This One Minute Guide is for all education staff and leaders to support their practice in exercising professional curiosity. This is good practice in all interactions with children, families, care givers and other professionals. There are clear links with wider policies and practices including safeguarding policy and protocols as well as relational and restorative practice. It has been developed in partnership with the Devon Safeguarding Children’s Partnership to offer consistence guidance across all agencies.
What is Professional Curiosity?
Professional curiosity, (AKA “respectful nosiness” or “helpful scepticism,”) is essential in our work. It involves exploring and understanding situations by asking questions and keeping an open mind. It’s about recognising your responsibility in managing risk and safety and knowing when to act, rather than making assumptions or taking things at face value.
When a practitioner proactively tries to understand what is happening, rather than making assumptions or taking a single source of information and accepting it at face value, it supports our ability to ‘think the unthinkable, believe the unbelievable” – it can happen here.
Applying Professional Curiosity
Professional curiosity is applicable in all relationships, communities, and support networks; it extends to our relationships with other professionals and ourselves. By appreciating multiple perspectives, we gain a deeper understanding of each other, which enhances our ability to collaborate effectively.
Key Practices
Ask questions: Spend time talking and listening to the people you are working with. Ask the ‘second question’ to understand why something is happening.
Consider multiple perspectives: Look beyond the surface to explore the lives of the people you are working with. Be aware of unconscious bias based on your own culture and background.
Challenge assumptions: Appropriately challenge thinking and decision-making, whether it is your own or that of others.
Respectful uncertainty: Apply a critical eye to the information given; don’t just accept at face value.
All professionals should remember to discuss and log concerns with their Designated Safeguarding Lead and know when to escalate concerns as per their safeguarding policy.
Barriers to Professional Curiosity
Rule of optimism: Rationalising away new or escalating risks despite clear evidence to the contrary.
Accumulating risk: Responding to each situation or new risk on its own rather than assessing it within the context of the whole person.
Normalisation: Ideas and actions becoming taken-for-granted or ‘natural’ in everyday life, stopping them from being questioned.
Professional deference: Deferring to the opinion of a ‘higher status’ professional who has limited contact with the person.
Confirmation bias: Looking for evidence that supports pre-held views and ignoring information that doesn’t.
Developing skills in Professional Curiosity
Think the unthinkable: Maintain an open mind and be willing to think the unthinkable.
Look, ask, listen, clarify and consider: Observe behaviours, ask questions, listen to verbal and non-verbal cues, and seek clarification.
Supporting professionally curious practice supervision and professional discussions: Use these opportunities to question and explore an understanding of the lives of people.
Group supervision: Stimulate debate and curious questioning, allowing practitioners to learn from one another’s experiences.
Professional curiosity is about being open-minded, asking questions, and considering multiple perspectives to understand and support the people we work with better.
Professional curiosity & culturally competent safeguarding practice
All professionals need to be professionally curious about a child, young person or adult with care and support need’s faith, culture, and nationality, and take personal responsibility for informing their work with sufficient knowledge or seeking advice to support this.
Practitioners must take personal responsibility for utilising specialist services’ knowledge. Knowing about and using services available locally to provide relevant cultural and faith-related input to prevention, support and rehabilitation services for the child, young people and their families will support practice.
This includes:
- Knowing which agencies are available to access
- Having contact details to hand
- Timing requests for expert support and information appropriately to ensure that assessments, care planning and review are sound and holistic
Professional Curiosity in practice
Professional curiosity is where a practitioner explores and proactively tries to understand what is happening within a family or for an individual, rather than making assumptions or taking a single source of information and accepting it at face value. This supports practitioners to ‘think the unthinkable, believe the unbelievable’ using a non-judgemental socially disciplined and restorative approach.
The principles of the restorative framework
Practical top tips
