Safeguarding deaf children - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

1 / 13
About This Presentation
Title:

Safeguarding deaf children

Description:

Safeguarding deaf children Messages from thematic inspections and surveys Pat O Brien HMI National adviser for social work practice Surveys and thematic inspections ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

Number of Views:160
Avg rating:3.0/5.0
Slides: 14
Provided by: Demo
Category:

less

Transcript and Presenter's Notes

Title: Safeguarding deaf children


1
Safeguarding deaf children
  • Messages from thematic inspections
  • and surveys
  • Pat OBrien HMI
  • National adviser for social work practice

2
Surveys and thematic inspections
  • Protecting disabled children
  • Services for deaf children

3
  • Protecting disabled children
  • Explored the effectiveness of work to protect
    disabled children and young people at all stages
    from early support to the identification of and
    response to child protection concerns.
  • 12 local authorities
  • 173 cases examined, this included 15 deaf
    children

4
A little background
  • Disabled children are more vulnerable to abuse.
  • Research suggests that disabled children are 3.4
    times more likely to be abused.
  • The day to day impact on them of poor parenting
    is likely to be greater than for their
    non-disabled siblings.

5
  • Children with a disability are less likely to be
    the subject of a child protection plan than other
    children in need.
  • The children in need census as at 31 March 2012
    showed that there were 369,400 children in need
    in England of whom 51,800 (14) were recorded as
    having a disability.
  • 42,850 (11.6) of children in need were subjects
    of child protection plans of whom 1,360 (3.2)
    were recorded as having a disability.

6
  • Findings- early support
  • When early concerns for childrens welfare or
    emerging risks arose, in most cases these were
    tackled well.

7
  • Case study
  • Concerns
  • The development of a child diagnosed with a
    significant hearing impairment and subsequently
    with sight impairment was being avoidably
    impaired through the parents reluctance to help
    their child to use hearing aids and spectacles.
    There were also concerns that the child was not
    eating sufficiently. The parents were socially
    isolated and resistant to support. The childs
    health appointments were cancelled
  • How this was tackled
  • The peripatetic teacher for the deaf took the
    role of the lead professional and coordinated an
    action plan with the teacher for visual
    impairment, the health visitor, the nursery
    teacher and the social worker for the deaf to
    tackle the concerns.
  • Outcomes
  • Patient multi-agency work with the parents
    resulted in significant improvements for the
    child who now uses the aids, attends a pre-school
    setting regularly and has made good progress
    overall.

8
  • Response to concerns
  • In the majority of cases appropriate and timely
    decisions were taken by childrens social care to
    assess and investigate concerns referred to them.
  • However, in a sizeable minority of cases
    decisions were taken that no further action was
    needed by childrens social care. These decisions
    were not appropriate given the extent of the
    concerns. In most of these cases there was a
    history of concerns including domestic violence,
    neglect or parental mental health difficulties

9
  • What should you do if childrens social care do
    not respond?
  • Be persistent
  • Raise it with your safeguarding lead

10
  • Recognising neglect
  • When disabled children were receiving services
    from childrens social care as children in need
    too often there were delays in recognising that
    the threshold for child protection had been met.
    Most of these cases related to neglect concerns.

11
Services for Deaf Children
  • This small good practice survey of 13 deaf
    children highlights the key factors underpinning
    effective joint working across agencies with deaf
    children and the positive impact that this has
    had on their lives.

12
Features of good practice
  • Children were central to the work.
  • In the best case examples assessments were
    multi-agency and considered all the childs
    needs.
  • Childrens views were sought and respected and
    they were included well in assessments and
    planning.
  • Parents and professionals worked in partnership
  • Parents felt supported

13
  • What does all this mean for you?
  • Stay child focused
  • Be assertive
  • Know that you can make a difference to ensuring
    that deaf children are safeguarded and protected
Write a Comment
User Comments (0)
About PowerShow.com