National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland: Consultation

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PART 1 - THE CONTEXT FOR CHILD PROTECTION

KEY DEFINITIONS AND CONCEPTS

21. A clear and consistent understanding of the different concepts and terminology in child protection is essential. If action to support and protect children is to be informed and effective, what we mean by 'child', 'child abuse' and 'neglect', and even 'child protection' should be transparent and shared. Consequently, this chapter of the guidance sets out the definitions and concepts of key terms within child protection processes.

Who is a Child?

22. A child can be defined differently in different legal contexts. There are a number of different pieces of legislation that apply different age limitations to a child.

  • Section 93(2)(a) and (b) of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 defines a child in relation to the powers and duties of the local authority. Young people between the age of 16 and 18 who are still subject to a supervision requirement by a Children's Hearing can be viewed as a child. Young people over the age of 16 may still require intervention to protect them.
  • At the same time, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child applies to anyone under the age of 18. However Article 1 caveats this by saying that is unless majority is attained earlier under the law applicable to the child.

23. Although the differing legal definitions of the age of a child can be confusing, the priority is to ensure that a vulnerable young person who is, or may be, at risk of significant harm is offered support and protection. The individual young person's circumstances and age will, by default, dictate what legal measures can be applied to protect that young person should they need it. For example, the Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Act 2007 can be applied to over-16's. This only further heightens the importance of local areas having very clear links between their Child and Adult Protection Committees and clear guidelines in place for the transition from child to adult services. Those between 16 and 18 are potentially vulnerable to falling between the gaps and local services must ensure that staff offer ongoing support and protection, as required, via continuous single planning for the young person.

24. For the purposes of this guidance, a child is taken to mean under the age of 18, and a 'young person', whilst falling under the legal definition of a child, is taken to mean an older adolescent child.

Parents and Carers

25. A 'parent' is defined as someone who is the genetic or adoptive mother or father of the child. A mother has full parental rights and responsibilities. A father has parental responsibilities and rights if he is or was married to the mother (at the time of the child's conception or subsequently) or if the birth of the child is registered after 4 May 2006 and he is registered as the father of the child on the child's birth certificate. A father may also acquire parental responsibilities or rights under the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 by entering into a formal agreement with the mother or by making an application to the courts.

26. A 'carer' may be a 'relevant person' within the Children's Hearings System and is defined as any person who has parental responsibilities or rights in relation to a child, or any person who ordinarily has charge of, or control over a child refer to Children (Scotland) Act 1995 s 93(2)(b). Relevant persons have extensive rights within the Children's Hearing system, including the right to attend Children's Hearings, receive all relevant documentation and challenge decisions taken within those proceedings.

27. Regulation 10 of the Looked After Children (Scotland) Regulations 2009, provides that a local authority may make a decision to approve a 'kinship carer' as a suitable carer for a child who is looked after by that authority in terms of section 17(6) of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995. This can be a person who is related to the child, or a person who is known to the child and with whom the child has a pre existing relationship ('related' means related to the child either by blood, marriage or civil partnership). Before making such a decision, the authority must, so far as reasonably practicable, obtain and record in writing the information specified in Schedule 3 of the Regulations and, taking into account that information, carry out an assessment of that person's suitability to care for the child. Local authorities' duties are designed here to ensure that they do not make or sustain placements which are not safe or in a child's best interests.

28. Informal kinship care refers to care arrangements made by parents or those with parental responsibilities with close relatives, or in the case of orphaned or abandoned children by those relatives providing the care. A child cared for by informal kinship carers is not 'looked after'. The carer is not a foster carer, nor is assessment of the carer by the local authority a legal requirement.

29. Private fostering refers to children placed by private arrangement with persons who are not close relatives. 'Relative' in this context means mother, father, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, grandparent, of full blood or half blood or by marriage or, if the child's parents have never married, include the birth father and any person who would have been defined as a relative had they been married.

What is Child Abuse and Child Neglect?

30. Abuse and neglect are forms of maltreatment of a child. Somebody may abuse or neglect a child by inflicting, or by failing to act to prevent, significant harm on the child. Children may be abused in a family or in an institutional setting, by those known to them or, more rarely, by a stranger.

31. While it is no longer necessary to identify a specific category of abuse when adding a child's name to the Child Protection Register (as described in more detail in the section below on the Register), it is still helpful to consider and understand the different ways in which children can be abused. The following definitions indicate how the abuse can be experienced by a child but are not exhaustive, as the individual circumstances of abuse will vary from child to child.

Physical Abuse

32. Physical abuse may involve hitting, shaking, throwing, poisoning, burning or scalding, drowning, suffocating, or otherwise causing physical harm to a child. Physical harm may also be caused when a parent or carer feigns the symptoms of, or deliberately causes, ill health to a child whom they are looking after. This situation may be described as fabricated or induced illness by the carer ( as described in more detail in the relevant section in the Indicators of Risk chapter).

Emotional Abuse

33. Emotional abuse is where persistent emotional ill treatment of a child causes severe and persistent adverse effects on the child's emotional development. It may involve conveying to a child that they are worthless or unloved, inadequate or valued only in so far as they meet the needs of another person. It may feature age or developmentally inappropriate expectations being imposed on children. It may involve causing children frequently to feel frightened or in danger, or the exploitation or corruption of children. Some level of emotional abuse is present in all types of ill treatment of a child, though it may occur independently of the other forms of abuse.

Sexual Abuse

34. Sexual abuse involves forcing or enticing a child to take part in sexual activities, whether or not the child is aware of what is happening. The activities may involve physical contact, including penetrative or non-penetrative acts. They may include non-contact activities, such as involving children in looking at, or in the production of, pornographic material or in watching sexual activities, using sexual language towards a child or encouraging children to behave in sexually inappropriate ways.

Neglect

35. Neglect is the persistent failure to meet a child's basic physical and/or psychological needs, likely to result in the serious impairment of the child's health or development. It may involve a parent or carer failing to provide adequate food, shelter and clothing, to protect a child from physical harm or danger, or to ensure access to appropriate medical care or treatment. It may also include neglect of, or unresponsiveness to, a child's basic emotional needs. Neglect may also result in the child being diagnosed as suffering from non-organic failure to thrive, where a child has significantly failed to reach normal growth and developmental milestones and where physical and genetic reasons have been medically eliminated.

What is Child Protection?

36. 'Child protection' is when a child requires protection from 'child abuse' or 'child neglect'. For a child to require protection, it is not required that child abuse or neglect has taken place, but rather a risk assessment has identified a significant likelihood or risk of abuse or neglect. Equally, in instances where a child may have been abused or neglected but the risk of future abuse has not been identified, the child and their family may require support and recovery services but not a response under child protection measures.

37. There are circumstances where abuse may have taken place but formal child protection procedures may not be required, for example, where the family have themselves taken protective action. Children who are abused by strangers would not necessarily require a child protection plan, unless the abuse occurred in circumstances that resulted from familial responsibility. For example, if a young child is abused by a stranger, a child protection plan may be required only if the family were in some way responsible for the abuse occurring in the first instance or were unable to adequately protect the child in the future without the support of a child protection plan being in place.

The Concepts of Harm and Significant Harm

38. The concept of 'significant harm' is a complex matter and subject to professional judgement based on an assessment of the child's and family's circumstances. Significant harm can result from a specific incident, a series of incidents or an accumulation of concerns over a period of time. It is essential that when considering the presence of significant harm, the impact or potential impact on the child takes priority and not simply the alleged abusive behaviour.

39. In order to understand the concept of significant harm, it is helpful to consider first the definitions being applied. 3

  • 'Harm' means the ill treatment or the impairment of health or development of the child, including, for example, impairment suffered from seeing or hearing the ill treatment of another. In this context, 'development' can mean physical, intellectual, emotional, social or behavioural development and 'health' can mean physical or mental health.
  • Whether the harm suffered by a child is 'significant' is determined by comparison of the child's health and development with what might be reasonably expected of a similar child.

40. Where there are concerns about harm to a child, these concerns must be shared and considered by the relevant agencies to allow the determination as to whether the harm is significant.

41. There are no absolute criteria for judging what constitutes significant harm. To assess the severity of ill treatment, it may be important to take account of: the degree and extent of physical harm; the duration and frequency of abuse and neglect; the extent of premeditation; and the presence or degree of threat, coercion, sadism and bizarre or unusual elements. Sometimes, a single traumatic event may constitute significant harm, for example, a violent assault, suffocation or poisoning. More often, significant harm is a compilation of significant events, both acute and long-standing, which interrupt, change or damage the child's physical and psychological development.

42. To understand and identify significant harm, it is necessary to consider:

  • the nature of harm, in terms of maltreatment or failure to provide adequate care;
  • the impact on the child's health and development;
  • the child's development within the context of their family and wider environment;
  • any special needs, such as a medical condition, communication impairment or disability, that may affect the child's development or vulnerability and care within the family;
  • the capacity of parents or carers to meet adequately the child's needs; and
  • the wider and environmental family context.

43. The views of the child must also be thoroughly considered. The child's reactions, perceptions, wishes and feelings should be ascertained and taken account of according to the child's age and understanding. To do this depends on communicating effectively with children and young people, including those who find it difficult to do so because of their age, impairment, or their particular psychological or social situation. This should also include indirect communication from children such as observation of behavioural changes and the need to balance what children might say against their need to be loyal to their parents or carers (who may also hold some power over the child). Any accounts of adverse experiences coming from children must be as accurate and complete as possible and recorded fully.

Risk

44. Understanding risk is critical to child protection. Elsewhere in this guidance, identification and management of risk is addressed, but with respect to defining 'risk', the literature is significant in its sheer volume. The number of different definitions of risk are varied and, at times, contradicting. In the context of this guidance, risk is the likelihood or probability of a particular outcome given the presence of adverse factors in a child's life. Risk is part and parcel of everyday life: a toddler learning to walk is likely to be at risk from some stumbles and scrapes but this does not mean the child should not be encouraged to walk. Thus, 'risks' may be deemed to be acceptable or are minimised as much as possible by the parents/carers or early intervention of universal services. At other times, the child may require a response by a number of services as part of a co-ordinated intervention. Only where risks cause, or are likely to cause, significant harm to a child would a response under child protection be required. Some children will have been exposed to actual harm and the assessment of risk is the extent to which they are at risk of repeated harm or the effects of continued exposure over time.

The Child's Plan and the Lead Professional

45. This guidance is rooted in the Getting it right for every child approach, which is described in more detail in the next chapter. Under the GIRFEC approach, when two or more agencies need to work together to provide help to a child or young person and family, there will be a 'Lead Professional' to co-ordinate that help. Where those working with the child and family have evidence that suggests a co-ordinated plan involving two or more agencies will be necessary, then a 'child's plan' should be drawn up.

46. This should be set in the context of a single plan of action, managed and reviewed through a single meeting structure even if the child is involved in several processes, such as being looked after or having a co-ordinated support plan. The Lead Professional should integrate (rather than layer ) the contributions that the variety of professional expertise and specialist assessments can make to understand and meet a child's needs. They should also set out actions designed to improve the outcomes for the child.

47. Where a child may be at risk of significant harm, the primary concern will be in respect of safety and the planning process must reflect this. The Chair of the single meeting should ensure a focus on the specific concerns about the safety of the child, the actions designed to reduce risk, and the questions of whether referral to the Children's Reporter is required. The child protection case conference is the term applied to the single meeting in respect of a child about whom there are concerns about significant harm ( this is described in more detail in the chapter on Responding to Concerns about Children).

48. The Lead Professional will be responsible for ensuring an agreed multi-agency child's plan is produced. The plan will be based on an assessment of needs and will incorporate any current plans by individual agencies. The plan will identify when a review is needed and the Lead Professional will arrange for the production of materials for the review if this is to take place at a meeting. Materials will be circulated to everyone involved, especially the child and family.

49. In child protection cases, the role of the Lead Professional will normally be the local authority social worker and where the child is believed to be at risk of significant harm, the child's plan will be known as the 'child protection plan' for the duration of the period they are deemed to be at risk of significant harm.

50. As a result, the role of the Lead Professional is to:

  • be the usual point of contact with the child and family to discuss the plan, how it is working and any changes in circumstances that may affect the plan;
  • be a main point of contact for all practitioners who are delivering help to the child;
  • make sure that the help provided is consistent with the child's plan and that services are not duplicated;
  • work with the child and family and relevant practitioners to make sure that the child's and family's views and wishes are heard and properly taken into account and, when necessary, link the child and family with specialist advocacy;
  • support the child and family to make use of help from practitioners and agencies;
  • monitor how well the child's plan is working and whether it is improving the child's situation;
  • co-ordinate the provision of other help or specialist assessments which may be needed, with advice from other practitioners where necessary, and make arrangements for these to take place;
  • arrange for relevant agencies to review together their involvement and amend the child's plan when necessary; and
  • make sure the child is supported through key transition points and ensure a careful and planned transfer of responsibility for these roles when another practitioner becomes the Lead Professional, for example, if the child's needs change or the family moves away.

The Child Protection Register

51. Local authorities are responsible for maintaining a central register, known as the Child Protection Register, of all children - including unborn children - who are the subject of an inter-agency child protection plan. The Child Protection Register has no legal status but provides an administrative system for alerting practitioners that there is sufficient professional concern about a child to warrant an inter-agency child protection plan. Local authority social work children and family services are responsible for maintaining a register of all children in their area for whom a child protection plan is in place. The local authority may have its own register or may maintain a joint register with other authorities. The Child Protection Register provides a central point of rapid enquiry for practitioners concerned about a child's safety or care.

52. The decision to place a child's name on the Register should be taken by a child protection case conference when there are reasonable grounds to believe or suspect that a child has suffered or will suffer abuse or neglect, and a child protection plan is needed to protect and support the child. A child should be placed on the local Child Protection Register when:

  • the child is at risk of significant harm; and
  • their safety and welfare is considered to require an inter-agency child protection plan.

53. When placing a child on the Register, it is no longer necessary to identify a category of registration relating to the primary type of abuse and neglect, as has been the case previously. Instead, the child's name and details should be entered on the Register, a record of the key areas of risk to the child and the child protection plan for the child. The local authority should inform the child's parents or carers and, if they have sufficient age and understanding, the child, orally and in writing, about information held on the Register and who has access to it. Details of dealing with dissent and dispute resolution can be found in the section on child protection case conferences.

Removing a Child from the Child Protection Register

54. When the practitioners who are working with the child and family decide that the risk to the child has been removed or reduced to an acceptable level the local authority should remove the child from the Child Protection Register. A decision to remove a child's name will be made by a review case conference with representation or views from all the agencies working with the child.

55. Removal of a child's name from the Register should not necessarily lead to a reduction or withdrawal of services or support to the child and family by any or all of the agencies. The risk of significant harm to the child may have been removed or reduced but the child may continue to require a variety of services from any or all of the agencies to meet their needs and promote their welfare and this should be part of the single planning process for the child. At the point of deregistration, consideration should be given to whether the Lead Professional will need to be changed, and if so, arrangements made for the transfer to be agreed. The child protection plan will, following de-registration, become a child's plan.

Making Use of the Register

56. The Register should be maintained by social work services. It should be held separately from agency records or case files and in secure conditions. Social work services should appoint a person to maintain and manage the Register - generally known as the Keeper of the Child Protection Register. The Keeper of the Register should make sure that all agencies know how to obtain access to information from the Register at any time. There should be 24-hour access to the Register for all practitioners who need to make an enquiry about a child and online access by partner agencies wherever possible.

57. Local areas should have in place mechanisms and arrangements for practitioners making an enquiry to the Register, including criteria for when this should be done and by whom. There is an expectation that the eCare system, currently under development, will provide the IT functionality for information on child protection registers to be shared across areas and agencies. However, until the system is available for all authorities, local protocols should be in place to make sure information is shared and every relevant system and organisation is alerted when there is a child protection concern.

58. The Scottish Government maintains a list of current Keepers of Child Protection Registers in Scotland and contact points for Child Protection Registers in other parts of the UK. Local authorities should notify the Scottish Government of any changes so that the list can be kept up-to date. All practitioners should notify the Keepers of local Registers of any changes in the details about children named on the Register.

59. The Keeper of the Register will be responsible for attempting to trace a registered child whose whereabouts becomes unknown, including notifications and alerts to other areas and services.

Adjusting to Temporary Moves of Children who are the Child Protection Register

60. When families move between authority areas - whether temporarily or permanently - the original authority should notify the receiving authority immediately, then follow up the notification in writing for placing child's name temporarily on Register.

61. If the child is temporarily residing in another local authority, arrangements must be agreed about the monitoring/supervision required whilst the child is in that area and implementation for the child protection plan. Determining responsibility for the monitoring may be dependent on a number of practical considerations, for example, distance. Consultation between the two authorities is essential. Where agreement cannot be reached about monitoring agreements between authorities, the matter must be immediately passed to senior managers for resolution.

Page updated: Thursday, May 27, 2010