Child sexual exploitation is an insidious form of child abuse that has damaging and long lasting impacts,writes Emilie Smeaton, research director of Paradigm research.
Over the past two years there has been an explosion of media attention upon child sexual exploitation (CSE)and a general awareness among professionals that children from a range of social and ethnic backgrounds experience, or are at risk of, this abuse.
Despite the voluntary sector working tirelessly to address CSE and the government publishing guidance and an Action Plan, the needs of victims are often not met. In many parts of the country, a lack of preventative and responsive measures hinder effective support for those affected by, and vulnerable to, CSE.
My series of seven specialist guides, published this week on Community Care Inform, is a timely publication and provides examples of good practice by drawing upon the experiences of specialist services working with children and young people who experience CSE. The guides also present evidence-based learning from research and government guidance.
They will enable social workers and others to: understand the context within which sexual exploitation takes place; recognise warning signs and consider a range of important factors when working with children and their families so an effective strategic and operational approach can be taken.
The seven guides focus upon the following:
• The first defines child sexual exploitation, outlining the policy and legal framework, highlighting what is known about its prevalence and considering perpetrators.
• In recognition that CSE not only hinders child development, but also impacts upon all areas of a child and young person’s life and can becomes life-threatening, thesecond guide presents the warning signs, the various forms CSE can take and its impacts.
• The third offers learning and good practice by considering examples of specialist projects’ work and examples of good practice from the Department of Education’s 2011 Action Plan.
• The fourth centres upon working with boys and young men who experience CSE to enable professionals to identify when a boy or young male is being sexually exploited, or is at risk of being so, and enable professionals to work with them to meet their needs.
• The fifth addresses trafficking, including internal trafficking, and CSE, focusing upon indicators of trafficking and internal trafficking and working effectively with children and young people who are trafficked and experience CSE.
• The sixth outlines steps to address CSE by highlighting how it is all of our responsibility to tackle CSE and that statutory and voluntary sector agencies need to work together at both strategic and operational levels to establish effective preventative and responsive measures. This guide sets outs actions that individual agencies should take to address CSE alongside multi-agency responses.
• The seventh presents resources and links to helpful website and organisations.
Councils are expected to meet the needs of children who experience sexual exploitation. These guides provide social workers with an in-depth level of understanding; factors to consider when working directly with children; steps to adopt when working with key agencies and professionals and access to sources of support.
- Emilie Smeaton, CC Inform expert and author of the seven guides will be taking part in a live web chat a week today (Wednesday 19 December) at 8pm. You'll be able to ask Emilie questions on any aspect of child sexual exploitation, receive advice and discuss issues with colleagues. Register via the form below to receive a reminder before the event starts next week.
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Like Jimmy Savile, paedophiles will always locate the places where they are not scrutinised, writes team manager Judith Acreman, defending her comments that government adoption targets will leave children at greater risk from abusers
Recently, comments I made to a BASW parliamentary inquiry – that the six-month time limit for approving adopters risks child abusers slipping through the net – werereported by the media and denounced by children’s minister Edward Timpson as “crass and irresponsible”.
Though his words were no doubt honed by a press officer, I have to disagree with the minister that a social worker raising safeguarding issues about vulnerable children is irresponsible.
While we know the media is bound to sensationalise anything to do with paedophilia, as professionals we also know that our concerns about abusers misusing the system are valid. I was simply informing MPs who are tasked with scrutinising these changes to the adoption process that we must not lose sight of that.
'Like Savile, abusers will locate the places where they are not scrutinised'
I agree assessments could be shorter, but there is such a thing as too short to be safe, and that is why I said paedophiles will always locate the places where they are not scrutinised. If we reduce the scrutiny of adoption, I’m very worried it will become the latest example of the abuse we saw in children’s homes, or priests in the catholic church or Jimmy Savile.
We know some problems in life take time to emerge, why else would we have warranties on new cars and a probationary period for new employees? If you assess people too quickly you only see a snapshot of their lives, and one lived in an extremely intense period, during which they will have to put their 'real' lives on hold.
I would also dispute the spurious conclusion that faster assessments will, per se, equal more adopters. This is illogical. It may help temporarily if there is a backlog which is released, but once that is used up there will still be a shortage of suitable adopters if we do not find a way to educate people about the kind of very damaged children currently awaiting placement.
'Untrue, unhelpful and downright insulting'
With finite staff resources, 'productivity' will not increase. My social workers currently achieve about 36 adopter approvals per year; in the present timescales of eight months that is a productivity of 24. With proposed timescales of four months, the same workforce can achieve 12 in that period, which still equals 36 per year.
The problem we have is not about going faster, although I do not have an issue with aspects of that debate, as long as there is balanced expectation about what it could achieve. The real issue is the difficulty of attracting suitable adopters. To keep implying that all the children currently awaiting adoption are only waiting because adoption agencies 'refuse' to go faster, or be more flexible is simply untrue, unhelpful and downright insulting.
I deeply resent the suggestion that others have more right to claim they are 'thinking of the children' and their best interests than my social workers, who work with the children every day and routinely put in a 50 hour week. We had tears of joy from staff in our office this week, when we finally placed a child with complex needs with her new adopters.
Can society face up to the awful truth?
Just quoting the figures as a yardstick to measure effectiveness is equally unhelpful without further explanation, given that children are awaiting adoption until the day they move in. After all, many of these children actually have identified adopters but are in the process of being matched before placement. And I advertise all over the country for months, without a single response for children with medical issues or learning difficulties.
Our sentimental society cannot bear to face that awful truth - many of these children will not be adopted because nobody wants them. Surely we should be having a debate about how we fix that, which is partly about addressing the long-term support such adopters can expect.
Ironically, the focus on the shortcomings of the system will just deter people from coming forward and does not present adoption as a positive choice. We need a sensible debate on adoption, but I have yet to see anyone making room for it.
*Judith Acreman is a team manager and a member of BASW; Picture - Rex
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Do you know any care leavers aged 16-24 who fancy themselves the next Lemm Sissay? (Or J K Rowling, Mariah Carey or Jim Loach for that matter.) If so, they might well be interested in a one week residential creative writing course, taking place in Devon in February 2013.
Supported by Sissay, a writer, care leaver and poet in residence at London's Southbank Centre, the course is run by charity Siblings Together and creative writing centreArvon. It promises to help care leavers to develop their creative writing skills, under the guidance of professional writers, and also involves drama and film making.
Siblings Together is also fundraising for the writing week, with the money going towards a published anthology of all the work done on the course and a high profile launch party for all the participants. Their target is £2000 and they're hoping to raise the first £500 by Christmas. Click here to donate. Pic: Rex Features
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In her second guest post, the secret foster carer shares her views on some of the things she wishes social workers (and foster carers) would do, and do less
Social workers and foster carers mostly have enormous respect for the positives each brings to a very big, difficult job. I think social workers are generally magnificent, although they get stinking press coverage. In my experience, social workers always want the best for looked-after children. Always.
I like social workers, but there are some behaviours and attitudes I don’t like.
'We're the professionals'
A social worker once told me, 'there’s going to be a meeting of the professionals about your child, I’ll call you afterwards and tell you what has been agreed'.
'I’ve never fostered, but I'm trained so I know what it's like'
We foster carers don’t want social workers to feel inadequate or inferior; it’s simply that you don’t know what it's like to foster if you haven't fostered. It would benefit the whole process if social workers erased any hope that knowledge and intuition makes up for a lack of fostering experience.
You, the social workers, are supervising somebody doing a job that you haven’t done, but that's no big deal. Neil Armstrong went to the moon on advice, support and supervision from people who had never been there themselves. So you be the ground controllers, we’re the astronauts.
'There's nothing we can do about contact'
This response comes from the child’s social worker every time you report that contact is harming your foster child. The biological parents receive no counselling about how to help their child benefit from contact and the child is always – yes, sorry, always – diminished at best, damaged at worst. 'But look', we foster carers are told, 'a judge, a family court or a meeting of professionals has stipulated it, so that’s that.'
Do some social workers try to take a stand? Or inspire us with how much long-term good arises from contact, how many underlying benefits are achieved? In my experience, social workers seem united in the view that contact is often (at best) futile, but they can't do anything about it.
'Here's my advice'
Social workers train and study for years, so they’ve a huge resource of theoretical strategies, procedures and support facilities. They also seem to have a need to put that knowledge to use. So, what does the foster carer get when she’s got a black eye, a door hanging off, and a partner threatening to book into a hotel? Advice. But that's not always what foster carers need.
Listening and praising is key in dealing with foster carers. Of course, there are times to impart knowledge and instigate procedures, but too often social workers over-compensate for their blind spot (never having done the job) by putting on a show of their tools and track record.
And a message to foster carers:
Most social workers we deal with are involved in massive care cases and are fire fighting more than they are healing. For them, this is not why they came into the job. They are stressed. And I am absolutely certain that dealing with foster carers adds to their stress.
Foster carers can help relieve this stress, which we should do. Even though we haven’t got the academic backgrounds, professional status or career structure of social workers, we know the job and we're also people who want to help make the world a better place.
We can, and should, shine a guiding light for social workers - into the Aladdin’s cave of danger, despair, magic and treasures that is fostering.
If you’re a social worker I’d be happy to start the ball rolling. In the meantime, thank you for considering what I have to say, thank you especially for all the wonderful work you do, your skills, stamina, talent, courage and kindness. And, since you got to the bottom of my piece, thank you for your humility and good humour.
I hope we foster carers can also take some home truths on the chin. Pic: Rex Features
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Some interesting findings from a straw poll of children's social workers: Nearly two thirds say news stories and government reports on child sexual exploitation have raised awareness and concern in their safeguarding teams. However, 65% have received no further training and 77% feel less than confident that their area is effectively responding to such abuse.
It follows months of headlines about high profile child sexual exploitation cases across the country, including major police investigations in Derby, Oxford andRochdale (the latter is due to publish a serious case review very shortly).
But if Community Care's survey results - based on the experiences of 62 social workers - reflect the national picture, it looks like all the awareness raising and government posturing isn't yet translating into additional training and/or resources for social workers on the frontline trying to respond to the problem.
If you're working with a child and suspect sexual exploitation, use this FREE child protection tool to help you identify the warning signs. And register here if you'd like to be alerted when our sister site Community Care Inform (imminently) publishes a major social work guide on child sexual exploitation.
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The secret foster carer shares her experiences of fostering through the night
Foster carers, in my experience, don’t expect training to cover half the things that crop up when we're looking after children. We are at our desks 24 hours a day.
Take my first looked-after child. You never forget the first day, and night, with your first foster child. He arrived late on a Friday, for respite. His carers were leaving town for a wedding, so he was ours for the weekend. He was 10, a big lad, the eldest of five children who were all in care. He’d been neglected and abused. Knowing he was in a strange house, I didn’t want him getting night terrors, so told him to knock on our door if he woke up early, promising I’d get up.
That was my first mistake. He knocked on the door at 2.30am, wide awake. I’d said I’d get up, so I did. There was nothing on TV so I said he could watch a DVD. He chose Mamma Mia (the ABBA-based film starring Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan). I asked if he was hungry or thirsty. He wanted orange juice, so I got him the carton.
Around the bit where Streep meets Brosnan for the first time I asked if he needed to go to the loo. He said no. Of course he didn’t, he was quietly peeing where he sat, through his pyjamas and dressing gown and into our best sofa. I decided I'd take him for a walk with our dog. It was 4.30am.
Like many looked-after children, as I now know, he loved walking away from the house and got anxious walking back towards it. At 6am, I phoned my partner to let him know where we were. The child is fine, I said, though running away from me fast. The mention of breakfast had him heading home. He told me he liked Mamma Mia because his foster mum played the CD in the kitchen. We watched Mamma Mia two and a half times after tea, before he finally fell asleep.
'It was late on Friday night. He hadn't called.'
On another occasion, an older lad had been with us for three weeks. We’d got a good full report about him. We were told he liked to visit friends in a town some 30 miles away. He’d set off in the afternoon and get back on the last train, then stay up until sunrise. We were also told he sometimes stayed out all night.
It was late on Friday night, he hadn’t called. His phone was switched off. The last train passed. I phoned our Out Of Hours service, they made a record and advised I call the police. My partner went to bed and I had a glass of wine. Then the phone rang. He was on a very late train, getting in just after 1am. He was broke and didn’t know the way to our house. But I didn't want to risk driving.
So, I walked, through the High Street, silent except a heaving late-night bar. I met him at the station, called Out Of Hours and the police. Panic over.
As we reached the late-night bar, things suddenly kicked off. Around 20 youths spilled onto the street, all squaring up to each other. We were in the middle of it. The ‘child’ stuck by my side. “We’ll be alright,” he said. We walked through the melee, almost like royalty, and I realised he was looking after me. The final act of childhood, the child looking after the parent. Brilliant.
Walking home, he opened up. He talked about his life so far, his hopes and plans for the future. We got home at nearly 2am and I cooked him a full English breakfast. We talked some more before I called it a night. Lying awake, I wondered if his apparent thoughtlessness earlier had been a test - to check if people are to be trusted when they say they care about him. But I couldn't lie awake for too long, our youngest foster child would be up at 7am.
Foster carers don't work 9am to 5pm. We work about 7am to 10pm, then sometimes a 20 hour shift. It explains why the allowance we receive isn’t a salary or a professional fee; if it was either it would be below the minimum wage.
Picture credit: Rex Features
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This is based on our straw poll of 553 social workers. The majority (47%) agree withMichael Gove that social workers in Rotherham were wrong to remove the foster children, but more than a third (36%) backed their decision. And 17% hadn't made their mind up yet. N.B. The poll is live so the results will update; the above percentages were accurate at the date and time of publication.
When news broke that three children, reportedly Eastern European migrants, had been removed from their foster home because their carers supported the UK Independence Party, politicians and commentators rushed to opine. There are plenty of interesting comments out there, including on our forums, but one of the most nuanced pieces I've seen comes courtesy of Abe Laurens on the Not So Big Society.
Here's an extract from the piece: "This may have been a carefully considered decision or something that was rushed. It could have been a wrong decision. If so, hold up our hands, but it does not prove one single thing about how social work as a whole assesses the needs of children.
"You would think the minister, our minister, might at the very least inject a sense of perspective. Not so. “The wrong decision in the wrong way for the wrong reasons,” he said. I humbly suggest he cannot know that for certain. But there are bigger issues at play here and it suits him to use the profession for which he is responsible for other reasons."
And in other news, the Social Work Action Network has launched an e-petition, deploring, "the way both the UK Independence Party and Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove have sought to to exploit the case of looked-after children in Rotherham for the purposes of electoral gain and to attack local social work staff".
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You can't have escaped the furore over Rotherham council's decision to remove three foster children from a couple who supported the political party Ukip. It's an interesting talking point, but the story exploded when Michael Gove and David Cameron condemned the move.
Social workers claimed the couple's views on immigration made them unsuitable carers for the three children, who are Eastern European migrants. The couple, who have been fostering for seven years and are reported to have a good reputation within the service, have said they feel like they've been "treated like criminals". The foster mother told the Sheffield Star that she and her partner had taken steps to recognise and meet the children's cultural needs.
Rotherham's head of children's services originally defended the decision, but,according to the Telegraph, the authority is now considering a U-turn on the issue.
Public opinion seems pretty divided, as do social workers' views, if carespace messages are anything to go by. Do check out the entire thread for yourself, but here's a taster:
- One carespace user, redana, commented: "How can you place children from an ethnic minority with foster carers that are anti-multiculturalism? Quite apart from how the child might feel, how would you feel as a parent who is BME 'immigrant' if your children were placed there? Grounds for a serious complaint I would have thought."
- Another user, RP, said: "As a social worker I have to abide by a code of practice and I am fully aware that if personal views contradict that code of practice, I may be found to be unsuitable to be a social worker. Foster carers have an even deeper relationship with the children and their actions can produce even more harm than those of a misguided social worker. I think this was the right decision, the children had only been placed there for 8 weeks, so it's not like this was a long-term placement that had been going on for years."
- But Keeping Faith said: "It's so important to understand the difference between race and culture. I think its human nature to be prejudiced against some cultures, which don't fit with our own beliefs and behaviours. Its' not okay, however, to be racist. I think Rotherham have got the two totally confused. The foster carers have even said the term 'racist' was used by the social worker. For that reason I think they're on very dodgy ground."
So, what do you think? Did Rotherham make the right decision? Do let us know...
Picture credit: stevendepolo on flickr
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Leaving a foster home to join a new adoptive family can have a deep emotional impact on a child. So, the process needs to be managed carefully – a fact ministers risk failing to recognise in their effort to speed up adoptions, writes independent social worker and trainer Polly Baynes
Biological parents have an abiding emotional significance for the majority of people, but for many children and young people it is the loss of their foster carers that has the greatest immediate impact when they are placed for adoption.
Nearly three quarters of the 3,450 children adopted in England last year were aged between one and four. With cases lasting an average of 52 weeks, for many of these children the foster family is the only home they can remember. These carers are primary attachment figures.
'Contact with foster families given little attention'
For some children, foster carers are the first safe, nurturing adults they have encountered. Leaving their care can arouse fears of a return to dangerous parenting, feelings of rejection and prolonged mourning. It can be hard for adults around the child to accept and recognise these feelings of loss and ambivalence, at a time of their own happiness and excitement.
Yet while family courts carefully explore post adoption contact with the birth family, plans for contact with the foster family are generally given far less attention.
Mikey's* story
Mikey’s sense of loss was profound when he was placed for adoption. After living with his foster carers for 18 months, Mikey, aged three, was placed with Lisa* and Joe*. The council involved in Mikey’s care felt a clean break would be best, fearing he was ‘too attached’ to his carers. Changes of social worker meant there was no familiar, trusted adult who could act as a bridge. Mikey’s life story book was designed to answer questions from a much older child.
Mikey was adamant he didn’t want to leave his foster carers, despite their encouraging approach to the move. He refused to look at Lisa and Joe on their first visit. Although good relationships were gradually established, Mikey was deeply distressed after being placed. For several months he woke sobbing and judged his new home through his foster carer’s eyes, commenting, “Julie* does not like your TV”. The adopters were emotionally drained, saying they “felt like kidnappers” and began to question whether they were doing the right thing.
Psychological support
Lisa and Joe benefitted hugely from an urgent referral for psychological support. Skilled workers helped them focus on the bigger picture, reminding them life in their family could offer Mikey the long-term security and love he needed. They came to understand that Mikey’s complaints – that their food was burning his mouth, for example – represented a protest and that when he decided to “walk to Julie’s” (some 35 miles away), he had moved into a searching phase of his grief. Plans were changed to allow Mikey some contact with his foster carers six months into placement.
Lisa and Joe had no complaints about the 18 months it took them to be matched with a child. They said the frustration and “heart-stopping moments” involved in the assessment process were important preparation for the challenges ahead. With hindsight, they felt Mikey needed contact sooner. Although he had been told about his ‘forever family’, they came to realise that this was just words for him.
'Government timescales must not override children's needs'
Very young children who must move families need social workers who have the time to get to know them, and are confident using play to explain what is going to happen. Adopted children need contact plans that ensure important adults do not just disappear, along with life story work that includes everyone who is important to them. Adopters need to be carefully selected for emotional resilience and offered the best possible training and support from social workers.
The creation of a new family for a child who has put down roots elsewhere is a highly skilled task and not to be hurried. Government timescales must not be allowed to override children’s needs. Adoption is not for the faint-hearted and adoptive parents must learn to live with the significance of two other families for their child: their birth parents and the long-remembered foster carers (both of whom can become idealised in the absence of contact).
Now five, Mikey is lucky to have a family where he feels safe enough to comment, in a matter of fact way, “You know Mummy, I never wanted to come here” and receive the response, “I know darling, it was horrible for you, but we are glad you are here”.
- You might also be interested in this: Guide for foster carers wishing to make the transition to adoption
*Names have been changed; Picture credit: Jennifer Jacquemart/Rex Features
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If children are to get a better deal from the family courts, reform must extend throughout the care system, writes Cafcass chief executive Anthony Douglas
Very few things in life are entirely right or entirely wrong; a complete success or total disaster. In social work, however, half truths and partial solutions are often portrayed as universally positive outcomes. Management and policy can be plagued by wishful thinking.
Unfortunately, finding a panacea or achieving successful reform is usually messier, grittier and more complicated. And so it is with the Family Justice Review (FJR).
Legal aid changes
Legal aid changes have a significant bearing on the FJR reforms. An estimated 50,000 parents in private law cases will no longer have access to free legal aid from next April. Some will reconsider their court applications or go down the mediation route, while solicitors might be encouraged to lower their fees. But others will try and conduct their own cases. Many are already doing so.
The Cafcass caseload in Manchester shows that up to 20% of private law cases are now people representing themselves. But we still have judges and social workers - someone to assess a child’s needs and someone to make a decision. We will need to invest in the skills of both if they are to maintain a focus on what is best for the child in this different working environment.
Care case deadline
Some critics say care cases cannot be finished in 26 weeks, yet in those areas which are piloting this deadline, only a small number of cases look as if they need longer. Some are already being completed in half the time without noticeable negative consequences for children. And this is being done before the legislation is even debated in Parliament.
But if children are to get a better deal overall from the court system we need reforms to extend to other areas of the care system. Currently, more than 2,000 children are legally freed for adoption but without a placement to go to. This group increasingly includes very young children with no additional needs, not just children with additional needs and sibling groups.
Reforming adoption and training social workers
The national shortage of adopters means care plans are defaulting to long-term fostering because of a resource shortage. It will take some time to reform the adoption system to keep up with demand. It will also take some time to skill up social workers to fill the gaps left by the decreasing reliance on experts.
At the heart of the family justice reforms are the reforms to the social work profession. This is a flame that must be kept alive if we are to see sustainable improvements in the most vulnerable children’s lives.
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