Guidance on interviewing child witnesses in Scotland

The guidance was commissioned from Dr Amina Memon and Lynn Hulse at Aberdeen University. Their work was overseen by a steering group with representatives from the Scottish Executive Justice Department, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, NCH Scotland, the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland, the Association of Directors of Social Work, the Law Society for Scotland, the Scottish Association of Community Child Health and the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration. A full list of those involved is given in the Appendix C. pt. 1. Guidance on interviewing child witnesses in Scotland -- pt. 2. Guidance on the questioning of children in court -- pt. 3. Lord Justice-General's memorandum on child witnesses: appendix to Guidance on the questioning of children in court -- pt. 4. Guidance on child witness court familiarisation visits -- pt. 5. Information about child, young and vulnerable adult witnesses to inform decision-making in the legal process: good practice guide -- pt. 6. Code of practice to facilitate the provision of therapeutic support to child witnesses in court proceedings -- pt. 7. Guidance on the conduct of identity parades with child witnesses.

Meeting the emotional needs of parents who have a child with complex needs

The physical and financial demands of caring for a child with complex needs are acknowledged by health professionals. However, the emotional needs of parents are not often recognized by health professionals until parents are at a heightened level of stress. This paper is based on a literature review of current articles, research papers and government documentation. The focus is on the emotional impact to parents who have a child with complex needs, particularly at the point of diagnosis. The paper explores how health professionals, and nurses in particular, should meet the emotional needs of parents in order to support them more effectively. Giving birth to a child with severe health problems impacts upon parents at an emotional time of transition, particularly if there were no concerns identified during pregnancy. For some parents a grief response or state of chronic sorrow may be triggered. The reality of caring for a baby who is critically ill or disabled can be an enormous and unexpected shock for both parents. Parents need emotional support and guidance, as they may have to change their expectations for their child’s development and even life span. It is important for nurses to realise that if parents’ emotional needs are unmet it can lead to clinical depression or mental illness. Primary support often comes from parent support groups rather than health professionals. The review highlights factors affecting parents’ emotions and discusses how early support, home visits and practical help can all help to alleviate parents’ emotional stress.

Meeting the emotional needs of parents who have a child with complex needs

The physical and financial demands of caring for a child with complex needs are acknowledged by health professionals. However the emotional needs of parents are not often recognised by health professionals until parents are at a heightened level of stress. This paper is based on a literature review of current articles, research papers and government documentation. The focus is on how health professionals, and nurses in particular should meet the emotional needs of parents who have child with complex needs, particularly at the point of diagnosis. Giving birth to a child with severe health problems impacts upon parents at an emotional time of transition, particularly if there were no concerns identified during pregnancy. For some parents a grief response or state of chronic sorrow may be triggered. The reality of caring for a baby who is critically ill or disabled can be an enormous and unexpected shock for both parents. Parents need emotional support and guidance, as they may have to change their expectations for their child’s development and even life span. Primary support often comes from parent support groups rather than health professionals. The review discusses how home visits, practical help and early support can all help to alleviate stress. It is important for nurses to realise that if parents’ emotional needs are unmet they can lead to clinical depression or mental illness. This literature review looks at the emotional impact on parents and explores how nurses can address this issue in order to support parents more effectively. It identifies key areas that nurses could address that would help alleviate parents’ emotional stress.

Recognizing and reporting child physical abuse: a cross sectional survey of primary health care professionals

Objectives: To assess primary health care professionalsâ?? ability to recognise child physical abuse within their everyday practice. Design: Cross-sectional survey Participants: A stratified random sample of 979 nurses, doctors, and dentists working in primary care in NI. Results: Four hundred and thirty one primary health care professionals responded [44% response rate]. Thirty two per cent were doctors, 35% were dentists and 33% were nurse professionals. The mean age was 41.63 years. Fifty-nine percent (251) stated that they had seen a suspicious case of child physical abuse and 47% (201) said they had reported it. Seventy-two per cent (310) of participants were aware of the mechanisms for reporting child physical abuse. Ability and willingness to recognise and report abuse discriminated the three professions. Conclusions: The findings suggest a professional reluctance to engage in recognising and reporting abuse. Barriers could be reduced by providing training and professional support for the primary care professionals.

Inter-professional working in child protection with families with long-term and complex needs

Within the United Kingdom there is growing awareness of the need to identify and support the small number of children who are living in families experiencing multiple problems. Research indicates that adverse experiences in childhood can result in poor outcomes in adulthood in terms of lack of employment, poorer physical and mental health and increases in social problems experienced. It is acknowledged that most of these children are known to child welfare professionals and that some are referred to social services, subsequently entering the child protection system. This paper reports research conducted with twenty-eight experienced child welfare professionals. It explores their views about families known to the child protection system with long-term and complex needs in relation to the characteristics of children and their families; the process of intervention with families; and the effects of organisational arrangements on practice. The research indicates that these families are characterised by the range and depth of the problems experienced by the adults, such as domestic violence, mental health difficulties and substance misuse problems, and the need for professionals to have good inter-personal skills and access to specialist therapeutic services if families are to be supported to address their problems.

Fathers’ Views and Understanding of their Roles in Families with a Child with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

This study explored how fathers of children diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) perceived and understood the roles they had within their family over the course of their child’s illness and treatment. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with five fathers. Transcripts were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). The major themes that emerged were: adjusting to the diagnosis; the experience of maternal gate-keeping; striving for normalization; experiences of giving and receiving support. Overall, the fathers perceived themselves as having significant responsibility in helping their child and family cope with the illness experience. Clinical implications, including the need for professionals to recognize and more openly acknowledge the father’s position, are considered.

Imaging the future: theatre and change within the child protection system

The use of social pedagogy as a paradigm for critically appraising developments within child and family social work has been largely neglected. This paper outlines the work of Augusto Boal and his adoption of social pedagogy as a method for empowering oppres-sed social groups in Brazil. It is argued that Boal’s approach can be adapted by using action research techniques to analyse and effect change in situations where child care professionals face daily contradictions in their attempts to both protect children and support families. To demonstrate its relevance to child care practice, a description is provided of how the approach was used with two groups of social work students – one undertaking qualifying training, the other post-qualifying training. The results of this application suggest a new theoretical framework for practice which aims to establish communicative consensus around the needs of children and a mutual appreciation of roles and responsibilities.

Macro impacts on caseworker decision-making in child welfare: a cross-national comparison

This paper focuses on the factors impacting on decision-making in child and family social work through a cross-national comparison. In doing so, the larger arena of the political and social contexts of both the United States and Northern Ireland are examined. For each of the countries we describe the historical and political context of child welfare, particularly the tension between child safety and family support, and how children’s rights are attended to and interpreted in each country. This discussion also examines the extent to which decision-making in each jurisdiction is influenced by constitutional imperatives, with particular reference to the US Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights. From this general comparison we conclude with observations about child welfare decision-making within the national context and offer suggestions for further theoretical development in this area whilst also examining where the practices in each jurisdiction may benefit from review.

Upholding the convention on the rights of the child: a quandary in cyberspace

Put in place to protect the rights of the child, the Convention on the Rights of the Child is a set of non-negotiable standards. A core principle underpinning the Convention is the child's right to participate fully in social arenas and to access sources of social support without excessive interference. Juxtaposing this is the right of the child to be shielded from harm, abuse and exploitation. Over the past several decades the Internet has emerged as a fast and easily accessible medium for people to connect and communicate. While the Internet provides children with a source of support through chat rooms, online communities and social networking sites, just as equally it can expose vulnerable children to predatory and deviant individuals exacerbating the potential for harm. Upholding the Convention in cyberspace is a challenge. The Internet is not owned or regulated by any governing body and accountability is difficult to enforce. This article discusses some of the difficulties of upholding the Convention online and provides recommendations for policy-makers to protect children as they participate in cyberspace.

Explicit argumentation as a supervisory tool for decision making in child protection cases involving human rights issues

This paper addresses the problems often faced by social workers and their supervisors in decision making where human rights considerations and child protection concerns collide. High profile court cases in the United Kingdom and Europe have consistently called for social workers to convey more clarity when justifying their reasons for interfering with human rights in child protection cases. The themes emerging from these case law decisions imply that social workers need to be better at giving reasons and evidence in more explicit ways to support any actions they propose which cause interference with Convention Rights. Toulmin (1958, 1985) offers a structured approach to argumentation which may have relevance to the supervision of child protection cases when social workers and managers are required to balance these human rights considerations. One of the key challenges in this balancing act is the need for decision makers to feel confident that any interventions resulting in the interference of human rights are both justified and proportionate. Toulmin’s work has already been shown to have relevance for assisting social workers navigate pathways through cases involving competing ethical and moral demands (Osmo and Landau, 2001) and more recently to human rights and decision making in child protection (Duffy et al, 2006). Toulmin’s model takes the practitioner through a series of stages where any argument or proposed recommendation (claim) is subjected to intense critical analysis involving exposition of its strengths and weaknesses. The author therefore proposes that explicit argumentation (Osmo and Landau, 2001) may help supervisors and practitioners towards safer and more confident decision making in child protection cases involving the interference of the human rights of children and parents. In addition to highlighting the broader context of human rights currently permeating child protection decision making, the paper will include case material to practically demonstrate the application of Toulmin’s model of argumentation to the supervision context. In this way the paper adopts a strong practice approach in helping to assist practitioners with the problems and dilemmas they may come up against in decision making in complex cases.

Family support, social capital, resilience and adolescent coping

All too often young people are excluded in practice from the general policy and professional consensus that partnership and participation should underpin work with children, young people and their families. If working with troubled and troublesome young people is to be based on family support, it will require not only the clear statement of that policy but also demonstration that it can be applied in practice. Achieving that involves setting out a plausible theory of change that can be rigorously evaluated. This paper suggests a conceptual model that draws on social support theory to harness the ideas of social capital and resilience in a way that can link formal family support interventions to adolescent coping. Research with young people attending three community-based projects for marginalized youth is used to illustrate how validated tools can be used to measure and document the detail of support, resilience, social capital and coping in young people's lives. It is also suggested that there is sufficient fit between the findings emerging from the study and the model to justify the model being more rigorously tested.

Inquiring into Non-Accidental Child Deaths: Reviewing the Review Process

There is significant public and professional interest in the non-accidental death of children where abuse and neglect are suspected of being contributory factors. Systems for reviewing these deaths have been developed in each of the four jurisdictions within the UK. The main aims are to ensure that individuals and professionals are held to account if practice falls below the expected standard, whilst also seeking to strengthen the systems for protecting children through reflecting on what lessons, if any, can be learnt from the death of a child through abuse or neglect. Recently, the benefit of such inquiries and the quality of serious case reviews have come under scrutiny. In this paper, the authors report the findings of a Delphi study that sought to explore how the process of conducting reviews following the death of a child could be improved through seeking the views of experienced professionals responsible for child protection in Northern Ireland. The authors conclude that the system does command professional support, but could be improved through greater attention to process issues and a stronger emphasis on translating learning into action. In common with research looking at other recent practice developments, there is a need to focus on process indicators as a means to ensuring that well intentioned policies are translated into workable and functioning practices.

Living through the death of a child: A qualitative study of bereaved parents’ experiences

Design: Cross-sectional qualitative study.

Data sources: Interviews with purposeful sample of 25 recently bereaved parents.

Methods: Semi-structured in-depth interviews.

Results: Four analytically distinct processes were identified in the responses of parents to the death of a child. These are referred to as ‘piloting’, ‘providing’, ‘protecting’ and ‘preserving’. Regardless of individual circumstances, these processes were integral to all parents’ coping, enabling an active ‘doing’ for their child and family throughout the trajectory of their child's illness and into bereavement.

Conclusions: Facilitating the capacity of parents to ‘do’ is central to coping with the stress and uncertainty of living through the death of a child. The provision of informational, instrumental and emotional support by health care professionals in the context of ‘doing’ is core to quality palliative care.

Keywords: Bereaved parents; Cancer; Dying child; End-of-life; Palliative care; Non-malignant

Political Violence and Child Adjustment in Northern Ireland: Testing Pathways in a Social-Ecological Model Including Single- and Two-Parent Families

Moving beyond simply documenting that political violence negatively impacts children, we tested a social ecological hypothesis for relations between political violence and child outcomes. Participants were 700 mother child (M = 12.1 years, SD = 1.8) dyads from 18 working-class, socially deprived areas in Belfast, Northern Ireland, including single- and two-parent families. Sectarian community violence was associated with elevated family conflict and children's reduced security about multiple aspects of their social environment (i.e., family, parent child relations, and community), with links to child adjustment problems and reductions in prosocial behavior. By comparison, and consistent with expectations, links with negative family processes, child regulatory problems, and child outcomes were less consistent for nonsectarian community violence. Support was found for a social ecological model for relations between political violence and child outcomes among both single- and two-parent families, with evidence that emotional security and adjustment problems were more negatively affected in single-parent families. The implications for understanding social ecologies of political violence and children's functioning are discussed.