September will see the end of the summer holiday period and the start of a new school term for children in education, and a new legal term for professionals involved in child protection.
For the latter, September is typically one of the most challenging times of the year. Earlier this summer we prepared two blogs that go some way to providing an explanation for this. Our new Deputy Panel Manager and Independent Social Worker, Dave Butterworth, prepared an article entitled Summer’s Missing Children and one of our Administrators, Mellissa Pye (a former primary school teacher), wrote about the hidden dangers of the school holidays.
The importance and value of schools’ safeguarding function can be seen not only in Dave’s and Mellissa’s accounts but also in a recent report from Ofsted (which addressed the lack of visibility of vulnerable children during the pandemic). Further, the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care described school staff as being “the eyes and the ears of the child protection system” and it consequently recommended that “Schools should be made a statutory safeguarding partner and contribute to the strategic and operational delivery of multi-agency working”.
Teachers’ important role in safeguarding children
The return of children to the classroom offers opportunities for safeguarding risks to be identified and acted upon – opportunities that by virtue of schools’ closure over the 6-week long summer break will have been much more restricted and, therefore, less likely to have come to the prior attention of safeguarding authorities.
This summer has been one of national discontent, particularly with families that are already struggling (owing to the fall-out of the pandemic) now facing increasing additional pressures in the form of the excessive rise in the cost of food, electricity and fuel. It does not take too great a stretch of the imagination to anticipate how that pressure has negatively impacted upon parents (by causing conflict within their relationships or aggravating underlying vulnerabilities such as mental health or use of intoxicants) and compromised the standard of care provided to their children.
Pressures on children’s services
It can be anticipated that the re-opening of schools this September will see a marked rise in the number of referrals beyond those that Children’s Services typically receive. Correspondingly, this influx is likely to place additional demands and pressures on social workers to conduct assessments, engage relevant support services and escalate if required. This must also be seen in the current context of social workers’ already burgeoning caseloads, the shortage of children’s social workers reaching a five-year high and Local Authorities’ capacity to meet families’ needs being compromised accordingly.
The same is also likely to be true for legal professionals practicing in public law work (including the judiciary) who may well find themselves called on to intervene in the next few weeks. Many of those professionals are already meeting themselves coming back with pre-existing cases failing to conclude promptly.
The latest government statistics suggest that the average time for care/supervision cases to reach first disposal was 49 weeks in January to March 2022, up 6 weeks from the same quarter in 2021 and the highest average since 2012. It is hoped for practitioners’ sakes that the President of the Family Division’s guidance in terms of management of risks outside the court arena (as set out in the Public Law Working Group’s March 2021 guidance) and case management (making every hearing count) will deliver some reprieve.
Helping ease the burden
The government’s response to (and, hopefully, implementation of) the recommendations of the Independent Review of Children’s Services cannot come soon enough.
However, until such time as change comes, we’re here to help. Our expert panel of Independent Social Workers and Parenting Practitioners can assist at every stage of intervention… whether this be completing assessments and providing family support on initial referral; completing assessments of parents or kinship carers & providing targeted support at more advanced stages of intervention (child protection, pre or during proceedings); or preparing discharge assessments.
Our strength lies in the quality, expertise and depth of our panel; our associates’ availability to promptly meet the needs of the children and families you’re working with and their commitment to achieving best outcomes for children
September looks like it’ll be a challenge but if we can help by making things a little easier for you, we’d be delighted.
