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Safeguarding Young People: Responding to Young People Aged 11 to 17 Who Are Maltreated

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Safeguarding Young People: Responding to Young People Aged 11 to 17 Who Are Maltreated Report Safeguarding Young People: Responding to young people aged 11 to 17 who are maltreated 2010 Rees, G. Gorin, S. Jobe, A. Stein, M. Medforth, R. Goswami, H. The Children’s Society Charity Registration No. 221124 | NSPCC Charity Registration Numbers 216401 and SC037717 A better childhood. For every child. www.childrenssociety.org.uk Safeguarding Young People: Responding to young people aged 11 to 17 who are maltreated Gwyther Rees, Sarah Gorin, Alison Jobe, Mike Stein, Ros Medforth and Haridhan Goswami The Children’s Society is a leading children’s charity committed to making childhood better for all children in the UK. We take action to prevent, rescue and support children facing violence, neglect, poverty and discrimination in their daily lives. We give children the hope and confidence they need to face the future with optimism. We never turn away. 2 Acknowledgements First and foremost we would like to thank all the young people who generously took part in the research. We are particularly grateful to them for allowing us to share sensitive details about their lives and experiences. We would like to thank all the organisations which agreed to participate in this research project, including the local authorities, police forces, youth offending teams, schools and voluntary sector organisations in the 12 participating local areas, and representatives from national organisations. We would also like to thank the individual professionals within these organisations who contributed their views and experiences to the research. We are grateful to the Advisory Group who provided advice and support throughout the project. We would like to acknowledge the contributions of the following members of current and former members of staff who worked on the study: Jasmine Clayden (University of York); Ben Fitton, Fiona Mitchell, Anita Franklin and Deborah Bowness (The Children’s Society); Silvie Bovarnick and Jill Roberts (NSPCC); and staff at The Children’s Society and the NSPCC who provided support during the project. The views presented in this report are the authors’ and do not necessarily reflect those of The Children’s Society, the NSPCC or the University of York. This research was funded by a grant from the Big Lottery Fund Research Grants Programme. Further information An electronic copy of this report and further information about the research study are available at: www.childrenssociety.org.uk/research/safeguarding If you have any queries about this report or about the research project in general, please e-mail: [email protected]. 3 Contents Introduction....................................................................................................6 Purpose and aims ........................................................................................7 The national policy context: safeguarding young people..............................7 Research methods .....................................................................................15 Structure of the report ................................................................................18 Language ...................................................................................................19 Literature review ..........................................................................................21 Definitional issues ......................................................................................22 Prevalence of maltreatment of young people .............................................24 The background context to the maltreatment of young people...................25 The consequences of maltreatment of young people.................................27 Attitudes and perceptions of maltreatment .................................................31 Initial responses .........................................................................................33 Summary....................................................................................................34 Young people’s perspectives .....................................................................36 Profile of interviewees ................................................................................36 Reasons for referral of young people .........................................................37 Young people’s experiences of seeking help .............................................41 Young people’s experiences of contact with children’s social care ............51 Summary....................................................................................................64 Referrers’ perspectives ...............................................................................66 Profile of referring professionals.................................................................67 Assessing risk ............................................................................................67 Deciding whether to make a referral...........................................................80 Experiences of making referrals.................................................................91 Alternatives to making a referral.................................................................96 Broader issues .........................................................................................101 4 Summary..................................................................................................105 Statistics on processing of referrals to children’s social care ..............109 The safeguarding process........................................................................109 The national picture..................................................................................111 Statistics from the practice study..............................................................115 Summary..................................................................................................119 Children’s social care perspectives .........................................................125 Assessing risk ..........................................................................................126 Decision-making about referrals...............................................................131 Alternative ways of working with young people ........................................142 Broader issues .........................................................................................146 Summary..................................................................................................150 Conclusions ...............................................................................................152 Summary of key findings ..........................................................................152 Key messages..........................................................................................163 References .................................................................................................165 Appendix: Methodology ............................................................................172 5 1 Introduction The protection of children and young people from abuse and neglect is currently a topic of considerable debate in professional circles, in the media and amongst the general public. The death of Baby Peter which hit the headlines in November 2008 was the latest in a series of disturbing cases1 over the last few decades which have caused considerable public concern about the most effective way of safeguarding children at risk of harm. These cases have generally involved death or serious injury to a child under the age of 11. Yet recently there has also been some recognition of the risks faced by young people in the 11- to 17-year old age group. For example studies of Serious Case Reviews – which take place in cases of death of, or serious injury to, a child or young person – have shown that over a fifth of such cases related to young people aged 11 and over (Brandon et al, 2009). There are over 9,000 young people aged 11 to 17 subject to a child protection plan in England. Research in other countries has highlighted the importance of acknowledging the different maltreatment experiences and needs of young people, as compared with younger children. Yet, in the UK, the issue has received very little attention. By virtue of their generally different capacities and lifestyles, it seems reasonable to suggest that the risks faced by these older young people are likely to be quite different to those faced by very young children and that therefore ensuring the safety of these young people requires specific attention. However, child protection research has paid relatively little attention to this issue – often tending to treat all children and young people between the ages of 0 and 17 as a homogeneous group. An international review undertaken a decade ago (Rees & Stein, 1999) found very little research on child protection issues with a specific focus on older young people. By the 1 Earlier cases include Maria Colwell in 1973; Jasmine Beckford in 1984; Leanne White in 1992; Victoria Climbié in 2000 6 mid 2000s, when the funding proposal for the current project was prepared, there was little change in this picture. The study described in this report was intended to fill this research gap. The Safeguarding Young People research study was a three-and-a-half year project undertaken in partnership by The Children’s Society, NSPCC and the Social Policy Research Unit at the University of York with funding from the Big Lottery Research Grants Programme. In this introductory chapter we briefly
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