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EFFECTIVELY USING
CHRONOLOGIES IN CHILD
PROTECTION
F.A. Watson
Norfolk County Council
flo.watson@norfolk.gov.uk
Principles (1)
• Provides a factual easy to access
record of key events, agency
intervention, and family responses
• Needs to be objective
• Should be multi-agency
• Helps to identify patterns and
recurring issues
Principles (2)
• Balance to be maintained between being comprehensive and the level of detail needed (purposeful information)
• Needs to be kept up to date
• Needs to be available at all key decision points
Common Problems
• Either no chronology or not up to date
• Limited multi-agency information
• Insufficient historical information (i.e. starts
from the date of the latest referral)
• Conflicting information (eg contradictory
statements)
• Too little detail
• Only selecting negative/positive info.
Comments on Chronologies (1)
• “I despair sometimes that there is so much
emphasis on writing reports that say the
same thing over and over for different
meetings, which doesn’t leave the social
workers sufficient time to do the chronology.
It is the single most powerful tool we have in
Court. Give me a good chronology and I can
make a case.”
Local Authority Solicitor
Comments on Chronologies (2)
• “I have taken note of the excellent
chronology which runs to over 100
pages. It is deeply concerning to have
heard that no chronology was prepared
until just before the decision was taken
to place the matter before the Court.”
Judge in recent care proceedings
What about PLO changes?
• Chronologies need to be pithy (don’t just copy/paste records)
• No more than last 2 years (exceptions incl key incidents you depend on)
• Summarise old information rather than give full detail
• Remove all unnecessary detail – consider the purpose!
Consider the audience!
• Court
• Core group meeting
• Child in need planning meeting
• Child
• Parents
• Serious Case Reviews
Consider Accessibility
• People with disabilities – do they
understand the chronology?
• Does it need to be translated?
• Be careful about
abbreviations/jargon
Chronologies Talk!
• A good chronology is one which ‘talks’ to other documents.
• It is best prepared FIRST (not after you have done the report or statement)
Example One:
Patterns (what Mother said)
• The Context: Pre-birth Assessment
in 2012 for a new baby
• Mother’s Statement: I don’t really
have a problem, now, but you’re
right, last year I was drinking too
much for a couple of months, so I
went through a detox.
Example One:
Patterns (the report)
• The problems identified with Ms Doe’s
parenting capacity are related to:
• Ms Doe’s substance misuse
• Ms Doe’s own volatility and emotional
health problems
• The Doe children witnessing domestic
abuse
• Ms Doe’s failure to fully cooperate with
professional services there to assist
Example One:
Patterns (chronology) 1. Children’s Services records indicate in the
past Jenny and John witnessed and were subject to a number of events where Lizzie Doe was highly intoxicated and or under the influence of illegal substances (e.g. 30/08/2002, 03/01/2005, 14/09/2005, 04/12/2006, 25/03/2008, 02/04/2008, 23/04/2008, 13/05/2008, 01/09/2008, 24/09/2008, 01/12/2008, 03/12/2008, 26/02/2009, 25/03/2009, 30/04/2009, 25/06/2009, 30/12/2010, 01/03/2011, 02/03/2011, 07/04/2011, 21/07/2011).
Example Two:
I never got any help! (what
mother said)
• “No one has really listened to me. I’ve been asking for help for years and they haven’t given me the help I need. I love my children; I’ve always been there for them. We’ve had a lot of problems because of Jim and Andy [partners] being violent and I’ve wanted the help but they never gave me any.”
Example Two:
I never got any help! (the report) A review of the chronology indicates a number
of recurring characteristics to family life:
• Ms Blog’s unstable mental health;
• Allegations of domestic abuse;
• Ms Blog’s emotional volatility/violence;
• Ms Blog feeling she is not coping and a chaotic home life
• Ms Blog asking for help but rejecting what is available (or failing to follow through to maximise its use)
Example Two:
I never got any help!
(chronology)
• 20 examples of help offered and not taken up (including free childminding, lifts offered, free nursery places, Sanctuary Scheme, etc)
• 14 examples of financial help accepted (including £900 worth of carpets, paying fuel bills, petrol costs, rent arrears, etc)
Example Three:
The devil is in the (multi-agency)
detail! (what family said)
• She’s good at lies – really good. No
one believes me, when I say it but she’s
got real problems and it’s not good for
the kids. She’s completely turned Dua
against me (Father)
• I think she’s nuts; it’s better at Dad’s. I
don’t care if I never see her again (Uno)
Example Three: The devil is in the (multi-
agency) detail! (Letter to Court)
We were concerned about the high number of referrals to health services for the girls, resulting in unnecessary visits to health professionals, raising a question about possible fabricated illness. Based on the chronology, it is the Consultant Paediatrician’s view there has been overuse of health services related to the mother’s anxiety; but there is no evidence this parent is doing anything deliberately to make either child unwell, and therefore this is not a case of fabricated illness.
Example Three: The devil is in
the (multi-agency) detail!
(chronology)
• 76 pieces of information from Health records
• 5 pieces of information from Education records
• 19 pieces of information from Police records
• 40 pieces of information from Children’s Services records
• 29 pieces of information from Court documents and Cafcass
• 8 pieces of information from Refuges
Example Four:
Chronology ‘saved the day’! • Originated as private law case
• Parents separated amidst allegations of
repeated DV from father – children with
mother
• Mother with substance misuse problem
• Father seeking residence/contact
• Fact finding hearing scheduled
Example Four:
Contemporaneous Evidence • Mother abandoned children to
grandmother
• Care application
• ‘He said/she said’
• Except – chronology detailed incidents
observed by school teachers, and
childminders, and reported by children
A Deficit Model?
Example (House Cleaning and Daily
Routines)
• Since February I have visited the family
every fortnight. On 2 visits I had
concerns about cleaning (Jane’s bed
was dirty because she wet herself the
night before). On all other visits, the
overwhelming majority, I had no
concerns, which shows the family is
now able to maintain improvements.
Summary
• Share chronologies with other agencies and get them to add their information too (eg at core group meetings).
• Use chronologies in case supervision.
• If a chronology is incomplete at transfer, allocate someone to trawl through old files and bring it up to date
• Don’t delay – do your chronology today!
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