The Problem of Child Abuse - Essay Example

?Safe Guarding babies and Children Introduction Victoria Climbie an 8 year old from Ivory Coast who moved to London from France with her great aunt Marie Therese Kouao in the year 1999 was pronounced dead on 25th February 2000. She was admitted to St. Mary’s hospital in London with multi organ failure, hypothermia and had 128 injuries on her body. The news of her death has raised a furore and a myriad of questions on the capability of local social service authorities in handling cases of abuse and offering protection to young lives. The irony in this was that Victoria Climbie’s case was public and had been referred to and made public to the “Housing authorities, two child protection teams of the Metropolitan police force (MPS), a specialist centre managed by the NSPCC and she was admitted to two separate hospitals” (Lord Laming Report 2003, p.1.16) This article examines the system based on the report published by Lord Laming in 2003, and evaluates the role of the individual and the social system in safeguarding children from child abuse. The object is to establish the moral responsibility of every individual in the child-care system and create awareness. The article focuses on factors on the agency and individual level that are deemed key to avert tragedies such as this from happening in the future. 1. Responsibilities of local authorities. 2. Multi Agency policies. 3. Valued judgement and effective communication. 4. Targeted and Specialized support. 5. Individual social worker’s responsibilities The article evaluates and explores the methods that can be employed to avoid the mistakes as ascertained by the Laming report. Responsibilities of local authorities: “Those who sit in judgement often do so with the great benefit of hindsight” (Lord Laming Report, 2003 Page 1. 1:15) The handling of the case by the Haringey social services and the NSPCC has been under heavy criticism and called a “gross failure” of the system in protecting a young life from abuse by her caretakers. The role of local authorities is to provide support, care and offer guidance to children under 18 in need of care in the area. It is their duty to assign cases that are brought to their attention to the respective agencies and place them into a “child protection register”. In this event the Local authorities outline all disciplinary and inter-agency policies to be implemented by the agencies. Research has shown that multiagency working is more pronounced during the early stages of the case while making enquiries and “less pronounced and apparent in implementing action plans” (Chahal and Coleman 2003, p.39). Agencies that handle the cases from the Local authorities work on the brief give to them. Therefore it is imperative that professionals from both Local and Agency levels communicate effectively. In Victoria Climbie’s case there was evidence that the front line staff that received her case were not kept up to date on the guidelines as outlined by the Children Act of 1989. The procedure books made available to them were not up to date on the guidelines to monitor and provide care for children who were undergoing abuse. This affects the judgement of the staff and the ability to recognize an emergency or sounding the alarm. A sense of lax amongst caseworkers and front line staff is also prevalent as social work and especially working with children is not seen as an attractive career option. This has been attributed to the callous treatment of social workers by the top executives. Most of the work that social workers put into their work goes unnoticed or unappreciated. London shows a 11 per cent vacancy rate nationally in these sectors while some boroughs show as much as 40 to 50 per cent (Dfes 2003, Every Child matters, The Challenge, p.22). Because of this most front line staff are not adequately qualified to handle such sensitive issues. It is important for agency heads to be qualified in the regulations of social work to be able to empathize with the staff handling the cases and appreciate the work and dedication involved in making social work a career of choice. The responsibilities and job scope of a social worker within an organization must be clear cut and delegated with clarity by the higher authorities. It is important to commensurate the workload with appropriate remuneration. Agencies and organizations must conduct workshops and training camps where their staff can keep updated on the required skills. Agencies must set aside funds on research to focus on areas of discrepancies. Counselling is as important to social workers as it is to the children and cases assigned to them. Agencies should organize staff meet ups with more experienced social workers, establish mentorship programs and counselling cells where they can communicate their grievances and seek advice on course of action. Along with this it is imperative that they undergo regular appraisals and be appreciated and acknowledged for their efforts. Multi Agency policies: Social service agencies are predominantly bound by severe protocols and procedures. There is the imminent danger of ineffective action planning and implementation as mechanical thinking compromises professional judgement. The adage, not every child is the same equally applies and relates to - not every case is the same. Careful assessment and evaluation of circumstance and evidence should be combined with better judgement and analytical thinking. Laming (2003, p.1.26), quotes the Chief executive of Haringey council, Mr Gurbux Singh in his response, blaming the available resources and saying, that aside from the fact that they would work on averting such occurrences in the future, there was nothing that he could think in his mind that could have been done to save her. Apart from gross negligence the Victoria Climbie case revisits the lack of accountability among top-level executives in the Agencies. Gareth David, Chief executive of the Brent council explained his non-involvement in the case as being a strategic role “to distance him from day to activities”. The involvement is on a need to know basis (Lord Laming 2003, p.1.26). Executives and agency heads need to be involved all through with the details of the abuse cases brought to the attention of their agency. A system of regular report writing and record maintenance is imperative to see a complete case report through. It is the social responsibility of all social services agencies to investigate fully and take due course of action according to the children Act, 1989. The “line of accountability to be from top to bottom and not the other way around” (Lord Laming 2003, p.1.26) Valued judgement and effective communication: “A temptation to deny misuse or overlook abuse happening with one’s own ethnic group” (Fontes 2005, p.13). The action is more to avoid humiliation and guard the families from the complexities of the justice system. Ironically Victoria Climbie’s case, cannot be classified completely as an act of racism because the oppressors were both black, so were the case workers assigned to her case. This brings the argument to the issue of recognizing abuse and focussing the energy on the abused child rather than defer to the abusers. It is important to train social workers and caseworkers in differentiating between behaviour, which is considered normal culturally, and “abusive or neglectful parenting” (Corby 2000, p.67). Mandatory comprehensive training should be given to all care givers at Local and Agency level on the variants that constitute abuse, recognition of the signs tell tale or evident. It is important for caseworkers to make a valued judgement on what constitutes abuse. It has been researched that among the various agencies involved, the police took the most serious stance on any kind of abuse followed by social workers that relied on signs of emotional abuse to make their judgement. Paediatricians and lawyers come last in this list of agencies that provide reactionary course of action. Therefore “greater clarity about the issue of acceptable physical treatment meted out as punishment will be welcomed by child protection workers” (Corby 2000, p.74). Differentiating between abuse and accidental injury; keeping their ears and eyes open for any incriminating information or evidence; effective communication of that information between the multiple agencies and enrolling the child to a child protection register upon recognizing abuse or evidence of it is vital. Hospitals and medical institutions need to strictly adhere to liability approach and exercise them in cases with even reasonable doubt. The psychological implications on the abused child need to be anticipated and monitored. Garbarino and Vondra (1987, p.28) insist that psychological maltreatment should be placed as the centrepiece of investigations on child abuse and attempts to identify and understand it within cultural and family functioning is key. Medical institutions and social workers need to collaborate in taking action on legal grounds. Focus must be on getting evidence to prove beyond reasonable doubt. All tests, x-rays and expert professional opinion can constitute solid evidence and go a long way in curbing the escalating child abuse cases cited to be at a 21 per cent in the UK inclusive of 7 per cent abuse from parents or care takers (Cawson et al. 2000) Targeted and specialist support: Local agencies must conduct workshops and classes on behavioural rules and regulations, educate parents and foster care givers on skills to bring up children and nurture them. Foster parents and parents must be made aware of the various facilities available to them, medical, financial and legal where applicable. Local authorities should focus on forming support groups where kinship care givers can advice and share their experience with foster care givers who may not have prior history with the child under their care and prepare them on things to anticipate, course of action and support available. Abuse is considered as a phenomenon that is the result of many factors, which may not directly relate to the child or person abused. These factors have to be taken into account and the participants in the act have to addressed and counselled in group as well as private sessions. This has been proven effective as a prefatory exercise on suspected or anticipated abuse situations. Individual social worker’s responsibilities: Choosing social work as a career option is a step towards focussed and intuitive work. Victoria Climbie’s case upon investigation exposed the gaping incompetence and negligence of the caseworkers. One of the prime rules of effective case management is identifying; follow up and action. The Laming report (2003) points out that the social worker assigned to Victoria’s case, Lisa Arthurworrey failed to notice and classify the injuries sustained by Victoria as abuse. Clues of abuse in children especially can be read from the child’s behaviour, demeanour, social skills and other tell tale signs and “more rarely by what they tell or try to tell” (Chahal & Coleman 2003, p.57). As important as identification is, the corner stone of social work is in follow up and accounting of the ward under their scrutiny. The report shows that this was also absent in the case of Victoria. As the social worker assigned to her case, Karen James failed to keep her home visits for fear of contracting scabies. This goes against the guidelines to effective caseworker profile. Children or adults undergoing abuse need to be evaluated on home visits. While meeting their social workers in circumstances and scenario’s outside of their home, the affected child or adult may exhibit signs that can be very deceiving. It is therefore very important to and follow up with them and meet them at the venue of the suspected abuse. The choice of social work as a career path in itself prepares the individual for the prospect of encountering complex people under complex situations. A mature and skilled approach is necessary to meet with the challenges that this demanding profession will place before them. It is therefore also important to have dedication from the perspective of an individual and enterprising attitude towards higher learning and skills updating, aside from what the agency will prepare them for. “Effective treatment begins with good decision-making, which is enhanced by critical thinking skills; these skills lead to, and are enhanced by, the application of Evidence-based Practice (EBP)” (Peter and Teresa Lyons p.2). These in turn are the necessary pre-requisite for a qualified social worker. Critical thinking especially is fundamental to social work including one that involves child abuse and neglect because it influences good decision-making. It is very important for a social worker to constantly polish up on these skills on the basis of clarified thinking, definitive identification and problem solving strategies from a coherent and creative standpoint through out their career span. There is no room for biased or pre-conceived notions based on the law of averages. This applies in the case of identifying a case of abuse as much as the incorrect assumption that a child or vulnerable adult will be harmed. This challenge is balanced by the innate expertise in humans to select and code information rather than integrate it. The social setting and its challenges have exposed humans to many oppressive situations, which are inexplicable. Society has created and developed various support structures to care and protect those that are incapable of standing up on their own against oppression. The story of the life and death of Victoria Climbie highlights the discrepancies in the system and is a stellar example of how callous and ineffective working of even one individual in a role of great responsibility can destroy innocent lives. The object of this article is not to create new guidelines rather to throw light on already existing structural and functional guidelines, which can be applied over a broad spectrum. As Melton and Flood (1994) point out it is the failure of the system to provide the empirical information needed to guide in decision-making rather than leave the social workers to make decisions by using their personal standards as benchmarks. The article also wishes to reiterate the moral responsibility of every individual in society to act with integrity, righteous indignation and courage in the face of adverse situations. List of References Corinne May- Chahal and Stella Coleman (2003) Safeguarding Children and Young People: The Social work series, Routledge, London. Lisa Aronson Fontes (2005) Child Abuse and Culture, The Guilford Press, New York NY. DfES (2003) Every Child Matters. DfES Publications. Laming (2003) The Victoria Climbie Inquiry: Report of the Inquiry by Lord Laming. Stationary Office. Corby, B. (2000) Towards a knowledge base. 2nd edn. Open University Press. The Victoria Climbie Inquiry [image] 2005. retrieved 2nd January 2012 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/uk/2002/victoria_climbie_inquiry/default.stm The department of Education 2010 Working Together to Safeguard Children: A guide to inter-agency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, retrieved 2nd January 2012 from https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/standard/publicationdetail/page1/DCSF-00305-2010 Murray A,.Straus (1979) Measuring Intrafamily Conflict and Violence: The Conflict Tactics (CT) Scales : Journal of Marriage and Family, Vol. 41, No. 1 (Feb., 1979), pp. 75-88, National Council of family relations. Peter Lyons & Teresa Lyons, The role of social work in child maltreatment, Appears in: A. Giardino, & R. Alexander, Child maltreatment: A clinical guide and reference. 3rd edition. retrieved 3rd Jan 2012 from http://chhs.gsu.edu/socialwork/docs/pub1.pdf Daly, C. (2003) Child Protection System. Children’s Legal Centre. Munro, E. (2002) Effective Child Protection. Sage. Read More