This summary guide is for practitioners attending an initial child protection conference where there are concerns about child sexual abuse. It explains how all these practitioners can best help the child before and during the conference.
It is also relevant to other practitioners working with the child, helping them understand what will happen at an initial child protection conference.
What is an initial child protection conference?
When a child protection enquiry has found that a child is suffering or is at risk of significant harm, an initial child protection conference will be convened within 15 working days of the multi-agency strategy discussion that launched the child protection enquiry. Chaired by a senior social work manager, it brings together the practitioners most involved with the child and their family, alongside (in many cases) the child themselves, their non-abusing family members, and the child’s advocate/supporter.
The purpose of the conference is to:
- share and evaluate information between agencies about the child’s health, development, wellbeing and family history
- assess whether the child has been significantly harmed or is at continued risk of being harmed, and the needs of the child and their family
- assess the non-abusing parent(s)’ capacity to ensure the child’s safety and promote their wellbeing
- decide whether a child protection plan should be put in place.
How may the child be feeling?
The child may experience a range of emotions when they know a child protection conference is being held.
- They may feel anxious, pressured, or embarrassed to discuss what happened.
- If images of them have been found, they may worry about who saw these.
- They may feel blamed by their family or responsible for distress, especially if a sibling has harmed them.
- They may not realise they are at risk or abuse.
Attending the conference alone can be overwhelming and intimidating – children often feel they go unheard, lack influence or cannot express themselves. Support from a trusted person they feel comfortable with, who can explain things, voice their needs and take notes, is important.
If the child chooses not to attend the conference, they may later regret this – and if they are not invited to attend, they are likely to feel resentful.
“[My social worker] was really helpful because she wrote stuff down that I actually did say and read it back to me and said it at the meetings.”
“Every time I went to speak [in the meeting], someone interrupted me and that really annoyed me so I was like right I’m going, I’ve got to get to school.”
“I didn’t lie but there was a sense of awkwardness when you know you should say something but you don’t want to say it in front of certain people.”
“I think it can be a bit, the questions that they ask, well if I answer them then I am going to like upset you know my mum.”
For the sources of the quotations above, please download our full guide to this stage of the Response Pathway.
The conference will rely on good-quality information from all the practitioners involved.
- The social worker’s report – usually their child protection enquiry/assessment report – should clearly state the concerns (including sexual abuse), information relating to these concerns, the child/family characteristics and circumstances, and concerns about specific people around the child.
- If the child has had a paediatric medical assessment, or any other health tests/check-ups in connection with the sexual abuse, the medical professional(s) involved should provide a report to the conference.
- The police Officer in the Case should provide information about any adults of concern in the child’s life, and any previous concerns of sexual abuse or abusive behaviours relating to those adults and/or the child; it should also outline any current police investigations and plans to interview the child formally and/or take action to disrupt individuals’ activity around the child.
- Other practitioners invited to provide the conference with a report should focus on what they or their organisation know about possible signs or indicators of sexual abuse and its impacts on the child, and any family vulnerabilities.
Whatever your role, if you will be sharing information at the conference you should:
- tell the child and the non-abusing parent(s) before the day of the conference what information you will be sharing, unless telling them would be unsafe and put the child at risk
- report your understanding of what the child and the parent(s) want from the conference, including points of agreement or disagreement within the family. It is important that the child feels their circumstances are accurately reflected.
Before the initial child protection case conference, speak with the child (if they are capable of understanding) and their non-abusing parent(s) to:
- ensure they know the conference is happening and what it will involve, including helping them to understand how they can participate
- clarify what support might be needed to enable them to participate
- ensure the child knows they can bring an advocate – such as an independent sexual violence adviser (ISVA) or a child and young person’s sexual violence advocate (CYPSVA/CHISVA) – or someone else to support them
- ask them whether they think any other professionals, such as a youth worker or a school pastoral care worker, should attend the conference
- explain the purpose of the conference, what decisions and actions could be made, and why
- establish what help and support the child wants at this stage, and what they hope will happen next and in the future
- reassure and remind the child that they did the right thing by asking professionals for help
- ensure the child has an opportunity to share their views, wishes and feelings if they are not attending.
If the child, their non-abusing parent(s) and/or their advocate/supporter will be attending the conference, you have a responsibility to meet with them before the conference. You should also:
- consider whether necessary arrangements have been made to enable the child and parents to participate fully, bearing in mind their personal characteristics and how these might increase their vulnerability and shape their participation and response to the conference’s decision-making
- review the concerns and all information that is being presented.
Where there are concerns that a parent/parental figure or other adult family member may have abused the child, it is not appropriate for them to attend the conference.
In cases involving concerns about child sexual abuse, the initial child protection conference provides an opportunity to consider all the available information – and, based on this, to analyse the likelihood of (further) sexual abuse, being clear about who might pose a sexual risk to the child and why. It can also consider wellbeing support for the child and their non abusing parent(s), and it will develop a plan to keep the child safe. Whatever your role, you should:
- listen to the child to hear what they want to happen, either directly from them (in person or having had their views recorded in writing or on video) or via their social worker or advocate/supporter
- mainatin a focus on child sexual abuse when there is uncertainty about whether the abuse has happened or the police have decided not to take further action at this time. The police apply a different legal standard than children's social care.
The initial child protection conference will conclude with an inter-agency agreement on whether the child should be made the subject of a child protection plan under a specific category or categories of harm; if this happens, the outline plan will be discussed at the conference and a core group will then be convened.
If it is decided that the child is no longer at risk of harm because of action that has already been taken:
- they may be placed on a Child in Need plan (or a care and support plan in Wales)
- a Family Help response (or early help response in Wales) may be considered.
- A decision may be made that the child/family need no further support from children’s social care.
All professionals should remember that this can be a scary time for the child and their family, who need to understand what is happening and why.
After the conference, the social worker should:
- tell them the outcome if they were not present
- give them, and other family members, an opportunity to discuss what was discussed and decided if they were present.
The social worker should also think carefully about what information to share with a family member about whom there are sexual abuse concerns.
There can be a reluctance to place children on plans under the category of sexual abuse because it is felt that there is not enough ‘evidence’ of sexual abuse to do so. Remember that the legal threshold for safeguarding is ‘the balance of probabilities’, not ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ and so if there is evidence that a child has, on the balance of probabilities, been sexually abused they should be registered as such.