Child Protection Conference meeting
I have written further about this subject after having had a few child protection case conference meetings. From my perspective, I could unaffectionately call my experiences with child protection meetings the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
Three very different meetings, from my perspective, with the same family, same faces round the table, same circumstances for the most part, but the entire experiences were as different as oil, water and soda.
As such, I think it is important to reflect on how a meeting works.
I don't mean a meeting in a child protection capacity. I mean meeting in a wider, broader sense. Consider a business meeting. Any business meeting will have a very specific purpose that will have been set out ahead of the meeting.
It is important to understand that there is already a goal in mind before you even attend the meeting. The meeting is not the time to make changes. A meeting is to inform, not gather data.
The chair of the meeting has a vital role in having already spoken to all the parties involved in advance of the meeting. No chair would go into a meeting unsure about what all parties are going to say, because it is the chair's role to orchestrate and guide the meeting through all the stages to its conclusion. The chair will want everyone at the meeting to work together to bring about the set conclusion.
In a business meeting, it is really important that information is gathered ahead of the meeting. This prevents unnecessary complications and, in order to plan for the sessions ahead, the meeting needs, to a degree, to have a goal in mind ahead of time.
This is good business. It allows for solid, constructive communication to be partaken to create a plan going forward.
In a child protection case conference, this is also true.
The chair of the meeting should meet with you ahead of the meeting. It is vital, seriously it is absolutely vital, that ahead of the meeting you participate as fully as you are able such that your voice and your contributions can be thrown into the melting pot of voices that will guide and develop not just the goal of the meeting but the plan going forward.
Your social worker will be a key figure. The social worker will construct a risk assessment. From brutal experience, please do whatever you need to such that you work with the social worker to build that risk assessment. Call the social worker, meet with the social worker, play nice with your social worker.
I know that sounds like simple, almost ridiculous advice. But engage. Engage even when it feels like you are drowning. Engage when it hurts to breath, engage when you think you have never felt so mad in all your life.
Engage when you run into a personality clash - when you find a social worker who seems to push every button, daring you to fail. Bite your tongue, remember who you are doing this for. Your child, your perfect, amazing, precious person. Keep them at the front of your thoughts. There is nothing you wouldn't do for this blessing in your life. So, while it may be understandable to be annoyed, to be frustrated, but set it to one side, one hour at a time, and make yourself determined to work with your social worker.
Ahead of our very first initial Child Protection conference, I had no idea what to expect. To say I was uninformed would be an understatement. To be fair, I had a colourful, well written little leaflet explaining what the conference was about, but I was in such shock, so extremely stressed out, it might as well have been written in Greek.
I truly believed that this meeting was a good thing. I believed this would be a meeting where everyone could sit down around the table, and discuss all the factors involved, that we could sort out any misunderstandings, and we could all leave with the world set to right.
If you have been through this process, you may well think I was a proper idiot. I had this idea in my head that this was a discussion. Meetings are not places for discussion. Discussions happen before meetings, they happen after meetings, but not during meetings.
Three very different meetings, from my perspective, with the same family, same faces round the table, same circumstances for the most part, but the entire experiences were as different as oil, water and soda.
As such, I think it is important to reflect on how a meeting works.
I don't mean a meeting in a child protection capacity. I mean meeting in a wider, broader sense. Consider a business meeting. Any business meeting will have a very specific purpose that will have been set out ahead of the meeting.
It is important to understand that there is already a goal in mind before you even attend the meeting. The meeting is not the time to make changes. A meeting is to inform, not gather data.
The chair of the meeting has a vital role in having already spoken to all the parties involved in advance of the meeting. No chair would go into a meeting unsure about what all parties are going to say, because it is the chair's role to orchestrate and guide the meeting through all the stages to its conclusion. The chair will want everyone at the meeting to work together to bring about the set conclusion.
In a business meeting, it is really important that information is gathered ahead of the meeting. This prevents unnecessary complications and, in order to plan for the sessions ahead, the meeting needs, to a degree, to have a goal in mind ahead of time.
This is good business. It allows for solid, constructive communication to be partaken to create a plan going forward.
In a child protection case conference, this is also true.
The chair of the meeting should meet with you ahead of the meeting. It is vital, seriously it is absolutely vital, that ahead of the meeting you participate as fully as you are able such that your voice and your contributions can be thrown into the melting pot of voices that will guide and develop not just the goal of the meeting but the plan going forward.
Your social worker will be a key figure. The social worker will construct a risk assessment. From brutal experience, please do whatever you need to such that you work with the social worker to build that risk assessment. Call the social worker, meet with the social worker, play nice with your social worker.
I know that sounds like simple, almost ridiculous advice. But engage. Engage even when it feels like you are drowning. Engage when it hurts to breath, engage when you think you have never felt so mad in all your life.
Engage when you run into a personality clash - when you find a social worker who seems to push every button, daring you to fail. Bite your tongue, remember who you are doing this for. Your child, your perfect, amazing, precious person. Keep them at the front of your thoughts. There is nothing you wouldn't do for this blessing in your life. So, while it may be understandable to be annoyed, to be frustrated, but set it to one side, one hour at a time, and make yourself determined to work with your social worker.
Ahead of our very first initial Child Protection conference, I had no idea what to expect. To say I was uninformed would be an understatement. To be fair, I had a colourful, well written little leaflet explaining what the conference was about, but I was in such shock, so extremely stressed out, it might as well have been written in Greek.
I truly believed that this meeting was a good thing. I believed this would be a meeting where everyone could sit down around the table, and discuss all the factors involved, that we could sort out any misunderstandings, and we could all leave with the world set to right.
If you have been through this process, you may well think I was a proper idiot. I had this idea in my head that this was a discussion. Meetings are not places for discussion. Discussions happen before meetings, they happen after meetings, but not during meetings.
I had no idea what the structure or format of this meeting would be, or what my role would be. I didn't know where or when I should speak, or what everyone else's roles were.
I think to a point, you can only really learn by experience. It has taken a few of these meetings for me to feel in anyway able to articulate what was going on, and I am not that dense. lol.
The huge difficulty faced by parents, is that this meeting will undoubtedly be called at the worst moment in your life. Something awful has happened, or is happening, and now, you are under the greatest scrutiny of your life - Everyone's favourite, right? Safe to say, your stress levels are off the chart, and you are now competing with professionals. People who have been doing this for years, who have more experience with this than you will hopefully ever have, and they all slept soundly last night.
This is the take a deep breath and have a long hard think.
Don't compete.
That is right. I am really saying that. Fight or flight is overwhelming your brain, and I am telling you to override that impulse.
Don't compete.
You have to get on board and be on the same team. Seriously, the deck is stacked. Work together, you can't take them single handedly! This situation requires you to join forces, work together.
You may feel that your efforts go unnoticed, unappreciated. There may be a lot of different reasons for this, at this stage.
I think to a point, you can only really learn by experience. It has taken a few of these meetings for me to feel in anyway able to articulate what was going on, and I am not that dense. lol.
The huge difficulty faced by parents, is that this meeting will undoubtedly be called at the worst moment in your life. Something awful has happened, or is happening, and now, you are under the greatest scrutiny of your life - Everyone's favourite, right? Safe to say, your stress levels are off the chart, and you are now competing with professionals. People who have been doing this for years, who have more experience with this than you will hopefully ever have, and they all slept soundly last night.
This is the take a deep breath and have a long hard think.
Don't compete.
That is right. I am really saying that. Fight or flight is overwhelming your brain, and I am telling you to override that impulse.
Don't compete.
You have to get on board and be on the same team. Seriously, the deck is stacked. Work together, you can't take them single handedly! This situation requires you to join forces, work together.
You may feel that your efforts go unnoticed, unappreciated. There may be a lot of different reasons for this, at this stage.
What I can say is don't stop trying. Sometimes, time is the key, and everyone needs to see you are committed and serious about being onboard.
Sometimes, I think that while social work acknowledge that parents to play a valuable role in their children’s lives, the honest truth is the application certainly doesn’t feel like it. Corporate parents do need to pay more than lip service to biological parents.
But it is important that while this may feel the case, that you are being overlooked, take a good long look at the situation. I was told so many times - this is early days. This is early days.
I hated those words. I did not want any of these days. I did not like the idea that there was lots more to come. I did not like the idea that this was only the beginning. I wanted to fix this right now. I want to make everything better right now.
But I couldn't.
And I wanted these people to leave my family alone.
But they couldn't.
Time has helped build bridges in this relationship both ways.
Time. That will stretch out like taffy, too thin and too long.
Work at building bridges, time and again, I have found there is no other way.
At our very first meeting, as well as subsequent, we were blessed with a very diligent minute taker, who dutifully noted down our contributions.
However, it didn’t feel at the time as though anyone except the minute taker had heard them. Everyone else in the room had the big, fancy important words. They had important professional job titles. Most importantly, they had big, serious concerns, and I was left floundering. I studied to a university level and yet, I had never felt more stupid or broken.
Very broken.
Sometimes, I think that while social work acknowledge that parents to play a valuable role in their children’s lives, the honest truth is the application certainly doesn’t feel like it. Corporate parents do need to pay more than lip service to biological parents.
But it is important that while this may feel the case, that you are being overlooked, take a good long look at the situation. I was told so many times - this is early days. This is early days.
I hated those words. I did not want any of these days. I did not like the idea that there was lots more to come. I did not like the idea that this was only the beginning. I wanted to fix this right now. I want to make everything better right now.
But I couldn't.
And I wanted these people to leave my family alone.
But they couldn't.
Time has helped build bridges in this relationship both ways.
Time. That will stretch out like taffy, too thin and too long.
Work at building bridges, time and again, I have found there is no other way.
At our very first meeting, as well as subsequent, we were blessed with a very diligent minute taker, who dutifully noted down our contributions.
However, it didn’t feel at the time as though anyone except the minute taker had heard them. Everyone else in the room had the big, fancy important words. They had important professional job titles. Most importantly, they had big, serious concerns, and I was left floundering. I studied to a university level and yet, I had never felt more stupid or broken.
Very broken.
I had expected an open discussion, maybe a presenting of facts. I expected that this was where a discussion could take place to evaluate the actual experiences that had occurred and look objectively at the details.
It felt a lot more like being a naked gladiator shoved into an arena full of lions as the realisation dawned upon me - there was a very specific outcome orchestrated long before I appeared in the meeting room.
Remember what I said about meetings. I was very underprepared for that first meeting and the worst part, what made the experience so much harder than it needed to be, was my own misguided expectations.
It felt a lot more like being a naked gladiator shoved into an arena full of lions as the realisation dawned upon me - there was a very specific outcome orchestrated long before I appeared in the meeting room.
Remember what I said about meetings. I was very underprepared for that first meeting and the worst part, what made the experience so much harder than it needed to be, was my own misguided expectations.
So just what information is out there about Child Protection Conferences?
I am going to quote and then try to explain the West Scotland Child Protection Consortium’s information:
“A core component of GIRFEC and of the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 is the Child’s Plan. Within the context of child protection activity, where this plan includes actions to address the risk of significant harm, it will incorporate a child protection plan and any meeting to consider such a plan is known as a child protection conference.
The function of all child protection conferences is to share information in order to identify risks for the child collectively and the actions by which these risks can be reduced.
A Child Protection Conference should be convened as soon as practicably possible and no later than 21 calendar days from the notification of concern.
There are four types of child protection conferences:
- An initial child protection conference considers the circumstances of a child or children who are not on the register and about whom there are child protection concerns;
- A review child protection conference reviews the circumstances of a child or children whose name is already on the child protection register and reviews the decision to place the child’s name on the child protection register. The first of these should be held within 12 weeks of the initial CPCC and then subsequently, every 12 weeks thereafter. In exceptional circumstances reviews may be extended to six monthly with the explicit agreement of the conference;
- A pre-birth child protection conference, considers the risks to an unborn child and future risks upon the child’s health and wellbeing. This should take place no later than at 28 weeks pregnancy or, in the case of late notification of pregnancy, as soon as possible after the notification of concern and, in any case, within 21 calendar days;
- A transfer child protection conference specifically covers the transfer of information about a child where a child protection plan is in place and the family are moving to another local authority area.
Any agency or representative can make a request to hold a child protection conference by contacting the relevant senior manager in Social Work at any time. The decision to hold a case discussion/conference will be determined by Social Work and reasons and rationale supporting this decision provided to referrer in writing.”
Okay, so what does that mean? Just who is going to be at this meeting?
Lots of people.
There is a general drive not to include more than a small horde. It has been suggested in various social work guidance, this can be a bit unproductive. No kidding, eh? Just how many people can sit round a table telling a parent they have gone horribly wrong, before parents crack up?
Well, hold on and keep faith in yourself. You are stronger than you think, and you have the best motivation in the world – your child. Remember always, keep thinking of them. That perfect, precious, amazing person. You would do anything for that little person. You can do this.
But seriously, prepare for a room full of people.
There is a general drive not to include more than a small horde. It has been suggested in various social work guidance, this can be a bit unproductive. No kidding, eh? Just how many people can sit round a table telling a parent they have gone horribly wrong, before parents crack up?
Well, hold on and keep faith in yourself. You are stronger than you think, and you have the best motivation in the world – your child. Remember always, keep thinking of them. That perfect, precious, amazing person. You would do anything for that little person. You can do this.
But seriously, prepare for a room full of people.
Any of the people that may be in your child’s life are potentially invited: Educational staff, Doctors, Health Visitor, Any support staff (Occupational therapist, speech and language, ect), Social work, Police, Children’s advocacy worker, CAHMs, possibly the children’s reporter, and then a senior member of social work will chair the meeting.
“The Initial Child Protection Conference brings together family members, the child where appropriate, and those professionals most involved with the child and family, following a child protection investigation.
Participants should be given a minimum of 5 calendar days notice of the decision to convene an initial child protection conference whenever possible. The purpose of the initial child protection conference is to allow representatives from across services to share information about a child for whom there are child protection concerns, jointly assess that information and the risk to the child and determine whether there is a likelihood of significant harm through abuse or neglect that needs to be addressed through a multi-agency child protection plan. The initial child protection conference should also consider whether the child is safe to remain at home and whether a referral to the Scottish Children’s Reporter administration is required.
The designated chair will meet with the child and parents or carers in advance of the meeting whenever possible to explain what will happen and answer any questions that they may have. This is in addition to the requirement for the lead professional to prepare the parents or carers and child for attendance.
Once the decision has been taken to proceed to an Initial Child Protection Conference the lead professional will be the responsible worker who will continue to support the child and family and liaise with all relevant other professionals up until and after the conference. This responsibility will continue until another lead professional is allocated, if applicable.
The lead professional will:
- Continue to keep all relevant professionals informed regarding the progress and decisions made regarding the child protection investigation, seeking their views and agreeing actions necessary to support the child and family through this process;
- Liaise closely with the child and family by keeping them informed of the progress and decisions made regarding the investigation, seeking their views and agreeing necessary actions necessary to support them through the child protection process;
- Prepare the child protection report and update the relevant agency records e.g. computer system information etc. This report should provide a clear overview of the risks, vulnerabilities, protective factors and the child’s views. Other children in the household or extended family should also be considered. The report will include the details of the social work, health and police involvement, information from all other involved services and the assessment of significant harm and future risk to the child;
- Ensure that the child protection report considers the need for compulsory measures and referral to the Children’s Reporter.
The initial child protection conference will consider whether the child’s name should be placed on the Child Protection Register and a Child Protection plan developed. The Child Protection plan will be incorporated within the Child’s Plan and should detail the perceived risks and needs; what is required to reduce these risks and meet those needs; and who is expected to take any tasks forward including parents/carers and the child themselves. Specific timescales should be attached to actions.”
And what does this mean?
Social work are responsible for convening, chairing and minuting the initial child protection conference. The responsibility for organising the conference lies with the designated social work manager.
In our case, the chair of the meeting met with us the day before the initial conference. I think this was reassuring. It certainly was at future meetings. In fact, I would go so far as to say if I had to credit one person, with restoring my faith in social work, in one professional person who genuinely helped our family get through these meeting, it was the chair. He is worth his weight in gold.
Engage with the chair. Talk to the chair. And take advice from the chair.
If you are not offered a meeting ahead of the conference, ask for one. Also, ask for the report or risk assessment ahead of time. There is so much to take in, it really helps if you are able to read and digest as much information ahead of time.
You need to do as much as possible to bring your blood pressure and adrenaline levels down before the actual meeting. So, read reports early, and read them several times. Take a walk, and read it again. Sleep on it, and read it again.
You will find you read a different report each time. You can't rush how your brain processes things, and maybe you are quicker than I am, but I recommend giving yourself time to digest and calm down.
After this pre- conference meeting, you should have a good idea of just what the concerns around your child are. If you don't you should ask.
Take the time to try to troubleshot ideas about how you can help manage or address these concerns. This may make little difference to your initial meeting, but being proactive and willing to contribute will help improve the team around your child's view of your commitment in participating to alleviate the risks.
Engage with the chair. Talk to the chair. And take advice from the chair.
If you are not offered a meeting ahead of the conference, ask for one. Also, ask for the report or risk assessment ahead of time. There is so much to take in, it really helps if you are able to read and digest as much information ahead of time.
You need to do as much as possible to bring your blood pressure and adrenaline levels down before the actual meeting. So, read reports early, and read them several times. Take a walk, and read it again. Sleep on it, and read it again.
You will find you read a different report each time. You can't rush how your brain processes things, and maybe you are quicker than I am, but I recommend giving yourself time to digest and calm down.
After this pre- conference meeting, you should have a good idea of just what the concerns around your child are. If you don't you should ask.
Take the time to try to troubleshot ideas about how you can help manage or address these concerns. This may make little difference to your initial meeting, but being proactive and willing to contribute will help improve the team around your child's view of your commitment in participating to alleviate the risks.
The chair will go through the meeting in a particular order.
- The Chair provides a brief explanation of the purpose of the meeting, introducing all participants and noting apologies;
- Professionals will be invited to contribute any additional information including any developments since the reports were written.
- A decision will be made about placing the child on the at risk register
- The chair will summarise and state the risks to the child, strengths in the family on which safety for the child may be developed and specify what is needed to change;
- A qualified Children’s Social Worker is identified as a key worker to develop, co-ordinate and implement a child protection plan.
- A core group is identified of family members and professionals;
- A date is set for the first core group meeting within ten working days of the initial conference and timescales set for subsequent meetings;
- A date for the child protection review conference is set;
- An outline child protection plan should be formulated and understood by all.
After the ICPCC there will be regular review conferences which should update and continue the case, until the child protection plan has been fulfilled, or a new plan is needed. Ideally, you will walk away with a date for the next meeting and a plan to get you between this meeting and the next.
Now, this is not the only outcome. Sometimes, a meeting is called and once everyone has spoken to the chair, it is realised that perhaps, there is a way forward without having to place a child on the child protection register. Sometimes, that is not necessary.
If you find yourself in this situation, I think it is extra important to really consider what the key concerns were and address those. My educated suspicion is that there will be another ICPCC called very quickly with a different outcome, if those concerns are not addressed.
Now, this is not the only outcome. Sometimes, a meeting is called and once everyone has spoken to the chair, it is realised that perhaps, there is a way forward without having to place a child on the child protection register. Sometimes, that is not necessary.
If you find yourself in this situation, I think it is extra important to really consider what the key concerns were and address those. My educated suspicion is that there will be another ICPCC called very quickly with a different outcome, if those concerns are not addressed.
My best advice from experience.
- Take notes: Write down as much as you can so that you can remind yourself what was said afterwards. It will help you figure out what questions to ask, and better understand what was going on. Equally, emotions are very high, and it is easy to misinterpret.
- Write down questions, and ask those questions. Do not be afraid to ask questions. From experience, I found lots of my questions went unanswered. That was a very difficult and frustrating part of this experience. I can promise no answers, but I do encourage you to ask everything and anything you are concerned about or do not understand.
- Bring a support person. Advocacy workers are angels who will be there for you in your time of greatest need. They won’t say anything unless you ask them to, but having someone who is on your side of the table increases moral. And having someone who you can then discuss what went on and reorient you after the meeting with, is invaluable. Our advocate's post meeting debrief was unbelievably helpful. He would say to me that went well, they said this, and that was encouraging. Or he would explain to me you need to do this, that is what they were telling you. It is so difficult to take everything onboard. Bring support.
- Keep calm. But don’t crumble. For some the struggle will be to control their temper. Obviously, getting mad won’t improve the situation. Equally, if you are like me, and you just want to disappear into the carpet, sit up a little straighter and keep engaging with the professionals at the table. A fireworks display of emotions is every bit as unhelpful as being non engaging. You have to engage with the group.
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