To secure child-centred practice, the voice of the child should always be heard at the conference. This means understanding their daily lived experience, their wishes and feelings.
It is important that practitioners recognise that attendance alone at a conference is not participation or giving the child a voice.
There are several ways in which the child can be given a voice at the conference:
- the active offer of advocacy from a statutory Independent Professional Advocate (IPA). Both looked after children and those subject of child protection enquiries leading to an initial child protection conference, are entitled to this offer. The advocate may attend with the child and/or on their behalf (Social Services & Well-being (Wales) Act 2014, Part 10, CoP)
- attendance at the conference, provided the child has the capacity to benefit from their attendance.
- preparing a contribution for presentation at conference. The child should be given help with this, if needed. This may be an appropriate approach if the experience of attending in person is likely to be harmful to the child because of their age, understanding or disclosures of information.
A method should be chosen, in collaboration with the child, which enables the child to have a positive experience.
The role of the chair and social worker
In order to facilitate participation in the conference process, the role of the conference chair and social worker are critical.
- the social worker should explain the purpose of the conference, attendance and process to the young person and seek their views as to how they would like to participate;
- attendance should be facilitated by providing the opportunity to bring an advocate, friend or supporter;
- account must be taken of the child’s language of choice, their preferred medium of communication or any other specific needs;
- the conference chair should meet with the child beforehand, in the conference room and before other people arrive. The should ensure that the child understands what will happen at the conference, how they can contribute and how they can complain, if they so wish to do so;
- the use of jargon free, simple language when talking with the child;
- after the conference, the chair should offer the child an opportunity for immediate discussion and debriefing;
- the social worker should follow this up with a visit within 72 hours;
- if a child disagrees with the conference decisions, they should be given information and advice appropriate to their age and understanding about regional safeguarding board complaints/appeals procedures.
After the conference
The role of the chair
A conference can be distressing and confusing experience for a child or young person. It is important, therefore, that the child has an opportunity to discuss their experience and the outcome immediately after the conference. The chair should offer the child an opportunity for immediate discussion and debriefing. Whilst this should be done by the chair it can be more child-centred to include a practitioner, supporter or advocate that the child knows and trust.
Follow-up visit by social worker
The follow up visit by the social worker should be an opportunity for the child or young person to:
- ask questions and seek clarification;
- reflect on the experience of participating in the conference;
- understand the rationale behind the plan and what it seeks to achieve;
- learn about the roles and responsibilities of those who will be working with the family;
- explore with the worker how they would like to share information about changes to their lived experience so that practitioners can measure the effectiveness of the plan;
- discuss ways in which they would like to be involved in the core group.
Determining whether it is in the child’s best interests not to attend a child protection conference
It is the responsibility of the chair of the conference to decide whether attendance at conference is in the best interest of the child. They should consider whether the child should:
- attend all the conference
- part of the conference
- not attend at all.
When making the decision the factors to consider include:
- the child's chronological age or the child’s functional age indicates that they will have limited ability to understand the process and information;
- the child’s behaviour, which indicates that the conference is likely to be severely disrupted by their presence to the extent that the meeting will not be effective;
- the child is likely to hear information that could be particularly distressing to them;
- the parent or person with parental responsibility does not consent to the child attending the conference. A parent or caregiver who is dismissive of the allegations, seeks to minimise them or is not supportive to the child/young person, is not a reason for the child to not attend the conference. The chair will, however, need to give thought to the conduct of the conference to avoid the child being subjected to further distress. This may include arranging for the child and parents to attend separately and provide their contributions to the conference without the other being present.
If the decision is that the child should not attend or attend part of the conference the chair should:
- be satisfied about arrangements for ensuring the child’s views, wishes and feelings are reported to the conference
- consider whether the child’s advocate should attend and express the child’s views and wishes
- ensure the child is informed of the outcome;
- ensure decision about non/part attendance is in conference records with reasons for this decision.
Pointers for Practice: Giving Children and Young People A Voice in The Conference
Pointers for Practice: Invisible Children Managing Conferences for Sibling Groups