It is a crisp November morning. Inside a packed London tube train, commuters are buried in their newspapers carrying stories of the death of baby P. There is a hush across the carriage as we read of the tragedy, and the failure of the public services. The images are disturbing. They tap into our collective consciousness, they raise strong emotions - a deep sadness, anger and sense of outrage. How could this have happened again?
Here I intend to link the strength of public response surrounding the deaths of children in our communities and to propose the use of this 'energy' for the collective good. We can use these tragedies to inform learning, and within early years settings we can initiate partnership with parents in making safeguarding children a truly shared responsibility. The aim is to:
- encourage an approach that is open and honest, and establishes our legal obligations in a meaningful way right from the outset of our relationship with parents
- propose a workshop model that can assist in empowering parents in safeguarding their children.
The Every Child Matters agenda calls for transparency, for us to honestly 'own' our professional knowledge and to share this with parents. Gone are the times of professional childcare services 'skirting around' the issue. We know, and parents know, that we do have a legal responsibility to safeguard children.
Giving parents a copy of your setting's safeguarding policy is a first step. Without a meaningful dialogue, however, this has a limited impact. We need to recognise that entering into this dialogue with parents might raise as much anxiety for them as it does for us, but if we do not talk about safeguarding, it just hangs around in the shadows. It might even create a block in us being able to talk to each other in an honest way at all. So, how do we go about it ?
Benefits of workshops
Workshop events to which parents have been invited have been very successful in my experience. In fact, those that have included parents and practitioners together have been particularly so. A new breed of innovative, 'fresh' managers have initiated these events and gone to great lengths to make them happen.
Workshop activities have included a process, beginning with parents and practitioners exploring their partnership in meeting the needs of children. The aim is to arrive at a place where parents and practitioners together can look into what might affect parents in their capacity to parent. In this sensitive territory, parents and practitioners have shared their own upbringing of violence and abuse, situations where religious and cultural beliefs have dictated a harsh discipline and control of children, and how these ways, in this era, have evolved and changed.
It is recognised that the approach in the UK currently focuses on 'Every Child and Every Parent', that services are in plentiful supply to assist and support the parent in the complex task of raising a child and that these are available to them as a right. Facilitating understanding of this shift in emphasis from services often causes a marked sigh of relief from parents, as they can see that practitioners are not there to criticise or judge, but to help parents and their children gain access to services that will truly support them.
Through discussions such as these, it also often becomes clear that:
- some practitioners had lost their confidence in freely sharing their vast experience with parents, sensitive to the fact that they might be seen as forcing their 'expert' knowledge on the parent, and in some cases practitioners had even started to question whether it was their job to offer advice
- some parents had been suspicious about practitioners enquiring about their own well-being, particularly where this had been prefaced by the phrase, 'How are things at home?'. For parents, this seemed to cause a leap in thinking, the implication being that perhaps they were inadequate or, in extreme cases, that the setting might play a part in Children's Social Care removing their child.
Open dialogue therefore plays a large part in dispelling myths, particularly surrounding the process of Children's Social Care involvement. It can establish a platform from which practitioners can feel confident in offering advice and support, and parents could feel free to accept or decline it!
Embarking on this type of incremental approach to shared learning has caused an equally beneficial impact for both parents and practitioners, in that it models in a 'live' way the need for engagement within the relationship. It also highlights a shared interest - that of the child and their welfare, safety and well-being, including recognition that for a young child, professional concern will surround the parent if their physical, emotional or mental health is affected in any way.
Empowering parents
Entering into open discussion has forged a shared understanding of what constitutes a child protection concern and what should happen if a referral is made to Children's Social Care. It has also assisted in creating clarity with regard to the parent's expectations of the setting/practitioner and a broader array of services. This has included explicit reference to the way in which children can be harmed and/or their needs neglected by professional practitioners, and the parent's part in bringing poor standards to the attention of managers. Parents have been equipped with information on how to make an allegation against a practitioner or formally lodge a complaint. In this way an equity in the parent/practitioner relationship has been brought to bear in a meaningful way.
Modern childcare settings that have demonstrated their deep level of commitment to parents in this way have been valued highly by parents. In my experience, parents have taken part fully and expressed their appreciation at being valued and empowered.
Events have caused some unprecedented results too, including:
- a truly shared understanding as to what safeguarding means
- increased open dialogue between parents and practitioners and reduced incidence of complaints or allegations against practitioners
- parents wanting to be involved in reviewing setting policies, fundraising, decorating and gardening projects
- parents being better informed and confident to ask their child's new school about their safeguarding arrangements
- parents becoming active contributors to management committees and community projects
- practitioners feeling confident and appreciated in the advice and support they offer parents.
FURTHER INFORMATION
Catherine Rushforth is director of Catherine Rushforth & Associates Training and Consultancy, which runs a number of workshops addressing issues to do with safeguarding. E-mail: catherine.rushforth@ntlworld.com