CHILDREN’S SOCIAL CARE

PRACTICE GUIDANCE NOTE

Title: / Guidance in respect of Agreements with Parent/Carers and other Family members within the Child Protection / Child In Need / Children Looked After processes
Who is it for? i.e. which team/s and / or services
All Children’s Social Care Teams
When is it in effect from?
5th February 2018
What is it in response to?
Current Practice of using Written Agreements with Parent/Carers and other Family members to be replaced with other appropriate approaches.
What is its purpose? i.e. to provide guidance to staff to promote good practice, etc?
To provide guidance to staff on working with Parents/Carers and other Family Members when often the previous reason for making a Written Agreement was in relation to an uncooperative or hostile reaction.
What does it amend / or replace? i.e. legislation, guidance, internal policy / procedure, etc?
New Guidance
Practice Guidance Note
The guidance will go live on the 5th February 2018.
It is acknowledged that within the early assessments stage of Children in Need and Child Protection processes an agreement to some action or preventative action to manage risk, is useful to ensure how parents, carers, family members and practitioners can work together to achieve intermediate actions to protect a child and promote their well-being.
The Child Protection Plan (CP) / Child In Need (CIN) plan / Child In Care Child (LAC) Care Plan and other statutory plans should be and remain the core document for managing risk and setting out expected agreements in how to achieve this, but where these have yet to be established, agreement to action should be verbally made with parent/carers and family members and clearly recorded in the children's care files. Managers should where appropriate provide guidance through supervision or management decisions again recorded in cases files to endorse agreed actions by the Local Authority.
How to support engagement with Parent/carers, other family members in agreeing to expected actions/decisions
When we begin to work with a family who is known, or discovered, to be uncooperative, we should make every effort to understand why.
We can improve the chances of a favourable outcome for the child/ren by and ensuring that the parent/care or family members agrees and sticks to the agreed actions by:
Keeping the relationship formal but engaging, giving clear indications that the aim of the work is to achieve the best for their child/ren through;
●Clearly stating your professional and/or legal authority;
●Continuously assessing the motivations and capacities of the parent/s to respond cooperatively in the interests of their child/ren;
●Confronting uncooperativeness when it arises, in the context of improving the chances of a favourable outcome for the child/ren;
Engaging with regular supervision from your manager to ensure that progress with the family is being made and is appropriate will support your oversight of the risks being managed and agreement being maintained;
Helping the parent to work through their underlying feelings at the same time as supporting them to engage in the tasks set is likely to encourage them the remain in agreement with the expectations requested or placed on them. But being alert to underlying complete resistance (possibly masked by superficial compliance) is important.
Parents should be made aware, so they understand what is required of them, and the consequences of not fulfilling these requirements. (i.e an escalation of our involvement i.estrategy meeting, legal action)
Reasons for possible non-compliance
You should be aware that some families, including those recently arrived from abroad, may be unclear about why they have been asked to agree for an action, or that their child stays with a family member or a partner should not remain in the family home. They may not be aware of roles that different professionals and agencies play and may not be aware that the Local Authority and partner agencies have a statutory role in safeguarding children, which in some circumstances override the role and rights of parents (e.g. child protection, s47).
Staff should seek the support of their manager or expert help and advice in gaining a better understanding, when there is a possibility that cultural factors are making a family resistant to having professionals involved.
Staff who anticipate difficulties in engaging with a family may want to consider the possibility of having contact with the family jointly with another person in whom the family has confidence.
Consider additional needs:
A parent has a low level of literacy, and needs verbal rather than written communication;
A parent needs translation and interpretation of all or some communications into their own language;
Name of person/s issuing this practice note (including job title / service)
Richard Powell - Head of Service Assessment & Family Safeguarding
Date issued:
5th February 2018