Dudley Safeguarding People Partnership are undertaking a monthly thematic learning dissemination, which provides an opportunity for staff and partner organisations in Dudley to be made aware of the key learning from our quality assurance activity and case reviews along with offering information in relation to this learning.
During May the focus has been on Child Neglect as this has been a recurring theme in our adults and children’s reviews.
DSPP seeks to promote a culture of continuous learning and improvement across the organisations that work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and adults, identifying opportunities to draw on what works and promote good practice
Our thematic learning plan is one of the ways we share learning to improve practice.
We would like to share reviews that have links to the theme of Child Neglect:
Prevention, early recognition and management of neglect is a priority in Dudley therefore DSPP has developed the Neglect Strategy which was revised and launched in November 2022.
Graded Care Profile2 is an evidenced based tool developed by the NSPCC to confidently and accurately identify neglect. It should be used where neglect is suspected or known and is a tool that can inform your overall assessment (e.g. Child & Family Assessment, Early Help Assessment or any specialist Health Assessment).
Watch an informative video from NSPCC around GCP2:
In order to use the GCP2 tool you must complete the GCP2 Training – for more information please visit the Learning Zone section of our website.
A short video has been produced to explain the new DSPP Support Level Guidance and Framework, published in March 2023, watch the video here:
https://dudleysafeguarding.org.uk/learning-zone/video-blogs and download the Guidance here
Abusive Head Trauma (AHT) – also known as ‘shaken baby syndrome’ – causes catastrophic brain injuries, which can lead to death, or significant long term health and learning disabilities. AHT is not restricted to specific socio-economic groups – it can occur in any environment, when a parent or carer is on the edge due to infant crying
The programme – ICON: Babies Cry, You Can Cope! – provides key messages and resources to let parents and carers know that infant crying is normal and there are methods which can be taken in order to cope. Resources include leaflets, posters and video clips which can be shared with parents and carers at any contact had with midwives, health visitors, GPs, social workers, and other professionals working with families.
View our ICON webpage for more information
DSPP have posters that can be downloaded below to raise awareness of Child Neglect:
ACEs are highly stressful, and potentially traumatic, events or situations that occur during childhood and/or adolescence
It can be a single event, or prolonged threats to, and breaches of, the young person’s safety, security, trust or bodily integrity. These experiences directly affect the young person and their environment, and require significant social, emotional, neurobiological, psychological or behavioural adaptation.
https://www.youngminds.org.uk/media/ojpon1ut/addressing-adversity-infographic-poster.pdf
Please view this helpful video which illustrates the impact of ACEs on children:
The below DSPP courses are directly linked to the findings of our reviews:
This level 1 package has been designed for multi-agency staff and volunteers who have contact with children and young people who may have safeguarding needs. It is important that everyone is able to recognise concerns around safeguarding and how to raise a concern so that appropriate actions can be taken.
By the end of the session, delegates will have:
By the end of the session, delegates will:
By the end of the session, delegates will
By the end of the session, delegates will:
The training will equip practitioners to:
The DSPP Support Level Guidance and Framework is a vital tool that will support you in your delivery of targeted support services at the earliest opportunity – right through to specialist and statutory interventions when it is needed to promote the welfare and safety of vulnerable children and young people. This course is linked to the ‘DSPP Support Level Guidance and Framework’ which provides the model of integrated working and gives practical guidance on making decisions across service thresholds for practitioners working in Dudley.
This training is designed to equip you with the knowledge, information and skills that you will need to discuss ICON with prospective parents.
This training is for all multi agency partners involved in Child Protection Conferences and will provide information for those taking part in Conferences. The training will cover:
Seven minute briefings are based on a technique borrowed from the FBI. It is based on research, which suggests that seven minutes is an ideal time span to concentrate and learn. Learning for seven minutes is manageable in most services, and learning is more memorable as it is simple and not clouded by other issues and pressures.
As part of the Thematic Learning from reviews we have promoted our Safer7 briefings which are directly linked to the findings of our reviews:
Neglect is the ongoing failure to meet a child’s basic needs. Neglect takes many forms. Neglected children may be left hungry or dirty, without adequate clothing, shelter, supervision, medical or health care. They may be put in danger or not protected from physical or emotional harm. They may not get the love, care, and attention they need from their parents or carers.
This Safer 7 covers affluent neglect, the risks children are exposed to, and the reasons affluent neglect is often overlooked. Affluent neglect refers to the neglect experienced by children in wealthy families.
ICON is a campaign to support parents / carers with ways of coping with a crying baby.
Similar to safer sleeping campaigns, ALL practitioners should take the opportunity, where they can, to be professionally curious about parental stresses and coping with a newborn baby.
It is important for parents to understand these messages.
All professionals that encounter children, parents and carers in their role need to be aware of their safeguarding responsibilities and alert to the needs of vulnerable children and young people. This requires professionals to be curious so that they can effectively identify vulnerabilities and potential or actual risks of harm. Children rarely disclose abuse and neglect directly to practitioners and, if they do, it will often be through unusual behaviour or comments. Which makes identifying abuse and neglect difficult for professionals across agencies. The first step in keeping children safe is to be professionally curious and to engage with children and their families at the earliest opportunity before problems escalate into crisis.
Sharing information is crucial to safeguarding children – poor information sharing is repeatedly highlighted as an issue in CSPRs and SARs.
“Fears about information sharing cannot be allowed to stand in the way of the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of children at risk of abuse and neglect. No practitioner should assume that someone else will pass on information which may be critical to keeping a child safe.” (HM Government, 2015:5)
Disguised compliance involves parents and carers appearing to co-operate with professionals to allay concerns and stop professional engagement (Reder et al, 1993). This can mean that social workers and other practitioners may be unaware of what is happening in a child’s life and the risks they face may be unknown to authorities.
For further information about child neglect in Dudley please visit our Child Neglect webpage
