“What has been the impact on the HARV Domestic Violence Team of the initial stages of implementing integrated working tools including Common Assessment Frameworks, Lead professional and Team around the Child Meetings?”
Practitioner Led Research funded by the Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC)
Amanda Elwen, Children and Young Peoples Manager
November 2008-March 2009
The Common Assessment Framework (CAF) is an integral part of the procedures envisaged in the governments ‘Every Child Matters’ agenda to safeguard and protect children and young people. Integrated working is at the centre of making a real difference to the lives of children, young people, and their families with full national Implementation completed by the end of 2008.
Implementation raises many important questions, not only about inconsistencies apparent between government rhetoric and the real life experiences of children and practitioners in ‘real world’ situations, but as this research explores, to what extent the implementation of the CAF impacts upon the resources and capacity of charitable organisations and starts to identify the real life costs and implications of implementation to the third sector.
Additionally the paper starts to explore the practitioner and service users’ realities of the CAF processes in relation to domestic violence and the safeguarding of children that are at significant risk of harm.
The data used is taken from an evaluation of the CAF process within HARV domestic violence team from November 2008 to March 2009.
It concludes that the costs of implementation even to a small voluntary sector agency are substantial not only in the monitory sense but also on the potential impact it can have on agency value and culture. It identifies that the biggest barrier to successful implementation of the CAF is that of investment and resources. As suggested by Manby (2008), this research agrees that at the CAF is “in reality, another service ‘rationed’ according to resources available”.
Table of Contents
Abstract
Introduction...... Chapter 1
Policy and Literature Review...... Chapter 2
Methodology...... Chapter 3
Findings ...... Chapter 4
Recommendations...... Chapter 5
Conclusion......
Abstract
The Common Assessment Framework (CAF) is an integral part of the procedures envisaged in the government’s ‘Every Child Matters’ agenda to safeguard and protect children and young people. Integrated working is at the centre of making a real difference to the lives of children, young people, and their families with full national implementation completed by the end of 2008.
Implementation raises many important questions, not only about inconsistencies apparent between government rhetoric and the real life experiences of children and practitioners in ‘real world’ situations, but as this research explores, to what extent the implementation of the CAF impacts upon the resources and capacity of charitable organisations and starts to identify the real life costs and implications of implementation to the third sector.
Additionally this report starts to explore the practitioner and service users’ realities of the CAF processes in relation to domestic violence and the safeguarding of children that are at significant risk of harm.
The data used is taken from an evaluation of the CAF process within HARV domestic violence team from November 2008 to March 2009.
It concludes that the costs of implementation even to a small voluntary sector agency are substantial not only in the monitory sense but also on the potential impact it can have on agency values and culture. It identifies that the biggest barrier to successful implementation of the CAF is that of investment and resources.As suggested by Manby (2008), this research agrees that at present the CAF is “in reality, another service ‘rationed’ according to resources available”.
Chapter OneIntroduction
Hyndburn and Ribble Valley Domestic Violence Team (HARV) provides specialist services and support to women, young people and children who have experienced or are experiencing domestic abuse. A specialist multi disciplinary team was established in 2006 to provide unique safeguarding support to children and young people (c and yp) at risk of significant harm. HARV is a not-for-profit charitable organisation that like many third sector organisations relies on non-consistent diverse funding streams.
In the year 2008-2009 HARV, which has a staff of the equivalent of two full time children and young people’s workers and 3 full time adult workers, provided a service to 961 children and young people attached to 567 women. Services to children and young people include:
- One to one support, safety planning and risk management.
- Support in civil and criminal proceedings
- Holiday play schemes and youth schemes
- Weekly positive activities
- Weekly peer education and support sessions
- Advocacy in Child Protection, Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conferences, Family Support etc
The services are guided by values of empowerment, participation and inclusion. This includes an understanding that young people can and should be empowered within the safeguarding process. HARV believes that supporting the non abusing parent is the most effective way of reducing risk to the child and as a result prioritises the adult and children’s service within HARV work together to ensure that the protection of children is paramount.
In September 2008 Every Child Matters Integrated Working Tools including Common Assessment Frameworks became live in the Hyndburn area of East Lancashire. There was great initial commitment and enthusiasm from HARV staff for the introduction of integrated working tools, systems and procedures and a firm belief that these tools would finally enable improved integrated working relationships between both voluntary and statutory services leading to improved protection and safeguarding of children and young people affected by domestic violence. With this new found optimism also came an increased anxiety regarding the impact implementation would have on the resources and capacity of a small charitable organisation. Concerns were also expressed regarding whether the needs of children living with domestic violence would be sufficiently and explicitly addressed within the proposed Common Assessment Framework.
It was suggested by staff at the Social Work Department at the University of Central Lancashire that HARV could apply to conduct some practitioner led research through The Children’s Workforce Development Council. In 2008 HARV were awarded a grant to proceed with the research. It should be noted that this practitioner led research is conducted within the limitations of the work place.
This research aims to start to outline the third sector practitioner realities of integrated working and how safeguarding policies and frameworks work on an operational level as they start to become embedded into practice. This research also aims to highlight some of the more specific issues in practice in relation to working with children who are affected by domestic violence.
The key research question was:
“What has been the impact on the HARV Domestic Violence Team of the initial stages of implementing integrated working tools including Common Assessment Frameworks, Lead professional and Team around the Child Meetings?”
Sub-questions addressed by the research included:
- How do HARV service users and frontline staff members experience the implementation of such tools?
- How are young people empowered within the process? How suited is the CAF process to deal with some of the key issues of a specialist domestic violence service that has a specific service for children and young people?
Research data were collected for just over three months from the 1st of November 2008 to the 1st of March 2009.
Chapter one has begun to outline the reasons for and the aims of the research. Chapter Two aims to place the research into context by firstly identifying and critically exploring some of the current policy and legislation relevant to the safeguarding of children in England; this is followed by a literature review that examines some of the relevant literature and research currently available relating specifically to the Common Assessment Frameworks. Chapter Three explores the methodology used in the research and explores methods used to collect data and how the data were analysed and evaluated. Chapter Four presents the findings and provides a summary of findings and Chapter Five makes both strategic and operational recommendations for the future followed by a conclusion.
Chapter 2 CONTEXT
Policy:
Every Child Matters and the 2004 Children Act have set out the vision for children’s services for the next decade. The largest change to safeguarding policy and practice came as a direct result of the inquiry into the death of Victoria Climbié, and the Chief Inspectors’ safeguarding reports. Keeping Children Safe (2003)
The inquiry identified failures within current child protection policies, procedures and systems including:
“Poor coordination; a failure to share information; the absence of anyone with a strong sense of accountability;
and frontline workers trying to cope with staff vacancies, poor management and a lack of effective training”. Lord Laming (2003)
The examination of the legislative framework was found to be basically sound; the problems identified by Lord Laming lay not in relation to the law but in its interpretation, resources and implementation. Over 100 recommendations for restructuring children’s services largely focused on the responsibility of individuals and agencies to children and families and on service coordination.
The recommendations from the inquiry upheld the principles of the Children Act 1989 and made it clear that support services for children and families cannot be separated from services designed to investigate and protect children from deliberate harmFocus was placed on how early identification and preventative services should play a more active role in the safeguarding of children and how all services could work in a more integrated way. Integrated working became integral to the success of Every Child Matters and it impacts upon all practitioners who work with children and young people.
Following Lord Laming’s report into the death of Victoria Climbié, the subsequent publication of Every Child Matters and the Children Act (2004), integrated working across services has become integral in ensuring that children are safe and protected and is defined below by the Children’s Workforce Development Council (2007)
“Integrated working is everyone supporting children and young people working together effectively to put the child at the centre, meet their needs and improve lives”.
Working Together to Safeguard Children (2006) provides all practitioners with a national framework within which all agencies and professionals at local level – individually and jointly –
“Draw up and agree on their own ways of working together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children” Working Together (2006) (pg 24)
Essentially, safeguarding children and, in particular, protecting them from significant harm depends largely now on effective working relationships between agencies and joint working between professionals who have different roles and expertise.
Those new to concepts of multi agency approach have to deal with issues of professional language, crossing professional boundaries, territory protection, thresholds and role understanding.By combining professional expertise, knowledge and skills, and involving the child or young person and family throughout, it is thought that practitioners can identify needs earlier, deliver a coordinated package of support that is centred on the child or young person, and help secure better outcomes for them.
Integrated working is achieved through collaboration and coordination at all levels, across all services, in both single and multi agency settings. It requires clear and ongoing leadership and management. At an operational level, it is facilitated by the adoption of common service delivery models, tools and processes. CWDC common assessment framework guidance (2007)
The tools available for integrated working include;
The common assessment framework (CAF)
Lead professional (LP)
Information sharing resources / Team around the Child (TAC)
CAFs and the introduction of Lead Professionals are central in the government’s strategy for more integrated services and are firmly supported by legislative changes in the England and Wales Children Act 2004.
Common Assessment Frameworks are used to identify if children have additional or complex needs that are not being met by universal services (Dfes, 2006) measured in Lancashire by the Lancashire Continuum of Need.
Anticipated government outcomes include practitioners from both statutory and voluntary sector are enabled to assess c and yp’s additional needs for services earlier and more effectively, develop a common understanding of need and agree a process for working together to meet them. CAF also aims to reduce the number and duration of different assessment processes that children undergo, improve quality and consistency of referrals between agencies, help embed a common language about the needs of children, enable information to follow a child and reduce the number of referrals to children’s integrated services. All of this will be done by working in partnership with the child / young person and their parents.
Common Assessments often lead to the identification of a Lead Professional who will have the responsibility of coordinating actions identified and supports the child and family to get the support they need and reduce overlap and inconsistencies between services and individual practitioners. The lead professional in the first instance is automatically assigned to the agency that completes the CAF, it then becomes a multi agency decision as to who take on the LP role in the future and often the young person is central to the decision making process.
Domestic Violence:
It is essential that the reader is given information on the prevalence and impact on domestic violence (dv) so that an understanding of the importance of the CAF process can start to be developed, specifically, how CAF can impact on children and young people experiencing dvIhave also included information regarding resourcing such services as support services are predominately run by the voluntary sector.
The protection of children in England progress report by Lord Laming (2009) clearly outlines that:
“Domestic Violence is a consistent feature of serious case reviews...... demonstrating how seriously they put children at risk of significant harm” page 38,4.4
In the UK domestic violence is very common: 1 in 4 women experience domestic violence at some point in their lives, and the British Crime Survey shows that 89% of victims are women who experience violence at the hands of a male partner. (British Crime Survey, Walby & Allen, 2004)The Department of Health estimates that 750,000 children witness domestic violence every year and that post separation contact between children and a violent parent poses significant risk: in 2001/2002 116 women were killed at the hands of their current or former male partners and at least 10 children have been killed as a result of contact or residence arrangements since 2002. Women’s Aid (2006)
Children and Young People:
Nearly three quarters of children (75%) on the 'at risk' register live in households where domestic violence occurs" (Department of Health, 2002).
Every year 23,500 children stay in refuges in England. (Women's Aid 2002)
According to the 1996 BCS, half of those who suffered domestic violence in the previous year were living with children aged 16 years or under ( Mirrlees-Black, 1999)
Children are present or in the next room in 90% of domestic abuse incidences (Hughes 1992)
Of a 1000 women living in refuges 70% of their children had also received physical violence from the abusive parent (Bowker 1988)
Children of all ages most often take some form of passive or active support to protect their mothers (Hester and Radford 1996)
Women that are being abused are 6 times more likely to have a child deemed at risk (Stark and Flitcraft 1986)
Domestic Violence was a feature of child protection cases with the worst outcomes (Farmer and Owen 1995)
In one study, there was a link between child abuse and domestic violence in 40-60% of domestic abuse cases. (Stark and Flitcraft 1986)
In the last 10 years it is estimated that 50 children have been murdered during contact visits from a violent father.(Women’s Aid 2002)
Child contact is often the major flashpoint for the post separation violence and provides a context in which the man may continue to abuse and harass both the women and children (Abrahams 1994)
Contact may also be used as the ultimate context for control by violent men, to murder their children, the mothers or themselves (Radford and Hester 2006)
75% of assaults occur after separation(National Crime Victims Survey)
All five outcomes outlined in Every Child Matters can be adversely affected by domestic violence. (Staying safe, being healthy, enjoy and achieve, make a positive contribution and achieve economic well being) The 2004 National Service framework for Children, Young People and Maternity Services (NSF) identifies children and young people living with domestic violence amongst those at greater risk of developing mental health or behavioural problems. Living with domestic violence more than often leads to a spiral of disadvantage with long term implications for physical, psychological development and employment potential.
Embarrassingly for the UK, there are currently no specific statutory services for children and young people affected by domestic violence and to date HARV have only been able to identify one other independent service within the UK, run by the NSPCC.
Progress in policy has started to be made in the recognition of impact domestic violence has on children and young people. The outcomes framework published with Every Child Matters: Change for children 2004, identifies the following target: “Children affected by repeat domestic violence are identified, protected and supported”. This target is located under the ‘staying safe’ banner.
Both statutory and voluntary sector provision now have a remit to safeguard children affected by domestic violence. “All services have a vital role in contributing to an interagency approach in child protection cases where domestic violence is an issue” Working Together (2006)