Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation: Knowledge, confidence and training within a contemporary UK social work practice and policy context
Summary (2 min read)
Introduction
- This doesn’t have to be physical contact and it can happen online’ (NSPCC, 2016).
- It was against this backdrop that research was commissioned by the NSPCC to explore social workers’ confidence and understanding of CSA.
- The research report is available on the NSPCC website (Martin et al., 2014) and, in this paper, their focus is on the implications arising from it.
Method
- Ethical approval was gained from the authors’ university and the Association of Directors of Children’s Services Research Group.
- The size and nature of these varied, with three located in the East and West Midlands, one in London, one in East Anglia and one in the North-West.
- Each LA was provided with a summary of key findings respective to the authority, including where participants had indicated need for improvement in practice and training.
- The purpose of undertaking focus groups and interviews was to establish how confident and self-assured social workers and managers felt in relation to working with CSA/E. Questions explored training and career pathways into their current field of work, current role and details of memorandum, post-qualifying and multidisciplinary training in the field of child safeguarding.
- This leads to concerns as to the potential under-recording of CSA and the low prioritisation of therapeutic support that might be given to children and young people who have been groomed and sexually exploited.
The importance of skilled intervention
- Where timely and skilled intervention exists, research suggests that it can make a positive contribution to both sexually abused children and their carers.
- In 2002, the Department of Health published a report from findings of individual and joint inspections of English authorities carried out by eight inspectorates.
- Working Together to Safeguard Children identified the lead role of LAs, whilst reiterating the principle that ‘safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility: for services to be effective each professional and organisation should play their full part’.
- Central to the potential conflict between ‘investigation and prosecution’ and ‘investigation and child welfare support’ was the practice in some of the participating LAs to postpone social work or therapeutic intervention until criminal proceedings had been completed—a practice sometimes requested by the police in order to avoid the potential contamination of evidence.
- This raises important issues as to the core purpose of social work, how the expertise of qualified social workers should best be used and the status of the profession in the multi-agency context.
Multi-agency safeguarding hubs
- MASHs were developed to assist in multi-agency information sharing.
- At the post-qualifying level, social workers did not necessarily have access to appropriate knowledge and training.
- This may contribute to the evaluation report’s finding that ‘Despite enjoying high ratings for practice quality, the Frontline trainees’ rating of their own confidence in their abilities was lower than their mainstream counterparts’.
Concluding remarks
- CSA/E amongst children and young people is a substantive issue facing contemporary social work in the UK.
- Research addressing this issue is still an under-developed field and, where research is taking place, it is not necessarily permeating social work practice.
- This research highlights that, although social workers undertake this important work with a strong sense of commitment and concern for children, they face a number of challenges.
- The focus of government and Chief Social Worker interventions appear to suggest that there is something inherently problematic about social workers themselves that can be improved if they are more tightly regulated, trained outside of universities or subject to post-qualification exams.
- The call for smaller caseloads, more time for direct practice, enhanced professional status, less paper work and reduced regulation and managerial direction merely echoes reports of the last decade.
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"Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation..." refers background in this paper
...Although its purpose is clearly stated by the UK Government (Department for Education and Skills, 2006), and standards for such training were outlined over ten years ago (Shardlow et al. 2004), few social workers involved in this research recalled experiencing inter-agency training and when they did it was usually provided by the police, reinforcing the police’s perceived lead role in safeguarding children....
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...…clearly stated by the UK Government (Department for Education and Skills, 2006), and standards for such training were outlined over ten years ago (Shardlow et al. 2004), few social workers involved in this research recalled experiencing inter-agency training and when they did it was usually…...
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25 citations
24 citations
"Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation..." refers background in this paper
...as it has been accepted as an effective vehicle for breaking down the barriers that transcend good practice (Glennie, 2007)....
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...Problems with inter- agency working are well-documented but its importance has risen over the last two decades as it has been accepted as an effective vehicle for breaking down the barriers that transcend good practice (Glennie, 2007)....
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23 citations
"Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation..." refers background in this paper
...(Maxwell et al. 2016:12)....
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...The evaluation report (Maxwell et al. 2016) suggests that the Frontline participants are “significantly younger, more likely to have parents who were graduates and are more likely to have attended independent schools than those on traditional Masters” courses ....
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...The evaluation report (Maxwell et al. 2016) suggests that the Frontline participants are “significantly younger, more likely to have parents who were graduates and are more likely to have attended independent schools than those on traditional Masters” courses ....
[...]
22 citations
"Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation..." refers background in this paper
...…able to enter interprofessional negotiations on an equal footing but ‘role slumping’ (the practice of higher level managers intervening in decisions that should be made at practitioner level) (Katz and Kahn, 1978; Searle and Patent, 2013) potentially undermines their ability to do this effectively....
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...12 managers intervening in decisions that should be made at practitioner level) (Katz and Kahn, 1978; Searle and Patent, 2013) potentially undermines their ability to do this effectively....
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