Engagement and Safety Policy (Care and Protection)
What's Important To Us
At the forefront of our concerns is the safety and welfare of children and young people. We support multi-disciplinary practice as a means of securing safe care for children. Concurrently important is involvement with family/whānau in case planning and decision making to allow for flexible practice with family led solutions.
The engagement and safety policy identifies key practice requirements when working with families to assess and respond to safety concerns for children and young people.
Decision Response
On receipt of a notification, the receiving social worker will apply the Decision Response Tool to inform decisions about the appropriate response and timeframe for the safety assessment and allocation. If the notification was received at the Contact Centre, the site will reapply the Decision Response Tool to confirm the response and timeframe. The rationale for each decision is to be recorded in CYRAS.
When there are concerns regarding self harm or suicidal ideation, you must refer to the Key Information: Pathway Decision Making when Suicide/Self Harm is Part of the Concern.
Serious child abuse and the Child Protection Protocol
If the report of concern relates to serious child abuse as defined in the Child Protection Protocol (CPP) the steps in the protocol must be followed. The referral, consult and agreed investigation plan must be completed within the CPP timeframes.
Safety assessment and response
Each child/young person who has been referred for further CYF response (as a result of the application of the Decision Response Tool) will receive an assessment of their safety (Safety Assessment Tool Guidelines) within the identified ‘urgency of response’ timeframe (either 24 hrs, 48 hrs, 7 days, or 28 days).
Engagement with the child or young person and their family will occur as part of completing the safety assessment. This needs to include engagement with any children under the age of five years, and any child or young person for whom the notifier identifies particular or specific concern (the notified child/young person).
Assessing the safety of children when caregivers have previously had a child removed from their care due to safety concerns
When a report of concern is received for a child whose caregivers have previously had a child removed from their care due to safety concerns, a Safety Assessment is required.
Planning Next Steps
At all points in a case the social worker needs to have an understanding of the next steps. In early stages of the case the next steps will be developed by the social worker and approved by their supervisor.
The family/whānau should be involved in developing the next steps as much as possible.
Planning next steps:
- Child Protection Protocol (CPP): To be followed for cases requiring an investigation.
- Vulnerable Infant Triggers: These are to be applied in cases involving a child under the age of five years.
- Supervision Triggers: These are to be considered in all cases.
- Engagement with the child, young person and family/whānau supported by the use of Engagement Tools (Three Houses).
- Information sources to assist in completing the investigation/assessment (Key Information- Gathering information to support good case work).
- Integration of previous information: This is particularly important in situations where there have been three or more notifications within a 12-month period indicating an increased or escalating risk to the child or young person (Key Information- Cumulative Harm).
- Involvement of other professionals who can assist in the investigation/assessment (including Health and Education, and the Police where not already covered by the CPP).
- Consideration to any siblings that may also have safety or wellbeing concerns.
- Consultation with the Care and Protection Resource Panel on all investigations as soon as practicable after the investigation has commenced (s17 CYP&F Act 1989) (Key Information: Strengthening practice by working with the Care and Protection Resource Panel).
- Safety Planning: Where concerns exist surrounding the safety of the child or young person, a plan is to be developed that addresses and ensures an appropriate response to the concerns. The plan must be developed with the child/young person and their family/whānau, be written in language that the child/young person and family/whānau can understand and be readily accessible to them. The Safety Plan will be recorded in CYRAS (Key Information- Safety Planning).
The next steps must be recorded clearly on CYRAS and approved by a supervisor.
Safety of children and young people in hospital
In all cases where a child or young person is hospitalised with suspected non-accidental injury and the perpetrator is unknown, consideration should be given to the immediate application for a Place of Safety Warrant or other legal order to secure the child/young person's safety. This decision must be made in consultation with the supervisor and/or practice leader, legal services and the appropriate health representative.
If the chief executive is granted custody, by warrant or other order, the social worker is to ensure that appropriate security and supervised access arrangements are implemented. Consideration will also be given to the safety of any other siblings or children/young people in the same household.
Multi-Agency Safety Plans
In all cases where a child/young person is hospitalised with suspected non-accidental injury a multi-disciplinary process for decision making and planning must occur. This multi-disciplinary process must commence within 24 hours of the child/young person being admitted to hospital and must lead to the development of a detailed safety plan prior to the child's discharge. The plan will include:
- who will care for the child
- how safety will be addressed
- how health needs will be responded to
- how support will be provided
- roles and responsibilities of professionals
- how monitoring and review will occur.
Working with serious offenders
Where a social worker becomes aware that a child/young person is living, or having unsupervised contact, with any person who has been convicted of, or has admitted to, a serious offence that indicates risk to a child/young person, actions must be taken to ensure that child/young person's safety.
Children/young people in the custody of the chief executive are not to be placed in the care of adults who have convictions for serious offences unless there are exceptional circumstances. In such situations refer to Key Information- Approval of Caregivers.
