Practice Guidance

Disabled Children and Child Protection

Contents

1. Introduction
2. Vulnerability of Disabled Children and Young People
3. Accessibility and Communication
4. Empowering Disabled Children
5. Guidance for Social Workers investigating allegations of child abuse involving disabled children, or siblings of disabled children

Appendix 1
Appendix 2

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Introduction

1.1 The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) defines ‘disability’ as ‘A person has a disability if he or she has a physical or medical impairment that has substantial and long-term adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day to day activities’.

1.2 It should be acknowledged that discrimination of all kinds is an everyday reality in many children’s lives and that prejudice damages children both physically and emotionally. It is therefore important that stereotyped assumptions should be avoided.

1.3 All children and young people should have the opportunity to achieve optimal development according to their circumstances and age.

1.4 All children and young people have a right to be protected.

1.5 All workers should be:

• Aware of the social model of disability. Many of the problems that disabled children face are not caused by their disability or condition but by social values, service structure and adult behaviour. There is an increased risk that behavioural changes and physical injuries are attributed to disability, so abuse may be sustained for long periods of time
• Flexible and skilful in responding to the child/young person in context and circumstances to enable a needs led approach
• Able to identify/access appropriate resources to meet the child’s needs
• Actively promoting partnerships with parents, carers and colleagues who have specific expertise of working with vulnerable children
• Aware that improving access to services for disabled children is essential to ensure equality of opportunity and full participation in society

1.6 The purpose of this practice guidance is to ensure that all agencies and workers coming into contact with disabled children, young people and their families are:

• Knowledgeable about differences and their impact on attitude and behaviours
• Sensitive, understanding and respectful in dealing with disability
• Skilful in responding and adapting to different needs
• Vigilant in ensuring that the issues raised in this practice guidance are considered at every contact

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2. Vulnerability of Disabled Children and Young People

2.1 A disabled child is as vulnerable to physical, emotional, sexual abuse or neglect as any other child, though it is recognised that there is an increased vulnerability to abuse and that poorer standards of care are tolerated due to:

• A need for practical assistance in daily living, including intimate care
• Some disabled children being perceived 'asexual'
• Difficulty in establishing positive self-identity as a disabled child
• Carers and staff lacking the ability to communicate adequately with the child
• A lack of continuity in care leading to an increased risk that behavioural changes may go unnoticed
• Physical dependency with consequent reduction in ability to be able to resist abuse
• An increased likelihood that the child is socially isolated
• Lack of access to ‘keep safe’ strategies that are available to others
• Communication or learning difficulties preventing disclosure
• Parents’/carers’ own needs and ways of coping possibly conflicting with the needs of the child
• Parents/carers own use of allowance/benefits or other financial advantage which is meant for the child

2.2 In addition to the universal indicators of abuse/neglect identified in Chapter 3 of this manual, the following abusive behaviours must be considered:

• Force feeding
• Physical restraint
• Rough handling
• Extreme behaviour modification including the deprivation of clothing, medication or food
• Misuse of medication, sedation, over-use of tranquillisers
• Invasive procedures against the child’s will
• Misapplication of programmes or regimes
• Ill fitting equipment e.g. callipers, sleep board which may cause injury or pain, inappropriate splinting

2.3 This is not an exhaustive list, and all concerns about safeguarding children should be referred as in Chapter 4: Early Preventions and Referrals to Children’s Social Care

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3. Accessibility and Communication

3.1 Disabled children and young people must not be perceived as 'voiceless objects'.

3.2 Communication needs of disabled children and young people and their families must be met when they have contact with any agency. Workers must identify barriers to accessing services and must aim to make information available to disabled children. This information should take account of the child’s disabilities, child and parent’s preferred formats and be made available within necessary time frames.

3.3 When the child communicates using a communication system such as Blissymbols, Rebus, Makaton or British Sign Language etc, professionals such as speech and language therapists, occupational therapists physiotherapists, doctors and school nurses can provide advice and support for disabled children and may be able to advise on a range of access issues.

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4 Empowering Disabled Children

4.1 Workers should understand that:

they can seriously add to the effect of any abuse if their behaviour is disempoweringthe need for learning practical ways of empowering children with particular impairments, or those who use particular equipment, or particular forms of non-verbal communicationthe need for sharing particular empowering skills with co-workers, especially when dealing with incidents of abuse or suspected abuse that disempowering disabled children in quite small, unintentional ways, may silence themthat empowerment may be needed over a considerable length of time to enable the disclosure of abuse

4.2 Agencies must not make assumptions about the ability of a disabled child to give credible evidence, or to withstand the rigours of the court process Please refer to Achieving Best Evidence Practice Guidance.

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5. Guidance for Social Workers investigating allegations of child abuse involving disabled children, or siblings of disabled children

5.1 Appendix 1: flow chart is a proposed model of good practice when investigating allegations of abuse involving disabled children, or where there is a disabled child in the household.

5.2 It is recognised that further work is needed across agencies that have direct contact with disabled children to ensure that concerns and risks are recognised and reported promptly and appropriately.

5.3 It is also important that all referral takers have a basic understanding of the needs of disabled children to ensure that the relevant and pertinent information is gathered at the present of referral. This may include communication methods, severity of disability, numbers of care givers, level of care required etc.

5.4 There will be many instances where it is clearly identifiable whether a case should be managed as a Section 17 Child in Need Assessment, or a Section 47 Inquiry (Children Act 1989). The Access/Duty and Assessment (DAS) Manager will make that decision.

5.5 However, there may be occasions when this distinction is less clear, maybe related to issues due to the child’s impairment.

5.6 In those instances, the Access/Duty and Assessment (DAS)/Childcare Team Manager should consult with the Team Manager from the Disabled Children’s Team to ensure that all of the issues are fully considered and that disabled children have the same rights as non-disabled children.

5.7 Following the decision that a Section 47 inquiry should be undertaken the allocated social worker should follow the usual procedure of contacting the Child Protection Register (CPR). In addition to contacting the Child Abuse Investigation Unit (CAIU), they should also contact the Disabled Children’s Team and a three-way strategy meeting or discussion should be held.

5.8 The social worker from the Disabled Children’s Team (DCT) will be able to offer advice and consultation, or possible co-working at this strategy meeting/discussion. The following issues should be considered in addition to the usual issues:

• Preferred communication methods of the child
• Who should interview the child
• Whether someone with a specialism on the child’s preferred communication method should be involved
• The venue of the interview
• Whether additional facilities or equipment is necessary
• The care needs of the child
• The caring network surrounding the child
• Available medical information about health needs which may have a bearing on an investigation
• If there is a need for a medical examination to consider the most appropriate medical professional, venue, timing, child’s ability to understand the purpose of the medical

5.9 When the above has been agreed on, the social worker from the Disabled Children’s Team (DCT) will remain either involved, or available for consultation during the rest of the investigation, and could be directly involved with interviewing the child.

5.10 If the outcome of the investigation is that either a family group meeting/Section 17 or child protection case conference (CPCC) should be held, a social worker from the Disabled Children’s Team (DCT) should be invited to this and further discussion held with the Team Manager about whether the case should be allocated to the Disabled Children’s Team, or if there is a role for the Disabled Children’s Team (DCT) to co-work with a Child Care Team.

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Appendix 1

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Appendix 2 - Useful Resources

1. National

2. Local

For details of local resources, please contact:-

Either:Duty Worker
Disabled Children’s Team
Leicester City Children’s Social Care
Beaumont Way
Leicester
Tel: 0116 2995799

Or:Duty Worker
Disabled Children’s Team
Leicestershire County Children’s Social Care
3 High Street
Coalville
Leicestershire LE67
Tel: 01530 275200

Both the Leicester City and Leicestershire County Disabled Children’s Teams have a variety of resources that can be used in communicating with disabled children.

The teams can also provide details of other local organisations that can offer specialist advice and support in working with disabled children.

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