LSCP.
Practitioners are recommended to register for the LSCP newsletter to keep up to date of learning opportunities.
Please be aware of the opportunities within your own organisation.
Learning Point
The concerns resolution process should be applied appropriately, consistently and comprehensively by all practitioners where appropriate and necessary to keep children safe.
How to improve your practice
Make sure that you are aware of the Concerns Resolution process. This process outlines the steps to be taken when there are disagreements between practitioners from differing agencies in relation to concerns about the safety and welfare of a child or young person, and / or action being taken to safeguard a child or young person.
Learning Point
All practitioners should have an awareness and understanding of the use, and skill in application of, the Rethink Formulation to underpin their practice and to explore possible solutions in challenging situations.
How to enhance your practice
See the One Minute Guide on the Rethink formulation process.
Learning Point
When undertaking assessments, all practitioners should routinely and consistently consider issues of culture and identity in families of mixed heritage.
How to enhance your practice
Helpful information can be found on the NSPCC website aimed at practitioners, but is also helpful for anyone working or volunteering with children and young people from Black, Asian and minoritised ethnic communities.
Practitioner should read the review It’s Silent: Race, racism and safeguarding children from the National Panel which examines the impact of race, ethnicity and culture on multi-agency practice where children have suffered serious harm or died. It includes findings from 40 rapid reviews and 14 LCSPRs involving children from Black, Asian and Mixed Heritage backgrounds.