Tameside Safeguarding Framework

Section 6 - Child Protection Enquiries

• What are child protection enquiries?
• Who leads and who assists in child protection enquiries
• Involving Parents, Carers, Children and Young People
• When are child protection enquiries carried out?
• Timescales
• Immediate Protection
• S47 enquiry thresholds and the Core Assessment
• Initiating an Enquiry
  - Inter-agency checks
• What is a Strategy Discussion/meeting?
• When should a Strategy Discussion/Meeting take place?
• Who should participate in a Strategy Discussion/Meeting?
  - Notes of Discussion/Meeting
  - Location of Strategy Meeting
• Seeing the child during the child protection enquiry
• Criminal Investigations
• Referral to the Police
  - Criminal investigation & strategy discussion/meeting
• Joint Interviews of Children
  - Video recorded interviews
  - Criteria for video recording an interview
• Missing or Inaccessible Children
• Outcome of child protection enquiries
  - Concerns are not substantiated
  - Concerns are substantiated but the Child is not considered to be at continuing risk of significant harm
  - Concerns are substantiated and the Child is considered to be at continuing risk of significant harm
• Feedback from Enquiries
• Disputed Decisions
• Recording

What are child protection enquiries?

6.1 Where a child is suspected to be suffering, or is at risk of, significant harm, Tameside Council's Children's Social Care is required by section 47 (s47) of the Children Act 1989 to make enquiries, to enable it to decide whether it should take any action to safeguard and promote the welfare of the child.

6.2 The scope and focus of the enquiry will be that of a risk assessment. As set out in section 5 of these procedures, assessment is a central task in deciding whether a child is thriving or is at risk of harm. In a child protection enquiry the risk assessment will: 

• Identify the cause for concern
• Evaluate the strengths of the family
• Evaluate the risks to the child
• Consider the child's needs for protection
• Consider the ability of parents and wider family and social networks to safeguard and promote the child's welfare
• Evaluate information from all other sources

6.3 It is important that the child protection enquiries are not only focussed on the issue of risk but also on the question of the child's need for assistance. The investigating team will need to consider what services should be provided as well as making a judgement about the likelihood of harm occurring to a child. 

6.4 Child protection enquiries are primarily concerned with predicting, and safeguarding against, future harm to a child. However this does involve making judgements about whether harm has occurred or not. This is necessarily part of any criminal investigation which takes place as part of the child protection enquiries. However child protection enquiries do not always involve a criminal investigation.

6.5 Where the child's circumstances are about to change, the risk assessment must include an assessment of the safety of the new environment e.g. where a child is to be discharged from hospital to home the assessment must have established the safety of the home environment and implemented any support plan required to meet the child's needs.

Who leads and who assists in child protection enquiries?

6.6 Tameside Council's Children's Social Care is responsible for carrying out child protection enquiries (or 'Section 47' enquires, after s47 Children Act 1989) for children in Tameside. 

6.7 For that reason much of section 6 of the Safeguarding Framework describes the necessary actions to be taken by Children's Social Care when a child is suspected to be suffering, or is at risk of, significant harm. However any agency that works with children, families, parents and carers may have an important role in assisting Children's Social Care with the child protection enquiries. 

6.8 There is a duty set out for these agencies in the Children Act 1989, the Children Act 2004 and in Working Together to Safeguard Children (2006), which is to assist and provide information in support of child protection enquiries.

Involving Parents, Carers, Children and Young People

6.9 Section 4 of these procedures sets out good practice in involving parents, carers, children and young people in child protection enquiries and meetings. 

6.10 However during child protection enquiries there are specific processes and issues to consider in respect of seeing and interviewing the child and these are set out in this section 6, below.

When are child protection enquiries carried out?

6.11 Child protection (s.47) enquiries are carried out as soon as an agency with statutory child protection powers (the Police, Children's Social Care and the NSPCC) is made aware that: 

• There is reasonable cause to suspect that a child has suffered, or is at risk of, significant harm in the form of physical, sexual, emotional abuse or neglect.
• An Emergency Protection Order (EPO) has been made or Police Powers of Protection have been used in respect of a child.
• A child breaches curfew criteria in which case the response must be initiated within 48 hours of receipt of the information (s.47(1)(a)(iii) Children Act 1989 inserted by s.15(4) Crime and Disorder Act 1998)

Timescales

6.12 Children's Social Care should comply with the following timescales:

 6.13 These time-scales are the minimum standards required by Working Together. Where the welfare of the child requires shorter time-scales these must be met. 

• The initial strategy discussion/meeting which instigates the s47 enquiry must take place within 3 working days of receiving the referral (but earlier in certain circumstances – see sub-section below, When should a Strategy Discussion/Meeting take place?)
• The initial assessment must be completed within 7 working days of the date of the referral
• The core assessment must be completed within 35 working days from the completion of the initial assessment or 42 working days including the maximum 7 working days taken to complete an initial assessment
• The maximum period from the strategy discussion/ meeting (or last discussion/meeting if more than one held) of an enquiry to the date of the Initial Child Protection Conference is 15 working days. 

6.14 Compliance with these timescales depends on the co-operation of all agencies that have worked with or have knowledge of the child and their family.

Immediate Protection

6.15 Where there is a risk to the life of a child or the possibility of serious immediate harm, an agency with statutory child protection powers should act quickly to secure the immediate safety of the child. 

6.16 Emergency action may be necessary as soon as the referral is received from a member of the public or from any agency involved with children, parents or carers. Alternatively the need for emergency action may become apparent only over time as more is learned about a child or adult carer's circumstances. 

6.17 When considering whether emergency action is required, an agency should always consider whether action is also required to safeguard and promote the welfare of other children in the same household (e.g. siblings), the household of an alleged perpetrator, or elsewhere.

6.18 Planned emergency action will normally take place following an immediate strategy discussion between Police, Children's Social Care, and other agencies as appropriate (see below, on Strategy Discussion/Meeting). 

6.19 Immediate protection may be achieved by: 

• A parent taking action to remove an alleged abuser
• An alleged abuser agreeing to leave the home
• The child not returning to the home (e.g. moving to live with a protective relative)
• The child being removed either on a voluntary basis or by obtaining an Emergency Protection Order (EPO)
• Removal of the child or prevention of removal from a place of safety under Police powers of protection
• Gaining entry to the household under Police powers and assessing the situation 

6.20 The Children's Social Care social worker must seek the agreement of their first line manager and obtain legal advice before initiating legal action. (The social worker should seek additional guidance from Children's Social Care procedures in respect of initiating care proceedings). 

6.21 Police powers of protection should only be used in exceptional circumstances, or where there is insufficient time to seek an Emergency Protection Order, or for reasons relating to the immediate safety of the child. 

6.22 When Police Powers of Protection are used, a Police officer of at least inspector rank must act as the designated officer. 

6.23 Where an agency with statutory child protection powers, has to act immediately to protect a child, a strategy discussion should take place, within 1 working day of the emergency action, to plan the next steps.

6.24 Emergency action addresses only the immediate circumstances of the child. It should be followed by a s47 enquiry and an assessment of the needs and circumstances of the child and family as necessary. 

6.25 Where an emergency protection order applies, Children's Social Care will have to consider whether to initiate care or other proceedings or to let the order lapse and the child return home or, by negotiation with the parent(s), to another protective relative.

S47 enquiry thresholds and the Core Assessment

6.26 The threshold criteria for a s47 enquiry may be apparent at the point of referral, during the inter-agency checks and information gathering stage, or may be identified during an initial assessment, during a core assessment or at any time in a case already open to Children's Social Care. 

6.27 If not already in progress, a core assessment should be commenced by Children's Social Care whenever a s47 enquiry is initiated. The core assessment will be the means of gathering and analysing information for the enquiry (see section 5 Core assessment). The conclusions and recommendations of the enquiry should inform the core assessment, if it is not completed when the Initial Child Protection conference takes place (see section 7 Child Protection Meetings).

6.28 The s47 enquiry and the core assessment should begin by focusing primarily on the information which appears most important in relation to the risk of significant harm to the child. This information can be identified at point of referral, during inter-agency checks and information gathering or during the initial assessment.

Initiating an Enquiry

6.29 The Children's Social Care manager must consider consulting the Police and other appropriate agencies before making the decision to authorise an enquiry or not and should always be alert to the possibility that a criminal offence may have been committed. 

6.30 A s47 enquiry may run concurrently with Police investigations. When a joint enquiry takes place, the Police have the lead for the criminal investigation and Children's Social Care have the lead for the s47 enquiries and for ensuring the child's welfare is promoted

Inter-agency checks

6.31 Whenever a s47 enquiry is initiated, even when there has been a recent initial assessment, the Children's Social Care social worker must contact the other agencies involved with the child to inform them that a child protection enquiry has been initiated and to seek their views. 

6.32 Inter-agency checks must be undertaken as described in section 5 (Assessment). In particular, the social worker, together with their manager, must decide whether to seek parental permission to undertake inter-agency checks.

What is a Strategy Discussion/meeting?

6.33 Whenever there is reasonable cause to suspect that a child has suffered, or is at risk of, significant harm, there should be a strategy discussion/meeting. 

6.34 The strategy discussion/meeting, should consider the following: 

• Seriousness of the concern/s
• Repetition or duration of concern/s
• Vulnerability of child (through age, developmental stage, disability or other pre-disposing factor e.g. caring arrangements)
• Reliability of evidence for the concern/s
• Whether there is sufficient information and, if not, identify how best to obtain it
• Context in which the child is living e.g. a child in the household who is already the subject of a Child Protection Plan
• Predisposing factors in the family that may suggest a higher level of risk e.g. mental health difficulties, parental substance misuse, domestic abuse or immigrant family issues such as social isolation 

6.35 The strategy discussion/meeting should be used to: 

• Share available information
• Decide whether a core assessment under s47 of the Children Act 1989 (s47 enquiries) should be initiated, or continued if it has already begun
• Plan how the s47 enquiry should be undertaken (if one is to be initiated), including the need for medical examination/treatment, and who will carry out what actions, by when and for what purpose
• Agree the conduct and timing of any criminal investigation 

6.36 Strategy discussions by telephone will usually be adequate to plan an enquiry, but meetings are likely to be more effective where:

• There is concern that the child is suffering complex types of neglect or maltreatment (further information on Fabricated or Induced Illness and Organised and Complex Abuse is available from the Tameside SCB website)
• There is an allegation that a child has abused another child, separate strategy meetings should be held for both children (further information on Children who Abuse is available from Tameside SCB website)
• There are ongoing, cumulative concerns about the child's welfare.
• There are concerns about the future risk to an unborn child
• The enquiry is anticipated to be complex requiring, for example, the co-ordination of several agencies 

6.37 The strategy discussion should be convened, co-ordinated and chaired by Children's Social Care. In addition to Children's Social Care and the Police, the discussion/meeting must involve the other agencies (e.g. schools and health services) which hold information relevant to the concerns about the child. More than one strategy discussion/meeting may be required.

6.38 Where it is decided that there are grounds to initiate a s47 enquiry, decisions should be made about: 

• Further information required and how it should be obtained
• The scope of the enquiry, including consideration of any risk to other children.
• The need for any paediatric or specialist assessment
• How to meet the best interests of the child in the enquiry, taking account of any additional needs such as disability or a need for an interpreter, or speech and language therapist
• Agree how an understanding of the child's wishes and feelings will be gained so that they can be taken into account
• When, how and who will undertake interviews with the child and if a video interview will be used
• Any further action if consent is refused for interview or medical assessment
• The needs of other children in contact with the alleged abuser/s, including all children in the household
• Who, when, and for what purpose, people other than the family members should be interviewed. This could be, for example, the referrer.
• Agree what other actions may be needed to protect the child or provide interim services and support, including securing the safe discharge of a child from hospital
• What information may be shared, with whom and when. This should take into account the possibility that information sharing may place a child at risk of significant harm or may affect Police investigations
• Any implications for disciplinary action e.g. use of evidence statements
• Any legal action required
• Timescales, agency and practitioner responsibility for agreed actions, including the timing of Police investigations and relevant methods of evidence gathering
• The need for further strategy discussions/meetings during the enquiry if the circumstances are particularly complex or unknown
• The mechanism and date for reviewing the completion of agreed actions. In complex cases this may involve further strategy discussions/meetings 

6.39 It is important that these decisions should be made with full consideration of the racial, cultural, religious and linguistic background of the child and their family.

6.40 When it is suspected that a criminal offence may have been committed against a child, the timing and handling of interviews with victims, their families and witnesses, can have important implications for the collection and preservation of evidence.

When should a Strategy Discussion/Meeting take place?

6.41 Whenever there is reasonable cause to suspect that a child has suffered, or is at risk of, significant harm, strategy discussions/meetings should be convened within 3 working days except in the following circumstances:

• For allegations/concerns indicating a serious risk to the child (e.g. serious physical injury or serious neglect) the strategy discussion/meeting should be held on the same day as the receipt of the referral
• For allegations of penetrative sexual abuse, the strategy discussion / meeting should be held on the same day as the receipt of the referral if this is required to ensure forensic evidence
• Where immediate action to protect a child was required by Police or Children's Social Care, the strategy discussion / meeting must be held within 1 working day
• Where the concerns are particularly complex e.g. organised abuse the strategy meeting must be held within a maximum of 5 working days, but sooner if there is a need to provide immediate protection to a child 

6.42 The plan made at the strategy discussion/meeting should reflect the requirement to convene an Initial Child Protection conference within 15 working days of the last strategy discussion

Who should participate in a Strategy Discussion/Meeting?

6.43 The strategy discussion/meeting must involve Children's Social Care, the Police and any agency involved with the child which can contribute to decisions about the protection of the child. The referring agency should be included. Strategy discussions/meetings involving only Children's Social Care and the Police should be the exception rather than the rule.

Notes of Discussion/Meeting

6.44 It is the responsibility of the chair of the meeting to ensure that the decisions and agreed actions are fully recorded using an appropriate form e.g. Strategy Discussion Record (DH 2002). A copy should be made available immediately for all participants. 

6.45 For telephone discussions, a copy of the notes authorised by the Children's Social Care manager should be immediately faxed to all participants on an agreed pro forma.

Location of Strategy Meeting

6.46 The strategy meeting should be held at the venue, which is most likely to maximise attendance of those who are vital to share information, e.g. a hospital, school, Police station, Children's Social Care office. Attention must be paid to the suitability of a venue in terms of a service user's confidential rights; for instance, a school may not always be a good venue for children who are attending and perceive the school as a safe place and a health clinic might not be a good venue if the clinic is also involved in providing health care to the parents or carers. 

6.47 If the child is an in-patient in hospital or if the case is one where hospital staff hold key information, the strategy meeting must be held at the hospital to maximise input from relevant staff, unless this is not in the child's best interests. Consideration should be given to the child's views on the location of the strategy meeting.

Seeing the child during the child protection enquiry

6.48 Children's Social Care is required to ascertain the child's wishes and feelings about the provision of services and give them due consideration before determining what (if any) services to provide. Failure to engage and listen to children has been a significant factor in a number of inquiries into the deaths of children. Interviews with the child should be undertaken in the preferred language of the child. For some disabled children interviews may require the use of non-verbal communication methods. 

6.49 The child's wishes and feelings may or may not coincide with the assessment of what action should be taken in the child's best interests. The action taken should always ensure that the welfare of the child is the paramount consideration, including where the child has expressed a contrary view. 

6.50 In child protection enquiries the objectives in seeing the child are to: 

• Record and evaluate her/his appearance, demeanour, mood state and behaviour
• Hear the child's account of allegations or concerns
• Observe and record the interactions of the child and her/his carers
• See and record the circumstances in which the child is currently living and sleeping and, if different, her/his ordinary residence
• Evaluate the physical safety of the environment including the storage of hazardous substances e.g. bleach, drugs
• Ensure that any other children who need to be seen are identified
• Assess the degree of risk and possible need for protective action
• Meet the child's needs for information and re-assurance 

6.51 In order to avoid undermining any subsequent criminal case, in any contact with a child prior to an interview, practitioners must: 

• Listen to the child rather than directly questioning her/him
• Never stop the child freely recounting significant events
• Fully record the discussion including timing, setting, presence of others as well as what was said

Criminal Investigations

6.52 The primary responsibility of Police officers is to undertake criminal investigations of suspected or actual crime. The Police have a duty to carry out thorough and professional investigations into allegations of crime. The obtaining of clear strong evidence is in the best interests of a child, since it makes it less likely that a child victim will have to give evidence in criminal court.

6.53 Enquiries may, therefore, give rise to information that is relevant to decisions that will be taken by both Children's Social Care and the Police who must co-ordinate their activities to ensure the parallel process of a s47 enquiry and a criminal investigation is undertaken in the best interests of the child. This should primarily be achieved through planning at strategy discussions/meetings.

6.54 At the strategy discussion/meeting the Police should share current and historical information with other services where it is necessary to do so to ensure the protection of a child.

Referral to the Police

6.55 All suspected, alleged or actual crime must be referred to the Police. Telephone referrals should be confirmed in writing, within 48 hours.

6.56 The Police will make a decision, based on Police threshold policy, following checks and information sharing, whether to initiate a criminal investigation.

Criminal investigation & strategy discussion/meeting

6.57 Where the Police are undertaking a criminal investigation, the Police are responsible for all the associated investigative activities e.g. conducting interviews of witnesses and suspects; visiting crime scenes and, in conjunction with Children's Social Care, arranging medical examinations.

6.58 At the strategy discussion/meeting the Police should agree with the other agencies the timing and methods of the information gathering (for the criminal investigation) which are likely to affect the s47 enquiry. 

6.59 In urgent criminal cases (critical incidents) the Police may need to act unilaterally, including for activities usually undertaken jointly with Children's Social Care e.g. interviews with children and parents in order not to prejudice the criminal investigation. However the Police will advise the appropriate agencies of the actions and outcomes as soon as possible.

6.60 Following a full assessment of the available facts the Police may decide at any stage e.g. during or following a strategy discussion/meeting, to terminate a criminal investigation and will inform Children's Social Care of the decision. Among other factors, the Police decision will take account of the best interests of the child.

Joint Interviews of Children

6.61 Section 4 of these procedures sets out good practice in involving children and young people in child protection enquiries and meetings. However the interviewing of children during child protection enquiries requires attention to specific processes as set out here. 

6.62 In accordance with the Achieving Best Evidence guidance (www.homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/achieving-best-evidence/ ) all joint interviews with children should be conducted by those with specialist training and experience in interviewing children. Specialist/expert help may be needed if: 

• the child's first language is not English
• S/he appears to have a degree of psychiatric disturbance but is deemed competent
• S/he has a physical / sensory / learning disability
• interviewers do not have adequate knowledge and understanding of the child's racial, religious and cultural background

Video recorded interviews

6.63 Video recorded interviews must be planned jointly by Children's Social Care and the Police in accordance with the Achieving Best Evidence guidance (DH, 2002).The police carry out the questioning at the interview. All events up to the time of the video interview must be fully recorded.

6.64 Video recorded interviews serve two primary purposes: 

• Evidence gathering for criminal proceedings
• Examination in chief of a child witness 

6.65 Relevant information from this process can also be used to inform s47 enquiries, subsequent civil childcare proceedings or disciplinary proceedings against adult carers.

Criteria for video recording an interview

6.66 Video recorded interviews should be used for children giving evidence in sexual offence cases or in cases involving an offence of violence, abduction or neglect, unless the child objects and / or there are other difficulties e.g. abuse of the child has involved the use of video.

6.67 In other cases of children giving evidence the decision on whether or not to video should take account of the:

• Individual child's needs and circumstances
• The purpose and likely value of a video recorded interview on this occasion; for example what is the likelihood of maximising the quality of the child's evidence
• Type and severity of offence
• Circumstances of offence e.g. relationship to alleged abuser
• Competency, compellability and availability of the child for cross-examination
• the child's ability and willingness to talk in a formal interview setting;
• Child's state of mind
• Perceived fears regarding intimidation and recrimination
• Preparation of the child before interview.
   

6.68 All video interviews must ensure that the requirements of the law are met and that a video is the most appropriate way of recording the evidence. However it is important to stress that if it becomes clear that a child has been filmed or photographed whilst subjected to abuse a video interview may not be considered appropriate.

Missing or Inaccessible Children

6.69 If the whereabouts of a child, about whom there is already a concern, is unknown and cannot be ascertained by the Children's Social Care social worker, within 24 hours the following action must be taken: 

• A strategy discussion/meeting with Police
• Agreement reached with the Children's Social Care manager responsible as to what further action is required to locate and see the child and carry out the enquiry 

6.70 If access to a child is refused or obstructed the social worker, in consultation with her/his manager, should co-ordinate a strategy discussion/meeting, including legal representation, to develop a plan to locate or access the child and progress the s47 enquiry. 

6.71 In respect of other situations in which a child is missing from home consult the Tameside SCB Policy for Working with Children and Young People Missing from Home. This is available on the Tameside SCB website.

Outcome of child protection enquiries

6.72 At the completion of a s47 enquiry, Children's Social Care should coordinate a strategy discussion/meeting to share information between all those significantly involved in the enquiry and to agree the outcome of the enquiry. 

6.73 Children's Social Care is responsible for deciding how to proceed based on the strategy discussion and taking into account the views of the child, their parents and other relevant parties e.g. a foster carer. 

6.74 The outcome may be that the original concerns are:

• Concerns are not substantiated
• Concerns are substantiated, but the child is not considered to be at continuing risk of significant harm
• Concerns are substantiated and the child is considered to be at continuing risk of significant harm

Concerns are not substantiated

6.75 Where the concerns are not substantiated the Children's Social Care manager must authorise the decision that no further action is necessary, having ensured that the child, any other children in the household and the child's carers have been seen and spoken with. 

6.76 In these circumstances, the core assessment must be completed and services provided where needed to improve the welfare of the child. This may require the convening of a Child and Family Meeting or may simply be a matter of signposting or referral to other services/agencies. (For more information on Child & Family Meetings go to appendix 2.) 

6.77 In some cases, there may remain concerns about significant harm, despite there being no real evidence. It may be appropriate to put in place arrangements to monitor the child's welfare. Monitoring should never be used as a means of deferring or avoiding difficult decisions. The purpose of monitoring should always be clear, that is, what is being monitored and why, in what way and by whom. It will also be important to inform parents about the nature of any on-going concern. There should be a time set for reviewing the monitoring arrangements through a further discussion or meeting.

Concerns are substantiated but the Child is not considered to be at continuing risk of significant harm

6.78 There may be substantiated concerns that a child has suffered significant harm, but the agencies most involved may judge that a parent or members of the child's wider family are willing and able to co-operate with actions to ensure the child's future safety and welfare and that the child is therefore not at continuing risk of significant harm. 

6.79 Other reasons contributing to a judgement that the child is not at continuing risk of harm include that:

• The caregiver has taken responsibility for the harm they caused the child
• The family's circumstances have changed
• The person responsible for the harm is no longer in contact with the child
• The significant harm was incurred as the result of an isolated abusive incident e.g. abuse by a stranger 

6.80 In this case, Children's Social Care must develop, with the agencies most involved and the child and family, a plan for ensuring the child's future safety and welfare and implement it without having a Child Protection Conference or a Child Protection Plan. 

6.81 In taking the decision that a family's co-operation is sufficient to ensure a child's future safety, Children's Social Care should take into account:

• All relevant information obtained during a s47 enquiry
• A soundly based assessment of the likelihood of successful intervention
• Recently sought wishes and feelings of the child
• The need for clear evidence
• The dangers of misplaced practitioner optimism
• The pressure that can be felt by practitioners not to challenge hostile and obstructive families 

6.82 Children's Social Care should convene a Child & Family meeting involving the child (subject to age and understanding) and their family and practitioners engaged with the family. The meeting should agree: 

• What actions should be undertaken in response to the core assessment findings
• Who is responsible for the required actions
• The intended outcomes for the child's health and development
• The timescale for the actions
• How progress will be reviewed and by whom 

6.83 Children's Social Care should take carefully any decision not to proceed to a Child Protection Conference where it is known that a child has suffered significant harm. A suitably experienced and qualified social work manager within Children's Social Care should endorse the decision. 

6.84 Those practitioners and agencies who are most involved with the child and family, and those who have taken part in the s47 enquiry, have the right to request that Children's Social Care convene a Child Protection Conference if they have serious concerns that a child's welfare may not otherwise be adequately safeguarded. Any such request that is supported by a senior manager, or a named or designated practitioner, should normally be discussed with the Quality Assurance Manager in Children's Social Care. Where there remain differences of view over the necessity for a conference in a specific case, every effort should be made to resolve them through discussion and explanation (see section 9 Conflict resolution).

Concerns are substantiated and the Child is considered to be at continuing risk of significant harm

6.85 Where concerns are substantiated and the child is assessed to be at continuing risk of significant harm the Children's Social Care manager/Quality Assurance Manager must authorise the convening of an Initial Child Protection Conference and completion of the core assessment, having ensured that the child, any other children in the household and the child's carers have been seen and spoken with.

Feedback from Enquiries

6.86 The child's social worker is responsible for recording the outcome of the s47 enquiries. This should be put on the child's file with a clear record of the discussions, countersigned by the Children's Social Care manager.

6.87 Children's Social Care should inform all the agencies who have been significantly involved, the parents and children (subject to age and level of understanding) of the outcome of the child protection enquiry in advance of any Initial Child Protection Conference that is convened. This information should be conveyed in an appropriate format for younger children and those people whose preferred language is not English.

6.88 Feedback about outcomes should be provided to non-practitioner referrers in a manner that respects the confidentiality and welfare of the child. 

6.89 If there are ongoing criminal investigations, the content of the children's social worker's feedback should be agreed with the Police.

6.90 Where the child concerned is living in a residential establishment which is subject to inspection, the relevant inspectorate should be informed.

Disputed Decisions

6.91 Where Children's Social Care has concluded that an Initial Child Protection Conference is not required but practitioners in other agencies remain seriously concerned about the safety of a child, these practitioners should seek further discussion with the children's social worker, and her/his manager. The concerns, discussion and any agreements made should be recorded in each agency's files.

6.92 If concerns continue, the practitioner should discuss with a designated/ named/lead person or senior manager in their agency and the matter should be referred to the Quality Assurance Manager in Children's Social Care with whom the final decision, about whether a Child Protection Conference should be convened, rests.

Recording

6.93 A full written record must be completed by each agency involved in a s47 enquiry, using the required agency proformas, (legibly) signed and dated by the practitioner. 

6.94 The responsible manager must countersign Children's Social Care s47 recording and forms. 

6.95 Practitioners should wherever possible, retain signed and dated rough notes until the completion of anticipated legal proceedings.

6.96 Children's Social Care recording of enquiries should include: 

• Agency checks
• Content of contact cross referenced with any specific forms used
• Strategy discussion/meeting notes
• Details of the enquiry
• Body maps, where applicable (caution is required in the use of body maps)
• Assessment including identification of risks and how they may be managed