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Contents

1. Introduction
2. Convening a Child Protection Conference
3. Partner Agency Reports to the Child Protection Conference
4. The Social Worker's Report to the Child Protection Conference
5. Quoracy
6. Recording of the Initial Child Protection Conference

1. Introduction

An Initial Child Protection Conference is a meeting of professionals and representatives of agencies involved with the family, and family members, including children where appropriate.

Consideration should be given by the date of the Initial Child Protection Conference as to whether the Core Assessment has been completed or what further work is required before it is completed.

The purpose of the Initial Child Protection Conference is to:

• bring together and analyse, in an inter-agency setting, the  information about the child's developmental needs, and the parents' or carers' capacity to respond to these needs to ensure the child's safety and promote the child's health and development within the context of their wider family and environment.
• consider the evidence presented to the conference, make judgements about the likelihood of a child suffering Significant Harm in the future, and decide whether the child is at continuing risk of Significant Harm

And where the conference decides that the child is at continuing risk of Significant Harm  it must ensure that:

• a Child Protection Plan is made which specifies what action is required to reduce the risk to the child, decide what further action is required to safeguard the child, how that action will be taken forward, and with what intended outcomes

2. Convening a Child Protection Conference

Where an Initial Child Protection Conference is required, it should be convened within 15 working days of the Strategy Discussion/Meeting at which the decision to initiate Section 47 Enquiry  was taken.

Children's Social Care should arrange the Initial Child Protection Conference, with the child's social worker (or Team Manager) consulting the Principal Officer at the Quality Assurance Unit and arranging the date for conference.

The Quality Assurance Unit will make arrangements for the Child Protection Conference and will invite to the conference representatives of all agencies who have a significant contribution to make, based on their knowledge of, or involvement with the family, or on their professional expertise.   Agencies should be represented at the Child Protection Conference by staff who have the authority to make decisions about what action is necessary to Safeguard and Promote the Welfare of the Child, and to suggest realistic and workable proposals for taking that action forward, such as the Head Teacher or Designated Child Protection Coordinator in schools.  There may be occasions when it would be useful to invite a representative from the Local Authority Legal Department if there are proposals to initiate Care Proceedings.  However, such an invitation should be discussed with the Conference Chair in advance.  If invited, such a legal representative will not provide legal advice to the conference but will be in attendance for information gathering purposes only.  The Conference Chair should ensure this is clearly communicated to conference attendees.

Consideration should be given to inviting the Children's Guardian where one has been appointed and staff in the youth justice system where relevant.

Anyone invited to the Child Protection Conference will be expected to attend and if unable to do so should send apologies to the Quality Assurance Unit, and ensure that either the Conference is attended by another appropriate representative of the agency and/or a written report is available to the Conference and sent to the Conference Chair at least 48 hours before it is due to take place.

3. Partner Agency Reports to the Child Protection Conference

Written reports should always be provided to the Child Protection Conference from professionals and should provide information detailing their:

• involvement with the child and family
• knowledge of the child's developmental needs
• assessment of the capacity of the parents to meet the needs of their child within their family and environmental context
• Written reports should be forwarded to the Quality Assurance Unit at least 48 hours before a conference is due to take place in order for the Chair to read them and for copies to be collated for distribution on the day of the conference itself

4. The Social Worker's Report to the Child Protection Conference

Children's social care should provide the conference with a written report that summarises and analyses the information obtained in the course of the Initial Assessment and the core assessment undertaken under section 47 of the Children Act 1989 (in as far as it has been completed within the available time period), and information in existing records relating to the child and family. Where decisions are being made about more than one child in a family there should be a report prepared on each child. The information in the report for a child protection conference, which is be likely to be in the current core assessment record, should be consistent with the information which is set out in the Initial Child Protection Conference Report (Department of Health, 2002). The conference report should include information on the dates the child was seen by the Lead Social Worker during the course of the section 47 enquiries, if the child was seen alone and if not, who was present and for what reasons. The core assessment is the means by which a section 47 enquiry is carried out. Although a core assessment will have been commenced, it is unlikely it will have been completed in time for the conference given the 35 working day period that such assessments can take.

The Social Worker's Report to Conference should include the dates when the child was seen by the Lead Social Worker during the Section 47 Enquiry, if the child was seen alone and if not, who was present and for what reason.

The child protection conference report should include:

• a chronology of significant events and agency and professional contact with the child and family;
• information on the child's current and past state of developmental needs;
• information on the capacity of the parents and other family members to ensure the child is safe from harm, and to respond to the child's developmental needs, within their wider family and environmental context;
• information on the family history and both the current and past family functioning;
• the expressed wishes and feelings of the child, and the views of parents and other family members;
• an analysis of the information gathered and recorded using the Assessment Framework dimensions to reach a judgement on whether the child is suffering, or likely to suffer, significant harm and consider how best to meet his or her developmental needs. This analysis should address:
  • how the child's strengths and difficulties are impacting on each other;
  • how the parenting strengths and difficulties are affecting each other;
  • how the family and environmental factors are affecting each other;
  • how the parenting that is provided for the child is affecting the child's health and development both in terms of resilience and protective factors, and vulnerability and risk factors; and
  • how the family and environmental factors are impacting on parenting and/or the child directly; and
• the local authority's recommendation to the conference.

5. Quoracy

All written and verbal reports to the Child Protection Conference should distinguish between fact, observation, allegation and opinion.  When information is provided from another source i.e. it is second or third hand, this should be made clear.   

The Initial Child Protection Conference will normally only be quorate if, in addition to Children's Social Care, the views of two other agencies with direct knowledge of, or involvement with the child or family, are represented.  In circumstances where the child and family do not have involvement with Children's Social Care and two other agencies, the Child Protection Conference may be considered quorate with fewer agencies represented, on the judgement of the Conference Chair.  For example, a family with one child under school age, who does not attend any form of day-care provision and has no identified special needs, may only be involved with Children's Social Care  and Health.

6. Recording of the Initial Child Protection Conference

All Child Protection Conferences (both initial and review) will be attended by a member of the Quality Assurance Unit, dedicated to taking notes and producing a written record of the Conference.

The written record of the Initial Child Protection Conference will:

• include the essential facts of the case, summarise discussion at the Conference, accurately reflecting rather than reproducing the contributions made
• record the decisions reached together with an explanation of how or why the decision was made
• contain the outline Child Protection Plan agreed at the Conference

A copy of the written record or notes will be circulated to all those who attended, or who were invited and forwarded apologies to the Conference, as soon as possible, within 28 days of the Conference.

End