Latest / Inside The Consulting Room - Understanding the Child Behind the Behaviour / Safeguarding Comes First

Transcript

Safeguarding Comes First · Inside The Consulting Room - Understanding the Child Behind the Behaviour

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome back.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Kim Lee, child and adolescent psychotherapist, and this is another episode in the series when a child says no to contact.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm very aware of the fact that some of the content in the podcasts may seem like a restating of previously made comments.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I apologize for this and will do my very best to ensure that this and subsequent podcasts don't keep making the same point.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: I do apologize.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: However, for now, I want to talk about in this episode something which I've spoken about many times before, but in this context perhaps not so much.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: And it's entitled, Safeguarding is not a side issue.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in the last episode, I examined the role of Cafkas and the risks involved when brief assessment is expected to explain a psychologically complex family.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: But today I want to address safeguarding.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: I have done a series on what safeguarding is and how it worked, and that can be found in uh in the list of podcasts on this platform.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: When a child refuses contact and allegations are being exchanged between parents, safeguarding can somehow get absorbed into the wider dispute.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when there are concerns about fear, abuse, or emotional harm, these may be treated as part of the disagreement rather than as matters requiring investigation in their own right.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: And the case becomes described as a contact dispute.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: But safeguarding is not a side issue within a contact dispute.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: It determines whether contact can safely take place at all.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: And this doesn't mean that every expression of concern requires a full-scale child protection investigation.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: It means that concerns should first be assessed on their own merits rather than being dismissed because they arise during family proceedings.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: And really it's quite straightforward.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: The question is, is the child suffering harm or is there a meaningful risk that they may do so?
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, answering it is really straightforward.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Physical injuries may be seen and recorded and produced in evidence, but emotional harm is often much more difficult to identify.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: It can develop gradually through exposure to fear, humiliation, threats, instability, or coercive behaviors.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now a child may not be able to provide a clear disclosure.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: They may not have the words, they may not have the understanding, but instead the concern may appear through changes in their behaviors.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: They may become anxious, aggressive, withdrawn, unusually compliant, they may experience disturbed sleep, physical symptoms, school difficulties, or intense distress around transitions.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: Now, any of these signs can have several explanations, but what gives them meaning is the pattern.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: So what is the presentation?
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: Does it alter before or after contact?
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: And has the same concern appeared in different settings?
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: What, if anything, as has the child said, and to whom?
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: So the task isn't about taking an isolated behavior and declaring it as evidence of abuse.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's to examine whether a series of behaviors, events, and observations begin to form a coherent picture.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: The question is: does everyone see the whole picture and see the child's whole experience?
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Because safeguarding depends upon information being brought together.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Chronology is particularly valuable because it reveals whether concerns are isolated or cumulative.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: It can show repeated changes following contact, escalating distress, patterns of intimidation, or previous occasions when professionals raised similar concerns.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: But it may also show that a parent may have made repeated, unsupported allegations.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: And both possibilities matter.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: The purpose of a chronology is not to build a case, it's to understand what's been happening over time.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: There is a tendency to, or rather, there is also a tendency to think about safeguarding through thresholds.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: Does the case meet the threshold for statutory intervention?
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: Is there significant evidence of and sufficient evidence of harm?
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: And thresholds are necessary because services need to determine what form of response is required.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: But a threshold is a gateway to a service.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a measure of whether the child, or rather how the child has been affected.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: So a child may be experiencing genuine emotional harm without the available evidence leading to a formal child protection action.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now the appropriate responses may involve family support, work with parents, therapeutic intervention, and further assessment or careful monitoring.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: And my preferred option as a clinician is to try and work with both parents because I think it's fair and right to say that sometimes emotional harm occurs in children, not because parents are evil beings, but because they don't understand how what is happening between them is being internalized by the child.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: There are cases where working with parents in this way can bring about a dramatic change and resolution.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: This, of course, requires that both parents engage.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: Sadly, there are times when only one parent will engage, the other will absent themselves, they may maintain a position that they are in fact the victim, and this really tightens up a situation which is already extremely difficult.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I should say that when a referral is closed, it doesn't remove the responsibility of the professionals who remain involved, because they have to continue to observe the child and respond if the situation changes.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: But equally, making a referral should not be treated as though it transfers all responsibility to social care because it doesn't.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: Safeguarding is a shared professional task.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: Current CAFCAT's policy is clear that where a practitioner concludes that a child is being harmed or is at current risk, formal safeguarding procedures must be followed.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: So essentially, we don't have a choice.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's not personal, it's procedural.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: And this can include a referral to the local authority, a risk assessment for the court to undertake under section 16A of the Children Act.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: The policy also requires attention to previous concerns and to what has changed, if and when a child returns to court.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: And that's important because risk doesn't cease to simply matter because it was considered during earlier proceedings.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: Once risk is recorded, it remains recorded and for very good reason.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: The family court and children's social care have related but different responsibilities.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: The court determines the arrangements for the child and makes findings where allegations are disputed.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: Social care assesses the child's welfare and decides what statutory intervention or support might be required.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: But I think confusion arises when each system expects the other to resolve an issue outside its immediate task.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I think one of the difficulties here is where there are gaps in communication between services, families tend to fall down them.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's also important to make clear that the term no further action should never be treated as a universal declaration of safety.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: When no further action is mentioned, it it what it means is that there is insufficient evidence to accurately determine that there is an active or likely risk.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: However, no further action does not mean case closed.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: And professionals need to understand what was assessed, what information was available, and precisely what decisions were made.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Now, another difficulty is that even after separation, abuse may continue.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: It may be through the child, it might be through text messaging or other controlling behaviors, placing demands upon contact, disrupting contact, and a whole host of other things which I have heard about, but people who are in this experience will know only too well how that works.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, contact arrangements provide opportunities for monitoring, intimidation, intimidation, or repeated intrusion into the other parent's life.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: And the child can become the means through which the control is continued.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: And they may be questioned about the other household, asked to carry messages and so on.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: They may be exposed to hostility towards the other parent or placed under pressure to report what happens.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: And this can harm children even when no direct physical abuse occurs.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now, my own view on this is that the law needs to be tightened up where emotional harm is concerned.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: Alongside that, I think educating people about what emotional harm really means is vital.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: So handovers may need to be managed safely, perhaps with another person involved, it could be another family member, and I've certainly seen those happen.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: Communication between adults may need to be limited or structured.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: There are mechanisms for making that happen.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: And solicitors and advocates who work in mediation can comment on those things with a good deal of a good deal of experience.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: I think in some cases, indirect or supervised contact may be necessary while risks are assessed, but supervision is not a solution.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: It may reduce immediate harm, but it can't by itself address coercive behavior.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: It can still happen with supervised contact.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: So what risk really is intended to manage?
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: How will the child's response be monitored?
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: What evidence will be needed before arrangements change?
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: A safeguarding referral must be clear.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: It should identify the specific concerns rather than relying on general language.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: When I make a safeguarding referral, I am obliged to state the facts as I have received them.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: I am also asked to grade the level of concern.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: And we have very significant guidelines where that's concerned.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: How do we grade and at what uh at what threshold does this case really land at?
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: We have to be careful not to be seen to be instructing safeguarding services.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: We do, however, and I certainly do point towards what I think may be indicated.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: But, and this is a really important thing, it's not my role to say that there is clear evidence, unless of course there is, that the child is at risk.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: It is my job to say, I believe the following patterns and disclosures indicate the possibility of risk, but that it is the job of safeguarding to identify exactly what that risk is and also to quantify.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: So, what is the risk and how great is it?
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now, good safeguarding doesn't look only for danger, it also identifies relationships and structures which can help protect the child.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: So, as well as what we call aggravating factors, we're looking at supportive factors.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: So, for example, a child in treatment with me will be seen as someone who has at least one supportive factor, and there will probably there will probably be others as well.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: As professionals, our responsibility is to listen, clarify only what it is necessary for immediate safety, make an accurate record and follow the protocols.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's also essential to tell the child what will happen next.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this can be very difficult because children can feel deeply betrayed when information they believe was private is passed on without explanation.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: But confidentiality cannot be absolute where safety is concerned.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: But it can be handled honestly.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: The child can be told that the professional may need to seek help, who may be informed and why.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: At the outset of treatment, every patient I see is told that what happens in the room is confidential.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: They are perfectly able to talk to people about what happens in the room from their point of view, of course they are, but I am not allowed to communicate what happens inside the room for legal reasons, and a breach of confidentiality has serious consequences for registered clinicians, um, or well, yeah, for registered clinicians, but we have to make a distinction.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: Safeguarding trumps all those things.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: Safeguarding is not about confidentiality, or rather, confidentiality is not about concealment and secrecy.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: If we do not disclose, then we are acting morally incorrectly, but we're also in a sense enabling possibly more of the same.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: So my patients told at the outset, you know, what the difference between confidentiality and privacy and secrecy is.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: And many children are already aware of the fact that there are rules about what is and what isn't okay.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: We're not allowed to promise them an outcome and we don't encourage them to investigate the allegation themselves.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: At the same time, the other parent must not be treated as guilty before the facts have been established.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: Safeguarding requires urgency where urgency is necessary.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: It also requires fairness and disciplined reasoning.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: The question of contact must follow the assessment of safety, not take precedence over it.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: If contact is considered safe, the child may need carefully supported help to restore the relationship.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: And if harm has occurred, the child needs to have adults who can acknowledge it and act upon it.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: Safeguarding isn't about finding reasons to end relationships, it's about creating the conditions in which relationships can be safe.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I think I've certainly seen evidence to support the idea that certain kinds of interventions can really help parents who are stuck in these sorts of cases.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I said at the outset, some parents really do not know that their behavior is causing or is likely to cause harm to their child.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: And it it's not it's not too hard to see why that might be the case.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: But once again, the task is if I'm trying to work with these families, engagement is important.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: A lack of engagement indicates that I have no choice but to call the case in or refer it to safeguarding.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I have to do both at the same time.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: And what is very helpful is, I mean, I can think of a couple of cases where even though a safeguarding referral was in place, the fact that engagement was taking place changed the whole picture because it meant that there was acknowledgement that something was wrong, it was accepted that I had to make a referral, but that I would also be making very clear that the family were engaged, and this this is seen as a strong supportive factor.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: But of course, it isn't always the case that people would engage, and that then becomes a concern to the professionals.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: So the TAF isn't about proving or disproving parental alienation through safeguarding.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's to understand this child in this family at their at this point in their lives, and to make sure that whatever happens next doesn't expose them to further harm.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening, and in the final episode, I will be looking at something that we might call beyond the label.