Tomorrow is 9 May and this day is seen by some as Mr Punch’s (as in Punch and Judy) British birthday. Mr Punch was popular with famous writers such as Samuel Pepys and Charles Dickens. The show was originally focused at an adult audience and when children became the main recipients of this entertainment show some characters were dropped. The Devil or Mr Punch’s mistress Pretty Polly is now seldom used which is an interesting contention to protecting the innocence of the child viewer.
I recall from my childhood that Mr Punch would hit Mrs Punch, the baby and the Police Officer. It is reported that Mr Punch no longer hits the baby but will sit on it as a pun for ‘babysitter’. The show’s attempt at humour still allows the baby to be sat on, dropped or threatened with being put through the sausage machine. And it is still considered that Mr Punch can hit Judy with a stick whilst she holds the baby. The show is deemed to be modelled on traditional behaviour. However, would it be allowed today on British’s children’s television? The plot might be some children’s and adults’ only contact with domestic violence so could the puppet show be used to explain the inappropriateness of violence within the family unit.
The impact of domestic violence on men, women and children has lasting physical and emotional effects. The assessment of risk is important for safeguarding children, to ensure they are not placed in immediate danger of physical harm. Children witnessing aggressive assaults within the home often have no safe place to escape. The acts of violence are usually perpetrated by men towards women and children, although domestic violence involving women as perpetrators is increasing.
The situation needs to be assessed with an open, transparent manner so that all parties are aware of what is acceptable and what is not. Perpetrators need to own their behaviour and not blame other members of the family unit for their actions. There is no excuse for an adult to punch another adult whilst the children watch and/or listen.
Avocet undertakes parenting and risk assessments in situations where physical and verbal aggression and emotional abuse are issues that impacts on children’s daily lives.
May 8th, 2012
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The use of X-rays has been suggested as an unnecessary intrusion and could be potentially harmful for anyone subject to it. Dental X-rays could expose the young people seeking asylum to ionising radiation with no benefit found from actually conducting the examination. Also the potential screening costs that could be incurred could be significantly higher than that of an assessment by a professional Social Worker for example. The practice has also been subject to dispute as to whether it provides a more exact evaluation of age than a social care professional can. The chief operating officer of the Refugee Council, Deborah Harris, said that, “The fact that numerous professional bodies have previously stated that this is not a sound method leaves us very concerned for vulnerable children caught in the process”.
The approach that Avocet Independent Social Workers take when conducting an age assessment is to create a lineage of experience of the young person and do an in-depth evaluation from there. This process also includes consideration of a dental examination. How different is this to the dental X-ray proposal? Firstly, it doesn’t give exposure to the potential radiation effects of the X-ray but also it is used alongside the other assessment techniques as the medical examinations, as indicated above do not necessarily give a more accurate result. The evaluation conducted by Social Workers will not necessarily be directly challenging the claim of age as an X-ray might be seen to but rather looking to determine the experience of the young person as well as looking at whether this experience appears to concur with the claims that have been previously made. This approach like other services provided by Avocet looks to put the needs of the young person as the primary concern even in situations of contention.
Although claims of age of asylum seekers have to be acted upon, the use of dental X-rays may be an invasive means of doing so in comparison to an assessment by an Avocet Independent Social Worker for example. The X-ray approach has not been deemed as a more exact means of evaluating age and therefore may be more problematic than it is worth.
Guest blogger this week – CM
April 28th, 2012
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The release of figures in April 2012 from the NSPCC, that a child is sexually abused every 20 minutes, really puts the picture together on sexual abuse; that it occurring more commonly than most people expect. Avocet Independent Social Workers work with cases of sexual abuse and look to put the needs of the child first. However in order to provide support, the problem of sexual abuse is particularly challenging because of the private nature of offences as well as limited numbers of offences actually being reported.
With 60 cases of sexual abuse being reported per day, it is clear that there is a significant problem; Jon Brown, the head of the NSPCC’s sexual abuse programme himself said, “When you have a situation where more than 60 children are being sexually abused every day, something is very wrong”. Dealing with this however, is where the real problem arises. The fact that most child sexual abuse occurs in a setting that is not visible for witnesses, makes reporting problematic as manipulations such as fear due to threats may prevent the victim themselves from reporting the abuse.
Initiatives such as the new NSPCC “Don’t wait until you’re certain” campaign aim to make people more aware that if they suspect abuse there is someone to talk to. By increasing levels of reporting, it allows for authorities to become involved in trying to help the child in a potentially threatening situation. It is the problem of reporting that may be leaving children in situations where they are subject to sexual abuse. Awareness of the signs of abuse and getting in contact with authorities, the general public can help to assist in getting children out of circumstances of abuse. Over 23,000 offences of sexual abuse to children were reported last year but how many were not?
New government policy such as Sarah’s Law, implemented in 2011, has helped to raise awareness of sex offenders with some success in its first year. This has allowed for a proactive step to be taken in preventing child sexual abuse; by giving people access to whether their new partner for example, has previous sexual convictions can help to prevent re-offending and further victims of abuse. This proactive approach is beneficial to preventing abuse before it occurs. Services such as Avocet work to help those who have been subject to abuse as well as preventing circumstances where further abuse could occur.
The aim that all the Social Workers at Avocet have is to put the needs of the child as the priority; by ensuring that they are in a situation that is safe for them and that they will not be subject to abuse. It is down to the reporting of cases that allows Avocet to work for the needs of the child. Hopefully the release of these statistics from the NSPCC will help to make people more aware of the occurrence of abuse and thusly more likely to report it.
This month’s blogger – CM.
April 13th, 2012
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Avocet Independent Social Workers look to put the needs of the child as the priority; by ensuring the suitability of the environment in which they live (amongst various other things). For some time there have been proposed links that the material children are subject to on the television could have an impact on their behaviour. Instances such as the murder of James Bulger in 1993 or the Columbine shootings in America in 1999 have had attributive links to negative media imaging. More recently, Daniel Bartlam, aged 14, was convicted of murdering his mother using similar means to that seen in a plot of Coronation Street. So what is the impact that exposure to violent television has on our children?
Daniel Bartlam appears to have had a significant influence from what was shown in the popular soap Corrie. What is most striking about the incident is the degree to which the boy was able to not only murder his mother, but also how he attempted to alleviate the blame from himself; Bartlam set fire to the body and told the police that a burglar had killed his mother. The depth of planning that appeared to have gone into the incident does not fit the mould of a typical 14 year olds behaviour.
The solution appears easy; don’t let children watch programmes containing violent scenes. But even programmes designed for children, take Tom and Jerry for example, have scenarios of simulated violence that could just as well have the same impact as Coronation Street. But what separates these two? One suggested route could be the realistic nature of the programme; by subjecting children to ‘real’ people in potentially ‘real’ situations it could contextualise concepts such as murder or assault as normality.
This weeks blogger – CM.
April 13th, 2012
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When the Task Force to lead Social Work out of the aftermath of the death of Baby P included Deidre from The Sun, the sister paper of the News of the World, many Social Workers questioned the decision. The guiding light of Deidre from The Sun was going to tell us, professionals how to do our job. The years of training were not enough to support families and listen to children’s fears. How ironic that The Sun’s sister Sunday paper chose to hack the mobile telephone of 16 year old Charlotte Church. Most Social Workers would have considered Charlotte a child and in need of protection from harmful acts of adults. Yet a newspaper following Charlotte around before her 16th birthday is not act that most Social Workers would have supported.
When the young Charlotte started her relationship with her first boyfriend, her telephone was allegedly hacked. There is no suggestion that Deidre from The Sun personally carried out any phone hacking, but the Social Work profession was seeking advice from an employee of an organisation that abused the privacy of a child for profit.
When Charlotte was not providing news herself, News International moved to target her mother’s mental health issues. There were ‘news’ publications about Charlotte’s mother’s self-harming and suicide attempts. The normal response from a Social Worker would be to focus on the needs of the service users and protecting their confidentially. However, due to the fact we have such a bad self-image, mostly created by the public exposure of newspapers like The Mail and The Sun, we believed that we needed advice from Deidre.
It is time we stopped being so gullible and stood up for our profession. We might make mistakes, but in the main we act in the best interests of children and we do not hack their telephones. The actions of young 16 year old girls might create worries for Social Workers, for instance that they could be exploited. It is rare that for Social Workers to target young girls for their own end and never on such a grand scale as News International’s News of the World.
Let’s hope the Social Work profession learns from News International’s actions and stops looking for guidance from inappropriate outside forces. We can regulate ourselves if we have the courage to say what we believe is right and wrong. Honest evaluation, without focusing on scapegoating individuals is what is needed not advice from Deidre from News International.
March 13th, 2012
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Unusually I spent an evening in front of the television after work. Although, I had little choice of what to watch I enjoyed Gok Wan and Daddy Day Care last week. Gok focused his attention on young children caring for a parent with a disability and how this impacts on their lives. We volunteer with young carers so we are aware that caring for a disabled parent can have an impact on their childhood in numerous ways. These children find education and peer relationships difficult to maintain whilst cleaning the house, cooking or administering medication. It was good to see that a parent was encouraged to offer themselves and their children some free time to relax and enjoy simple activities such as going to the park. The activities provided to support young carers are under attack from the cuts in funding which means weekend and holiday activities are lost. For the individual child it means the disappearance of something as simple as baking a cake with other children without being interrupted by their caring responsibilities.
Switching television programmes to Daddy Day Care it was interesting to see the views of a father with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and his desire to fit so much fun and excitement into the lives of his children and those at the nursery because of his progressive illness. The father worked long hours to provide for his family but was missing out on the time to be a parent with boundaries and routine. The father believed that his MS would affect him being a parent in the future but had not realised that it was impacting on his parenting in the present. The father wanted excitement and a fast pace for himself and the children in the nursery. The children clearly enjoy themselves in the energetic environment but they also need quiet containment.
The two programmes highlighted the overt and subtle impact of disability on parenting and how children experience a parent’s disability on a daily basis. The programmes together were thought provoking and would benefit the general public and professionals to have an insight to the lives of children with a parent with a disability.
February 29th, 2012
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When Avocet Independent Social Workers undertake a Parenting Assessment we consider the parents’ budgeting abilities, including whether they have accrued debts. Frequently we find that parents have not been taught from a young age to keep their spending within the scale of their finances. Once a family gets into debt it is a difficult situation to exit. The reasons for debts include shopping with credit cards, catalogue shopping or borrowing money from banks and occasionally private money lenders. Children learn from their parents so if the message is not sent clearly that debt is not family friendly then the cycle repeats its self.
Some of the many consequences of debt are that children go without food and live in accommodation that is cheap and often unfit for purpose. This could also mean that heating and electricity is not switched on unless it is really essential or not at all.
The message that debt is not a positive option for children needs to sent, not only by parents but banks and the government. Given the economic situation of the country it seems ironic that the government is not encouraging people to remain debt free. Our university students are the parents of the future, so why the government would even considered charging students for early repayment of their loans is difficult to understand. The decision to scrap thoughts of a student and future parent being charged for repaying a loan early is a welcomed. The message sent is that debt is something to be avoided, particularly if a parent. The outcomes for children will improve if their parents live debt free.
Avocet Parenting Assessments attempt to assist parents to formulate plans to manage their budgets and encourage them to contact organisations that responsibly assist with the debts.
February 24th, 2012
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Episode Two of the BBC 2 series Protecting our Children was on TV last night and it proved to be as fascinating as the first episode. Last night we followed the plight of Marva and Shaun a young couple who were struggling to manage life whilst battling alcohol abuse and depression as well as significant loss for previous children who were removed from their care.
Marva was pregnant and after a number of overdoses made the decision to separate from Shaun and try to get herself well and in a position to keep their baby. When the couple were together the Social Worker, Annie undertook visits to the home accompanied by two burly security men, who interestingly expressed concern for their own safety when Annie told them about Shaun reportedly training his new and evidently ferocious, pet ‘puppy’ to kill! Seeing Annie knock on the door with two uniformed men behind her made me think of the many doors I knocked I have knocked on as a Social Worker, on my own, never knowing quite what I would be faced with or how my presence would be received once the door was opened – I suspect I would have felt a whole lot more confident knowing that there was someone there to step in if it all got a bit heated!
Following the couple’s separation Annie continued to work with both parents, keeping Shaun informed about Marva’s health and pregnancy. I was disappointed when Annie went to visit Shaun, taking some photos of his new born son, a week after the birth and indeed Shaun expressed himself that he would have liked to have been told sooner that his child had been born. Children’s Services have a history of poor engagement with fathers and at Avocet we find that we are still asked to undertake Independent Social Work assessments of fathers who have not been considered as an alternative carer and indeed the whole paternal family have been excluded from the process. Shaun made the interesting point last night when he commented that it had been Marva not him who had been drinking alcohol and overdosing on over-the-counter medication putting their baby at risk of harm.
Marva was given the opportunity to care for her new born baby and was placed in a mother and baby foster placement but it was a matter of time before she returned to Shaun, taking her baby with her and exposing him to excessive alcohol consumption and subsequently having her baby removed from her care.
It was a moving life story and one that demonstrated the risks involved in the decision making. I will not go into why the baby was able to be out of the placement for 14 hours before being found at Shaun’s flat as I do appreciate that an hour long programme can only fit in so much information. There seemed to be a connection between the emotions felt by the Social Worker at the desperateness of the situation and the fact that two weeks after informing Marva that the local authority would be instigating legal proceedings she went off sick. I thought that more could have been made about the fact that Annie was working with 14 other families, in addition to this one and that the implied stress is unlikely to have been because of just the one case.
Next week sees the final episode so don’t forget to tune in BBC2 Monday 13 February 2012 and if you would like to know more about Independent Social Work assessments undertaken with parents whose children are subject to legal proceedings please do visit our website at www.avocetisw.co.uk.
February 8th, 2012
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Episode Two of the BBC 2 series Protecting our Children was on TV last night and it proved to be as fascinating as the first episode. Last night we followed the plight of Marva and Shaun a young couple who were struggling to manage life whilst battling alcohol abuse and depression as well as significant loss for previous children who were removed from their care.
Marva was pregnant and after a number of overdoses made the decision to separate from Shaun and try to get herself well and in a position to keep their baby. When the couple were together the Social Worker, Annie undertook visits to the home accompanied by two burly security men, who interestingly expressed concern for their own safety when Annie told them about Shaun reportedly training his new and evidently ferocious, pet ‘puppy’ to kill! Seeing Annie knock on the door with two uniformed men behind her made me think of the many doors I knocked I have knocked on as a Social Worker, on my own, never knowing quite what I would be faced with or how my presence would be received once the door was opened – I suspect I would have felt a whole lot more confident knowing that there was someone there to step in if it all got a bit heated!
Following the couple’s separation Annie continued to work with both parents, keeping Shaun informed about Marva’s health and pregnancy. I was disappointed when Annie went to visit Shaun, taking some photos of his new born son, a week after the birth and indeed Shaun expressed himself that he would have liked to have been told sooner that his child had been born. Children’s Services have a history of poor engagement with fathers and at Avocet we find that we are still asked to undertake Independent Social Work assessments of fathers who have not been considered as an alternative carer and indeed the whole paternal family have been excluded from the process. Shaun made the interesting point last night when he commented that it had been Marva not him who had been drinking alcohol and overdosing on over-the-counter medication putting their baby at risk of harm.
Marva was given the opportunity to care for her new born baby and was placed in a mother and baby foster placement but it was a matter of time before she returned to Shaun, taking her baby with her and exposing him to excessive alcohol consumption and subsequently having her baby removed from her care.
It was a moving life story and one that demonstrated the risks involved in the decision making. I will not go into why the baby was able to be out of the placement for 14 hours before being found at Shaun’s flat as I do appreciate that an hour long programme can only fit in so much information. There seemed to be a connection between the emotions felt by the Social Worker at the desperateness of the situation and the fact that two weeks after informing Marva that the local authority would be instigating legal proceedings she went off sick. I thought that more could have been made about the fact that Annie was working with 14 other families, in addition to this one and that the implied stress is unlikely to have been because of just the one case.
Next week sees the final episode so don’t forget to tune in BBC2 Monday 13 February 2012 and if you would like to know more about Independent Social Work assessments undertaken with parents whose children are subject to legal proceedings please do visit our website at www.avocetisw.co.uk.
February 8th, 2012
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There is a compelling documentary series on BBC 2 at the moment – Protecting our Children. There is every likelihood that I am finding the series compelling because of the years that I spent as a front-line safe guarding Social Worker but interestingly many of my family and friends have become gripped to the reality of the situations that Social Workers come face to face with every day.
Last week’s episode was about a young child called Toby, whose parents Mike and Tiffany had apparent learning difficulties and despite a significant amount of time, multi-agency intervention, support and financial assistance there was no change in Tiffany and Mikes’ parenting abilities, their lives became increasingly difficult for them to manage, care proceedings were initiated and in the end it was Tiffany who took some control of the situation and made the decision that Toby (and his new born sister) would be better placed in someone else’s care.
The programme was not perfect by any stretch of the imagination; the Children’s Guardian was interestingly portrayed, the team manager showed an almost empty diary which certainly was not reminiscent of my diary as a manager in a safe guarding team and the external professional who undertook 40 sessions with the family and then declared that the Child Protection Conference that Toby’s developmental delay was genetic was enough to make anyone want to stand and raise an objection.
However, the hostility facing the Social Worker on her weekly visits in terms of the father being objectionable and argumentative, the appalling home conditions and the actively barking dog were all too real and I felt that as a newly qualified Social Worker, Suzanne having been allocated the case on the second day of being in post managed to navigate through the family’s resistance to change and the local authority’s apparent slowness to react with just the right amount of voiced concern and determination.
Tonight sees the second episode which I hope more of us will be watching and will continue to give the general public (or should I say those who are vaguely interested) greater insight into the dilemmas and decisions that feature every day in the life of a safe guarding Social Worker.
Avocet provides Independent Social Workers (ISWs) to undertake assessments of parents with learning disabilities. We have ISWs who are PAMS trained and all of our ISWs have at least 5 years post qualifying experience of working with children subject to Child Protection Plans and care planning through legal proceedings.
February 6th, 2012
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