LSCB Multi-Agency Learning Event Working with children and families on Child Protection Plans

Introduction The purpose of LSCB audits (ensure the effectiveness) The focus was intentional The child is central The learning is multi-professional As a team we need to work more effectively to safeguard and protect children Think about 1 thing you will leave here today and do differently

Shared responsibility shared solutions Drift and delay in Child Protection Cases At the time of the audit we had 29 children who have been subject to a plan for more than 12 months. The breakdown of this was as follows: 1 at 33 months 1 at 28 months 2 at 18 months 4 at 17 months 2 at 16 months 2 at 15 months 6 at 13 months 11 at 12 months

Theme of drift and delay The questions are not just for the individual worker, manager or team but for the system that includes the multi-agency partnership. This includes a shared understanding of our challenges and a shared responsibility to come up with solutions and see them through.

So what does a shared responsibility look like? Greater challenge and scrutiny of plans An understanding of the factors that contribute to delay for children Confidence to raise the challenge The ability to see it though in a timely way

The challenging questions we asked through deep dive audits of these cases were: The quality of management oversight and decision making Impact of changes in social worker and whether there was a start again syndrome Was there a delay in assessments and what were the causal factors for this The quality of the multi-agency involvement and challenge Whether the child protection plan has been outcome focussed and whether it has assisted the progression of the case including the quality of the challenge from the Child Protection chairs.

Shared responsibility, shared solutions System leaders- Moving away from pure quantative scrutiny of data to more qualitative approaches Ask the hard questions Follow through on the challenge Lead by example Provide the tools for the job

Shared responsibility, shared solutions Understand what hinders and what promotes change in families Ask for help if stuck on difficult questions Name the moral and ethical dilemmas Accept it is not always about work pressure Make timely decisions

Case Study exercise Hand outs to be returned at the end of the workshop

Creating thinking and learning space in an organisation What are the traits of a’ thinking’ and’ learning’ organisation? Three key themes Living with uncertainty Developing expertise Transparency about effectiveness ‘ From compliance to learning creating a child centred system’ Eileen Munro Feb 22 nd 2012

Where are we starting from? A defensive system puts so much emphasis on procedures and recording insufficient attention is given to developing and supporting the expertise to work effectively with children young people and families’ Munro Review of Child Protection, Final report: A Child-Centred System

There is a need to develop shared features of making decisions in uncertain conditions Social workers can do it alone Risk taking involves judgement and balance with decision makers required to consider the value and likelihood of the possible benefits of a particular decision against the seriousness and likelihood of the possible harm Harm can never be totally prevented. Risk decisions should therefore be judged by quality of the decision making, not by the outcome

A thinking and learning organisation understands how expertise is developed at an individual level Intuitive learning from experience - also need feedback and reflection Formal learning - needs to be embedded in use Emotional awareness - sensing and discussing

Biases of intuition Reluctance to change our minds Using limited range of information Attribution error Hindsight error

Respectful uncertainty Intellectually accurate- but very uncomfortable Workers need prompting and support to question their assessment. Hard to do on your own, however senior and whatever the discipline.

Key points We are all vulnerable to intuitive errors of reasoning: they are a feature of being human, not of being stupid We will make progress if we think of good reasoning as a shared responsibility

The journey is as important as the destination. We can have the most impact when we are: Interested in the aspirations of the children and families we work with Measured in our approach Partners in empowering our children and families to achieve change Accountable for what we do Curious about what we need to change Tenacious about doing it

Further Information Information from audits and reviews can be found on the LSCB website: Information on multi-agency training, newsletters, minutes of LSCB meetings and the Berkshire Child Protection Procedures can also be accessed on this site.