Authoritative Social Care Intervention in Engaging Resistant, Challenging and Complex Families

‘ Authority is not a dirty word. Indeed, it must be brought officially from behind the arras of social work training onto the public stage, not just of child care law but also into the practice of all social workers. We regard it as an essential ingredient in any work designed to protect abused children’. (London Borough of Brent, 1985: 295)

PARENTS’ RESISTANT AND NON-COMPLIANT BEHAVIOUR Behaviour which produces damaging effects, physically or emotionally, in other people and involves proactively using such behaviour to sabotage efforts to bring about change or alternatively passively disengaging. Non-compliance involves parents and carers lacking any commitment to change but working subversively to undermine the process through concealment, superficiality, dishonesty or incapability. In both cases when a parent is considered hostile or threatening, any presumption that he/she is different with his/her children must be rigorously tested. (Coventry Local Safeguarding Child Board, Working with Resistant and Non-Compliant Families, para. 3.29)

NON-COMPLIANCE, DECEPTION AND HOSTILITY: RECURRING THEMES IN SCRs  Resistance to professional intervention  Lying and deceitfulness  Failure to attend day nursery or school  Refused access  Whereabouts unknown  Violent behaviour  Pressure from within the family not to disclose  A period of silence

TACTICS USED BY PARENTS AND CARERS TO HIDE THE CHILD AND/OR THE PERPETRATOR OR THE SIGNS OF THE HARM PERPETRATED ON THE CHILD  Mobile families  Blocking the worker’s way into the home  Stage managing visits by restricting workers sight of and contact with child  Using the physical space of the home and objects in rooms (TV, dogs, tables) to control where workers and children sit. Distracting the workers.  Using clothing and substances (e.g. chocolate) to hide injuries  Coaching children to suggest all is well  Dirt and smell used to disgust workers and prevent them from moving or touching the child  Using part of the home to hide abusers or children.

THREE CATEGORIES OF RESISTANCE (Wild 2010) Threatening Belligerent Emotional

‘The capacity of workers to protect children can be seriously diminished as they do not, in any meaningful sense, have a relationship with the children because the abusers are controlling and orchestrating what happens. Just getting out of the house unscathed becomes the defining criterion of a good intervention’. (Ferguson, 2011: 167)

STRATEGIES Know the case history Rehearse Be confident

STRATEGIES CONTINUED (C4EO)…..  Dealing openly with the power dynamics.  Demonstrating empathy and relationship skills, balanced with an authoritative approach.  Not permitting adults’ problems to eclipse children’s needs.  Being able to distinguish between families genuinely engaged and those exhibiting ‘false compliance’.  Recognising that non-engagement or hostility hamper practitioners’ decision- making capabilities.  Countering over-optimism.  Organising and analysing information for assessments as well as gathering it.  Observing parent–child interactions and capturing the voices of children.  Recognising that good supervision is essential.

WHAT STOPS US FROM INTERVENING?  Partnership with parents  Strengths-led approach  ‘Problem families’ and ‘dangerous families’  Ambivalence about the use of authority  Reluctance to accept ‘damage’

‘A tendency by social and health care workers towards rationalisation and under- responsiveness in certain situations. In these conditions workers focus on adults’ strengths, rationalise evidence to the contrary and interpret data in the light of this optimistic view’. (Daniel Pelka SCR, p. 43, citing Learning Lessons from Serious Case Reviews, , Ofsted.)

TOWARDS AUTHORITATIVE INTERVENTIONS Authoritative practice means that professionals are aware of their professional power, use it judiciously and that they also interact with clients and other professionals with sensitivity, empathy, willingness to listen and negotiate and to engage in partnerships. They respect client autonomy and dignity while recognising their primary responsibility is the protection of children from harm and the promotion of their well-being.

AUTHORITATIVE INTERVENTIONS CONTINUED….. Authority Empathy Humility Care and Control

PRACTICE POINTERS (Tuck 2013)  Clear targets and timescales that are consistent with the child’s needs and development.  Low threshold for concern: parents can expect to be challenged about poor parenting and further harm to their children including chronic neglect.  Focus maintained on the child. Risk assessment is seen as a key mechanism for achieving this and ensuring that parents are clear about concerns  Parents’ capacity to change.  High expectations of services and professionals.

DISCUSSION POINTS How comfortable are you with having and using authority? How do you use your authority to work with challenging or resistant parents? Where did your skills originate? (For example, are they your own, through team discussions, based on research/evidence-based, developed from training?) How useful have you found the skills you have acquired in challenging resistant parents?