Transcript Sexual abuse: definition

Reclaiming child protection
Liz Davies
www.lizdavies.net
[email protected]
Protector
Abuser
Child Abuser
Protector
Abuser
Protector
Abuser
Child
Abuser
Protector
Child
CHILDISM
Oppression of children
Child abuse: abuse of power
UNCHILDREN
Children unseen: defined out of the
protective systems
Child protection – child abuse is
political
• Children are silenced
• Adult survivors are silenced
• Professionals who are the
voices of children and
survivors are silenced
Survivor’s accounts
Cooper T (2007) Trust No One. London.
Orion
Frampton P (2003) Golly in the Cupboard.
Manchester. Tamic
--------------------------------------------------------------Keeble H (2010) Baby X. London Pocket Books
Main message
Since the mid-90s government policy has led
to a demise of child protection systems and
children are now less well protected. This
agenda was deliberate and well orchestrated
with extensive support from academics
The government planned ahead for a public
response to an increase in child deaths from
abuse
The global industry of child abuse has been
protected but not the child victims
Children and young people who were the subject of a Child
Protection Plan (CPP)
by category of abuse, years ending 31 March 2009
Category 1995
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
Neglect
9,200
11,400
11,800
12,500
13,400
15,800
Physical
12,500 3,900
3,600
3,500
3,400
4,400
Sexual
7,200
2,400
2,300
2,000
2,000
2,000
Emotional 3,800
5.200
6,000
7,100
7,900
9,100
Focus on child in need not child in
need of protection
What are the agendas/themes?
• E-government: Profit to IT companies to boost
economy
• Surveillance of every child and family
• Criminalisation / control of children rather than
children as victims
• Privatisation: a narrowing of statutory child
protection
• Deprofessionalisation: ‘anyone’ can do child
protection work (Tim Loughton MP – volunteers)
• Children as commodities
• Centralised control of services
Analysis of academic texts
The texts were analysed with respect to
five terms;
• joint investigation
• police child abuse investigation team/unit
• Section 47 (Children Act 1989)
• strategy meeting
• child protection register/child protection
plan
Analysis of 42 child
Number of texts
protection/safeguarding academic out of a total of 42
texts between 2000 and 2009
in which term
included
joint investigation
police child abuse investigation
team/unit
Section 47 (Children Act 1989)
strategy meeting
child protection register/
child protection plan
Liz Davies: PhD thesis ‘Protecting children a
critical contribution to policy and practice
development. 2009
3
3
5
4
10
Laming progress report
Entitled ‘The Protection of Children in
England’
But no key child protection terms in it
Focus on workforce and technology issues
Said ‘ Just do it’ but didn’t say how
Munro review
Critical:
The problem is that previous reforms have not led to
expected improvements in frontline practice – substantial
body of evidence indicating that past reforms are
creating unforeseen complications
Rules and regulation drive practice not professional
judgement
Framework of Assessment : concern about overpreoccupation with meeting timescales for assessment
relevant to concern about the quality of that assessment
and its impact on the safety of children and young
people / lack of focus on risk assessment /
BUT Fails to address child protection systems
Nothing about joint investigation, child protection register, strategy
meetings role of police etc.
A return to the refocusing ideology of the mid nineties that too many
children are caught in net of child protection .
‘High standards are achieved ;
despite not because of the formal structures. Fear of missing a case is
leading to too many referrals and too many families getting
caught up in lengthy assessments that cause them distress but do not
lead to the provision of any help. This is creating a skewed system that
is paying so much attention to identifying cases of abuse and neglect
that it is draining time and resources away from families’.
Peter Connolly SCRs
• First SCR ( which was discredited by
government) included Section 47
protocols, attendance at strategy meetings
and conference protocols
• Second SCR much less.. Words such as
‘authoritative’ . Watered down version.
Silent words
I crouched in the corner
Curled up as small as can be.
One part hoping that you
Wouldn’t notice me
The other half hoping that you’d
Hear the words I’d spoken
Without uttering a word
Nelson S (2008) See Us Hear Us. Dundee, Scotland. Violence is Preventable
p21
Children will know if you can
hear or not hear
Nelson S (2008) See Us Hear Us.
Dundee, Scotland. Violence is
Preventable p21
Children want social workers to;
• Stick with them over time
• Each case individual response because of
complexities, apply procedures using judgement
• Understand about abuse
They ask for;
• Neutral informal settings away from home
• Settings that do not require appointments
Someone noticing
‘She didn’t judge me, she understood the
kinds of ways I would feel without me
telling her... and gave me space even
when my behaviour must have seemed
weird and didn’t make sense – even to me’
(Nelson, 2008)
Mary Bell: victim of organised abuse and
convicted in 1968 of murder of two children
But it was horrible, and then I was on the bed,
and then.. they turned on me……I was so
frightened because before it, or later she says
if I ever told anything I would be taken away
and locked up. You know I told you about the
sentry box on the bridge? That’s where she
said I would go. And she said nobody would
believe me. And anyway, I think I must have
thought it was my fault. I had done wrong and
was being punished. I… I…’ She cried and
cried. ‘I felt so .. so dirty’
(Sereny G (1999) Cries Unheard:335)
The London Borough of Islington
child abuse scandal 1980s -1990s
Extensive abuse of children within the care system.
Ritual abuse of children. Murders, abductions,
buying and selling of children. Professionals
involved
From 1992 - over 150 newsprint articles on the
abuse of children within the Islington care system:
Each of 13 inquiries followed disclosure in the
media
Survivors were involved throughout alongside
whistleblowing social workers
Islington Inquiry report 1995:
denial and cover-up : children and Professionals
unheard
• Report said that a social worker identified
61 young people – victims of abuse but
said there was no evidence of a network
• Report said there was no evidence of ritual
abuse
Demetrious Panton: in ‘care’ of
Islington council from age 10 years.
Minister for Children, Margaret Hodge,
described him as ‘disturbed’.
NEVRES KEMAL : Because we're good people, and we
do a very good job, and someone has to do it
Social worker prevented from investigating case of sexual
abuse of 7 young children
She gained a voice in the media but has no work
If they had listened to my
concerns and taken
measures to rectify them
Baby Peter might never
have died. I’ve had four
years of hell and disbelief,
words cannot express what
I have been through but it’s
all irrelevant – a boy has
died.
North Wales: Lost in Care inquiry
Over 2000 children abused in the care
system
• Abuse would have been prevented if
workers had voiced concerns
But
• Staff who did voice concerns were
disbelieved and blamed for speaking out
Waterhouse Sir R and the Tribunal of Inquiry into the abuse of children in care in
the former county council areas of Gwynedd and Clwyd since 1974 (2000) Lost
in Care. London. The Stationery Office
JERSEY
14 x 8 km - Population only 91,000
Haut de la Garenne - Jersey children’s home until
1986. 1000 children lived there between the 50s and
80s. Police investigation found remains of 5 children,
over 100 children’s bones and 4 punishment rooms.
Care Leaver
/survivor in
grounds of former
care home
Gorey Bay and Gorey castle close to Haut de la
Garenne home
The bath found in the cellar after survivor’s
descriptions
The bunker
The Jersey opera house
Voices of the children: read the blogs
Simon Bellwood
former Social Worker
Stuart Syvret - Senator
What we are dealing with is a continuum of abuse
A culture of contempt
A culture of disregard
A culture of abuse
A culture of concealment
And it didn’t end with Haut de la Garenne. It continues to this day
Police Investigator: LENNY HARPER
I can quite clearly say that the investigation is being
held up. There are people on the island who just
don't want us going down the route of this inquiry"
A global crime requiring a global
protective response
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sexual exploitation
trafficking
international adoption trade
organised, institutional and
ritual abuse networks
online abuse
trade in abusive images of
children
forced marriage
sex tourism
bonded labour/ child sex
slavery
organ harvesting
Abusers – less severe
penalties than for other crime –
easier to remain undetected.
More police effort into stolen
antiques than stolen children
Fewer than 1 in 50 reported
sexual crimes against children
lead to conviction of a criminal
25% all reported rape is of
children under 16 years
An estimated 95% sexual crime
against children is unreported
Section 47 Children Act 1989
Local Authority duty to
investigate when there is
reasonable cause to
suspect actual or likely
significant harm
Working Together in practice
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Confident professional specialists
Mutual trust and respect (now removed from policy)
Informed debate within procedures and policies
Shared goals : a commitment to the ‘best interests
of children’
• Agency support / supervision / training
• When things go wrong non-compliance is the
problem NOT the policies and procedures
Child abuse inquiry 1945
‘a story unfolds, in the report of small
carelessness's, pressures of other work,
difficulties of staffing and failures to
cooperate
………..
which collectively resulted in individual
tragedy and public scandal.’
IF ONLY…..
• The child had been heard
• The adults concerned about the child had been
heard
• Signs had been recognised
• Someone had called social services / police
• That fax had been followed up
• The workers had proper supervision / safe working
conditions
• A suspicion had been checked out
• Someone had blown the whistle
• Budgets hadn’t been cut / services not restructured
Hearing the voice of the child
To do the work of protecting children as
workers we need to be in safe working
environments. Many professionals do
succeed but it is against the odds. They
are creative, dedicated and committed
despite the obstacles to good practice
Working Together in practice
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Effective joint investigations in UK
Young people and professionals speaking out
Resource intensive
Compensation and negligence claims
High profile people and organisations
exposed
• Ritual abuse
The backlash
• The mythology that too many children are
entering the child protection ‘net’
• Vigorous government directives to shift away
from proactive multi-agency joint investigation of
child abuse
• Proactive practitioners accused of being ‘overzealous’
We know how to protect children:
the knowledge base exists
The language of child protection has been taken
from us
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Protect – Safeguard
Abuse/significant harm – concern
Investigation – assessment
Risk – need
The systems of child protection have been taken
from us.
• S47 investigation marginalised – focus on need
instead
• Abolition of Child Protection Register
• Reduced role of police
Safeguarding - Working Together
definition: 2010 Prevention agenda
Protecting children from maltreatment
Preventing impairment of children’s health or development
Ensuring that children are growing up in circumstances
consistent with the provision of safe and effective care
and undertaking that role so as to enable those children to
have optimum life chances and to enter adulthood
successfully
Child protection is a part of safeguarding and promoting
welfare. This refers to the activity that is undertaken to
protect specific children who are suffering or are at risk of
suffering significant harm
OUTCOMES are not RIGHTS
‘Every Child Matters’ Policy 2003: 5
outcomes (particularly related to
education) expected of children defined as
future citizens not children in their own
right. Non achievement of the outcomes is
met with a punitive state response
The child’s right to protection becomes
marginal within policy
Prevention/Protection: Either/or?
• Family support defined as an alternative to child
protection
• Prevention presented as an alternative to protection
(need smoke alarms AND fire-fighters)
Distinction to segregate service provision between
two extremes allowed
• restructuring of service
• centralisation of government control of child
protection work
• increased privatisation
Victoria Climbie – child in need NOT defined as
child in need of protection
Debunking the myths
Victoria - 128 injuries
Where was the analysis of the injuries?
Not in the Inquiry: no forensic approach
Family support model / child in need but not in need of protection:
Climbié and Peter Connolly – assessment not child abuse
investigation
• It was my managers and not I who instructed that this was not a child
protection case which required a section 47 enquiry but instead a
family support case which is more routine general support of a family. I
thought I was doing it – no-one told me otherwise. Its what I was
taught on my course (Lisa Arthurworrey 2005)
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Peter Connolly case: social worker’s response during the criminal trial
• Q: what was your role in the case
• A: I was there to support the family
……………………………………………………………………………
Haringey response included document, ‘Support offered to family of
Child A’ (Peter C) . …parenting classes, provision of appliances,
housing support, placement with friend, Signs of Safety approach
Victoria Climbie/Peter Connolly: Section 47
threshold met but defined as family support
Unexplained
scald/injuries/buckle
type marks, thumb prints
inconsistent explanations
Delayed admission to hospital
Unavailable to authorities
Indicators of neglect
Emotional abuse indicators/
master servant relationship
History of hospital admissions
Confused family background
Unexplained inflicted
injuries/scratches/infections
Delay seeking medical attention
Avoidance of professionals
Indicators of neglect
Emotional abuse indicators – high
pain threshold/ head banging
History of hospital admissions
Lack of knowledge of adults in
household
Victoria Climbié– Peter Connolly – some
other comparisons
• Lack of joint investigation
• Lack of multi agency and forensic analysis of
unexplained, repeated and unusual injuries and
indicators over time. Analysis of patterns / explanations
• Child perceived as causing injuries to self
• Lack of focus on and investigation of adults in the child’s
life
• No legal safeguards in place: placed with family friends
• Lack of checking out mothers explanations
• Failure to investigate complex and confused family
structure and history.
Peter Connolly
Case managed through core groups
Lack of strategy meetings
Signs of Safety approach
Core assessment
Police focus on crime
Social work focus on assessment and family
support
Peter Connolly’s name was on the Child
Protection Register.
Already the Register had been
undermined and lacked status
Less professional involvement –
police and health
A conference is as good as the
investigation that informs it.
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Government response to Peter
Connolly case
• Focus on Serious Case Reviews, Ofsted’s
role and the role of managers
• Restated the Every Child Matters agenda and
asked Laming to check that it was being
implemented. ‘Some authorities have not
focused on early intervention and
prevention…’
• Taskforce: focus on workforce issues
• Some focus on a review of IT systems
What about the demise of child protection
systems?
The myth of ‘Every Child Matters’ real prevention would;
increase child protection referrals – given
known incidence of child abuse and how
this is not reflected in the numbers of
investigations made or convictions
obtained
• focus on systems to remove abusers from
lives of children
• increase resources to investigate serious
crimes against children
Children need both – prevention and
protection
One is little use without the other
Prevention strategies to teach the public and
professionals to recognise and report abuse
– creating a network of protective adults in
the community
Protection of children requires appropriate
reporting enabling professionals to prioritise,
investigate, intervene and act to protect
Early state involvement in child ‘concerns’
within families does not prevent child abuse
This means
lack of focus on children at high risk of
abuse who will be lost among the mass of
low level ‘concerns’ – the needle in the
haystack
• child abuse is located within the needs of
the family rather than investigation of the
global industry of child abuse
• child abuse located within socially
disadvantaged families
ASSESSMENT of need IS NOT
INVESTIGATION of harm
• Assessment processes do not assess RISK
of HARM
• S.47 became a secondary process to
assessment – harm was missed
• Timescales and targets undermine
professional judgement
• Form filling overwhelms practitioners and
reduces contact time with children and
families
Child protection register
‘No research has been commissioned by
the DfES specifically on the use of the child
protection register’ (Ministerial response)
Some authorities are keeping secret
registers to retain the alert to hospitals and
police
CP Plans made anywhere.
Alarm bells don’t ring with emergency
services
social workers – assessment
police - crime
The police role in child protection declined
Police now only became involved when a
crime had been committed not at the level
of significant harm to a child.
Reduction in police child protection teams
and resources – redirection to ‘anti terrorism’ and population control functions
and to children as criminals not victims of
abuse
Deprofessionalisation
BASW (British Association of Social Workers)
had to take legal action to protect the title of
social worker
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Common Assessment Framework
Common core training standards
Children’s workers
Volunteers
Integrated Children’s Systems
Increased centralised control- tick box culture
Loss of specialist child protection
social work teams
• Specialist child protection social work
teams abolished
• Assessment teams doing mainly family
support work privatised – small ‘units’ of
social workers and therapists become the
new model: The Hackney model
Supporting front line social workers
and whistleblowers
Kline R (2009) What if.
Social care professionals and
the duty of care. A practice
guide to staff duties and rights.
London. Aspect Trade Union
The Children’s House: the
Barnahus
Scandanavian model of child protection
30 houses in Norway, Iceland and Sweden
Multi agency: child centred environment for
Investigation and interview and therapy
Involves psychologist, prosecutors as well as
police, social workers and paediatricians
EU recommended introduction throughout Europe
The media as an ally – voice for the
silenced
The media is an effective way of protecting
children. It works. Often it is all we have.
If someone has a story to tell there is
always a way of it being told safely via
trusted journalists and a time when it is
right to make the issues public
Nick Davies (2008) Flat Earth
News - falsehood, distortion and
propaganda in the global media
If we can sell it we tell it
Give the public what they want
Little time for investigative
journalism
Easy stories
Churnalism – simplistic – little
time to check facts
Stories generated by
commercial and political
interests
Soundbites: presenting the
complexities of child protection
We know how to protect children - the
knowledge base exists
But ;
The language of child protection has been
stolen from us
The systems of child protection have been
stolen from us
Focus on single issues
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Islington child abuse scandal
Lisa Arthurworrey – social worker for Victoria Climbie
Nevres Kemal – Haringey social worker and whistleblower
Margaret Hodge – former Minister for Children and former Islington
councillor
Demetrious Panton – Islington survivor/care leaver
Jersey care leavers – no child protection investigation
Teresa Cooper – survivor/care leaver - abuse in care and drug
regime
Maria Ward / Gillie Christou – Peter Connolly’s social worker and
team manager
Appointment of Laming to report following Peter Connolly case
Opposing children’s database
Challenging abolition of child protection register and lack of joint
investigation
Challenging the role of pharmaceutical companies
Ofsted Trustee: Glaxo Smith Kline vice president, Paul
Blackburn, described by Ed Balls as having ‘A passion to
help improve the lives of children and learners’
Phil Frampton - research
Comment piece: ‘Real
experience should have been
reflected in Ofsted
appointments’
Guardian:12.06.08
Fairweather in Mail.
Financial Times: question
corporate appointments.
Resignation within
2 weeks.
Lisa: 10 years after Victoria’s death - GSCC
agree registration
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Serious case review
Disciplinary proceedings
Employment tribunal
ET appeal hearing
Victoria Climbié Inquiry
Care Standards Tribunal
(POCA)
Care Standards Tribunal
(GSCC)
Appeal to CST again re
GSCC decision
Registration 2010
How could she ever have been expected
to do the job right?
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Inexperience
Lack of essential training
Non-existent leadership
Useless supervision
Inadequate local procedures
Chaotic and demoralised work environment
Excessive caseload and overwork
Allocation to a case beyond her capacity
Misleading information from senior medical staff
National organisational and resource shortcomings
Plausible murderous adults
Peter Jackson QC
PRESS COVERAGE: Victoria’s parents became supportive
Eileen Fairweather
Fairweather – Peter Connolly
articles
‘Baby
P relative implicated in child sex ring’
14.12.2008 Sunday Times
‘Baby P’s close relative is linked to big
paedophile network’ 15.11.2008 Daily Mail
Phil Wheeler:Met officer
scapegoated in the
Victoria Climbie inquiry
finally clears his name
Daily Mail
Eileen Fairweather
January 30th 2010
Nicholas Rabet
Insall, R (1993) Pervert runs play park in
the woods! Kiddie porn haul seized by vice
cops. London. News of the World. 21st
March
Manager of Islington children’s home. UK
police could not investigate fully. No
prosecution.
He went to Thailand – convicted of abuse
of 300 boys.
Peter Connolly: the media strategy
Television - news and documentaries
Radio
Print media
Professional magazines/ journals
Blogs/ comments/ phone-ins
Gillie Christou and Maria Ward – social
workers in Peter Connolly case
Serious case review (1)
Serious case review (2)
Disciplinary hearing (1)
Disciplinary hearing (2)
GSCC hearings
Appeal hearings
Employment tribunal
Tabloids or broadsheets?
Truth among the falsehoods
Sun - printed the link with Epping Forest.
News of the world - raised questions about the Nazi
memorabilia and filming of abuse. Stated that some adults
in the household had learning disability.
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Prof.Eileen Munro: Independent
Lessons learnt, boxes ticked, families ignored. Policy
prompted by Climbié have made children less not more
safe.
Prof.Sue White: Guardian:
ICS takes time away from children and families.
Voices heard: overwhelming professional
dissatisfaction and an increase in child deaths
Social workers blogged, went on talk shows, appeared disguised on
TV.
Caseloads very high.
Not allowed to seek EPO’s ,care orders Accountants involvement in
decision panels. Costs of care proceedings risen
Cases kept at S17 rather than S47
Conveyor belt culture/ bullying ‘My way or the highway’
Lack of training in cp
Targets before children: Assessments closed prematurely
Technology driven social work: the child doesn’t shout as loud as the
managers demanding data entry.
Strategy discussions but not meetings
Difficulty accessing archived records.
Inexperienced managers / experienced staff leaving / agency workers
Hot desking / smart working
Stuart Syvret: Jersey Senator: Christmas speech
2007 (full text on his blog)
I went about the back-streets, the housing
estates, the tenement blocks, the foul,
overcrowded and exploitative "lodging houses"
in which the poor in Jersey often dwell. And I
listened to people opening up; often for the first
time in their lives speaking of what they
experienced - what they saw - and how they
had been failed by everyone. For many of these
people, I was the first person in authority they
felt able to speak to about what happened to
them.
I listened to things - things sometimes said
through tears - that I hope never to have to hear
again.
As time passed, I found myself moving from
these dark rendezvous with witnesses experiencing encounters with victims - and
clandestine meetings with brave whistle-blowing
front-line staff. In the early stages of this
odyssey amongst the night roads and back
alleys of St. Helier - in the unspoken underbelly
of Jersey - I realised what I was seeking - and
finding - were ghosts.
Shades and spectres – the vaporous trails of
long-departed children – still haunting the outer
shells of people I met.
Sometimes you catch a glimpse of these ghost
children - in eye - or word - or gesture - and you
want to reach out to them - but these burnt and
vanished phantoms disappear into the scars,
the tattoos, the needle marks, the self-harm
lacerations, the haunted faces and the wrecked
lives. Although many of the people I met are in
their twenties, thirties, forties, fifties and sixties I cannot but see them as children still. And
many of these children have passed through the
hands of the States of Jersey 'system’ - I cannot
bring myself to use the phrase "care". Some of
these children ended in custody for minor
offences - and such was the cruelty, abuse,
neglect and violence they suffered - many went
on to become habitual criminals.
Poem by Jersey care
leaver/survivor
You took away my freedom
When I was just a child
Then wonder why I’m like I am
From innocence to wild
It’s hard for those who suffered
At the hands of those who hide
Who denounce responsibility
To the police they all have lied
You took away my sanity
And left me fend alone
You took away my childhood
And left me without a home
Now we are the ones
Who control your destiny
We’re stronger, older, smarter
You were wrong to damage me
Is this what you wanted
Clap your hands you have achieved
Destruction of a young man’s mind
Who never was believed
Davies L and Duckett N (2009)