Evidencing Neglect 15th November 2017

Holly Potter – Assistant Team Manager Assessment and Child Protection Team

Why is assessing and evidencing neglect difficult? Professional desensitisation Parental needs Hard to explain Disguised compliance Different across sibling group Subjective Lag

Why do we need to evidence neglect? Ensure families understand the concerns Ensure children understand why decisions are made Aid change and improvement

Principles when evidencing neglect Factual – based on evidence Fair and balanced – highlight the good stuff! Child focussed Clearly recorded in a way the family can understand Aid change and improvement

Swindon Neglect Framework and Practice Guidance http://www.swindonlscb.org.uk/wav/Pages/Neglect.aspx Available on the LSCB website Practice Guidance where neglect is a concern Use in supervision Take it to your supervisor or your Designated Safeguarding Lead

Graded Care Profile 2

What is the Graded Care Profile 2? GCP2 for short Developed by the NSPCC Evidenced based assessment tool for evaluating levels of parental care Uses a graded scale to capture levels of physical and emotional care Uses Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to ensure comprehensive coverage of child's needs Identifies strengths as well as weakness • 1(best) – 5 (worst) Targets aspects of neglectful care Provides evidence that can inform care and intervention plans

Video clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVE3bgHOnes

What the GCP2 is not An assessment of parental needs A risk assessment A whole family assessment

Who is it for? Any family where there are concerns a child/ children are being neglected At any level of intervention – universal to care proceedings From birth to 18 years old Any practitioner, from any agency, as long as they have completed the training and hold a license to use it

How do you use the GCP2? Complete training to be given a license to use it One assessment tool per child in a family Draw on information from all agencies Use up to date information during assessment period Don’t guess! Score and then interpret Review it at regular intervals to track change (improvement and decline)

Questions and Feedback

hpotter@swindon.gov.uk