Safeguarding Children from Abuse linked to a Belief in Spirit Possession

Draft Guidance for Consultation August 2007

Response from the

Churches’ Child Protection Advisory Service (CCPAS)

P O Box 133

Swanley

Kent

BR8 7UQ

The closing date for this consultation is: 14th October 2007

Welsh Assembly Government

/
Name / David Pearson
Organisation (if applicable) / Churches' Child Protection Advisory Service
Address: / P O Box 133, Swanley, Kent BR8 7UQ

Consultation response to:

Judith Smetham

Children’s Safeguards Team

Welsh Assembly Government

Cathays Park

Cardiff

CF10 3NQ

Email:

The Churches’ Child Protection Advisory Service

The Churches’ Child Protection Advisory Service (CCPAS) welcomes the opportunity to comment on the consultation document.

The Churches' Child Protection Advisory Service (CCPAS) is an independent charity providing professional advice, support, training and resources in all areas of safeguarding children and for those affected by abuse. CCPAS has been actively involved in working with African communities in relation to the issue of spirit possession in conjunction with Project Violet of the Metropolitan Police and other agencies.

CCPAS is a UK wide independent Christian charity providing professional child protection advice and support to churches, para-church organisations, other faith and non-faith based organisations and to families. Assistance is readily accessible from professionally qualified and experienced child protection staff through a 24-hour telephone helpline and via the internet.

CCPAS advice and resources are directly related to each of the four nations of the UK. Our services are available to all, though many churches and organisations support CCPAS aims and objectives as members and make an annual donation towards our running expenses. Some 14,000 churches and groups in the UK including several thousands in Wales) link with us in this way as members and supporters; many more use our help line and other services. Some members are a local Church or organisation, whilst others are denominations or umbrella bodies in their own right. Over the years CCPAS has assisted very many denominations, groups and individual churches in developing child protection policies.

CCPAS produces a number of resources and training material on safeguarding issues. Our ‘Guidance to Churches’ manual which has sold well over 50,000 copies, contains a model child protection policy with all of the various forms that a church or organisation would need to produce a safeguarding children policy. The manual comes with model policies for Wales, England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The manual is updated annually in respect of all four national editions.

Many churches and organisations use our material to formulate their own child protection policy. Some will use our material because their denomination advises it, others will use it as an additional resource to their own denominational material, and still others use the material because they don’t have denominational resources (e.g. independent churches).

Churches often prefer to use our material rather than other material available because it specifically addresses churches and para-church situations (we have similar material for non- faith and other faith groups). This is an important consideration as places of worship have to consider issues which are not so relevant to most non-faith organisations e.g. how to integrate safely a known sex offender into a church and the impact of religious belief on practice (forgiveness etc). CCPAS material tackles all these issues in considerable detail in the way that other model policies and procedures do not.

CCPAS was involved in advising the Laming Inquiry on issues related to child protection practice in churches. We are currently working with the Children’s Minister in England in regard to the issues of ‘spirit possession’ and abuse and have been involved with the DfES in the writing of the recently published guidelines. CCPAS are members of the Home Secretary’s stakeholder’s consultancy group relating to disclosure of sex offender information. We are also a partner agency of the UK Centre for Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP)

Further information about CCPAS and our resources is available on our website www.ccpas.co.uk

In response to the letter dated 23rd August 2007 from M J H Burns, Children’s Safeguarding Team, Directorate of Children’s Health and Social Services, CCPAS welcomes the opportunity to comment on the consultation document.

Do you agree with the key considerations?

/ Comments: Yes, with reservations. The key considerations appear to be based on the premise that belief in spiritual possession is in itself abusive, rather than abusive acts and acts of neglect are linked to a person’s spiritual beliefs. The negativity in the language is in danger of further alienating the very people in faith groups whose engagement is necessary in order to address the issues.
Second bullet point: All people working or in contact with children have a responsibility to recognise and know how to act on evidence……
Workers need to have an understanding of religious beliefs and cultural practices in regard to spirit possession.
Fourth bullet point: Child abuse linked to a belief in ‘spiritual possession’ usually stems from a child being used as a scapegoat……
A belief in spirit possession is not itself abusive. Also, whilst Eleanor Stobart in “Child abuse linked to accusations of ‘possession” (DfES research report RR750) made reference to scapegoats as one risk factor, she outlined other factors such as family structure, disability or where a child has a difference, as one of the other factors which may contribute to a child being at risk. These are not mentioned here. The emphasis on children as scapegoats as the usual cause of child abuse linked to a belief in spiritual possession is too simplistic.
Fifth bullet point: The number of identified cases of such abuse is small….
One of the reasons that a larger number of cases remain undetected may be because workers lack an understanding of abuse related to spirit possession and may not be asking the right questions. Failure to elicit information such as links to a particular faith group might result in important information being missed in regard to an individual child, and others who could also be at risk of harm.
Sixth bullet point: Professionals with safeguarding responsibilities should be able to identify links…..
Professionals with safeguarding responsibilities may lack the expertise and understanding of faith groups to be able to make those links. CCPAS is the lead agency in working with faith groups across the UK and best able to assist professionals with safeguarding responsibilities in connecting with faith communities. Workers should be encouraged to consult with CCPAS and other agencies with expertise in this area.
As well as out 24 hour telephone helpline our web site contains specific information for practitioners in working with faith groups to safeguard children.
Seventh bullet point: Local agencies and institutions must also work to minimise risk of harm……
Of course there needs to be intervention, but the robust challenging may not be helpful, or may need to be as a last resort. Building trust with communities will not take place if the aim of the LSCB is purely to have a one way dialogue. Robust measures may be required in some cases, but to set the tone of this guidance in this way is not helpful.
We wholeheartedly agree that local agencies need to work with faith groups in order to build trust and help faith groups in their understanding of what constitutes abuse. The challenge for local agencies is how they are going to engage with local faith groups.
LSCBs have a statutory duty to do this. ‘Safeguarding Children – Working Together under the Children Act 2004’ states (4.3 – 4.6) that LSCBS should involve other relevant local organisations, and arrangements should be in place to ensure that there are mechanisms to have representatives from relevant groups (4.7 – 4.8). Whilst ensuring that there are arrangements at a strategic management level for engagement of faith groups, we would suggest that this guidance also addresses how local agencies can build trust and understanding of child abuse issues. Reference could be made here to ‘Safeguarding Children – Working Together under the Children Act 2004’ (The Welsh Assembly Government 2007) sections 3.56 to 3.59 Faith Communities, giving details of CCPAS’ services.
Eight bullet point People working with children should always take advice wherever they feel it is required.
This is perhaps the most important consideration. Professionals working with faith communities on safeguarding issues should seek advice. The concern is that the professionals may not know where to go for such advice and the suggestion that seeking advice of a more experienced colleague is flawed as, in practice, based on the statement in consideration (v), it is unlikely that colleagues will have faced suspected cases of abuse to spirit possession as there have been so few. To repeat as above, reference should be given here to CCPAS and any other specialist agencies with experience of these issues.

Do you agree with the described incidence and forms of abuse?

Comments:

Definitions. The paragraph on definitions of abuse is simplistic, a reference to a fuller definition as per page 5 of Eleanor Stobart in “Child abuse linked to accusations of ‘possession’ and ‘witchcraft’ and abuse” (DfES research report RR750) would be helpful.

Incidence of abuse. We agree with the stated numbers of children identified in terms of incidence of abuse, which gives reference to Eleanor Stobart’s research.

Statements like ‘The abuse can be carried out by the child’s parents or carers or others in the family network’, gives an impression that this is different from other forms of abuse. Most abuse occurs within this context.

‘There have been reported cases of individuals who present themselves as faith leaders being paid by parents and carers to ‘exorcise’ children’.

This highlights the need for agencies to establish links with credible faith leaders and organisations who are able to give appropriate advice on such issues.

The child can themselves come to hold the belief that they are possessed and this can significantly complicate their rehabilitation.

This is why is it so important that practitioners have an understanding of the child’s faith and belief in order to best protect the child.

Where such abuse or neglect is identified, the majority of children are given a placement in an alternative family, through long term………..

This paragraph purports to make very sweeping statements, for example the majority of children and a small proportion, are descriptions given here based on a very small number of cases. The last sentence though is the crux of the matter, everyone (statutory agencies and faith communities) need to identify abuse and intervene to protect children in order to ensure that children are protected.

Forms of abuse

The following definitions are from the Congolese Pastorship child protection policy which CCPAS assisted in developing. These definitions may be helpful in developing the definitions:

Physical abuse

Physical abuse may involve hitting, shaking, throwing, poisoning, burning or scalding, drowning, suffocating, or otherwise causing physical harm to a child.

The use of water and oil in ceremonies such as baptism and where oil is used for anointing is perfectly acceptable but subjecting a child to drink substances or the excessive pouring of water or other substance over a child as part of a deliverance ceremony is also physical abuse.

Emotional Abuse

Emotional abuse is the persistent emotional maltreatment of a child such as to cause severe and persistent adverse effects on the child’s emotional development. Some level of emotional abuse is involved in all types of maltreatment of a child, though it may occur alone.

Children and young people often have emotional and spiritual issues and will seek support, guidance and prayer from the church in addressing them. Whilst it is appropriate to pray for a child it is not acceptable to accuse a child of witchcraft ‘kindoki’ and/or forcing them to take part in a deliverance ceremony. This is a form of emotional and spiritual abuse.

Sexual Abuse

Sexual abuse involves forcing a child or young person to take part in sexual activities, whether or not the child is aware of what is happening

Neglect

Neglect is the persistent failure to meet a child’s basic physical and/or psychological needs, likely to result in the serious impairment of the child’s health or development, such as failing to provide adequate food, shelter and clothing, or failing to protect a child from physical and emotional harm or danger, failure to ensure adequate supervision or the failure to ensure a child receives medical care or treatment.

Some children may choose to fast; dependant upon their age and development, the length and type of fasting, and with parental agreement this may be acceptable.

The ritual fasting of a child would be seen as neglect.

Do you agree with the explanation we have given for such abuse? Are there other reasons you would want to include?

Comments: The opening paragraph in this section gives the impression a belief in ‘spirits’ and ‘possession’ is in itself abusive. We would suggest therefore that this section be re-worded.

We would agree with the explanations given, which are based on E Stobart’s research report.

Do you agree with the key warning signs? Are there other signs that professionals working with children should be aware?

Have we highlighted the most relevant considerations for a practitioner? Are there other considerations we should mention?

Comments:

Which services are relevant in these cases of abuse?

In mentioning Faith Groups the consultation document suggests that it is the LA Children’s social care who may be able to advise the faith community. It is also likely that the faith community may be able to assist Children’s Social Care in safeguarding a child.

We believe this section could be written more positively. The vast majority of faith communities engage with families and children in wholesome manner and within the law. If there is a faith community under suspicion, who does the practitioner contact for help? In our experience only CCPAS or AFRUCA will have sufficient contacts in this area to, at the very least, offer support to find out. Organisations such as Inform (London School of Economics) have a database of various religions; they will not, however, give advice. In our view it would be remiss of this guidance not to mention CCPAS as a conduit for engaging with some communities that come under suspicion. It is worth remembering that only two years ago the whole of the Congolese Christian community was under suspicion. The reality in our experience is that the vast majority want to engage with the statutory authorities and adopt child safeguarding policies and procedures. We have acted as a bridge between many of these groups and the statutory authorities and will continue to do so.