Beyond Belief

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Beyond Belief.Safeguarding children

• Nasima Patel, NSPCC with input from Perdeep Gill
• npatel_at_nspcc.org.uk perdeepgill_at_blueyonder.co.uk

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Beyond Belief.Safeguarding children

• From child welfare to children in need to child
  protection to looked after children and young
  adults

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Purpose

• To present the challenges from practice and
  systems perspective.
• To touch on the guidance/steer.
• To explore the impact of social care not having a
  mainstream expert enough response when dealing
  with families along religion culture and
  ethnicity.
• Discursive and a developing view
• To raise the disproportionaly debate.

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The Gaps Religion/culture is it protective
neutral or collusive in child abuse-

• There is a lack of substantive research over at
  least the last 10 years that examines different
  forms of abuse in the context of ethnicity/
  culture/religion.
• Powerful discourse in UK literature which focuses
  on social and economic inequalities, empowerment,
  advocacy, anti discrimination and cultural and
  ethnic sensitivity. So, predominate focus is on
  external barriers than an ecological examination
  of what if anything increases risk or acts as
  protective factors within BME families.

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Religion/culture is it protective or collusive in
child abuse- it is all about perception

• Case 1 14 yr old female-Muslim- not at
  home, drinking, hard drugs, sexual exploited.
  Background of serious dv, arson and temp
  accommodation,
• CS response go home to yr mum and no further
  action after she failed to engage with a male
  muslim worker! Judgemental and punitive- quotes
• NSPCC response- she has experienced
  significant harm and it is her Muslim identity
  that is preventing a suitable response. Profs
  could not see pass her being a muslim girl who
  will fare badly in the LAC system, who will lose
  her Islam, family etc.
• Outcome- LAC and now a care leaver with
  intermittent contact with family but has retained
  her Islamic identity and culture as a positive
  independent feature of her life.

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Risk and Causation

• YP transgressing family boundaries and values-
  was at risk.
• Family wanted her to go to Pakistan and raised a
  marriage as an option against her wishes.
• Involvement of the imam to talk about the causes
  of yps behaviour and how their parenting could
  make her safe. Islam used by all as a positive
• Children are entrusted to parents- do not belong
  to parents. Parents should not break this
  trust.
• Finding strengths in religious belief was
  unifying.
• Timing of intervention was critical.

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Quote Ward and Patel 2006

• Questions need to be asked as to whether
  fears of intrusion into cultures that are
  different from the dominant culture hinder
  effective intervention at an appropriate stage.
  There are many issues for consideration here.
  First, a dominant view, embodied in official
  policy, is that a child is better off within her
  own family. In communities where family support
  is considered strong, assumptions could be made
  that there is wider family support in place to
  deal with problems than actually exists.
  Secondly, intra-cultural issues can present
  difficulties, for example, the issue of izzat
  (honour) within the Bangladeshi community (Cottew
  and Oyefeso, 2005) keeps socially unacceptable
  behaviour, such as drug use or sexual activity,
  hidden within the bounds of the family. This
  means it can be very difficult to penetrate into
  the arenas where problems are located. It is
  extremely important that ways of constructive
  working are developed in order that c/yp get the
  service they need.

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The Challenges for the cp system and faith
communities

• Volume of work- supply low and demand is high.
• The static nature of assessments
• The loss of reflective practice.
• The procedural nature of social work.
• State ignores, minimises or has a knee jerk
  reaction to child abuse that is seen to be linked
  to belief/culture
• Faith communities need to explicitly position the
  protection of children within the context of
  spirituality.

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Key practice questions

• Does this familys worldview (inc
  religion/belief) strengthen or harm this child?
• Is it a neutral /irrelevant factor?
• How can the familys faith assist to protect this
  child if not before, then now and into the
  future? Can it offer solutions beyond the usual?
• How does the child experience/understand the
  familys faith?
• How is the childs view regarded by the family
• How does my worldview impact on what I think or
  do in relation to this child and family?
• How can I integrate this in my assessment that
  helps paint a fuller picture of the family?

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The Children Act 1989

• Local Authorities will in any decision-making
  give due consideration to the childs religious
  persuasion, racial origin, and cultural and
  linguistic background
• The Assessment framework includes ethnicity as a
  factor to consider and there is detailed guidance
  on assessing black children in need and care but
  has been critiqued as seeing ethnicity as a
  peripheral issue and religion as a bolt on to
  ethnicity e.g. Victoria Climbie enquiry

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Working Together 2010

• Children from all cultures are subject to abuse
  and harm in order to make informed professional
  judgements about a childs needs and parents
  capacity..it is important that professionals are
  sensitive to differing family patterns and
  lifestyles and to child rearing patterns that
  vary across different racial, ethnic and cultural
  groups. At the same time they must be clear that
  child abuse cannot be condoned for religious or
  cultural reasons.

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What does this look and feel like?

• From a service planning perspective?
• From a workforce perspective?
• From a service user perspective?
• From a professional practice perspective?
• From a legal mandate to protect children?
• From the childs perspective?

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Complicated but progressive

• An overall good value base in social work/care
  around individuals, respect and dignity though
  may clash with collectivist notions of
  responsibility.
• Some good policies and good decisions/casework
  that has proved beneficial for children and
  families.
• The acceptance/mainstreaming of new abuse
  patterns such as fgm, forced marriage, gang
  violence.
• Good creative partnerships often with little
  resource involving faith groups.
• Good police work e.g. Met police had to address
  child abuse across communities, trafficking and
  are experts.
• An emergence of a broader faith/multi-dimensional
  framework.
• A refocus on competence and practice.

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On the other hand.

• The pedantic application of policies which make
  no sense to the family, community or child.
• Children being left in situations of harm as
  these families are seen as different, good or
  difficult.
• Over reliance on behalf of local authorities on
  small groups, faith orgs. to deliver complex work
  perpetuating the divide between the two sectors
  and assuming small funding delivers huge outputs
  and outcomes for our children. It doesnt.
• A lack of equality in this partnership plus other
  factors has meant social work tools, frameworks
  remain rooted in regulations and procedures.
• Cultural competence is still not mainstream that
  is skilled exploratory reflective practice is not
  the norm.

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A minimisation of child abuse?

• A shift for some (b) me children from being
  treated from a safeguarding perspective to a
  community model which sees the family as the only
  alternative for these children whilst statutory
  services remain unable to engage and change those
  families that need to be engaged with and
  changed.
• A lack of expertise within statutory re. the
  safeguarding needs of children from specific
  communities.
• An avoidance to tackle religious or cultural
  matters
• A lack of shared understanding of what is
  acceptable parenting in all communities.
• A tendency to treat the second or third
  generation as the first.
• Not enough skill to assess if this family will
  protect the child.

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Disproportionality Owen and Statham 2009 study
findings

• Mixed ethnic children are over represented in
  child in need/child protection registration/LAC
  categories cf to the pop.
• Asian children are under represented in above
  categories cf to pop.
• Black children are over represented.
• Study took into account local demography as well
  as
• national and concluded that the study raises
  questions.
• about social work perception, .the familiesbut
• further study is required.

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Why could there be disproportionality?

• Some communities have less child abuse- others
  have more?
• Some communities are better at tackling child
  abuse and supporting the victims, dealing with
  the perpetrators?
• That under reporting by victims, their families
  and professionals because of a fear of
  betraying the community, a disbelief in child
  abuse combined with the possibility of a poor
  response combined with high thresholds combined
  with general secrecy of child abuse and a fear
  of making things worse makes interventions quite
  random and partial.

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Areas for consideration

• Parenting styles and establishing what support is
  needed by whom and how.
• Perception/discourse on what is abuse.
• The challenge in managing cases involving diverse
  belief systems.
• Support/interventions that have faith as
  strengthening factors.
• Building capacity and capability.
• Main streaming cultural competence.

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The future for belief and professional practice

• It is here to stay and we need to integrate it
  into how we work and communicate. We need to
  engage in discussions about religion and
  spirituality with families. We need to listen
  what this means for individuals and how it
  motivates them
• It can be part of the contents of child
  protection practice that has gone missing over
  the last generation- the depth.
• It needs to relate to the child at the heart of
  the practice as a key individual with agency.
• Those who believe and those who dont need to
  find ways in their ideologies to accommodate the
  terrible harm that is done by adults to
  themselves, to each other and to their children
  and take a stance.
• The system and its staff needs to be reflective,
  responsive, creative but offer a baseline of
  acceptable parenting.