No.12: Child protection pathway

The Child Protection Process

The child protection process begins when concerns regarding children and families reach the threshold of significant harm. Once initial concerns have been identified using the Levels of Need Document and other supportive toolkits and assessments a request for support is made to the MASH using the MASH enquiry form (see OMG No.4). MASH staff gather information from every agency (such as police, health and education) and use this to decide the most appropriate intervention to respond to the child’s identified needs. Where appropriate, the MASH team can immediately trigger a response to prevent harm. Alternatively there may be a referral back to the enquirer to provide Early Help.

The strategy discussion or meeting

When information gathered during an enquiry for support or an assessment results in the social worker suspecting that the child is suffering or likely to suffer Significant Harm; a Strategy Discussion Meeting should be held to decide whether to initiate enquiries under Section 47 of the Children Act 1989. Strategy Discussions/Meetings should be held as soon as possible and must take place within 5 working days of child protection concerns being identified. This will involve those agencies who have information relevant to the child and family and the agency making the initial enquiry as well as the police. This meeting is chaired by a Social Care Practice Manager.

Section 47 is where there is enough evidence that the child is being harmed or likely to be harmed Section 17 is where there is not enough evidence for a Section 47 enquiry but the Local Authority could offer support and advice to the family to ensure that harm does not befall the child.

The case will be passed to the Locality Team in the local area to the family and they will appoint a Social Worker /and possibly Police to undertake work with the family.

An Assessment will take be undertaken by Social Care and this will form the basis of the Initial Child Protection Conference

This Conference will involve all the agencies working with the family and family members.

A report will be submitted to the Independent Chair by all the agencies 2 days prior to the meeting and it will be decided whether a CP plan is needed, under which category of CP and what that plan will include.

Reports should be shared by professionals with the parents prior to the ICPC

It will identify professionals to work alongside the family for support and the timescales expected for the plan to be achieved.

A Core Group will be identified and this should include the agencies working with the family who can oversee and monitor the plan. The date of the first core group meeting must be within ten working days of the initial child protection conference. This group is responsible for the detailed formulation and implementation of the child protection plan.

Child Protection Review Conference

Child protection review conference will take place 3 months after the initial conference and will review the current plan, updating it if necessary. Reports must be submitted to the Chair five days prior to the meeting. The meeting will decide if a CP plan is still needed to ensure the safety of the child, whether the category of need changed and who will be responsible for which aspects of the plan.

All reports must be retained within the Child’s Safeguarding School file along with any actions from the meeting to ensure school can evidence their role within the plan alongside all monitoring and interaction with the family.

Minutes of meetings are confidential documents and must be kept separately within the Safeguarding file. They may be sent on with the file to a child’s future school setting, either by hand or addressed to a named DSL via Special delivery and should include a receipt which identifies al the records enclosed.

Professionals who are invited but unable to attend for unavoidable reasons should:

Inform the conference administrator.
Submit a written report.
Arrange for a well-briefed agency representative to attend and speak to the report.
Agencies are expected to share a report about the child and family in written form with the family and other agencies as appropriate, prior to the conference, whether or not they are able to attend the conference.

Professionals who are invited but unable to attend for unavoidable reasons should:

Inform the conference administrator
Submit a written report
Arrange for a well-briefed agency representative to attend and speak to the report
Agencies are expected to share a report about the child and family in written form with the family and other agencies as appropriate, prior to the conference, whether or not they are able to attend the conference.

Discontinuing a current child protection plan

A child may no longer need a protection plan if:

A review conference judges that the child is no longer likely to suffer significant harm and no longer requires a child protection plan.
The child has moved permanently to another local authority the and the receiving authority has confirmed in writing responsibility for case management.
The child has reached eighteen years of age, has died or has been judged to have permanently left the UK

When a child is no longer the subject of a Child Protection Plan, notification should be sent, as a minimum, to the agencies’ representatives who were invited to attend the initial conference that led to the plan. When a child protection plan is discontinued, the social worker must discuss with the parents and child/ren what services might be needed and required, based on the re-assessment of the needs of the child and family. A Child in Need Plan or an Early Help Assessment should be developed for any continuing support. The plan should be reviewed at regular intervals of no more than every six months.