Strengthening Child Protection by Thompson Kellie

Author:Thompson, Kellie [Thompson, Kellie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781447322511
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Bristol University Press
Published: 2016-06-01T00:00:00+00:00

Procedural relationships: ‘who’ to pass on information to and ‘when’

Contrary to received ideas echoed in serious case reviews and public inquiries, professionals do understand the procedures for passing on information, and comply with the demands set by their agency, and more broadly, with child welfare information-sharing protocol. A number of professional narratives highlight that compliance with information-sharing requirements is necessary and is adhered to. For the police service, responding and sharing information in prescribed ways is a mandatory requirement that is closely linked to performance management demands, as a police officer explains here:

“[I]nformation is mandatory. It is monitored. It is a performance indicator … completeness, trails of logs, risk assessment. Basically we close a log of when all the component parts are brought together … it’s been assessed correctly, it has been given a risk score, the enquiries that needed to be done have been done, the information in relation to children, victims, and offender have been put on, and then it can be closed. As I say that is judged as a performance indicator at local and county level. It is about compliance really. We are always sort of looking for people we should be sharing information with, but the baseline is that the statutory bodies such as health and social services are always told that a child has been identified at the scene. It is an automatic response, we have to do it, and we do it. What we have is an information-sharing facility on our database, and so you basically complete your nominal. You complete your incident and tie it to the previous incidents. You then hit an information-sharing button and it generates a form. It is then cut and pasted onto an email and sent, just like that, one, two, and its gone.” (Police officer, DVU)

The police officer quoted here states that information sharing is work, and further, a compulsory element of his work as a police officer in the DVU. The police officer has no option but to comply, as recorded information is used to monitor the performance of his agency (the police service). The police officer describes the active role his agency takes in seeking out people that should have the information his agency holds, although he states that sharing information with social services and health is a mandatory activity. Further reference is made to the timeliness that information is shared with these agencies (“one, two, and it’s gone”), as suggested in earlier interview accounts. This process is facilitated by an electronic information-sharing facility on his department’s computer database. For the police officer, compliance with information-sharing procedures are traceable and visible for others to see. Following procedures for sharing information is again highlighted by an NGO worker:

“… two girls, self-referral … came in as being sexually abused. That was apparently the whole issue but it wasn’t, it was domestic abuse. The family were falling apart in front of our eyes. We made a referral to children’s services because the child clearly stated she had a bruise.

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