The Child Protection Process
- Gathering Information
- Assessing the Child's Needs
- The Strategy Meeting
- Achieving Best Evidence (ABE) - Forensic Child Interviews
- What if a Parent is Accused of Harming the Child?
- Will the Child be Taken Away from Home?
- Parental Involvement
- The Child Protection Conference
- The Child Protection Plan
- The Core Group
- Complaints, Comments & Compliments
Gathering Information
When concerns are raised about a child by a professional worker or a member of the public, it is a social worker's job to gather information to assess the risk of harm to the child (see the assessing risk page).
The social worker will start by talking to the parent or carer and to other members of the family. Usually, social workers will visit families at home. If it is thought that a crime has been committed, they will come with a police officer.
Haringey social workers work jointly with the police Child Abuse Investigation Team (CAIT) (external link) which is made up of officers who have special training to work with children and families. These police officers do not wear uniforms.
Social workers will let families know what the concerns are and get families' views. Social workers will speak to the children in the household on their own to get their views. They will consult with other professionals that know the family, using the information on the referral form.
Social workers will use this time to decide if there is any immediate risk to the children's safety.
If social workers think that a child is at risk of significant harm, they do not need to get parents' permission to gather more information on the family.
Assessing the Child's Needs
The social worker will use the information that they have gathered from the family and from other professionals to make an Initial Assessment of a child's needs.
This means that social workers will consider all of the aspects of a child's life, including their developmental needs, the parenting they are given, and their wider family and social environment, to decide the degree to which a child is at risk. An assessment of a child's needs is always conducted alongside the assessment of risk to the child. See the assessing risk page to find out more.
Where possible, families will be encouraged to access extra support from services that can help.
The Strategy Meeting
Police, social workers and other involved workers will discuss the concerns that were reported about a child and agree how best to keep the child safe.
This decision-making happens in a Strategy Meeting. Strategy Meetings can decide to convene a Child Protection Conference.
If it is thought that a child has been injured or is in need of medical treatment, experienced doctors will need to do an examination, called a Child Protection Medical. Usually, parents can come to the hospital with their child for this examination.
Achieving Best Evidence (ABE) - Forensic Child Interviews
Sometimes, a child will have an ABE (PDF, 2Mb) video interview with a social worker and a police officer. The child will be asked to say what happened to them in their own words. This interview is relaxed and happens in a child-friendly room.
The reason that the interview is recorded by video is to limit the number of times a child must be interviewed by different professionals and to keep evidence for court, if needed.
If parents do not want to give permission for an interview or a medical examination, social workers must seek legal advice.
What If a Parent is Accused of Harming the Child?
If the police and social worker think that a parent or carer has committed an offence against a child, they will be formally interviewed by the police.
Their rights will be explained, and parents or carers will have the right to seek legal advice.
Will the Child be Taken Away from Home?
Usually, children remain at home during Child Protection Investigations.
If it is felt that a child is in immediate danger, the social worker will apply to the Court for an Emergency Protection Order. The child may then live temporarily away from home during the Child Protection Investigation.
The Police also have emergency powers that they can use to remove a child from their home for a maximum of 72 hours if it is felt the child is at immediate risk.
Parents will be advised of any legal action and have the right to legal advice.
Parental Involvement
The social worker will keep the parent or carer informed about what is going on. Social workers will be open with parents at all times unless this would put the child in danger.
Parents can ask social workers to explain what is happening at any time during this process.
Parents can seek independent or legal advice at any time. Parents can also ask to read the social worker's records on the child and family at any time.
The Child Protection Conference
A Strategy Meeting may decide to call a multi-agency Child Protection Conference.
The reason for the conference is to:
- Share information
- Make a decision about whether the child continues to be at risk of significant harm and is therefore in need of protection
- Agree a Child Protection Plan
Parents or carers will be invited to attend this conference. Social workers will discuss the Child Protection Conference with parents before happens so that they know what to expect and how to ask questions and raise concerns.
The social worker will support the child throughout the process and will either help the child or young person represent their own views or do so on the child or young person's behalf. Prior to the conference, the social worker will fill out the Have Your Say leaflet (Word, 209KB) with the child or young person.
All relevant professionals working with the child will be invited to the conference, including (as relevant):
- Child's social worker
- Police officer
- GP
- Health Visitor
- School Nurse
- Parent's Mental Health Worker
- School's Designated Child Protection Officer
- Family Support Worker
- Youth Offending Officer
- And any other key professional working with the family
The Child Protection Conference will be chaired by an independent Child Protection Advisor, whose job it is to make sure that everyone gets a chance to contribute and say what they think.
The conference will concentrate on identifying what constitutes a real risk to the child and where there are strengths in a family that offset that risk.
It is really important that everyone gives their views at the Child Protection Conference as these will help the right decisions to be made.
The Child Protection Plan
The Child Protection Plan is a working tool that should help families and professionals to understand what is expected of them and what they can expect of others.
The aims of the plan are to:
- Keep the child safe
- Promote the child's welfare
- Support their wider family to care for them, if it can be done safely
The Child Protection Conference will draw up the framework for the plan. A Core Group of involved professionals is responsible to continue developing a detailed plan.
Effective Child Protection Plans should:
- Identify further assessments needed
- Identify and address the roots of harm to child
- Set out time-limited tasks for the family and for workers that aim to stop the child suffering harm
- Set out specific and achievable child-focused outcomes in the short- and long-term. These outcomes should have specific deadlines and consequences if they are not met
- Set out which workers will be checking that the child is safe and well on a day-to-day basis
- Include a contingency plan - what should be done if the Child Protection Plan is not working
- Describe how the Child Protection Plan will be reviewed
The Core Group
The Child Protection Plan is developed further and worked on by a Core Group of involved professionals and family members.
The first Core Group should take place within 10 working days of the Child Protection Conference and then at regular intervals (recommended at least every four weeks or so).
Three months after the Conference, a Review Conference will be held to look at what progress has been made in implementing the Child Protection Plan.
Further Review Conferences will be held at six month intervals.
Complaints, Comments & Compliments
Haringey Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) is committed to ensuring that families and professionals going through the Child Protection process have access to information and support, and are treated with consideration and respect.
If you have comments or suggestions about how we can improve our practice, we would like to hear from you
If you wish to complain about the way in which you or a child has been treated in the process, you can get information from all council offices about the Council's complaints procedure.
If you want to complain about the person who chaired the Conference, or if you want to complain about the decisions made at Conference, you should use the LSCB leaflet Child Protection Conferences: How to Make a Complaint (PDF, 330Kb).
Download:
- Referral to Children's Social Care (Word, 205Kb)
- Child Protection Conferences: How to Make a Complaint (PDF, 330Kb)
- What to Do If You're Worried About a Child (PDF, 439Kb)
- Have Your Say leaflet (Word, 209KB)