Undertaking a 'potential mass allegations' investigation
What's Important To Us
There may be times when we find ourselves in a situation where an adult has been accused of harming a group of children and/or young people in much the same way within a similar period of time. An investigation into allegations of this nature can be extremely complex. Careful and considered planning of each of the steps in the investigation along with involvement of key agencies ensures we deal with the matter safely, in a timely manner, and with the best interests of all the children and/or young people in mind.
What is a 'potential mass allegations' investigation?
A ‘potential mass allegations’ investigation refers to an investigation of allegations relating to the serious abuse of several children and/or young people by the same person or group of people. The children and/or young people involved may be linked through a variety of circumstances including:
- a family member
- a group or activity they participate in
- a facility they attend
- their care arrangements
Where to start
Engaging with the Police about the reported concerns via the process outlined in the Child Protection Protocol is a critical starting place. At the same time, the site needs to establish a dedicated ‘team’ of staff to work the case. It is important that a senior member of the site (i.e. practice leader or supervisor) takes the lead in managing the investigation given the number of victims involved and the complexities that will likely arise. The site will need to make some initial decisions about how many of the related cases can be allocated to an individual social worker, and how existing caseloads will be managed while social workers are involved with the investigation.
The Regional Director and Operations Manager are to be informed (via a Serious Event Notification) as soon as it is suspected that a ‘potential mass allegations’ investigation is required, and forensic interviewers will be bought into the process as early as possible.
If it is suspected that children or young people involved with other sites may have been victims of abuse by the same adult, engage with these sites early on and involve them in the investigation process.
If the investigation focuses on an identified organisation, facility or care provider, engage the relevant people in the investigation; either staff from the organisation or group in question, or staff from related agencies (i.e. Ministry of Education). Remember to take care when engaging with people who may be implicated in the investigation in some way. Where the ‘potential mass allegations’ investigation involves an organisation with whom Child, Youth and Family has an established Joint Protocol or Memorandum of Understanding, these documents need to be reviewed as part of the investigation plan. In situations where Child, Youth and Family has approved a provider, bring the relevant approvals staff into the investigation process.
Planning the investigation
‘Potential mass allegations’ investigations are complex by virtue of their scale and the need to manage a large amount of information, a number of reports of concern, multiple clients, family members, members of the community and the media interest which may be generated. Within all of this we need to stay focused on the needs of the children and young people.
The formulation of a ‘potential mass allegations’ investigation plan is integral to the management of the investigation. This plan outlines:
- the processes and tasks that need to be completed
- task timeframes
- the roles and responsibilities of the key parties.
Each individual child or young person involved will also have their own investigation plan which focuses on their particular care and protection needs, age and developmental stage. The ‘potential mass allegations’ investigation plan does not replace these individual investigation plans.
Take time in the planning phase to develop key messaging for the parents so that when they are interviewed they all receive the same information about the purpose of the investigation, roles and responsibilities and future scenarios.
Use the Child & Family Consult to build an understanding of the safety and harm that exists which in turn will help you with your planning and next steps.
Completing the investigation
Thorough case consultation between all involved agencies is essential throughout the investigation process as a means of sharing information as well as formulating and reviewing plans. The Child Protection Protocol outlines specific requirements for consultation between Child, Youth and Family and the Police.
As part of your investigation make sure you gather information about the child or young person’s own family situation, regardless of whether or not they are deemed to be at risk in this environment:
- Who is believing and supportive of the child or young person within their own family?
- Have the child or young person's siblings been spoken to?
- What contact (if any) is the child or young person having with the alleged perpetrator?
- How will safety be built around this?
To keep track of the investigation’s progress, develop a spreadsheet to show every child or young person who is involved, when they were interviewed, who did what and by when, and the outcome. This provides an overview of the case which will be useful when deciding next steps. Remember to add a column in the spreadsheet for comments on particular risk issues (either for the child or Child, Youth and Family):
- where cases have had high media interest already
- where social workers or other professionals have relatives in the list
- parents who are likely to take this to the media
- children who have experienced previous abuse, sexualised behaviour, risk of suicide, acting out behaviour
- whether the case needs to be made confidential (site decision).
For investigations involving a number of staff across different sites or regions, utilise regular video or telephone conferencing as a means of keeping in touch with others and on track with the required tasks.
The need to forensically interview a number of children and/or young people in a ‘potential mass allegations’ investigation may exceed the capacity of a single interview unit. There is also a risk that using the same forensic interviewers to interview a large group of children or young people could compromise their neutrality; when interviewers become more knowledgeable about the allegations this might cause them to ask leading questions. To avoid unnecessary delays or the risk of impairing the quality of the interview, get forensic interviewers from around the region on board to assist with the interviews.
If a child or young person needs counselling this is to be made immediately available to them. Delaying counselling until the forensic interview has been conducted (which could take some time in the case of ‘potential mass allegations’ investigations) will likely not be in the child or young person’s best interests. In situations where counselling has taken place prior to the interview, ensure the forensic interviewer is aware this has happened.
Ensuring the safety of children and young people during the investigation
While the investigation is proceeding, take appropriate steps to secure the safety of the children and/or young people involved. This may mean stopping their access to the alleged perpetrator for the duration of the investigation or, in cases of alleged abuse within an organisation or facility, suspending the alleged perpetrator. If safety cannot be secured through other means, the removal of children and/or young people from situations of risk will need to be considered.
Assessing the relationship dynamics between the child or young person involved, the alleged offender, the individual strengths of the child or young person, their family and community will inform the support required to ensure ongoing safety. The particular impact of the abuse on different age groups should be assessed by social workers. For example, very young children may just require support from their parents, while older children and teenagers will respond differently and may have more complex individual needs over and above parental support.
Throughout the investigation process, ensure the best interests of the children and young people remain the focus of action. Multiple adult interests and needs will easily dominate – what’s more convenient for adults will not always be consistent with children’s rights or their best interests.
What to tell parents
Parents will understandably be distressed by allegations that their child and others may have been abused by a person or group of people who were entrusted with the care of their child in some shape or form. It is important that we respond as sensitively as possible to these parents and children in the course of our investigation.
From the outset, social workers need to be clear with parents about their role, the roles of others (i.e. forensic interviewers), and the ‘potential mass allegations’ investigation process. Outline the steps that will be taken and the timeframes around these. Give the parents your contact details and the contact details of your own supervisor and the staff member overseeing the investigation. Be aware that families may be in a state of shock when you give them this information and so may not have heard or retained information they have been given. Follow up your initial contact with a letter which clearly sets out the information you gave verbally so that families have it to refer to at all times.
When telling parents about the allegations, do not provide specific details; rather, give them enough information so that they have a general awareness of what is said to have happened. Providing parents with specific information can affect the outcome of the investigation, particularly if the parent chooses to share this information with other parents or share with their own child what other children have said.
Provide advice to parents about how to talk to their child if the child wants to discuss the allegations, and what to do if their child makes additional allegations. Make it clear to parents that they are not to act as investigators, and that repetitive questioning of their child about the allegations will be unhelpful. Also, put contact between the alleged victims on hold until they have completed their interviews.
Don’t provide parents with information about possible symptoms of abuse; there will be a natural tendency for parents to look for signs of abuse in their child and potentially interpret certain behaviours as evidence that abuse has occurred. Also, don’t create an expectation in parents that their child will experience difficulties. Instead, provide parents with the name of a qualified person on the team with whom they can discuss any concerning behaviours.
On their own initiative, parents may form their own support groups as a means of sharing information and supporting each other. Try to make sure that someone from the investigation team attends these meetings and listens to the discussions that are held. As well as providing emotional support, this person can function as a ‘gentle’ reminder that evidence should not be shared while the investigation is underway.
Make sure parents are aware of ACC provisions and help them facilitate any and all claims made.
Be aware that this is a time of tremendous stress for the family, and that they may not hear or retain any information that they are given. Following key conversations with the parents, you may want to provide a written record of it to the parent that they can read and refer to in their own time.
Talking to children, young people and their parents when abuse is suspected but hasn't been disclosed
There will often be situations in which children or young people haven’t made a disclosure of abuse but you have a strong suspicion that they have been abused in some way. It is important that the interviewing social worker asks all children and young people the same broad type of questions so that if any allegations do arise, it can be proved at a later date there was no undue influence on them to make disclosures.
The following questions are examples you might ask children who attended a school camp where a teacher was alleged to have abused a child. These questions can be modified to take into account a range of different abuse scenarios:
- I’ve come to talk to you about how things were for at your school camp. We’re asking all the children and young people that were there about things they liked and didn’t like.
- Tell me about some of the things you liked about your school camp
- Tell me about some of the things you didn’t like about your school camp
- Who were the teachers/other adults who went to your school camp? Tell me about them
- Which kids were at your school camp?
- What would the teachers/other adults do if any of the kids were naughty on the camp?
- Was there anything that happened to you that you didn’t like?
- Were you ever hurt there in any way?
- Was there anything you saw happen to other kids there that you didn’t like?
- Did anything happen at school camp that you were told to keep secret?
If you sense the child or young person is withholding information, it may be appropriate to mention at this point that some kids who went to the school camp said they hadn’t felt very safe there (without specifying that it is about a teacher), and ask the following questions
- Did you ever feel unsafe there in any way?
- Did you ever feel unsafe with any of the teachers or adults?
If at any stage you get a response that indicates something inappropriate was seen or experienced, ask open questions to get a general sense of what happened:
- Tell me more about that
- Anything else you can remember that might be important?
- Anything else you want to tell me?
Full information can then be gathered at the forensic interview. Be sure to explain the forensic interview process to the child so that they understand what it involves.
When talking to parents about possible abuse, inform them that some children have talked about things they didn’t like about their teacher Mr. X while on school camp. If they ask for more detail, tell them that some children felt unsafe/were hurt by Mr X and ask them if their child has ever talked about not liking Mr. X in anyway. Also get their permission to complete a child-focused interview with their child (if the interview hasn’t already happened) and/or a forensic interview.
Media communication
Investigations of this nature often attract a great deal of media attention. This attention may cause additional distress for the family and create the possibility of media-related contamination of the investigation. Police tend to have extensive experience in managing media in high profile investigations so it may be appropriate for them to take the lead role in media liaison.
All requests for information from the media need to be directed to your Regional Director.
Support for staff
Working on a ‘potential mass allegations’ investigation is often more challenging than cases of individual abuse given the additional complexities of large scale investigations. The person leading the investigation needs to ensure that effective support and debriefing measures are in place for all team members. This includes standard processes for staff support (including supervision and peer support), a referral to EAP, or the establishment of specific briefing, de-briefing and support forums. Opportunities to get agencies together to reflect on the case and share their thoughts should also be considered.
Historical cases
Sometimes allegations may not be made until a significant period of time (perhaps months or even years) has passed after the abuse is alleged to have occurred. If an ‘historical’ allegation is made, Child, Youth and Family needs to ascertain the current safety of the child or young person involved.
Child, Youth and Family will likely have a care and protection role in ‘historic’ cases where the alleged victim is still younger than 17 years of age, and in cases where children and/or young people may be at risk of harm through ongoing contact with the alleged perpetrator/s.
The Police will be primarily responsible for the investigation of ‘historical’ cases of alleged abuse where children and/or young people are thought not to currently be at risk.
References
Fone, E. (1996). Listening, Learning and Acting Effectively. Social Work Now, 3, pp. 10-14.
Gray, A. (2004). Investigation of Mass Allegations Involving Serious Abuse of Children and Young People (unpublished).
Manuwai Video Unit (2002). Issues to Consider in Potential Mass Allegation Cases (unpublished).
