RCGP Safeguarding toolkit

This can feel like one of the most challenging aspects of responding to concerns about abuse, especially when these are about abuse happening within the home and/or by family members.

‘Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023’ outlines principles for working with parents and carers. These are that there should be a child-centred approach with partnership and collaborative working with parents and carers as far as possible, but keeping the wishes and feelings of the child and what is in their best interest central to decision-making. The four principles that should underpin work with parents and carers are:

1. Effective partnership working with parents and carers happens when practitioners build strong, positive, trusting, and co-operative relationships by:

• approaching families and their wider family networks and communities with empathy, respect, compassion, and creativity
• avoiding reinforcing family shame, suffering, and blaming
• using strength-based approaches, working with parents and carers to identify what is working well and how their strengths could support them to effect positive change
• ensuring they work sensitively with parents, carers, and children, to identify and understand the impact of adversity and trauma in their lives; seek to understand how adversity and trauma might manifest and affect children and parents’ engagement and use their expertise to adapt their response with care and compassion
• adapting their responses to meet the diverse needs of parents and carers, including fathers and male carers, and the specific challenges being faced, including parents and carers of disabled children, and where harm is outside the home
• ensuring they understand the families’ background, ethnicity, religion, financial situation, ability, education, sex, ages and sexual orientation, and potential barriers these create in seeking and accessing help and support
• being alert and recognising where parents or carers may not be acting in the best interest of the child or where children may be experiencing abuse, neglect, and exploitation as a result of actions by parents, carers, or other individuals in their lives; practitioners use their skills and expertise to adapt their response to secure engagement
• being mindful of negative stereotypes when making decisions which might lead to false assumptions.

2. Verbal and non-verbal communication should be respectful, non-blaming, clear, inclusive, and adapted to parents and carers needs. Practitioners should ensure that all materials provided to children, parents, carers, and families are jargon free, developmentally appropriate and in a format that is easily understood. Where appropriate, material provided to children, parents, carers, and families should be made accessible and translated into their first language if necessary. Professional interpreters should be provided where needed. Practitioners should not need to rely on family members or partners for interpretation services, including British Sign Language.

3. Practitioners empower parents and carers to participate in decision-making to help, support and protect children by:

• creating a culture of ‘no surprises’, for example, making parents and carers aware of who will attend meetings and discussions, if the child will be invited to participate and the format of the meeting or discussion
• explaining that parents and carers can bring a family member, a friend or supporter to meetings
• giving parents and carers adequate preparation at every stage, relevant information, a safe and appropriate environment for participation and suitable access arrangements
• signposting parents and carers to sources of help and support available locally or through the local authority
• helping parents and carers to understand what the issues are and how these impact on the child, what decisions could be made, what changes need to be made, why and how, timescales and possible outcomes.

4. Practitioners involve parents, carers, families, and local communities in designing processes that affect them, including those focused on safeguarding children. They value their contributions, expertise and knowledge reflecting them in service design and continuously seek feedback from parents, carers, family networks, children, and local communities to inform service improvements. Practitioners use feedback from parents and carers to reflect on their own practice.

The GMC has a resource for parents which explains why doctors who are concerned that a child or young person is at risk of abuse or neglect, must take steps to ensure the child or young person is protected: GMC leaflet: What to expect if your doctor is worried about your child’s safety.