3.3.7 Strategy Meetings and Section 47 Enquiries |
This chapter was substantially amended in September 2010 and should therefore be read as a whole.
This procedure should also be read in conjunction with the London Child Protection Procedures, Child Protection Enquiries Procedure, Section 7.5, Strategy Meeting/Discussion and Working Together 2010, Paragraph 5.5.6
Contents
1. Strategy Discussions and Meetings
1.1 Purpose of the Strategy Discussion or Meeting
Please refer to Working Together 2010, Paragraph 5.56 and London Child Protection Procedures, Child Protection Enquiries Procedure, Section 7.5, Strategy Meeting/Discussion.
The purpose of the Strategy Discussion or Meeting is to agree whether the threshold for significant harm or likely significant harm is met and to develop a plan of action for S47 Enquiries. More than one Strategy Discussion may be necessary.
It should be used to:
- Ensure all relevant information is available to all participants. This will involve evaluating the information and confirming the need for S47 enquiries as well as identifying further information required which is not currently available.
- Agree responsibility and plan the scope of the enquiries including completion of agency checks.
- Agree the conduct and timing of any criminal investigation with the Police Child Abuse Investigation team or other police unit i.e. Sapphire or Trident.
- Consider other children possibly at risk who are members of the same household, or in the household of or in contact with an alleged perpetrator.
- Plan when to discuss the concerns with the parents and obtain consents for interviews, assessments and medical examinations.
- Plan when to see the children, including whether any specific factors should be taken into account and whether this should be a visually recorded interview; if so, the lead interviewer must be nominated and a planning meeting arranged in accordance with Achieving Best Evidence Procedures.
- Agree the tasks, including the need for any medical assessment and/or treatment, who will carry out what actions and by when.
- Agree what action is required immediately and in the short term to safeguard the child and/or provide interim services and support.
- Agree what information will be shared with whom and when, taking into account whether information sharing may place a child at increased risk of harm or jeopardise any criminal investigation.
- When relevant, consider the implications for any possible disciplinary action e.g. use of evidence statements.
- Where information indicates a history of violence and threatening behaviour by the parents towards professionals, consider the risks to the child/ren and to staff, determine a strategy for managing the risk and agree joint action as appropriate.
- Agree the need for further Strategy Discussions and/or Meetings, in particular when circumstances are complex or unknown.
1.2 Pre-Birth Strategy Meetings
Pre-Birth Strategy Meetings must also decide any required action by Midwifery staff when the baby is born.
The parents should be informed as soon as possible of the concerns and the need for assessment, except on the rare occasions when guidance advice suggests this may be harmful to the health of the unborn baby and/or mother.
The plan should reflect the requirement to convene an Initial Child Protection Conference within 15 working days of the (last) Strategy Discussion / Strategy Meeting.
1.3 Timescale of Strategy Discussion / Meeting
Strategy Discussions / Meetings should be held within a maximum of 3 working days of the Referral, except in the following circumstances:
- For allegations / concerns indicating a serious risk to the child e.g. serious physical injury or serious neglect), the Discussion / Meeting must be held on the same day the referral is received.
- For allegations of penetrative sexual abuse, the Strategy Discussion / Meeting must be held on the day the referral is received if this is required to ensure forensic evidence.
- When emergency action is or has been taken by the Police or Children’s Services, the Strategy Discussion must be held within 1 working day.
- If the child is in a hospital setting and there are child protection concerns a Strategy Discussion / Meeting must take place within that setting before the child leaves it.
- When the concerns are particularly complex e.g. organised abuse, the Strategy Meeting must be held within a maximum of 5 working days, but sooner if there is a need to provide immediate protection to a child.
1.4 Who Should be Involved
The Strategy Discussion must involve at a minimum the Children’s Social Care and Police, as well as other agencies involved with the family, including the referring agency, the child’s nursery / school and health.
In the case of a pre-birth Strategy Meeting, this should involve the Midwifery Service.
1.5 When a Face-to-Face Meeting is Required
A Strategy Discussion by telephone will usually be adequate to plan a S47 enquiries. Face to face meeting should be held where the concerns for the child are more complies.
1.6 Venue for Strategy Meetings
Strategy Meetings should be held at a location convenient for the key attendees to maximise attendance, including Children’s Specialist Services offices, Police Station, Health Centre or Hospital.
2. Strategy Meeting/Discussion - Action for Team Manager
The Strategy Discussion must be chaired by a Team Manager and recorded on FWi via the New Episode on the Person Screen.
The Team Manager has the responsibility, based on available information, to decide and authorise that S47 enquiries be undertaken. In reaching her/his conclusion as to the justification for S47 enquiries, the manager must consider the following variables:
- Seriousness of the concern/s.
- Repetition or duration of concern/s.
- Vulnerability of the child (through age, developmental stage, disability or other predisposing factor e.g. whether s/he is a looked after child).
- Source of the concern/s.
- Accumulation of sufficient information.
- Context in which the child is living - e.g. whether there is a child in the household already subject of a Child Protection Plan.
- Any predisposing factors in the family that may suggest a higher level of risk e.g. mental health difficulties, substance misuse of parent / carer or domestic abuse.
Agreed actions, the persons responsible and the agreed time scale must be recorded.
It is the responsibility of the Team Manager to ensure that these decisions are fully recorded and a copy should be made available immediately for all participants.
For telephone discussions, a copy of the notes authorised by the Team manager must be sent to all participants.
3. Duty to Undertake S47 Enquiries
Children’s Specialist Services has a statutory duty to undertake S47 enquiries in any of the following circumstances:
- When for a child who lives or is found in its area, there is ‘reasonable cause to suspect that a child has suffered or is likely to suffer significant harm’.
- When a child is subject to an Emergency Protection Order.
- When a child is subject to Police Powers of Protection.
- Where a child under 10 is in breach of a Child Curfew Order.
- When a person who has been convicted of or cautioned for an offence against a child and is considered to pose a risk to children moves into the household or has regular contact with a child.
Responsibility for undertaking S47 enquiries lies with the Children’s Services for the area in which the child lives or is found, even though the child is ordinarily resident in another local authorities area.
Where a S47 enquiry is to be conducted in relation to a child who is ordinarily resident in the area of another local authority, her/his home authority must be informed as soon as possible, and be involved as appropriate in the Strategy Discussion / Strategy Meeting. See London Child Protection Procedures, Mobile Children and Families Procedure, Section 11.9, Inter-borough Arrangements for Child Protection Enquiries.
3.1 Purpose of S47 Enquiries and TimeScale
The purpose of the S47 enquiries is to determine whether any further action is required to safeguard and promote the welfare of the child/ren who is/are the subject of the enquiry.
3.2 Pre Birth S47 Enquiries
Following a pre-birth referral and Child and Family Assessment, a decision to undertake s47 enquiries may be taken if:
- There has been a previous unexplained death of a child whilst in the care of either parent.
- A parent or other adult in the household is a risk to children offender.
- A sibling in the household is subject of a Child Protection Plan.
- A sibling has previously been removed from the household by Court order or accommodated as a result of concerns regarding significant harm.
- The mother is under the age of 16 and there are concerns about the young woman or the baby.
- Domestic abuse is known to have occurred.
- The degree of parental mental illness / impairment is likely to significantly impact on the baby’s safety or development.
- There are concerns about the prospective parent/s’ ability to care for themselves and/or to care for the child, e.g. a young parent with no support or who has a learning disability.
- Any other concern exists that the baby may be at risk of significant harm including a parent previously suspected of fabricated or induced Illness in a child or a future parent who has been the subject of fabricated or inducing illness as a child themselves.
4. S47 Enquiries - Action for Social Worker
S47 enquiries should focus primarily on the information identified during the referral, Child and Family Assessment and Strategy discussion.
The child must always be seen as part of a S47 Enquiry or the mother if unborn. If you have been unable to see the child for any reason you must discuss this with your manager as a matter of urgency.
The Social Worker must seek the agreement of her/his manager and obtain legal advice before initiating legal action if emergency action is necessary either when the referral is received or at any point during involvement with children, parents or carers, where there is evidence that the risk to the child is sufficiently acute.
As best practice parental consent should be obtained to interview the child or complete medical examinations. If this is refused it must be brought to the attention of the manager immediately. However, if the child is at risk of significant harm, interviews under Section 47 can be conducted without consent.
Relevant agencies should be informed of the reasons for the S47 enquiries, whether parental consent has been obtained and asked for their assessment of the child in view of the information presented.
Any Agency checks should be made directly with involved professionals. The information request letter should only be sent when direct attempts have been made to speak with the professional concerned and they are not available or if they wish the request to be confirmed in writing.
Requests for Agency checks must be followed up by the social worker and if there is still no reply after phone calls or the letter, this is recorded by the social worker and reported to their manager. Agency Checks must be recorded in the relevant part of the Section 47/Strategy Discussion episode.
Recording of information/findings from completion of Agreed Actions MUST be completed on the Outcome of S47 Enquires on FWi. It must not be recorded in casenotes or in the Child and Family Assessment. This includes any additional Agreed Actions/Findings from subsequent Strategy Discussions.
The analysis should refer to the reason for S47 enquiries and should be structured to include:
- Positives/Strengths
- Vulnerabilities/Risks
- An analysis and of risk in relation to likely/significant harm - this can be referenced to the London Continuum of Need
- Social worker’s view about the risk to the child and your recommendations
5. S47 Enquiries - Actions for Managers
The Manager/PSW should read the full documents completed by the social worker to ensure all checks/actions were completed fully and findings recorded.
A decision must be made as to whether:
- Concerns are not substantiated;
- Concerns are substantiated, but the child/young person is not judged to be at continuing risk of significant harm;
- Concerns are substantiated, and the child/young person is judged to be at continuing risk of significant harm.
Where the child is considered to be at continuing risk of harm at the conclusion of the investigation there should be consultation with a Child Protection Co-ordinator in the Safeguarding Standards Unit.
Agreement should be reached within 48 hours as to whether an Initial Child Protection Conference will be convened in order to meet the 15 day timescale. If this does not take place then the reason for delay must be recorded by the Team Manager on FWi in casenotes.
The record of this consultation must be placed on FWi by the CP Co-ordinator.
It is a best practice standard that agencies involved and other relevant professionals should receive a copy of the record of the strategy discussion.
6. Integration with Child and Family Assessment and the Assessment Framework
A Child and Family Assessment is the means by which S47 enquiries are carried out and must be commenced whenever the criteria for S47 are satisfied.
Enquiries and assessment should always involve separate interviews with the child and, in the majority of cases, the parents, and the observation of interaction between the parent and child. Any discussions with children should be conducted in a way that minimises distress; leading or suggestive communication must be avoided and interviews must follow the Achieving Best Evidence guidance.
If the child is too young to be interviewed or communication is difficult for any reason, alternative means of understanding the child’s wishes and feelings should be used.
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