Addressing child protection

   What do I do if the child does not agree that I should take the matter further?

There is no simple answer to this question that will always be correct. What we do will depend on a balance between:

• The age of the child

• Precisely how serious the issue is that makes us want to refer on

• Our estimate of the child’s competence to take decisions

• Our estimate of how serious it will be to disregard the child’s wishes in this situation

• Our estimate of how serious it will be to NOT refer on in this situation, and so on.

For example, if a child of four said that s/he was being sexually abused but asked that no one else be told, the child's wishes would have to be disregarded. The worker should acknowledge how the child feels, explain why they can’t disregard the information (ie that it is not because the child has been bad or naughty), that this was a very serious thing, that [whoever was abusing the child] had no right to do that, that this person was being very wrong and naughty to do such things and that it is their duty to protect the child, even if s/he was scared of the consequences, and refer on.

On the other hand, if the child was 13 or 14, they would want to consider very carefully what the reasons were for the child asking for matters not to be taken further, and seek to change that child’s mind via discussion with them before referring on, as opposed to simply disregarding their wishes. If the child was 9 or 11, it would very much depend on an assessment of the situation using the bullet points above.

Decisions of this type should always be undertaken after consultation with a supervisor, line manager, etc.

So if we decide to refer to child protection services, we need to consider a number of things. Some of these are questions for ourselves:

• What will we say to the child involved?

• What will we say to the parents if they subsequently approach us (see next section)?

• How sure are we of our reasons for making this referral?

Others are just good practice pointers:

Referring a child to child protection services (or for any other form of help such as to the school counsellor etc) does not mean that our responsibilities cease. We are still likely to go on seeing the child, and we therefore cannot just forget about the problems revealed to us. Even after referral, we still have a duty to care for the child.