Chapter 11 – Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children who may be particularly vulnerable

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Introduction

Children living away from home

Abuse by children and young people

Children whose behaviour indicates a lack of parental control

Race and racism

Violent extremism

Domestic violence

Child abuse and information communication technology (ICT)

Children with families whose whereabouts are unknown

Children who go missing

Children who go missing from education

Children of families living in temporary accommodation

Migrant children

Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC)

Introduction
11.1	This chapter outlines some groups of children who may be particularly vulnerable. The purpose of this chapter is simply to help inform the procedures in Chapter 5, which sets out the basic framework of action to be taken in all circumstances when a parent, professional, or any other person has concerns about the welfare of any child. This chapter cannot provide a comprehensive list of every group of vulnerable children, but highlights some specific groups of particular concern in relation to safeguarding, and some specific issues in relation to promoting their welfare.
Children living away from home General
11.2	Previous high profile inquiries and reports into abuse of children living away from home have raised awareness of the particular vulnerability of these children. We should not be complacent that such abuse could not occur again. We need to be continually vigilant so that children today do not suffer as others have.
11.3	All settings where children live away from home should provide the same basic safeguards against abuse, founded on an approach which promotes their general welfare, protects them from harm of all kinds and treats them with dignity and respect. The current regulatory system, including the regulations and National Minimum Standards which apply to such settings, has a clear focus on safeguarding children and promoting their welfare and development. All those who work with children should be able to recognise evidence that a child’s welfare or development may be being impaired and know how to act on such evidence.
11.4	Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) procedures for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children should apply in every situation and to all settings, including those where children are living away from home. Individual agencies that provide care for children living away from home should implement clear and unambiguous procedures to respond to potential matters of concern about children’s welfare in line with the relevant legal requirements and LSCB’s arrangements. Where children are living away from their home area it is essential that there is clarity about the respective and complementary roles and responsibilities of the local authority and agencies involved. Specifically it is important that the local authority covering the area where the child comes from but is currently not resident understands its continuing responsibilities in relation to safeguarding the child.
Essential safeguards
11.5	There are a number of essential safeguards that should be observed in all settings in which children live away from home, including children in care, private fostering, healthcare, boarding schools (including residential special schools), prisons, young offenders’ institutions, secure training centres and secure units, and when children are detained whilst within the immigration system. Detailed guidance and standards are in place for service providers in each of these sectors. Where services are not directly provided essential safeguards should be explicitly addressed in contracts with external providers. These safeguards should ensure that:
	children feel valued and respected and their self-esteem is promoted; there is an openness on the part of the institution to the external world and to external scrutiny, including contact with families and the wider community; staff and foster carers are trained in all aspects of safeguarding children, alert to children’s vulnerabilities and risks of harm and knowledgeable about how to implement safeguarding children procedures; children who live away from home are listened to, and their views and concerns responded to; children have ready access to a trusted adult outside the institution – for example, a family member, the child’s social worker, independent visitor or children’s advocate. Children should be made aware of the help they could receive from independent advocacy services, external mentors and ChildLine; staff recognise the importance of ascertaining the wishes and feelings of children and understand how individual children communicate by verbal or non-verbal means; there are clear procedures for referring safeguarding concerns about a child to the relevant local authority; complaints procedures are clear, effective, user-friendly and are readily accessible to children and young people including those with disabilities and those for whom English is not their preferred language. Procedures should address informal as well as formal complaints. Systems that do not promote open communication about ‘minor’ complaints will not be responsive to major ones and a pattern of ‘minor’ complaints may indicate more deeply seated problems in management and culture that needs to be addressed. Records of complaints should be kept by providers of children’s services or secure settings – for example, there should be a complaints register in every children’s home and secure establishment that records all representations or complaints, the action taken to address them and the outcomes. Children should genuinely be able to raise concerns and make suggestions for changes and improvements which should be taken seriously; bullying is effectively countered; recruitment and selection procedures are rigorous and create a high threshold of entry to deter abusers; there is effective supervision and support that extends to temporary staff and volunteers; contractor staff are effectively checked and supervised when on site or in contact with children; clear procedures and support systems are in place for dealing with expressions of concern by staff and carers about other staff or carers. Organisations should have a code of conduct instructing staff on their duty to their employer and their professional obligation to raise legitimate concerns about the conduct of colleagues or managers. There should be a guarantee that procedures can be invoked in ways that do not prejudice the ‘whistle-blower’s’ own position and prospects; there is respect for diversity and sensitivity to race, culture, religion, gender, sexuality and disability; and staff and carers are alert to the risks of harm to children in the external environment from people prepared to exploit the additional vulnerability of children living away from home.
Looked after children
11.6	The full range of safeguards which apply to all looked after children are set out in the relevant regulations, statutory guidance and National Minimum Standards. This section highlights certain issues of particular relevance to safeguarding.
11.7	Local authorities placing children in another local authority area are required to notify the host authority prior to placement.
11.8	As part of their statutory responsibilities for planning children’s care, social workers are required to maintain a regular up to date assessment of child’s needs, see looked after children in foster care on their own and take appropriate account of the child’s wishes and feelings. Evidence of their engagement with the child must be recorded so that the plan for the child’s care is kept up to date, with the child being offered the right services to respond to the full range of their needs.
11.9	Independent Reviewing Officers (IROs) are responsible for chairing meetings that must be scheduled at prescribed intervals to review the child’s care plan. IROs have specific responsibilities to ensure that the plan has taken the child’s wishes and feelings into account and that their care plan remains appropriate in view of the child’s needs, including their need to be effectively safeguarded.
11.10	Foster carers should be provided with full information about the foster child and his/her family, including details of the child’s previous experiences of harm and/or neglect so that they can provide an appropriate pattern of care for the child, which takes into account the child’s needs and those of the carers own children.
11.11	Carers must be properly aware of the whereabouts of the children they look after, their patterns of absence and contacts. Carers should follow the recognised procedure of their agency whenever a child is missing from their home (Fostering Services: National Minimum Standards – 9.8) This involves notifying the placing authority and, where necessary, the police of any unauthorised absence by a child.
11.12	The local authority’s duty to undertake section 47 enquiries, when there are concerns about significant harm to a child, applies on the same basis to looked after children as it does to children who live with their own families. Enquiries should consider the safety of any other child living in the household/placement, including foster carers’ own children. The local authority in which the child is living has the responsibility to convene a strategy discussion, which should include representatives from the responsible local authority that placed the child. At the strategy discussion it should be decided which local authority should take responsibility for the next steps, which may include a section 47 enquiry. For further details on this see Chapter 5.
Private fostering
11.13	A private fostering arrangement is essentially one that is made privately (i.e. without the involvement of a local authority) for the care of a child under the age of 16, under 18 if disabled, by someone other than a parent or close relative for 28 days or more, in the carer’s own home.
11.14	Privately fostered children are a diverse and potentially vulnerable group. They include:
	children where arrangements are made due to parental illness or distress or when parents’ work or study involves long or anti-social hours; young people who stay with friends because they have fallen out with their parents and who may not be in touch with agencies such as education services; children staying with families while attending a school away from their home area; and children from overseas whose parents do not reside in this country.
11.15	Under the Children Act 1989, private foster carers and those with parental responsibility are required to notify the local authority of their intention to privately foster; or to have a child privately fostered, or where a child is privately fostered in an emergency. Teachers, health and other professionals, such as Youth Offending Team (YOT) workers, should notify the local authority of a private fostering arrangement that comes to their attention where they are not satisfied that the local authority has been, or will be, notified of the arrangement.
11.16	It is the duty of every local authority to satisfy itself that the welfare of children who are privately fostered within its area is being satisfactorily safeguarded and promoted, and to ensure that such advice as appears to be required is given to private foster carers. In order to do so, local authority officers must visit privately fostered children at regular intervals and the minimum visiting requirements are set out in the Children (Private Arrangements for Fostering) Regulations 2005. The local authority officer should visit a child alone unless the officer considers it inappropriate. Local authorities must also arrange for visits to be made to the privately fostered child, the private foster carer, or parent of the child when reasonably requested to do so. Children should be given contact details of the social worker who will be visiting them while they are being privately fostered.
11.17	Local authorities must satisfy themselves as to such matters as the suitability of the private foster carer and the private foster carer’s household and accommodation. They have the power to impose requirements on the private foster carer or, if there are serious concerns about an arrangement, to prohibit it.
11.18	The Children Act 1989 creates a number of offences in connection with private fostering, including for failure to notify an arrangement or to comply with any requirement or prohibition imposed by the authority. Certain people are disqualified from being private foster carers.
11.19	Local authorities are required to promote awareness in their area of notification requirements, and to ensure that such advice as appears to be required is given to those concerned with children who are, or are proposed to be, privately fostered. This includes private foster carers (proposed and actual) and parents.
11.20	The Children (Private Arrangements for Fostering) Regulations 2005 require local authorities to satisfy themselves of the suitability of a proposed arrangement before it commences (where advance notice is given).
11.21	The private fostering regulations require local authorities to monitor their compliance with all their duties and functions in relation to private fostering, and place a duty on them to appoint an officer for this purpose.
11.22	In addition, local authorities are inspected against the National Minimum Standards for private fostering.
11.23	The Children Act 2004 and regulations strengthen and enhance the private fostering notification scheme, and provide additional safeguards for privately fostered children. These measures, along with the National Minimum Standards and the role of LSCBs in relation to private fostering, focus local authorities’ attention on private fostering and require them to take a more proactive approach to identifying arrangements in their area.
11.24	Private fostering is a key area of child protection. Privately fostered children may be very vulnerable if private fostering arrangements have not been notified to the local authority. Local authorities are expected to improve notification rates and compliance with the existing legislative framework for private fostering to safeguard privately fostered children.
11.25	All professionals working with children have an important role in relation to safeguarding privately fostered children. If they become aware of a private fostering arrangement, and they are not confident that it has been notified to the local authority, they should contact the local authority themselves. LSCBs can play a vital role in helping protect children who are privately fostered, exercising leadership and raising awareness in the community of the requirements and issues around private fostering.
11.26	Children Act 1989 guidance on private fostering, issued in July 2005 (This guidance, along with the National Minimum Standards and guidance for local authorities on promoting awareness within their areas, is available at the DCSF website), reflects the new measures on private fostering in the Children Act 2004 and in the regulations.
Children and young people in hospital
11.27	The National Service Framework for Children, Young People and Maternity Services (NSF), (2004) sets out standards for children and young people’s healthcare. Standard 6, ‘Children who are Ill’ should be used in conjunction with Standard 7 ‘Children in Hospital’, which was published in 2003 to meet the commitment made in the Government’s response to The Report of the Public Enquiry into Children’s Heart Surgery at the Bristol Royal Infirmary 1984-1995: Learning from Bristol to develop hospital services for children and young people. The Healthcare Commission undertook an improvement review of the NHS implementation of the hospital standard in 2006.
11.28	Children and young people should be cared for at home wherever possible providing it is safe and sustainable to do so. When admission to hospital is unavoidable the highest standards of privacy and dignity must be maintained and care should be provided in a location and environment that is safe, healthy, child friendly and suitable to the age and stage of development of the child or young person (NSF Standard 7, 2003). Care should be provided by staff who have been trained and educated in the care of children and young people. Nursing care should be delivered by a ratio of staff supervised by registered children’s nurses to ensure safe standards of care. Children should not be cared for in an adult ward; where treatment and care will continue into adulthood arrangements should be in place to plan and facilitate a smooth transition to adult services at a time when the young person is ready to make this change. Where there is no adolescent unit available hospitals should take the additional needs of adolescents into account and provide appropriate facilities. Wherever possible, children and young people should be consulted about where they would prefer to stay in hospital and their views should be taken into account and respected. Hospital admission data should include the age of children so that hospitals can monitor whether they are being given appropriate care in appropriate wards.
11.29	When children are in hospital, this should not in itself jeopardise the health of the child or young person further. The NSF requires hospitals to ensure that their facilities are secure and regularly reviewed. There should be policies relating to breaches of security involving the police and local safeguarding procedures should be followed should there be suspicion of child abuse. The local authority where the hospital is located is responsible for the welfare of children in its hospitals. Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) are responsible for ensuring hospitals commissioned to provide services for their children and young people population have processes in place to protect them including out of area services.
11.30	Additionally, section 85 of the Children Act 1989 requires PCTs to notify the ‘Responsible Authority’ – i.e. the local authority for the area where the child is ordinarily resident, or where the child is accommodated if this is unclear – when a child has been, or will be, accommodated by the PCT for three months or more for example, in hospital. This is so that the local authority can assess the child’s needs and decide whether services are required under the Children Act 1989. Arrangements for this notification process should be included by PCTs in local contracts.
Children in contact with the youth justice system
11.31	In fulfilling their statutory function of reducing offending and reoffending by children and young people, YOTs have dual responsibilities in the area of safeguarding as well as public protection, including protection of other children and young people. It is important that public protection in a youth justice context is seen as integral to wider approaches to working effectively with children and young people.
11.32	These complex responsibilities are discharged both by YOTs’ involvement in prevention work, including initiatives such as Safer Schools Partnerships, as well as work with victims of crime. YOTs co-operate with various partner agencies, including the police, Multi-agency Public Protection Agencies (MAPPA) and Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs), in initiatives aimed at making communities safer, including projects to reduce gang violence and violent extremism, thus directly contributing to the safeguarding of children and young people from violence in their communities. All partners working in the youth justice system should see When to share information: best practice guidance for everyone working in the youth justice system; joint Department of Health, Department for Children, Schools and Families, Youth Justice Board and Prison Service, which includes best practice case studies used to identify when, what, where and how information needs to be shared to ensure improved outcomes for children and young people.
11.33	In order to effectively manage the risk posed by young people in the youth justice system, it is important that managers and practitioners distinguish clearly between risk (likelihood) of reoffending, risk of serious harm to others and risk to the young person either from themselves or others.
11.34	All young people involved with the formal youth justice system are referred to a YOT at the earliest stage and will have a named responsible caseworker. In many cases, this work requires the active engagement of broader children’s health and family services – specifically, when assessing and addressing the needs of individual children and young people in order to safeguard the child or young person and address the causes of vulnerability as well as improve outcomes.
11.35	Key partner agencies are required to support YOTs in fulfilling these duties as set out under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998. As outlined in the NSF, this includes Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) services, as well as other generic and specialist health and social care services delivered locally.
Children and young people in custody
11.36	Children and young people sentenced or remanded in custody are among the most vulnerable. Specific consideration to the safeguarding of this particular group is therefore called for and requires ongoing support from children’s services and LSCBs in addition to the establishment’s day to day duty of care.
11.37	The functions, powers, duties, responsibilities and obligations imposed on local authorities by the Children Act 1989 – in particular, by sections 17 and 47 – do not cease to arise merely because a child is in the secure estate. Such functions, powers, duties and responsibilities operate subject to the necessary requirements of imprisonment. Prisons have a legal obligation to safeguard the wellbeing of children in their care.
11.38	It is important that agreed procedures between the secure establishment and the local authority (in particular the LSCB) with that establishment in its geographical area are in place outlining how to deal with and undertake child in need assessments as well as how to deal with child protection allegations. In discharging these duties, local authority children’s social care services should consider seconding social workers to work in secure establishments and establish effective links with a child or young person’s home local authority. The home local authority and YOT have continuing responsibilities to children and young people in custody.
11.39	Continuity of services when children and young people transfer into and out of the secure estate is a vital element of good safeguarding practice and good resettlement planning. This includes ensuring that young people have suitable supported accommodation, help with mental health and substance misuse issues and with identifying appropriate education, training or employment.
11.40	Issues of transition to adult services can cause particular problems for children and young people in the youth justice system. The different thresholds for children’s and adult services and the complexity of need posed by many young people in the youth justice system, as well as emotional immaturity, can result in a breakdown of services, including accommodation, substance misuse and health services. Standard 4 of the Core Standards in the Children’s NSF describes that ‘Young people with additional and sometimes complex needs, such as mental health problems or disabilities may find it more difficult to make these transitions successfully and they and their families may require additional support’. High quality transition services should be delivered in a multi-agency context.
11.41	Healthy Children, Safer Communities: a strategy and action plan to promote the health and well being of those in contact with the youth justice system incorporates coverage of transition issues as a key element. Children’s services transitions and leaving care teams are also key agencies in ensuring successful transition.
11.42	Healthy Children, Safer Communities is designed to try to ensure that the health and wellbeing needs of children and young people in contact with the youth justice system are addressed and responded to with appropriate and timely mainstream services wherever possible. In addition it aims to encourage co-ordinated, multifaceted care tailored to individual needs, continuity of care between the community and the secure estate, and a safe and effective transition to appropriate adult provision. The strategy also responds to the three recommendations for children in Lord Bradley’s review of people with mental health problems or learning disabilities in the criminal justice system (April 2009).
Looked after children and custody
11.43	Where a looked after child who is the subject of a care order, meaning that their responsible authority shares parental responsibility for them, enters a young offender institution (YOI), either on sentence or on remand, the responsible authority has continuing responsibilities as a corporate parent to visit and continue to assess their needs. The responsible authority must make arrangements for regular contact with the looked after child, continue to ensure that reviews of their care plan take place at the prescribed intervals and facilitate ongoing contact with parents and siblings where that is part of the care plan. These responsibilities will mean that the responsible authority must be closely involved in making plans for resettling the child in their community once they are able to be released from custody. For some children this will involve them returning to foster care or other kind of supported placement.
11.44	Where a child under 16 who has previously been accommodated as a result of a voluntary agreement under section 20 of the Children Act enters custody they do not remain a looked after child. However, regulations to be enacted as a result of section 15 of the Children and Young Persons Act 2008 will require a responsible local authority to ensure that they appoint a representative to visit all children and young people who have ceased to be accommodated. The representative will be responsible for assessing the child’s needs in order to make recommendations about the support they will need whilst detained, and, in particular, the support necessary on release which could include planning for the child to become looked after again.
11.45	Children aged 16+ who were looked after prior to being sentenced may well be ‘relevant children’ as defined by section 23A of the Children Act 1989 (As amended by the Children (Leaving Care) Act 2000.) Their responsible authority must appoint a personal adviser and prepare a pathway plan setting out the support that they will provide to prepare the child for the responsibilities of adulthood. The pathway plan must include information about where the child will live on release and the support they will receive to re-establish themselves in their communities with positive plan for their futures, to minimise the possibility of their re-offending.
Abuse by children and young people Peer abuse
11.46	Children, particularly but not exclusively those living away from home, are also vulnerable to physical, sexual and emotional bullying and abuse by their peers. Such abuse should always be taken as seriously as abuse perpetrated by an adult. Whenever a child may have harmed another, all agencies must be aware of their responsibilities to both children and multi-agency management of both cases must reflect this. Agencies should also be alert to the possibility that a child or young person who has harmed another may well also be a victim. However, the interests of the identified victim must always be the paramount consideration and professionals should also be alert to the fact that there is likely to be a risk to children other than the current victim. A significant proportion of sex offences are committed by teenagers although, on occasion, such offences are committed by younger children. Staff working with children, including carers of children living away from home need clear guidance and training to identify the difference between consenting and abusive, and between appropriate and exploitative peer relationships. Staff should not dismiss some abusive sexual behaviour as ‘normal’ between young people, and should not develop high thresholds before taking action.
11.47	Work with children and young people who abuse others, including those who sexually abuse/offend, should recognise that such children are likely to have considerable needs themselves, and that they may pose a significant risk of harm to other children. Evidence suggests that children who abuse others may have suffered considerable disruption in their lives, been exposed to violence within the family, may have witnessed or been subject to physical or sexual abuse, have problems in their educational development and may have committed other offences. Such children and young people are likely to be children in need, and some will, in addition, be suffering, or at risk of suffering, significant harm, and may themselves be in need of protection. Children and young people who abuse others should be held responsible for their abusive behaviour, while being identified and responded to in a way that meets their needs as well as protecting others.
11.48	A cross-government service delivery framework for young people who display sexually harmful behaviour is due for publication in early 2010. The purpose of the framework is to deliver a document that sets service development across the pathway from early intervention, through the community, and within custody, ensuring that there are clear plans for this group of children and young people. The framework aims to ensure that services that address health, wellbeing and education needs are delivered equitably to all children and young people, including those who display sexually harmful behaviour, and that services are delivered, based on evidence for what is effective for meeting specific needs.
11.49	The Ofsted survey Exclusion from school of children from four to seven (May 2009) highlighted the issue of sexually inappropriate behaviour in very young children as one faced by a small number of schools and early years settings. The survey acknowledged that exclusions from school generally and sexually inappropriate behaviours specifically were extremely rare in children from this age group, but where they did occur they highlighted important underlying issues which schools and early years settings need to be equipped to address.
11.50	Three key principles should guide work with children and young people who abuse others:
	there should be a co-ordinated multi-agency approach including youth justice (where appropriate), children’s social care, education (including educational psychology) and health (including child and adolescent mental health) agencies and police; the needs of children and young people who abuse others should be considered separately from the needs of their victims; and a multi-agency assessment should be carried out in each case, appreciating that these children may have considerable unmet developmental needs, as well as specific needs arising from their behaviour.
11.51	LSCBs and YOTs should ensure that there is a clear operational framework in place within which assessment, decision-making and case-management take place. Neither child welfare nor criminal justice agencies should embark on a course of action that has implications for the others without appropriate consultation.
11.52	In assessing a child or young person who abuses another, relevant considerations include:
	the nature and extent of the abusive behaviours. In respect of sexual abuse, there are sometimes perceived to be difficulties in distinguishing between normal childhood sexual development and experimentation, and sexually inappropriate or aggressive behaviour. Expert professional judgement may be required, within the context of knowledge about normal child sexuality; the context of the abusive behaviours; the child’s development, and family and social circumstances; needs for services, specifically focusing on the child’s harmful behaviour as well as other significant needs; and the risks to self and others, including other children in the household, extended family, school, peer group or wider social network. This risk is likely to be present unless the opportunity for further abuse is ended, the young person has acknowledged the abusive behaviour and accepted responsibility and there is agreement by the young abuser and his/her family to work with relevant agencies to address the problem.
11.53	Decisions for local agencies (including the Crown Prosecution Service where relevant) according to the responsibilities of each include:
	the most appropriate course of action within the youth justice system if the child is above the age of criminal responsibility; whether the young person who perpetrated the abuse should be the subject of a child protection conference; and what plan of action should be put in place to address the needs of the young abuser, detailing the involvement of all relevant agencies.
11.54	A young abuser should be the subject of a child protection conference if he or she is considered personally to be at risk of continuing significant harm. Where there is no reason to hold a child protection conference there is likely to be a need for a multiagency approach if the young abuser’s needs are complex. Issues regarding suitable educational and accommodation arrangements often require skilled and careful consideration.
11.55	Children with inappropriate sexual or very violent behaviour who are re-entering the community following a custodial sentence or time in secure accommodation, or who move into an area from another local authority, require the multi-agency response (assessment/intervention) initiated at the earliest opportunity. Where a child who has been convicted of sexual offences involving the abuse of other children is released into the community, the MAPPA must be invoked.
Bullying
11.56	Bullying may be defined as deliberately hurtful behaviour, usually repeated over a period of time, where it is difficult for those bullied to defend themselves. It can take many forms, but the three main types are:
	physical (for example, hitting, kicking, theft); verbal (for example, racist or homophobic remarks, threats, name-calling); and emotional (for example, isolating an individual from the activities and social acceptance of their peer group).
11.57	The damage inflicted by bullying (including bullying via the internet) can frequently be underestimated. It can cause considerable distress to children, to the extent that it affects their health and development or, at the extreme, causes them significant harm (including self-harm). All settings in which children are provided with services or are living away from home should have in place rigorously enforced anti-bullying strategies.
11.58	Since 1999 schools have been under a legal duty to put measures in place to promote good behaviour, respect for others and to prevent all forms of bullying among pupils. In practice schools need to draw up an anti-bullying policy linked to the behaviour policy.
11.59	In cases of sexist, sexual and transphobic bullying schools must always consider whether safeguarding processes need to be followed. This is because of the potential seriousness of violence (including sexual violence) that these forms of bullying characterise through inappropriate sexual behaviour. It is important for schools to consider whether to apply safeguarding procedures both to young people being bullied and to perpetrators. Young people being bullied may need to be protected from the child or young person engaging in bullying behaviour using safeguarding processes. If a young person is engaging in these behaviours this may be an indication that they are acting out the prejudices they see, to fit in. It could also be an indication that the young person could be experiencing abuse at home and therefore require some form of safeguarding intervention (For more detailed guidance please see Chapter 2 of the document, ‘The law, policy and guidance for schools’ and the tackling school bullying guidance'.)
11.60	The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) has produced a comprehensive suite of guidance for schools under the title Safe to Learn: Embedding Anti-bullying Work in Schools. This includes overarching guidance and specialist materials on cyberbullying, homophobic bullying (launched in 2007) which links to existing guidance on bullying around race, religion and culture (2006). Materials on bullying, preventing and tackling the cyberbullying of teachers, and bullying related to special educational needs and disabilities were launched in April and May 2008 respectively.
11.61	In addition the Safe from Bullying suite of guidance documents on tackling bullying outside of schools was published in April 2009. This includes guidance for practitioners in several target settings, such as children’s homes and journeys to and from schools; it also includes a guide for local authorities and a set of training resources for staff.
11.62	New Guidance for schools on preventing and tackling sexist, sexual and transphobic bullying was published in December 2009, following the DVD resource pack on bullying related to SEN and disabilities launched in September 2009.
11.63	The DCSF provides support and challenge to local authorities and schools on bullying issues through a universal programme of support provided by the National Strategies and a more targeted programme provided by the Anti-Bullying Alliance. The Anti-Bullying Alliance provides support also to local areas to tackle bullying in their communities. Ofsted has a challenge role with schools in looking at how children and young people are being kept safe from bullying as part of their inspections and canvass views direct from parents and children and young people as part of this process. If weaknesses are identified these will be flagged up in the Ofsted report.
11.64	The LSCB, Children’s Trust partners and all organisations involved with providing services to children are required to share information and work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people who should also be consulted on issues that affect them as individuals and collectively. Children’s Trust partners should consider tackling bullying as part of their wider role in safeguarding children and young people. The role of Government Offices is to support and challenge on how local authorities and their partners are delivering improved outcomes in respect of keeping children and young people safe from bullying.
Children whose behaviour indicates a lack of parental control
11.65	When children are brought to the attention of the police or the wider community because of their behaviour, this may be an indication of vulnerability, poor supervision or neglect in the wider sense. It is important to consider whether these are children in need and to offer them assistance and services that reflect their needs. This should be done on a multi-agency basis. A range of powers should be used to engage families to improve the child’s behaviour where engagement cannot be secured on a voluntary basis.
11.66	A child safety order (CSO) is a compulsory intervention available below the threshold of the child being at risk of significant harm. A local authority can apply for a CSO where a child has committed an act that would have been an offence if s/he were aged 10 or above, where it is necessary to prevent such an act, or where the child has caused harassment, distress or harm to others (i.e. behaved antisocially). It is designed to help the child improve his or her behaviour, and is likely to be used alongside work with the family and others to address any underlying problems.
11.67	A parenting order can be made alongside a CSO or when a CSO is breached. This provides an effective means of engaging with and supporting parents, while helping them develop their ability to undertake their parental responsibilities. A parenting order consists of two elements:
	a requirement on the parent to attend counselling or guidance sessions (for example, parenting education or parenting support classes). This is the core of the parenting order and lasts for three months; and a requirement on the parent to comply with such requirements as are determined necessary by the court. This element can last up to 12 months.
11.68	Harassment and anti social behaviour by children can have a major impact on adults and other children living in a neighbourhood. Arrangements should ideally exist whereby local community safety teams can seek help or advice about when antisocial behaviour by children should be regarded as evidence of need.
11.69	Children may also be members of households in which a vulnerable adult is being neglected or mistreated and may participate in such neglect or mistreatment themselves. Arrangements should ideally exist in which local safeguarding adults’ teams can seek help or advise about appropriate interventions for children in such cases. Staff working with children in need in households in which there are vulnerable adults should be alert to the possibilities of mistreatment of the vulnerable adult.
11.70	In case of behaviour problems at school, schools will need to make use of a full range of strategies when working to engage with parents, families and communities, including:
	offering specific support for parents and carers who need help either because their child is being bullied or in managing their child’s behaviour. There is a range of support mechanisms available in schools and through partner agencies but parents and carers need to feel this support is accessible to them; employing some of the formal strategies for parental engagement including the use of parenting contracts and home-school agreements. Many parents will react positively to such offers of help and particularly value group support; some schools find that the use of an education related parenting contract for behaviour is helpful in protecting the interests of the child. This is a voluntary arrangement between the parent and school/local authority; and parenting orders can also be applied for by a school or local authority where a parent has refused or failed to comply with a parenting contract and where the court considers that parenting is a factor in the child’s behaviour.
11.71	An education related parenting order is a civil court order which consists of the same two elements as standard parenting orders, except that they focus specifically on improving the behaviour and attendance of the child (More information can be found at the Teachernet website.)
11.72	Parent Support Advisers (PSAs) can enable the school-home relationship to grow and flourish. There is a comprehensive package of materials available from the Training and Development Agency for Schools on PSAs, which local authorities can draw upon when considering what information to include in their training materials. Guidance on securing parental involvement in managing pupil behaviour is due to be updated in 2010.
Race and racism
11.73	Racism can be a significant factor in cases of abuse. The experience of racism is also likely to affect the responses of the child and family to assessment and enquiry processes. Failure to consider the effects of racism undermines efforts to protect children from other forms of significant harm. The effects of racism differ for different communities and individuals and should not be assumed to be uniform. Attention should be given to the specific needs of all children. Evidence from research and previous abuse enquiries suggests particular issues for children of mixed parentage and refugee children. The need for neutral, high-quality translation or interpretation services should be taken into account when working with children and families whose preferred language is not English. All organisations working with children, including those operating in areas where black and minority ethnic communities are numerically small, should address institutional racism defined in the Macpherson Inquiry Report (2000) as ‘the collective failure by an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people on account of their race, culture and/or religion’.
Violent extremism
11.74	Exposure to, or involvement with, groups or individuals who condone violence as a means to a political end is a particular risk for some children. Children and young people can be drawn into violence themselves or they can be exposed to messages if a family member is involved in an extremist group.
11.75	Experience suggests that young people from their teenage years onwards can be particularly vulnerable to getting involved with radical groups through direct contact with members or, increasingly, through the internet. This can put a young person at risk of being drawn in to criminal activity and has the potential to cause significant harm.
11.76	The cross-Government strategy to stop people becoming terrorists or supporting violent extremism is known as ‘Prevent’. One of Prevent’s primary objectives is to support individuals who are vulnerable to recruitment or have already been recruited by violent extremists. There are a number of local projects across the country that contribute to this aim. All local authority areas should have an agreed process in place for safeguarding vulnerable children and young people susceptible to violent extremism. All staff should understand the nature of the risk and how to respond.
11.77	Levels of risk vary across different areas so LSCBs, safeguarding adults boards and children’s services practitioners should ensure they are informed of the particular risks in their area. Most local authority areas have a Prevent partnership group that is responsible for co‑ordinating work on this agenda across all agencies. Children’s services departments should be involved in this partnership group to ensure services that support children and young people are contributing to Prevent.
11.78	All children and young people’s partnerships should have an agreed process in place for safeguarding vulnerable individuals, including children’s, transition and vulnerable adult services. In some areas there is a bespoke multi-agency process known as ‘Channel’, which is an agreed mechanism for referring those at risk and providing support. Channel guidance states that if a referred individual is under the age of 18 (The Channel guidance also makes clear that children and young people’s services may have responsibility for care beyond the age of 25 if additional vulnerabilities are present such as for children in care, care leavers or disability.) the Channel co‑ordinator must liaise with the Common Assessment Framework (CAF) co‑ordinator/manager or social care office in children and young people’s services (who should be represented on the Prevent partnership and multi-agency Channel panel) to agree how best to handle the case. Following initial discussion a decision needs to be made on how to progress the case (for example, as a safeguarding issue, under Channel, CAF, or another support process) and establish how this will be reviewed. This decision can be taken on a case by case basis or a decision can be made by all local partners to use one particular system for the referral of all under 18s. If an area does not have Channel, local areas should incorporate referrals of under 18s within safeguarding procedures.
Domestic violence
11.79	As outlined in Chapter 9, children may suffer both directly and indirectly if they live in households where there is domestic violence. Domestic violence includes any incident of threatening behaviour, violence or abuse (psychological, physical, sexual, financial or emotional) between adults, or young people, who are or have been intimate partners, family members or extended family members, regardless of gender and sexuality. Domestic violence is likely to have a damaging effect on the health and development of children, who are likely to suffer emotional and psychological maltreatment, and it will often be appropriate for them to be regarded as children in need. Women are more likely to experience the most serious forms of domestic violence but it is important to acknowledge that there are female perpetrators and male victims and that domestic violence also occurs within samesex relationships. Professionals should be aware to these possibilities.
11.80	Everyone working with women and children should be alert to the frequent inter‑relationship between domestic violence and the abuse and neglect of children (National Service Framework for Children, Young People and Maternity Services, 2004). There may be serious effects on children who witness domestic violence, which often result in behavioural issues, low self esteem, depression, absenteeism, ill health, bullying, antisocial or criminal behaviour, drug and alcohol misuse, self-harm and psychosocial impacts. Where there is evidence of domestic violence the implications for any children in the household should be considered, including the possibility that the children may themselves be subject to violence or may be harmed by witnessing or overhearing the violence. Children affected by domestic violence often find disclosure difficult or go to great lengths to hide it.
11.81	The three central imperatives of any intervention for children living with domestic violence are:
	to protect the child/ren, including unborn child/ren; to empower the mother to protect herself and her child/ren; and to identify the abusive partner, hold him accountable for his violence and provide him with opportunities to change.
11.82	Professionals in all agencies are in a position to identify or receive a disclosure about domestic violence. Professionals should ask direct questions about domestic violence and be alert to the signs that a child or mother may be experiencing domestic violence or that a father/partner may be perpetrating domestic violence. Similarly, professionals should ask young people direct questions about whether they are experiencing intimate partner violence. Everyone working with women and children should be alert to the frequent inter-relationship between domestic violence and other issues which should be considered, such as drugs and alcohol misuse, deprivation and social exclusion, homelessness and housing needs, mental health difficulties, or child abuse and/or animal abuse.
11.83	Conversely, where it is believed that a child is being abused those involved with the child and family should check whether there is domestic violence within the family or in a young person’s partner relationship. Professionals should offer all children, young people and women, accompanied or not, the opportunity of being seen alone (including in all assessments) with a female practitioner, wherever practicable, and asked whether they are experiencing or have previously experienced domestic violence. Professionals in all agencies should take all disclosures seriously and the impact of the domestic violence on the mother and her child/ren should be clearly explained to her. She should be provided with full information about her legal rights and the extent and limits of statutory duties and powers. Maintaining and strengthening the mother/child relationship is in most cases key to helping the child/ren to survive and recover from the impact of the violence and abuse. Children who are experiencing domestic violence are likely to benefit from a range of support and services.
11.84	As soon as a professional becomes aware of domestic violence within a family or a young person’s relationship they should help the young person or mother and each child, according to their age and understanding, develop a safety plan. Children’s safety plans should emphasise that the best thing a child can do for themselves and their mother is not to try to intervene but to keep safe and, where appropriate, to get away and seek help.
11.85	Separation itself does not ensure safety, it often at least temporarily increases the risk to the child/ren or mother. Where a mother’s safety plan is to separate from the abusive partner the possibility of removing the abusive partner rather than the mother and child/ren should be considered first. Professionals should ensure that there is sufficient support in place to enact this plan. Where a mother proposes to remain with the abusive partner a multi-agency assessment should be undertaken of whether the safety plan is sufficient to safeguard the children.
11.86	The police are often (but not always) the first point of contact with families in which domestic violence takes place. When responding to incidents of violence the police should find out whether there are any children living in the household. They should see any children present in the house to assess their immediate safety. There should be arrangements in place between the police and children’s social care to enable the police to find out whether any such children are the subject of a child protection plan. The police are already required to determine whether any court orders or injunctions are in force in respect of members of the household. The police should make an assessment of risk of harm to the children and their mother using a dedicated assessment tool for example, the Domestic Abuse, Stalking and Harassment and Honour Based Violence (DASH) 2009 Risk Assessment Model. If they have specific concerns about the safety or welfare of a child they should make a referral to children’s social care and to a Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC) – a multi-agency meeting that focuses on the safety of high-risk domestic violence victims. MARACs and LSCBs should agree joint working arrangements for identifying, protecting and supporting children affected by domestic violence.
11.87	It is also important that there is clarity about whether the family is aware that a referral is to be made. Any response by children’s social care to such referrals should be discreet in terms of making contact with victims in ways that will not further endanger them or their child/ren. In some cases, a child may be in need of immediate protection. The amendment to the Children Act 1989 made in section 120 of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 clarifies the meaning of ‘harm’ in the Children Act to make explicit that ‘harm’ includes, for example, impairment suffered from seeing or hearing the ill-treatment of another.
11.88	Normally one serious or several lesser incidents of domestic violence where there is a child in the household indicate that children’s social care should carry out an initial assessment of the child and family, including consulting existing records. Babies under 12 months old are particularly vulnerable to violence. Where there is domestic violence in families with a child under 12 months old (including an unborn child), even if the child was not present, professionals should make a referral to children’s social care if there is any single incident of domestic violence.
11.89	Children’s social care should assess the child/ren and their family using the Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families (DH, 2000), taking into account such factors as the:
	nature of the abuse; risks to the child posed by the abuser; risks of serious injury or death; abuser’s pattern of assault and coercive behaviours; impact of the abuse on the mother; impact of the abuse on the child; impact of the abuse on parenting roles; protective factors; and outcome of the mother’s past help-seeking.
	Contact can be a mechanism for the abusive partner to locate the mother and children. Professionals should complete an assessment of the risks from contact to the mother and child/ren.
11.90	Education, early years and health service professionals are well placed to identify domestic violence. Safe information sharing arrangements are necessary to ensure that staff are confident about when and how to share information between education, children’s social care, health and the police is key. Guidance on best practice for health service staff is available in the toolkit Improving safety, Reducing harm: Children, young people and domestic violence – A practical toolkit for front line practitioners. The toolkit provides information on children and domestic violence, including the ways children experience domestic violence and the impact of abuse.
11.91	Domestic Violence Forums have been set up in many areas to raise awareness of domestic violence, to promote co-ordination between agencies in preventing and responding to violence, and to encourage the development of services for those who are subjected to violence or suffer its effects. LSCBs should have clearly defined links with their local Domestic Violence Forums, including cross-membership and jointly-undertaken workstreams. The LSCB and the Domestic Violence Forum should jointly contribute – in the context of the Children and Young People’s Plan – to an assessment of the incidence of children and young people experiencing domestic violence, their needs, the adequacy of local arrangements to meet those needs and the implications for local services. Other work might include developing joint protocols, safe information sharing arrangements and training. Local authorities and health, together with the police and other partner agencies, need to assure themselves that they have in place the services and responses which will satisfy the Every Child Matters Outcomes Framework target: Children affected by domestic violence are identified, protected and supported. To have in place appropriate local integrated services, planners and commissioners are encouraged to take guidance from A Vision for Services for Children and Young People affected by Domestic Violence (LGA, ADSS, Women’s Aid and Cafcass, 2005). This guidance focuses on meeting the needs of children affected by domestic violence within the planning of integrated children’s services and provides a framework to ensure that the range of different needs that children/young people experience in relation to domestic violence are identified and addressed.
11.92	There is an extensive range of services for women and children, delivered mainly through the voluntary sector, which includes Independent Domestic Violence Advisors for high risk victims of abuse, refuges, outreach services and a 24 hour domestic violence helpline. There is also probation service provision of Women’s Safety Workers for partners of male perpetrators of domestic abuse where they are on a domestic abuse treatment programme (in custody or in the community). These services have a vital role in contributing to an inter-agency approach in child protection cases where domestic violence is an issue. In responding to situations where domestic violence may be present, considerations include:
	asking direct questions about domestic violence; checking whether domestic violence has occurred whenever child abuse is suspected and considering the impact of this at all stages of assessment, enquiries and intervention; identifying those who are responsible for domestic violence in order that relevant family law or criminal justice responses may be made; taking into account that there may be continued or increased risk of domestic violence towards the abused parent and/or child after separation especially in connection with post-separation child contact arrangements; providing women with full information about their legal rights and about the extent and limits of statutory duties and powers; helping victims and children to get protection from violence by providing relevant practical and other assistance; supporting non-abusing parents in making safe choices for themselves and their children; and working separately with each parent where domestic violence prevents non‑abusing parents from speaking freely and participating without fear of retribution.
Child abuse and information communication technology (ICT)
11.93	The range of child abuse definitions and concepts (described in Part 1 of this guidance) are now being seen in an ICT environment. As technology develops the internet and its range of content services can be accessed through various devices.
11.94	The internet has, in particular, become a significant tool in the distribution of indecent photographs/pseudo photographs of children. Internet chat rooms, discussion forums and bulletin boards are used as a means of contacting children with a view to grooming them for inappropriate or abusive relationships, which may include requests to make and transmit pornographic images of themselves, or to perform sexual acts live in front of a webcam. Contacts made initially in a chat room are likely to be carried on via email, instant messaging services, mobile phone or text messaging. There is also growing cause for concern about the exposure of children to inappropriate material via interactive communication technology – for example, adult pornography and/or extreme forms of obscene material. Allowing or encouraging a child to view such material may warrant further enquiry. Children themselves can engage in text bullying and use mobile phone cameras to capture violent assaults of other children for circulation.
11.95	Where there is evidence of a child using ICT excessively, this may be a cause for concern more generally about the child’s welfare or development in the sense that it may inhibit the development of real-world social relationships or become a factor contributing to obesity.
11.96	There is some evidence that people found in possession of indecent photographs/ pseudo photographs of children are likely to be involved directly in child abuse. Thus, when somebody is discovered to have placed or accessed such material on the internet the police should normally consider the likelihood that the individual is involved in the active abuse of children. In particular, the individual’s access to children should be established, within the family, employment contexts and in other settings (for example, work with children as a volunteer or in other positions of trust). If there are particular concerns about one or more specific children it may be necessary to undertake, in accordance with the guidance set out in Chapter 5, section 47 enquiries (see the Memorandum of Understanding with the police for the appropriate notification to the Internet Watch Foundation of concerns about possible child pornography and other illegal materials on the internet).
11.97	As part of their role in preventing abuse and neglect LSCBs should consider activities to raise awareness about the safe use of the internet. LSCBs are a key partner in the development and delivery of training and education programmes with the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) (The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, which came into being in April 2006, is a partnership between Government, law enforcement, NGOs (including children’s charities) and industry, with the common aim of protecting children. It works to protect children, families and society from paedophiles and sex offenders – in particular, those who seek to exploit children sexually online.) This includes building on the work of the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (BECTA), the Home Office and the ICT industry in raising awareness about the safe use of interactive communication technologies by children.
Children with families whose whereabouts are unknown
11.98	Local agencies and professionals should bear in mind, when working with children and families where there are outstanding concerns about the children’s safety and welfare (including where the concerns are about an unborn child who may be at future risk of significant harm), that a series of missed appointments may indicate that the family has moved out of the area or overseas. Children’s social care and the police should be informed as soon as such concerns arise. In the case of children taken overseas it may be appropriate to contact the Consular Directorate at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which offers assistance to British nationals in distress overseas. They may be able to follow up a case through their consular post(s) in the country concerned.
11.99	Particular consideration needs to be given to appropriate legal interventions where it appears that a child for whom there are outstanding concerns about their safety and welfare may be removed from the UK by his/her family in order to evade the involvement of agencies with safeguarding responsibilities. Particular consideration should also be given to appropriate legal interventions when a child who is subject to a care order has been removed from the UK. Children’s social care, the police Child Abuse Investigation Unit and the Child Abduction Section at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office should be informed immediately.
Children who go missing
11.100	Children who decide to run away are unhappy, vulnerable and in danger. As well as short term risks to their immediate safety there are longer term implications as well with children and young people who run away being less likely to fulfil their potential and live happy, health and economically productive lives as adults. In July 2009 the Government published new statutory guidance setting how local authorities and agencies should respond when a child or young person goes missing.
11.101	Local and regional Runaway and Missing from Home and Care protocols should be agreed between children’s services, the police and other agencies and relevant voluntary sector agencies. Protocols should define roles and responsibilities when a child goes missing and when they return and should include:
	an agreed definition of a missing or runaway child or young person; an agreed inter-agency framework for classifying the degree of risk when a child goes missing from home or when a missing young person comes to agency notice; guidance on the threshold for referrals to social care; where CAF would be beneficial and the parents/carers agree, details of who should carry out a CAF and how this information should be shared, where appropriate; the basis on which agencies offer ‘Return interviews’ for children who have run away from home; and details of preventative approaches.
11.102	Return interviews for children and young people missing from both home and care are a crucial element in exploring the reasons they ran away and instances where the young person has run away from care, referring on, or linking into, care planning as appropriate. Where there is the possibility that the young person has runaway or gone missing as a result of child protection concerns the local authority where the child is placed, in liaison with the authority responsible for the child’s placement and in partnership with the police, must follow its procedures to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in the area where the child is living (see also the National Minimum Standards for fostering services and residential care).
Children who go missing from education
11.103	If a child or young person is receiving an education not only do they have the opportunity to fulfil their potential but they are also in an environment that enables local agencies to safeguard and promote their welfare. If a child goes missing from education they could be at risk of significant harm.
11.104	There are a number of reasons why children go missing from education. These can include:
	failing to start appropriate provision and hence never entering the system; ceasing to attend due to exclusion (for example, illegal unofficial exclusions) or withdrawal; and failing to complete a transition between providers (for example, being unable to find a suitable school place after moving to a new local authority area).
11.105	Children’s personal circumstances, or those of their families, may contribute to the withdrawal process and the failure to make a transition.
11.106	Certain groups of vulnerable children are more likely than others to go missing from education:
	young people who have committed offences; children living in women’s refuges; children of homeless families, perhaps living in temporary accommodation; young runaways; children with long-term medical or emotional problems; looked after children; children with a gypsy/traveller background; young carers; children from transient families; teenage mothers; children who are permanently excluded from school; migrant children, whether in families seeking asylum or economic migrants; and children/teenagers being forced into marriage.
11.107	There is a Child Missing Education (CME) named point of contact in every local authority. Every practitioner working with a child has a responsibility to inform their CME contact if they know or suspect that a child is not receiving education. To help local agencies and professionals find children who are missing from education and identify those at risk of going missing from education, guidance was issued in July 2004, Identifying and maintaining contact with children missing, or at risk of going missing, from education.
Children of families living in temporary accommodation
11.108	Placement in temporary accommodation, often at a distance from previous support networks or involving frequent moves, can lead to individuals and families falling through the net and becoming disengaged from health, education, social care and welfare support systems. Some families who have experienced homelessness and are placed in temporary accommodation by local authorities under the main homeless duty, can have very transient lifestyles.
11.109	It is important that effective systems are in place to ensure that children from homeless families receive services from health and education, as well as any other specific types of services, because these families move regularly and may be at risk of becoming disengaged from services. Where there are concerns about a child or children the procedures set out in Chapter 5 should be followed.
11.110	Statutory guidance on making arrangements under section 11 of the Children Act 2004 to safeguard and promote the welfare of children sets out local authorities’ responsibilities for homeless families.
Migrant children
11.111	In recent years the number of migrant children in the UK has increased for a variety of reasons including the expansion of the global economy and incidence of war an conflict. Local agencies should have due regard to the need to safeguard and promote the welfare of these children offering the same level of support and protection as for children who are UK nationals. Given that migrant children may have serious health needs, in addition to their complex other social needs, particular attention should be given to ensuring that they receive appropriate health care services.
Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC)
11.112	A UASC is an asylum-seeking child under the age of 18 who is not living with their parent, relative or guardian in the UK. In most cases UASC will be referred to local authorities by the UK Border Agency (UKBA) shortly after they arrive in the United Kingdom.
11.113	Local authorities should adopt the same approach to assessing the needs of a UASC as they use to assess other children in need in their area. The child will not have a parent, relative or other suitable adult carer in the United Kingdom, and will likely to have to be accommodated under section 20 of the Children Act.
11.114	The child’s immigration status should not affect the quality of care, support and services that are provided as a result of the assessment. Immigration status will, however, have a bearing on the child’s future and very careful thought should therefore be given to the range of services provided to the proportion of the children that are not granted asylum or long term leave to remain in the UK – with a view to making sure that the children are equipped for life in their countries of origin as well as the United Kingdom. These considerations should be reflected in the child’s care (or their pathway plan for those aged 16+), which will be subject to the same statutory review process, chaired by an Independent Reviewing Officer, appropriate for other looked after children.
11.115	In assessing the needs of UASC and providing effective care local authorities will normally need to build close links with the UKBA ’case owner’ responsible for resolving the child’s immigration status. This should extend to sharing key information necessary to safeguard the child’s welfare, including:
	information relevant to the assessment of the child’s identity and age (given that most UASCs may not have reliable documentary evidence of their age and identity); information that might be relevant to the immigration decision made in respect of the child (where, for example, the child has complex medical needs or is suffering from trauma); and information about any efforts to trace the location of family members in the country of origin (many UASCs will have lost contact with family members because of the circumstances of their journey to the United Kingdom).
11.116	In order to plan appropriately for the future of unaccompanied asylum seeking children it will be necessary for their social worker or personal adviser to seek up to date information on the progress of their asylum case from the UK Border Agency. It should not be assumed that a UASC will remain permanently in the UK, unless and until they have been granted British Nationality, refugee status or indefinite leave to remain. Opportunities available in the country of origin should be addressed in the care or pathway plan review to prepare for the eventuality that the child may decide to or be required to return to their country of origin.
11.117	Where there are safeguarding concerns relating to the care and welfare of any UASC (See for example para. 2.23 of the Statutory Guidance to the UK Border Agency on Making Arrangements to Safeguard and Promote the Welfare of Children.) then these must be investigated in line with the LCSB procedures in the area where they are living, in the same way as any other looked after child.

Chapter 11 – Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children who may be particularly vulnerable

UPDATE:

Contents

Introduction

Children living away from home

General

Essential safeguards

Looked after children

Private fostering

Children and young people in hospital

Children in contact with the youth justice system

Abuse by children and young people

Peer abuse

Bullying

Children whose behaviour indicates a lack of parental control

Race and racism

Violent extremism

Domestic violence

Child abuse and information communication technology (ICT)

Children with families whose whereabouts are unknown

Children who go missing

Children who go missing from education

Children of families living in temporary accommodation

Migrant children

Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC)