Comparative child protection: Seeing ourselves as others see us

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Comparative child protectionSeeing ourselves as
others see us

• Patrick Ayre
• Department of Applied Social Studies
• University of Luton
• Park Square, Luton
• email pga_at_patrickayre.co.uk
• web http//patrickayre.co.uk

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THE LAW MESSAGES FROM THE CHILDREN ACT 1989

• The welfare of the child is the paramount
  consideration.
• Wherever possible, children should be brought up
  and cared for within their own families local
  authorities cannot acquire parental
  responsibility without a court order.
• Children should be safe and protected by
  intervention if they are in danger such
  intervention must be open to challenge.
• Children should be consulted and kept informed
  about what happens to them, and participate in
  the decisions made about them
• Local authority has a duty under s47 to
  investigate where it seems a child is suffering
  or likely to suffer significant harm

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THE LAW MESSAGES FROM THE CHILDREN ACT 1989

• Help for parents with children " in need" should
  be offered as a service to the child and the
  family, and should
• be provided in partnership with the parents
• meet each child's identified needs
• be appropriate in terms of the child's race,
  culture, religion and linguistic background
• be open to effective, independent representations
  and complaints procedures
• draw upon effective collaboration between
  agencies, including those in the voluntary sector

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WORKING TOGETHER

• Child protection work in Britain characterised by
  
• emphasis on inter-agency co-operation
• fairly complex structural arrangements to
  facilitate it
• Pattern influenced by
• public enquiries
• centralised pattern of provision of key services

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MAJOR FEATURES OF THE SYSTEM

• Child protection belongs to everyone
• Emphasis on collaboration
• Informal consultation and discussion
• Investigation planning
• Case conferences
• Core group working
• Local Safeguarding Children Board and its
  sub-groups
• ease of working together is also fostered by
  joint training.

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Inter-agency Work and Risk

• Problems arise from
• Closed professional systems
• Polarisation
• Exaggeration of hierarchy
• Role confusion

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Inter-agency Work and Risk

• Interagency system is unable to deal effectively
  with
•  agencies not fully integrated into centralised
  system
•  dysfunctional inter-agency relationships
•  shortage of resources
•  individual ignorance and error

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Information handling problems

• Inadequate knowledge
• Picking out the important from a mass of data
• Interpretation
• Distinguishing fact/opinion
• Too trusting/insufficiently critical
• Mistrusted source

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Information handling problems

• Decoyed by another problem
• False certainty undue faith in a known fact
• Competing tasks in one visit/worker
• Scattered information
• Discarding information which does not fit
• First impressions/assumptions