A summary of "Safeguarding children across services: messages from research"
NSPCC briefing
November 2011
The report
Safeguarding children across services: messages from research (Davies and Ward, 2011) summarises the findings of 15 research reports focusing on the emotional abuse and neglect of infants and adolescents.
This briefing contains a summary of the key issues and the findings which are distilled into evidence-based actions for professionals to use in their day-to-day work.
Overview
Safeguarding children across services: messages from research (PDF) is a book that provides an overview of 15 research studies.
11 of these studies were commissioned by the Department for Education (DfE) and Department of Health (DH) as part of the Safeguarding Children Research Initiative set up in response to the Inquiry following the death of Victoria Climbié.
The key findings from the research focus on emotional abuse and neglect which are particularly hard to identify and on infants and adolescents who are disproportionately affected by these forms of abuse.
The book also presents key messages from research on policy and practice for professionals working in family justice, health, children's social care or providing services to parents.
Identification and risk factors
The research highlights that emotional abuse and neglect are the most prevalent forms of abuse and the hardest to identify.
Emotional abuse and neglect often first occur in early childhood when impact on the child's development is particularly severe.
Neglect is also the most common form of abuse in 10-15 year olds.
Risk factors include: poor mental health, substance and alcohol misuse, and domestic violence. These factors are particularly conducive to abuse when combined with other stressors.
Effective intervention
The report looks at three types of preventative programmes: primary, secondary and tertiary.
Primary approaches:
- are aimed at the whole population
- are non-stigmatizing
- reach parents early
- reach families who have little contact with services.
Effective primary actions include:
- legislative change (such as the banning of physical punishment in Sweden)
- mass media public education programmes
- universally accessible parenting programmes (such as the Healthy Child Programme).
Secondary approaches:- are targeted at families with a greater risk of abuse
- can be efficient and cost-effective as they focus resources on the families with the greatest need.
Effective forms of secondary prevention include:
- home-visiting programmes (such as the Nurse Family Partnerships)
- validated parenting programmes (for example the Webster-Stratton Incredible Years).
Tertiary approaches:- aim to prevent further deterioration in cases where abuse or neglect has already occurred.
The report considers ten specific interventions that have proved to be effective including:
- the Triple P Programme
- Parents Under Pressure
- and the Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care.
Being able to assess a parent's capacity to change is central to this form of prevention. Where parents do not show sufficient capacity to change, care can provide a positive alternative.
Stresses that care needs to become a more specialist service offered as part of a package of interventions aimed at safeguarding children and helping them overcome the consequences of abuse and neglect.
Inter-agency working
Inter-disciplinary and inter-agency working is vital to child protection work.
Advances have been made at the service level in recent years, but there is concern that they may be lost in the current restructuring of services.
Messages for specific groups of professionals
Professionals in children's social care should:
- keep up to date with research on the impact of abuse and poor parenting, and maintain a good understanding of child development and attachment
- be fully informed of any family history of abuse or neglect
- offer support packages which are of sufficient intensity and length
- prioritise careful assessment and planning in abuse and neglect cases
- use written agreements with parents which include clear timeframes and consequences for non-compliance
- give high priority to providing feedback following referrals.
Adult services professionals working with parents should:
- always consider the impact of parental problems on the children.
- never put parental rights, needs and confidentiality above a child's safety and wellbeing.
- make quick and decisive referrals to children's social care when necessary.
- proactively refer and signpost to relevant early-help services and continue to check and monitor progress to ensure things do not get worse if a referral is not considered to meet the threshold for children's social care services
- refer any concerns over the responsiveness of children's social care in writing to managers and to the named safeguarding children professional for resolution through the Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) or other joint channels.
Family justice professionals should:
- avoid repeated expert assessments of parental capacity, which create unnecessary delays
- ensure children's safety and wellbeing are not overridden by parental rights to family life
- take rapid and decisive action when permanent separation is being considered
- clearly articulate thresholds for initiating proceedings in the family courts
- not treat decisions to remove children from their birth families as a last resort
- ensure that court decisions and/or directions are carried out
- be aware of research evidence relating to outcomes for children of court decisions
- be aware of the outcomes of their decisions and the impact on children's welfare.
Health professionals working with children should:
- be able to refer children and families quickly and confidently to children's social care, or if they have not yet met the threshold for intervention, to targeted and specialist services
- keep accurate records
- understand the limits of parental confidentiality where children are identified as suffering, or being likely to suffer, significant harm
- be aware of a range of validated high quality interventions available to address the complex needs of parents and children
- ensure that families and children receive ongoing and consistent support
- be able to give clear guidance to parents about what they need to do and by when.
References
Davies, Carolyn and Ward, Harriet (2011)
Safeguarding children across services: messages from research (PDF). London: Jessica Kingsley.
The Department for Education (DfE) and Department of Health (DH) have produced four research briefs for professionals:
Referenced as: Maskell-Graham, Debi, Davies, Carolyn and Ward, Harriet (2011) Safeguarding children across services: messages from research on identifying and responding to child maltreatment: briefs. London: Department for Education (DfE).Safeguarding Children Research InitiativeDepartment for Education (DfE) website.
NSPCC resources
Children under oneOur pages set out why children under one are an NSPCC priority, resources to help you protect babies and toddlers from abuse and neglect and what the NSPCC is doing to protect children under.
Parents Under Pressure (PUP)Describes the Parents Under Pressure model which is used by the NSPCC to protect children aged under one year.
Child neglectNeglect is an NSPCC priority. These pages set out what we know about child neglect.
Resources for health professionalsTraining and learning resources to meet the child protection training needs of health services.
CASPAR NewsOur bitesize daily summary of all the new developments in child protection policy, practice and research.
NSPCC training and consultancyTalk to our expert trainers and consultants who can help you to improve your child protection procedures and practice.
Contact the NSPCC Information Service for specialist information on emotional abuse, neglect or any child protection topic.
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