1. Child Protection Practitioner’s Forum
Neglect: Reflecting on Practice

2. Falkirk File Reading Exercise
Early identification and response to Childhood neglect

3. Falkirk Case File Reading Exercise
Focus on practice in the last 18 months
Intervening early- how well services identify vulnerable children and families
Considering the help provided at an early stage to prevent difficulties arising or escalating
Responding to Child Protection Concerns – gathering evidence of the alertness of staff across services to signs that a child may need protection and the actions taken to ensure a child is safe

4. Falkirk Case File Reading Exercise
Developing and Maintaining Chronologies- use of chronologies in identifying and assessing risks and needs
Assessing Risks and Needs- how staff across services collaborate
Planning, reviewing and implementing- how effectively staff implement agreed plans and effectiveness of arrangements to review and update plans

5. Falkirk Case File Reading Exercise
Involving children and parents in decision making- is there evidence of staff promoting families involvement
Impact and outcomes- is there evidence that children and young people feel there has been an improvement?
Impact and outcomes for parents, carers:
-helping families become more resilient
-Increasing parents confidence and competence to meet their children’s needs
Evidence of child/ young person’s views as recorded in reports- particularly where their own words have been used.

6. Care Inspectorate guidance to support review of practice through case file reading
Principles
Content in each completed template is about that child only.
When completing strengths, areas for development and other comments- be evaluative and succinct
Examples provided for illustration to give an idea of the type of information required.
It may take you longer than you think to read the files and pay attention to the guidance
We always get the exercise completed on time!

7. Care Inspectorate guidance to support review of practice through case file reading
6 point Scale
Excellent - answer ‘yes’ to all statements where appropriate, all areas very strong
Very Good - answer ‘yes’ to all statements where appropriate. No weak areas, practice of a high standard
Good – Answer ‘yes’ to almost all statements, where appropriate. Practice is of a good standard in most aspects although there are a few weaker areas.
Adequate – answer ‘yes’ to most statements. Practice is of an acceptable standard but there are some weaknesses.
Weak – Cannot answer ‘yes’ to more than half of the statements
Unsatisfactory – answer ‘yes’ to only a minority of statements. There are major weaknesses.

8. File Reading Exercise- Random Case File Sample
Reading files across the age range of children from 0-17 years
Less than half the cases read related to children and young people who were Looked After.
11 children were currently on the CP Register
8 had previously been on the CP Register and 4 had been re-registered in the last year.
23 cases had a Lead Professional involved.
Alongside neglect, a significant number of children and young people were affected by parental substance misuse, mental ill health and domestic abuse.
Whilst this was a random sample we were looking at children’s experiences from babies through to adolescence which allowed us to focus not only on early years but also adolescent neglect.
In only a few of the cases was little information held by social work services.
The majority of cases the families were known and this was reflected in information available in relation to assessments and planning.
23 cases had a lead professional – this included health, education and social work.
Many children and young people’s experiences reflected that they were affected by a range of risks arising from parental substance misuse, mental ill health and /or domestic abuse at points in their lives and for some children all three were apparent.

9. File Reading Exercise- Random Case File Sample
Intervening Early reflected in 22 cases
Strengths
Good partnership working evident: recognition of the need for additional support at an early stage, appropriate information sharing and timely and effective provision of early help
Areas for development
Clarification within records of the specific role of agencies involved with families
Records management - filing
Records management – filing- capacity issue. Not all files read held the same information across services – assessments, plans, integrated chronologies. Some will be held electronically and had to be printed off for file reading exercise.

10. File Reading Exercise- Random Case File Sample
Responding to Child Protection Concerns
reflected in 22 cases
Strengths
Robust and timely response to concerns, effective multi-agency working, risk assessment and planning.
Good information sharing
5 cases involving unborn babies – early identification of risks notes as a strength.
In 3 cases – delays in information sharing or progressing processes noted and were evaluated as adequate in 2 and weak in 1.

11. File Reading Exercise- Random Case File Sample
Developing and Maintaining Chronologies
The chronology in 18 out of 23 cases held by Lead Professional and 9 out of 23 held by other agencies were evaluated as fit for purpose.
Area for development
Improvement required in recording significant events, actions and outcomes
An integrated chronology being held in the files all of relevant agencies involved with a child or young person.

12. File Reading Exercise- Random Case File Sample
Impact of service provision and support on parental resilience and confidence Strengths Positive relationships being made with parents or persistence towards achieving this. Support leading to evidence of parents increased confidence, better understanding of child development and ability to prioritise children’s needs.
Areas for development relate to a few cases – need to focus on source rather than the symptoms in two cases and in another two cases the need to use a wide range of strategies to engage and communicate with parents.
Noted the parents needs often the barrier to achieving the necessary improvements.

13. File Readers Experience: Key Findings
What worked well?
Working in pairs with colleagues from another service
3 days protected time
Well organised
Multi-agency discussions regarding expectations and thresholds
Learning from each other

14. File Readers Experience: Key Findings
Personal Learning
Better informed about what makes a good record – being less descriptive
More aware of different agencies recording requirements
Recognise the need to be more explicit in assessments and report writing regarding children and young people’s needs
Reinforced the need for improvements in the use of Chronologies- not being used as a tool for analysis
Underlined the importance of filing/ organised record keeping.

15. File Readers Experience: Key Findings
Advice for CPC and future file readers
Great idea to include frontline staff
Use of Care Inspectorate template – helpful to have standards to work to
Be prepared for hard work and make sure you are familiar with evaluation guidance
It’s easy to be too critical v’s don’t defend the indefensible
Care Inspectorate template- felt like harsh differences between good and very good.
Debates on whether practice was excellent. Always room for improvement – even excellent practice needs to be maintained to stay at excellent.
Tended to be more critical of our own service than other services
Exercise designed to identify areas for improvement

16. File Reading Exercise: Recommendations
Team Around the Child: Develop quality assurance mechanisms to ensure consistency of practice in relation to the provision of early help, assessments and planning
Chronologies: To improve the quality of single and integrated chronologies; ensure reference is being made to guidance and that they are being used as a tool that informs assessments and decision-making.
Both recommendations are already contained within CPC Improvement Plan

17. File Reading Exercise: Recommendations
Quality Assurance: Continuing job for Managers and Supervisors to ensure standards are met in relation to chronologies,assessments and plans, particularly in relation to families receiving voluntary support and early intervention.
Working with hard to reach and resistant families: Continue to focus attention on effective partnership working, utilising relevant guidance i.e. Unseen Child. Persistent practice supported by SMART plans
Quality Assurance- For children and young people who are looked after and / or subject to CP registration clear processes are in place. For those who are receiving early intervention and voluntary support via TAC process – this is still being embedded. Looking to take good practice to very good and very good practice to excellent.

18. File Reading Exercise: Recommendations
Plans: Improving plans by ensuring they contain SMART actions
Children and young people’s views: Ensuring all assessments include information related to: ‘What does this mean for this child or young person?’ – refrain from using not applicable when children are viewed as too young to provide their view.
Improvement Framework: Using lessons learned from this exercise and from file readers experiences, adopt an approach that supports the ongoing development of current and future frontline multi-agency file readers
Children and young people’s views – remove not applicable and replace with interpretation from behaviour.