How parents seek help

The blocks for parents seeking help are strikingly similar to the reasons why children don’t seek out help. However when parents do ask for help it appears that many don’t receive it.

The key message for professionals is the need to be proactive in seeking support for families who are struggling and not to shy away from engaging such families in constructive dialogue about ways in which help can be provided. Equally important is the role that fathers play in caring for their children. Fathers tend to be excluded from such conversations and as a result their role may be ignored or not fully understood within the dynamics of the family’s functioning.

Prevention of CSA

The following tools/ information/ agencies are available to help talk to children/ young people, families and carers about CSA. Please note that the following information is not exhaustive but is a selection of help and support that is available.

NSPCC – Underwear rule –

The NSPCC has developed a campaign with 5 easy rules to keep children to stay safe;

• Privates are Private – Your underwear covers up your private parts and no one should ask to see or touch them. Sometimes a doctor, nurse or family members might have to. But they should always explain why, and ask you if it’s OK first. Remember, what’s in your pants belongs only to you
• Always remember your body belongs to you – No one should ever make you do things that make you feel embarrassed or uncomfortable. If someone asks to see or tries to touch you underneath your underwear say ‘NO’ – and tell someone you trust and like to speak to.
• No means No – You always have the right to say ‘no’ – even to a family member or someone you love. You’re in control of your body and the most important thing is how YOU feel. If you want to say ‘No’, it’s your choice.
• Talk about secrets that upset you – There are good secrets and bad secrets. If a secret makes you feel sad or worried, it’s bad – and you should tell an adult you trust about it straight away
• Speak up, someone can help you – It’s always good to talk about stuff that makes you upset. If you’re worried, go and tell a grown up you trust – like a family member, teacher or one of your friend’s parents. They’ll say well done for speaking out and help make everything OK. You can also call Childline on 0800 1111 and someone will always be there to listen

The “PANTS” information on the NSPCC website contains useful information for both professionals and parents about how to talk to children about CSA. There are a number of helpful resources to available, including resources aimed at children with disabilities. Available are lesson plans, teaching guidance, a PANTS presentation, leaflets and guidance – including the underwear rule in five languages. For further information visit https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/keeping-children-safe/underwear-rule/

Recognising and responding to abuse

• Managing allegations made against a child – explains how an allegation of abuse may be made against a child, how people who work with children can respond and how to decide if a concern is a child protection issue.
• Sexting: advice for professionals – Advice about sexting and what to do to help a young person who has received or sent an explicit image, video or message.
• Protecting children from sexual abuse – Information to help you understand how to recognise indicators and learn how to respond to concerns.
• Recognising and responding to abuse – What to do if you have concerns that a child know through your work or volunteering has experienced abuse and neglect and how to respond if a child discloses abuse to you.
• How to have difficult conversations with children – Guidance on how to prepare for having difficult conversations with children and young people and what you need to keep in mind when discussing sensitive topics.

Research/evidence briefings

• NSPCC helplines report: peer sexual abuse – “Is this sexual abuse?” is a report into the concerns being raised to the NSPCC helpline and Childline about peer sexual abuse; how it takes place, the impact it has, and how to best provide support.
• Harmful sexual behaviour: learning from case reviews – Lessons from case reviews published since 2010, where harmful sexual behaviour was highlighted as a significant issue.
• Harmful sexual behaviour: statistics briefing – Briefing on the data available about harmful sexual behaviour (HSB), including scale of the issue, technology-assisted HSB and characteristics of young people who display HSB.
• Harmful sexual behaviour: research briefing – A summary of messages from research into Harmful sexual behaviour published in 2016 and 2017.

Information for parents –

The NSPCC has lots of information for parents. It contains useful advice about signs and symptoms of CSA.

Find out more: https://www.nspcc.org.uk/keeping-children-safe/sex-relationships/sexual-behaviour-children/

The Lucy Faithful Foundation is a charity dedicated solely to preventing CSA. They have developed a series of short films to inform adults about how and why child sexual abuse happens, how to prevent harm from happening in the first place, and where to get help if something has already happened.

The films cover topics such as ‘Understanding child sexual abuse’, ‘The effects of sexual abuse on children’, ‘Why children don’t tell about abuse’ and ‘What to do if you suspect abuse’. There’s also information on the warning signs of abuse in both children and adults, and how to make a family safety plan.The links to the films can be found here https://www.parentsprotect.co.uk/sexual-abuse-learning-programme.htm

Section Two

Principles

To ensure that child sexual abuse is addressed consistently and effectively all agencies interventions whether early help or statutory intervention should work to the following principles:

1. The child is at the heart of what we do. This means that we need to take account of the child’s views and feelings and understand the impact on them and their family.
2. All professionals have a responsibility to identify needs and concerns in relation to children and take action to ensure those needs and concerns are addressed at the appropriate level of intervention. This should always be at the lowest possible level to address the issues.
3. Interventions will be conducted openly and honestly with children and families and all agencies will strive to work in partnership with children, parents and carers.
4. Assessments will be holistic, taking account of all views including parents that do not live with their children. Assessments will be evidence based and identify strengths as well as areas of concern. Assessments will focus explicitly on each child in the family.
5. Plans will be clear and directly related to the strengths and concerns identified in the assessment. All plans will have clear timescales that will be reviewed regularly
6. Parents/carers will be expected to take responsibility for making the required changes to address the identified concerns. Professionals will be expected to be clear with parents/ carers about what those changes need to be and the support they will offer to help achieve them.
7. All agencies will work together positively to address the identified needs and risks for the child and their family. Any concerns about the effectiveness of the interventions with the child should be raised as possible in a constructive way to enable progress to be made.
8. Agencies will support information sharing that is in the best interests of the child.
9. Areas of disagreement will be taken seriously and considered with the family. The child and family will have information that tells them how to make a complaint.

Early help and statutory joint working interventions will often be triggered by concerns about signs of CSA so it is important that assessment and interventions to help and protect children reflect this.

Assessment

CSA is a damaging form of child abuse. The signs of CSA may not be immediately obvious to the professional and are often part of a complex family picture that can on occasions be explained away or that simply overwhelm the professional. Some children and young people may be the victims of historical CSA, this may impact on possible signs and indicators that the child/ young person may display.

Protecting children and young people involves professionals in the difficult task of analysing complex information about human behaviour and risk. It is rarely straightforward and responses should be based on robust assessment, sound professional judgement and where appropriate statutory guidance.

Early help assessment

Working Together 2018 emphasises the importance of local agencies working together to help children who may benefit from early help services. Early help assessments should identify what help the child and family might need to reduce the likelihood of an escalation of needs to the level that will require interventions through a statutory assessment conducted under the Children Act 1989.

Professionals should work within the guidance contained in the Cambridgeshire CPSCPB Effective Support Document when undertaking an Early Help Assessment or Joint Referral Form to Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Social Care

Where possible early help needs are identified, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough promotes the use of the Early Help Assessment (previously known as a CAF or Family CAF) as the tool for recording the family’s unmet needs. Any professional who knows the child can carry out the assessment and liaise with other professionals who might need to be involved. A lead professional, who knows the child and can coordinate the delivery of services, should be identified.

This could be a G.P, teacher, health visitor – the decision should be made on a case by case basis and be informed by the views of the child and family concerned.

Should the child or family decline the offer of an assessment, the professional who identified the concerns should reconsider the needs of the family and discuss the case with their Designated Safeguarding Lead using the Effective Support Document as a guide. A family’s refusal to complete an EHA does not mean that specialist safeguarding services will become involved, except where there is a risk of significant harm to the person concerned, or where they may present a significant risk to others. The information should be logged by the agency and may form pattern of behaviours that could mean consideration for Social Care intervention is needed in the future.

The lead professional should ensure that the circumstances of the child improve as a result of coordinating the delivery of services. Where improvements do not occur, in a timescale appropriate for the child, a referral to Children’s Social Care should be considered.

Where the situation is judged to be within the definition of a ‘child in need’ or the child has suffered or is likely to suffer significant harm, a referral should be made to Children’s Social Care immediately.

Parental Consent

The clear expectation is that all professionals will discuss their concerns openly and honestly with the child, where appropriate, and their family.

Where a practitioner is requesting support of services on behalf of a child or family, they require consent beforehand – this is regardless of whether they are seeking support from Early Help Services or from Children’s Social Care for child in need services.

An Early Help Assessment must only be undertaken with the agreement of the child and / or family using the EHA Privacy Notice to explain to a family how their information will be shared and stored.

Where the referral relates to immediate safeguarding concerns, and professionals are concerned that seeking consent may place the child at risk of significant harm, consent is not required and contact should be made with Children’s Social Care as soon as possible. The reason for not informing the parents or carers of the referral should be clearly recorded by the professional.

Agency and professional responsibilities:

Responsibility of all agencies

No one agency is able to address the complex elements of CSA on its own, largely because a child’s and family’s needs cannot always be met by a single agency. Effective interventions, whether early help, child in need or child protection depend on professionals developing working relationships which are sympathetic to each other’s legal responsibilities, agency’s purpose and procedures respective roles and agencies capacities.

All agencies represented on the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Safeguarding Children Partnership Board have a responsibility to contribute to the safeguarding of children across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. Roles and responsibilities are clearly defined in both statutory guidance and the CPSCPB Procedures and include the following:

• To view the safety and wellbeing of children as paramount.
• To ensure that achieving the best outcomes for the child is the primary focus when working with CSA.
• To ensure that their workforce understand the significance of all types of CSA on children and equip their workforce to work effectively in situations where CSA is a feature. This includes staff understanding the links of CSA with other types of abuse (particularly neglect) and links with missing from home.
• To share relevant information and collaborate with other agencies and work together to ensure accurate assessments and the early identification of needs.
• To harness and develop resources to ensure that interventions are proportionate, effective, and delivered sufficiently early so as to reduce the likelihood of any escalation of adversity for the child.
• To ensure that staff attend the CPSCPB training on all elements of CSA and that the training is embedded in practice.

Responsibility of Health

Health is a universal service that is accessed by individuals from all of the communities across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. Health professionals are involved with children and families throughout their lives and as a consequence they get to know families in more detail than other statutory agencies. Health professionals in Primary care, Acute Hospitals and Community Services particularly midwives, health visitors, school nurses, Emergency Medicine staff and specialist paediatric staff, spend time with children, young people and their families either in people’s homes or other establishments (schools/ hospitals) and are very well-placed to identify cases of CSA. It is important that health professionals are alert to the signs of all types of sexual abuse in children and young people and attend the numerous safeguarding training opportunities that are available to them. The nature and impact of sexual abuse is corrosive and cumulative so it is essential that all health professionals maintain accurate, detailed and contemporaneous records that help to form a “picture” of the abuse. When a practitioner identifies concerns regarding sexual abuse in a family they should speak to a member of the Health Safeguarding Children team to determine what the next steps to take are.

Responsibility of Children’s Services

Children’s Services are responsible for co-ordinating Early Help and statutory assessments of children’s needs which include the parent’s capacity to meet those needs. The assessment may result in the provision of services designed to address the identified needs of the child through a child in need plan. Where a child is assessed as having suffered, or being at risk of, significant harm Children’s services will convene an initial child protection conference to consider the risks on a multi-agency basis. This may result in the child becoming subject of a child protection plan under the category of sexual abuse. Children’s Social Care has the statutory responsibility for child protection cases but it will work with other agencies to develop, implement and monitor a plan (Child in Need or Child Protection) to help the child and their family and stop the abuse.

Responsibility of Adult Services

Children may be at greater risk when they live with parents or carers who have complex physical and mental health needs, have problems with alcohol and drug misuse, are in violent relationships or have learning difficulties. Professionals working with adults who have these difficulties and have children should be particularly alert to how these may impact on the care they give their children. It is important that professionals from the adult workforce attend safeguarding training so that they are aware of the signs of abuse and neglect and know the pathway to follow if they have concerns.

Adults with responsibilities for disabled children have a right to a separate carer’s assessment. The outcome of this assessment should be taken into account when deciding what services, if any, will be provided under the Children Act 1989.

Responsibility of Police

The police have a duty to protect all members of the community and to bring offenders to justice. The welfare of children is a priority for the service, and all officers are responsible for identifying and referring children who are at risk or in need. Any officer can utilise emergency powers to ensure immediate protection of children believed to be at immediate risk of suffering significant harm (this is a very draconian step and should only be utilised in exceptional cases). In these circumstances the police should contact either the early help team or Children’s social care during office hours & the Emergency Duty Team (EDT) out of hours. It is important that Police officers attend safeguarding training so that they are aware of the signs of all types of abuse and neglect and know the pathway to follow if they have concerns.

Responsibility of Education

All schools play an important role in the prevention and identification of all types of abuse and neglect. Schools are a universal service that often provide a safe environment for children. Due to the amount of time that school staff spend with children (and their families) they often know the child and their circumstances better than other agencies. Schools provide an essential educative environment for the next generation of parents. All education staff have a crucial role in identifying the early indicators of sexual abuse, the early help agenda and in contributing to child in need and child protection cases involving sexual abuse. The teaching of Health Education is now a statutory requirement for schools including the teaching of Relationship and Sex Education in Secondary Schools and Relationship Education in Primary Schools. This will include looking at healthy, respectful relationships, how to keep themselves safe including online and introducing knowledge about intimate relationships and sex.

Responsibility of Housing

The Housing Departments/ providers may have important information about families, identifying cases of abuse or contributing information to assessments. The Housing Departments/providers have a critical role in cases of poor home conditions, social isolation, and domestic abuse. Staff have an important part to play in reporting concerns where they believe that a child may be in need of support through early help or in need of statutory intervention. It is important that housing professionals attend safeguarding training so that they are aware of the signs of all types of abuse and neglect and know the pathway to follow if they have concerns.

Responsibility of Probation Services

In discharging its statutory responsibility, the Probation Service, through its work with offenders (particularly sexual offenders) and their families, may become aware of children who are at risk of sexual abuse. All Probation staff have a responsibility to be aware of the signs of all types of child abuse and to refer appropriate cases to early help or Children’s Social Care. Probation staff will work in collaboration with other agencies in contributing to assessments and will follow all relevant child protection policies, procedures and protocols.

Responsibility of Youth Offending Service

The Youth Offending Service is responsible for completing assessments, plans and interventions for children/young people aged 10 – 17 who are at risk of offending, those subject to Out of Court Disposals and Court Disposal supervision. All YOS staff have a responsibility to be alert to safeguarding issues in their work with children/young people and their wider families. All YOS staff have the responsibility to be aware of the signs of child sexual abuse and safeguarding referral processes. Where concerns are identified through a recognised YOS assessment, intervention or involvement these should be raised with a manager and where appropriate will be referred to Children’s Social Care using the Joint Referral Form.

Responsibility of the Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS)

The VCS undertake a range of programmes around early help, some of which are designed to assist parents in their parenting role. The VCS are therefore well-placed to identify early concerns that relate to abuse and to work with the family in addressing issues quickly. In some cases improvement may not be achieved in sufficient time for the child, or the situation may be judged sufficiently chronic in nature to warrant a referral to Children’s Social Care.

Responsibility to share information

Information sharing is essential to enable early intervention and preventative work, for safeguarding and promoting welfare and for wider public protection.

It is important that practitioners can share information appropriately as part of their day-to-day practice and do so confidently.

It is important to remember there can be significant consequences to not sharing information as there can be to sharing information. You must use your professional judgement to decide whether to share or not, and what information is appropriate to share.

Data protection law reinforces common sense rules of information handling. It is there to ensure personal information is managed in a sensible way.

It helps agencies and organisations to strike a balance between the many benefits of public organisations sharing information, and maintaining and strengthening safeguards and privacy of the individual.

It also helps agencies and organisations to balance the need to preserve a trusted relationship between practitioner and child and their family with the need to share information to benefit and improve the life chances of the child.

Please see the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Safeguarding Children Partnership Board Threshold Document for more information.

Strategic Aims and Objectives

To support the implementation of this strategy and to ensure that child sexual abuse is widely understood and responded to in joint working arrangements, the CPSCPB undertakes to deliver the following objectives:

1. To ensure that all CPSCPB partners understand the threshold for intervention in situations where sexual abuse is a feature by:
   • Highlighting childhood sexual abuse within the early help offer
   • Ensuring thresholds for intervention are implicitly covered in CPSCPB training.
2. To ensure services are delivered in a meaningful and timely fashion for children who are experiencing sexual abuse so as to avoid the need for statutory intervention where possible by developing performance and Quality assurance systems and mechanisms that enable the CPSCPB to judge the effectiveness of early help.
3. Raise awareness of child sexual abuse through our website and newsletters and will seek to be involved in and support events and initiatives that will contribute to this.

Performance and Quality Assurance framework

The CPSCPB is responsible for scrutinising multi-agency performance data. To assess the impact of this strategy the CPSCB will regularly monitor the following multi-agency quality assurance information:

• What children, young people and their families tell us
• Thematic case audits (both single and multi-agency)

Governance

Governance is provided by the CPSCPB and scrutiny of progress against the strategic aims and objectives and performance management indicators will be undertaken through the CPSCB Quality and Effectiveness Sub Group.

All Partnership Board members are responsible for implementing and embedding this strategy within their own agency and the CPSCPB will hold members to account over this.