Strategy Discussions / Meetings

Whenever there is reasonable cause to suspect that a child is suffering or is likely to suffer significant harm, there should be a strategy discussion involving local authority children’s social care (including the residential or fostering service, if the child is looked after), the police, health, and other bodies such as the referring agency, education, early help, or other practitioners involved in supporting the child. This might take the form of a multi-agency meeting and more than one discussion may be necessary. A strategy discussion can take place following a referral or at any other time, including during the assessment process and when new information is received on an already open case. This may be following a Referral and Single Assessment or at any time during an assessment or where a child is receiving support services, if concerns about Significant Harm to the child emerge.

This may be following a Referral and Single Assessment or at any time during an assessment or where a child is receiving support services, if concerns about Significant Harm to the child emerge.

The purpose of a strategy discussion is to determine the child’s welfare and plan rapid future action if there is reasonable cause to suspect the child is suffering or is likely to suffer significant harm.

More than one Strategy Discussion may be necessary.

Where there is more than one Strategy Discussion, care must be taken to monitor the time frames involved so that no child is left for too long without a decision as to what services should be provided or what actions should be taken. Where an Initial Child Protection Conference is to be convene this must be within 15 working days of the Strategy Discussion at which it was decided to initiate the Section 47 Enquiry.

The Strategy Discussion may take place over the telephone or at a meeting.

A Strategy Discussion must take the form of a face to face meeting, chaired by a manager from Children's Social Care Services, if there is concern about one of the following:

• Where there are suspicions of organised or multiple abuse - see Complex (Organised and Multiple) Abuse Procedure;
• Where concerns relate to fabricated or induced illness - see Perplexing Presentations (PP) and Fabricated or Induced Illness (FII) in Children Procedure;
• Where concerns are considered to be complex;
• Following the death of a child, where there are child protection concerns and there are surviving siblings or other identified children who are vulnerable.

A local authority social worker, health practitioners and a police representative should, as a minimum, be involved in the strategy discussion.

Other relevant practitioners will depend on the nature of the individual case but may include those who have concerns about the child and/or those involved in the child’s life, for example:

• The practitioner or agency which made the referral;
• The child’s school or nursery;
• Any health or care services the child or family members are receiving;
• Youth justice practitioner and/or youth worker;
• Adult mental health, substance misuse and/or domestic abuse specialist;
• British Transport Police representative.

All attendees should be sufficiently senior to make decisions on behalf of their organisation and agencies. They should be sufficiently skilled and experienced to prepare for and engage with the strategy discussion and be able to critically assess and challenge their own and others’ input. Where a medical examination may be necessary, or has taken place, a senior doctor from those providing services should also be involved.

If the child lives outside of the area, all agencies that have information about the child and family must be invited to attend or contribute to the Strategy Discussion.

Where required, a legal adviser should be invited, or legal advice sought to inform the Strategy Discussion.

Consideration should also be given to the need to seek advice from or invite a professional with expertise in the particular type of suspected Significant Harm.

Where parents or adults in the household are experiencing problems such as domestic abuse, substance misuse or mental illness, it will also be important to consider involving the relevant adult services professionals.

The Strategy Discussion should be used to:

• Share, seek and analyse available information;
• Agree the conduct and timing of any criminal investigation;
• Consider whether enquiries under section 47 of the Children Act 1989 should be undertaken. It is for the local authority to decide whether to make enquiries and the strategy discussion should inform this decision.

Where there are grounds to initiate an enquiry under section 47 of the Children Act 1989, decisions should be made as to:

• What further information is needed if an assessment is already underway and how it will be obtained and recorded;
• What immediate and short-term action is required to support the child, and who will do what by when;
• Whether legal action is required The timescale for the assessment to reach a decision on next steps should be based upon the needs of the individual child, consistent with the local protocol and no longer than 45 working days from the point of referral into local authority children’s social care.

Lead practitioners should convene the strategy discussion and make sure they:

• Consider the child’s welfare and safety, including through speaking to the child, and identifying whether the child is suffering or likely to suffer significant harm;
• Decide what information should be shared with the child and family (on the basis that information is not shared if this may jeopardise a police investigation or place the child at risk of harm);
• Agree what further action is required, and who will do what by when, where an EPO is in place, or the child is the subject of police powers of protection;
• Record agreed decisions in accordance with local recording procedures;
• Follow up actions to make sure what was agreed gets done.

Health practitioners should:

• Advise about the appropriateness or otherwise of medical assessments, and explain the benefits that arise from assessing previously unmanaged health matters that may be further evidence of neglect or maltreatment;
• Provide and co-ordinate any specific information from relevant practitioners regarding family health, maternity health, school health mental health, domestic abuse and violence, and substance misuse to assist strategy and decision making;
• Secure additional expert advice and support from named and/or designated professionals for more complex cases following preliminary strategy discussions;
• Undertake appropriate examinations or observations, and further investigations or tests, to determine how the child’s health or development may be impaired.

The Police should:

• Discuss the basis for any criminal investigation, including both reactive (where there is evidence to suggest a crime has been committed) and proactive (where further activity is required to establish if a crime has occurred), and any relevant processes that other organisations and agencies might need to know about, including the timing and methods of evidence-gathering;
• Lead the criminal investigation where joint enquiries take place with the local authority children’s social care leading for the section 47 enquires and assessment of the child’s welfare.

Children's Social Care Services are responsible for deciding how to proceed with the enquiries and risk assessment based on the Strategy Discussion/Meeting and taking into account the views of the child, their parents and other relevant parties (e.g. a foster carer). It is important that they ensure that both immediate risk assessment and long term risk assessment are considered. Where the child's circumstances are about to change, the risk assessment must include an assessment of the safety of the new environment (e.g. where a child is to be discharged from hospital to home the assessment must have established the safety of the home environment and implemented any support plan required to meet the child's needs).

The assessment framework set out in Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023 should be followed for assessments undertaken under section 47 of the Children Act 1989. The lead practitioner for section 47 enquiries should be a social worker.

A section 47 enquiry is carried out by undertaking or continuing with an assessment in accordance with the guidance set out in Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023.

Local authority social workers should lead assessments under section 47 of the Children Act 1989. The police, health practitioners, teachers and school staff and other relevant practitioners should help the local authority in undertaking its enquiries.

Purpose

A section 47 enquiry is initiated to decide whether, and what type of action is required to safeguard and promote the welfare of a child who is suspected to be suffering, or is likely to suffer significant harm.

Lead practitioners should:

• Lead the assessment in accordance with this guidance;
• Carry out enquiries in a way that minimises distress for the child and family;
• See the child who is the subject of concern to ascertain their wishes and feelings, assess their understanding of their situation, assess their relationships and circumstances more broadly, and understand the child’s experiences and interactions with others, especially where there are concerns of extra-familial harm;
• Explain to parents or carers the purpose, process and potential outcome of the enquiries and be prepared to answer questions openly, unless to do so would affect the safety and welfare of the child;
• Interview parents or carers and determine the wider social and environmental factors that might impact on them and their child, including extra-familial contexts;
• Systematically gather information about the child’s and family’s history;
• Analyse the findings of the assessment and evidence about what interventions are likely to be most effective with other relevant practitioners;
• Determine the child’s needs and the level of risk of harm faced by the child to inform what help should be provided and act to provide that help;
• Follow the guidance set out in “Achieving best evidence in criminal proceedings: guidance on interviewing victims and witnesses, and guidance on using special measures”, where a decision has been made to undertake a joint interview of the child as part of any criminal investigation.

Health practitioners should:

• Provide appropriate specialist assessments, for example, paediatric or forensic medical assessments, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists and/or child psychologists may be involved in specific assessments relating to the child’s developmental progress. The lead health practitioner (probably a consultant paediatrician, or possibly the child’s GP) may need to request and co-ordinate these assessments;
• Ensure appropriate treatment and follow up health concerns, such as administering missing vaccines.

The Police should:

• Help other organisations and agencies understand the reasons for concerns about the child’s safety and welfare by sharing information and analysis;
• Decide whether or not police investigations reveal grounds for instigating criminal proceedings;
• Make available to other practitioners any other relevant information gathered or known to inform discussions about the child’s welfare;
• Follow the guidance set out in “Achieving best evidence in criminal proceedings: guidance” on interviewing victims and witnesses, and guidance on using special measures, where a decision has been made to undertake a joint interview of the child as part of the criminal investigation.

All involved practitioners should:

• Contribute to the assessment as required, providing information and analysis about the child and family;
• Consider whether a joint enquiry or investigation team may need to speak to a child victim without the knowledge of the parent or carers;
• Approach the work with parents and carers in line with the principles in chapter 1 of Working Together 2023;
• Seek advice and guidance as required and in line with local practice.

The lead practitioner (social worker) is responsible for deciding what action to take and how to proceed following section 47 enquiries. They should make these decisions based on multi-agency discussions informed by the voice of the child.

If local authority children’s social care decides not to proceed with a child protection conference, then other practitioners involved with the child and family have the right to request that local authority children’s social care convene a conference if they have serious concerns that a child’s welfare may not be adequately safeguarded. As a last resort, the safeguarding partners should have in place a quick and straightforward means of resolving differences of opinion.

Where concerns of significant harm are not substantiated

Lead practitioners should:

• Discuss the case with the child, parents and other practitioners and be prepared to answer questions openly and be clear on next steps;
• Discuss whether support from any services may be helpful and help secure it;
• Consider whether the child’s health and development should be re-assessed regularly against specific objectives and decide who has responsibility for doing this;
• Discuss with the family whether they wish to be referred to a family group decision-making forum, such as a family group conference, to determine ongoing support for the child and family.

All involved practitioners should:

• Participate in further discussions as necessary;
• Contribute to the development of any plan as appropriate;
• Provide services as specified in the plan for the child;
• Review the impact of services delivered as agreed in the plan;
• Approach the work with parents and carers in line with the principles set out in chapter 1 of Working Together 2023;
• Seek advice and guidance as required and in line with local practice guidance;
• Consider the plans for ongoing assessment and reviewing the child’s circumstances.

Where concerns of significant harm are substantiated, and the child is judged to be suffering or likely to suffer significant harm

Lead practitioners should:

• Convene an initial child protection conference (see next section for details). The timing of this conference should depend on the urgency of the case and respond to the needs of the child and the nature and severity of the harm they may be facing. The initial child protection conference should take place within 15 working days of a strategy discussion, or the strategy discussion at which section 47 enquiries were initiated if more than one has been held;
• Consider which practitioners with specialist knowledge or relevant professional disciplines should be invited to participate so that the plan will meet the child’s needs;
• Seek to communicate the outcome and rationale to the referring practitioner or agency, and give particular consideration to whether they should be included in the child protection conference;
• Ensure that the child and their parents understand the purpose and who will attend, parents should be given appropriate information to support their participation in the conference;
• Help prepare the child if they are attending or making representations through a third party to the conference;
• Give information about advocacy agencies and explain that the family may bring an advocate, friend, or supporter.

All involved practitioners should:

• Be sufficiently skilled and experienced to prepare for and engage with the child protection conference, and able to critically assess and challenge their own and others’ input;
• Contribute to the information their agency provides ahead of the conference, setting out the nature of the organisations or agency’s involvement with the child and family;
• Offer clear analysis based on their perspective;
• Consider, in conjunction with the police and the appointed conference chair, whether the report can and should be shared with the parents and if so when;
• Approach the work with parents and carers in line with the principles set out in chapter 1 of Working Together 2023;
• Attend the conference when invited and participate in decision-making;
• Seek advice and guidance as required and in line with local practice guidance.

A full written record must be completed by each agency involved in a Section 47 Enquiry, using the required agency proforma, authorised and dated by the staff.

The responsible manager must countersign/authorise Children's Social Care Services Section 47 recording and forms.

Practitioners should, wherever possible, retain rough notes in line with local retention of record procedures until the completion of anticipated legal proceedings.

At the completion of the enquiry, the social work manager should ensure that the concerns and outcome have been entered in the recording system including on the child's chronology and that other agencies have been informed.

Children's Social Care Services recording of enquiries should include:

• Agency checks;
• Content of contact cross-referenced with any specific forms used;
• Strategy Discussion/Meeting notes;
• Details of the enquiry;
• Body maps (where applicable);
• Assessment including identification of risks and how they may be managed;
• Decision making processes;
• Outcome/further action planned.

All agencies involved should ensure that records have been concluded and countersigned in line with agency policies and recording procedures.

All records should be checked for the correct spelling of names and any alias as well as correct dates of birth.