Share Cymraeg English

Preparing reports for conference

Section 3 part 2

When preparing reports for an initial child protection conference, it is important practitioners are aware the tasks for the conference are:

  1. making sense of the information obtained from the family and practitioners to identify concerns and strengths;
  2. drawing on professional judgement to decide whether the child is at continued risk of significant harm;
  3. deciding whether the child’s name should be placed on the child protection register and that they need a care and support protection plan.

Reports should be focused on providing relevant, proportionate information enabling the conference participants achieve these tasks.

It is important that significant conference time is spent on the conference tasks rather than sharing information.

Agency representatives must therefore come to the conference:

  • expecting to summarise their report and highlight important points;
  • interpret, analyse and explain their information for the benefit of other conference attendees;
  • provide a view at the conference, based on the information shared, as to whether the child is at risk of harm and their name should be placed on the child protection register.

The social worker’s report

The social worker’s report should:

utilise the domains and dimensions of Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families;

  • not include a view or opinion on registration as this decision will be made based on all evidence considered during the conference.

The report itself should include:

  • the assessment so far;
  • a chronology of significant events and agency and practitioner contact with the child and family, including:
  • a list in date order of the events that lead to the child protection conference;
  • areas where more information is needed should be highlighted;
  • (Section 3 part 1 for information on preparing chronologies).
  • significant aspects of the child’s current and past state of health and development;
  • report of the section 47 enquiries and brief description of events;
  • information on the capacity of the parents and other family members to ensure the child’s safety from harm, and to promote the child’s health and development;
  • the expressed views, wishes and feelings of the child, parents and other family members;
  • assessment of risk of harm and any actions taken;
  • an analysis of the implications of the information obtained for the child’s future safety, health and development;
  • recommendations for future work with the child and family.

The social worker must be prepared to provide a clear verbal summary and analysis to the conference to help decide what is needed to protect the child.

Pointers for Practice: Preparing A Social Work Report for Conference Invisible Children

Contributing practitioner reports

When preparing reports practitioners should:

  • ensure written reports are available to the chair 2 working days before the conference
  • come to the conference expecting to summarise their report and highlight important points;
  • distinguish between what is fact, observation, allegation or opinion.
  • utilise the domains and dimensions of Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families when preparing their reports.
  • draw chair’s attention to any particularly sensitive or confidential information and/or concerns about possible violence or intimidation.

The written report, should summarises the agency’s:

  • basic information about the child and family;
  • up to date chronology;
  • involvement with the family. this includes checking records for factual data such as immunisation history, clinic attendance, A&E attendance and school attendance;
  • their involvement with the family and their relationship with different family members;
  • knowledge of involvement in current incident/cause for concern;
  • past concerns, who concerns were shared with and any actions taken and by whom;
  • frequency of contact and date last seen for each child;
  • assessment of current issues/family strengths and risk factors to each child;
  • knowledge of the health and development of each child who is being considered at conference;
  • view of the parents’ capacity to safeguard the child and promote their well-being;
  • relevant information in relation the adult caregiver should be included in agency reports. this is especially important when there are factors such as adult mental ill health, alcohol or substance misuse, which have a bearing on the adult care givers capacity to meet the needs of, or protect, a child.

Health reports

Where health advice is crucial to the conference deliberations, the conference should be scheduled to ensure that the examining doctor(s) or locality/community paediatrician is able to attend.

If due to exceptional circumstances, the doctor cannot attend, he or she must submit a written report and the chair of the conference should read the health findings, in full, to the conference.

Only a health practitioner should undertake any further interpretation of the report, although the conference can, and should, explore the extent to which any diagnosis excludes any other alternatives to explain apparent abuse or injuries to a child.

If the conference is not clear as to the contents or the interpretation of the report, arrangements should be made by the chair to seek clarification.

Child protection medical reports may be discussed within conferences, but this cannot be distributed with reports of the conference and good practice would be for these reports to be summarised. There is an expectation that the contents of the child protection medical report will have been shared and discussed with the family in advance of the conference, whether the doctor can attend or not.

Any delay should not prejudice the safety of the child.

In cases of conflicting health opinion, the chair should request that the doctors involved review their findings jointly with the interests of the child in mind. If they are unable to establish common ground, they should be asked to explain their differences. Their views must be considered in the context of the other information available. If resolution is not possible, a further expert opinion may need to be commissioned to review the Health findings in order to offer a definitive opinion.

Pointers for Practice: Preparing Reports for Conference

Specific information required from different agencies

If more than one child in the family is being considered at the conference, it is important that each child is treated individually and that the impact of parenting capacity and family environmental factors are considered in relation to EACH child. Each child will have an individual report.

Health practitioners including CAMHS

Health practitioners will collate all relevant Health information. They should provide chronologies and reports which collate all the relevant health information appropriate to that practitioner and make clear links between events and their significance for the child. For example, the consequences for the child of non-attendance at physiotherapy sessions.

This should include information about adult caregivers if pertinent to the enquiry.

The information should be presented in a manner that non-health practitioners can understand. ‘a child is on 93 centile for weight’ means little unless it is specified this means the child is overweight as opposed to 98 centile which means the child is obese.

Information pertaining to parents and caregivers should be included in so far as it effects parental capacity to adequately provide for the health, safety and well-being of the children.

There may be instances where multiple health professionals will be invited to provide information.

GPs

Must always receive an invitation and provide a written report. This report should be evidenced-based, relevant and child-focused and make specific the child’s health needs and how they are and are not being met by the parent or carer. For example, a pattern of ear infections which do not appear to respond to medication may be a result of the parent indicating to the GP they ‘forgot’ to complete the course. They should always receive a copy of the records made.

Education and school practitioners

Education practitioners should provide a written report that includes information about educational provision, school attendance, attainment and caregiver’s engagement. They must also comment on other aspects of the child’s development, such as their social relationships, social presentation, identity, emotional and behavioural development.

Police

Must check records of all known adults who have a significant involvement with the child and check domestic abuse records. Their report needs to contain all previous convictions relating to drugs or alcohol, violence including domestic abuse, sexual offences or dishonesty, as well as details of other incidents, cautions or information that may be relevant and specify how the offences are likely to impact on the safety, care and support needs of the child.

National Probation Service and Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs)

Will check records including licence conditions and provide a written report specifying how the offences are likely to impact on the safety, care and support needs of the child. It is vital that consideration is given to the role probation plays in supporting this process at the earliest stages.

Adult services

[Practitioner(#tooltip) should be prepared to report on their involvement with the adult service user and any adult-oriented issues such as learning disability, domestic violence, drug and alcohol misuse or mental health concerns that may affect parental ability and motivation to meet the safety, care and support needs of the child.

Representatives of other agencies

Will prepare and provide written reports as appropriate. They must ensure that the reports are child-centred and focus on the way in which their knowledge of socio-economic factors and parenting capacity are impacting the health and development of their child.

Sharing reports with the family

All report authors, from all relevant agencies must share, discuss and explain their reports with families at least the day before the conference. They should use communication methods commensurate with the needs of the various family members.

This ensures:

  • family members are aware of report contents prior to the meeting;
  • can draw attention to any factual inaccuracies;
  • have time to make sense of the report contents.