Assessing the Risk Protecting the Child

Emerging results of the evaluation of an assessment service for known or alleged

perpetrators of sexual abuse, not in the criminal justice system

TRISH O’DONNELL & JON BROWN

EDINBURGH BASPCAN 2015

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Presentation

Context and background to the Guide, known as Assessing the Risk Protecting the Child

Description of the service offered

Evaluation Questions and process

Key Findings from the staff interviews and referrers

Comment on the Service users views to date

Next steps

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About the service

Practice guide for assessing men with:

• Historical convictions pre-dating Sex Offence Act 1997 or no longer subject to registration requirements

• Finding of fact from a family court

• Allegations of sexual abuse but insufficient evidence for a criminal prosecution

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The Assessment Guide

Risk to children posed by the man assessed

Capacity to protect of the protective parent or carer and support needs

Voice of the child - views and wishes of the children

How safe is the child in this family setting?

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Evaluation

How NSPCC staff use the assessment guide and how could it be improved?

How do assessments produced using the guide help child protection decision making?

What do service users think of the assessment process?

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Findings from staff

Practitioners were positive about the fact that the guide includes three perspectives in the assessment: the man posing a risk; the protective parent/carer, and the child. Incorporating the views of the child was especially important, as this aspect had often been missed in earlier NSPCC assessment services for men who pose a sexual risk to children, and was not always covered by local authority social workers.

 

The guide is primarily theory-based, and needs more practical guidance and detail.

 

The guide was intended for use by practitioners who have previous experience of working with sex offenders. In practice, it was also used by those without previous experience, and the information from the training and guide needs further enhancement 

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Findings from Staff continued

Experienced co-workers and managers is essential for practitioners who were new to this area of work, coaching and mentoring particularly when assessing the men

Based on their own experience of using the guide and knowledge of local children’s services teams, practitioners felt that the Guide needed suggested improvements if children’s services social workers without previous experience were to use it

 The impact of assessments could be limited if there are no appropriate intervention services for the men or educational support for the protective parent/carer available locally

 

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Referrers - social workers and managers

Views on the process for conducting assessments and how this could be improved

Views on the quality of the assessment reports and how they could be improved

What influence have the assessment reports had in informing child protection decision making?

What safeguarding actions have been taken as a result of the assessment report?

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Referrers - Main Findings

Generally positive about the outcomes for safeguarding childrenAssessment reports were viewed as rigorous and thorough pieces of work which gave referrers a more detailed understanding of the service user’s life. Sometimes referrers felt that the length of the reports and language used meant that the documents were not always accessible to service users. Reports made clear recommendations and included sufficient evidence to explain how the report author came to those conclusions. In some cases they would have welcomed more guidance from the NSPCC about how to implement the recommendations. 

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Referrers Main findings continued

Mixed views on the time taken to produce the assessment reports.

NSPCC staff had worked hard to engage service users and get them to open up in the assessment sessions.

The assessments helped children to understand more about what had been happening

Helped protective parents or carers understand more about the risks posed by the man.

Some children and protective parents or carers would have benefited from a longer period of input from the NSPCC than the assessment process allowed

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Engaging with service users

Quickly building relationships

Service users not feeling judged

NSPCC perceived as different to children’s services

Focusing on a different angle

Motivated to engage to get contact

“It was really valuable especially because I don't know whether if I'd conducted those assessments myself whether I would have got the same kind of result because obviously I was known as the children’s social worker so you have a different relationship with the family and whether grandfather would have been so open about his actions and I don't know whether that would have been the case” [Referrer 10]

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The process was positive for Fred and he enjoyed the experience. He felt empowered by it. He gained an understanding of controlling behaviour about keeping himself safe, his own boundaries and things like that. I did think the one to one work with the child that was done was excellent. I was really impressed with that and the child actually kept it and was quite proud of it and was able to talk about all the different things that he'd done so that was good for him” [Referrer 14]

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Quality of assessments

Strengths

• Detailed understanding of service user’s lives and views on the allegations

• Brings together evidence to form a rounded picture of the family

• Based on research and theory

• Clear evidence base for decision making

Areas for improvement

• Accessibility for service users

• Descriptions of risk

• Commissioning process

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Influence on child protection decisions

Confirm existing concerns

• Useful to have it confirmed independently

• In writing

• Wait for the report before implementing planned safeguarding actions

Highlight new concerns

• Different perspective on a case

• More in-depth

• Direct influence on safeguarding action

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Protective parents

• The evidence in the report was a turning point for mum as she hadn't realised these behaviours the dad was presenting could have possibly been because of his feelings towards young women. It was backed up with evidence that she'd not had before. That was the most useful bit and that was what we went through with mum and highlighted those areas. I think it will be more helpful in the future so that if Mum is going to have him back and needs to protect her two younger children as they grow up she's equipped to look for those type of behaviours in him and be more vigilant if he was to present those behaviours again at home” [Referrer 11]

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Finally

The staff findings will be used to improve the Guide the training and NSPCC will plan how to share and apply the learning

A final evaluation report bringing together the qualitative findings and the results from the tracking of what happens after each completed assessment will be published in October 2015