Strategy Discussions: A quick guide for professionals

Purpose

A strategy discussion/meeting is convened when there is reasonable cause to suspect a child is suffering or likely to suffer significant harm. This meeting aims to coordinate a multi-agency response to safeguard the child.

Coordination and Attendance

• Coordinator/Chair: Children’s Assessment & Intervention Team Manager for the child’s local area.
• Participants:
  • Children’s social care
  • Police
  • Health professionals
  • Referring agencies (e.g., schools, children’s centres)
  • Other relevant bodies (e.g., midwifery services for pre-birth cases or SARC for sexual abuse cases)
  • In complex cases, a Local Authority solicitor may attend to give legal advice.

Preparation

• Professionals must bring all relevant information about the child.
• Participants must be senior enough to make decisions on behalf of their agencies.

Meeting Types

• In-person/video conferencing: Preferred for comprehensive discussions.
• Telephone: Acceptable for planning enquiries, with records made and shared promptly.

Circumstances for Strategy Discussions

• New referrals indicating a child has suffered or is likely to suffer significant harm.
• New information on existing cases suggesting a child has suffered or is likely to suffer significant harm.
• Concerns about a child who has suffered or is likely to suffer significant harm through sexual abuse/exploitation, Female Genital Mutilation, or radicalization.
• Likelihood of significant harm from adults or young person’s moving into the child’s environment.
• Pre-birth concerns indicating the unborn child or newborn baby may be suffering significant harm or is likely to suffer significant harm.
• Death of a child where there is suspected abuse/neglect and there are other children in the household.
• Children moving into the area with existing Child Protection Plans.
• Likelihood of significant harm from child-on-child sexual assault.
• When Police grade a missing child as high risk.
• When Police take a child into Police Protection.
• When a child has been missing form more than 24 hours in one continual episode.

Objectives

• Information Sharing: Share all available information about the child and family.
• Criminal Investigation: Agree on the conduct and timing of any criminal investigation.
• Section 47 Enquiries: Decide whether to initiate or continue an assessment under Section 47 of the Children Act 1989.
• Assessment Planning: Plan how the Section 47 Enquiry should be undertaken, including medical assessments and specific actions.
• Immediate Actions: Agree on immediate actions to safeguard the child and provide interim services.
• Child’s Wishes: Determine how to ascertain and consider the child’s wishes and feelings.
• Cultural Considerations: Consider the race, ethnicity, beliefs, and culture of the child and family, and whether an interpreter is needed.
• Other Affected Children: Consider the needs of other children who may be affected.
• Information Sharing with Family: Decide what information will be shared with the family, ensuring it does not increase likelihood of harm or jeopardise investigations.
• Legal Action: Determine if legal action is required.

Responsibilities

• Chair: Ensure decisions and actions are fully recorded and shared with all participants.
• Participants: Take notes and follow up on agreed actions.

Timescales

• Where there is an immediate likelihood that the child is suffering significant harm, the strategy meeting should be held as soon as the concern is identified; otherwise, strategy meetings should be held within 24 hours of the concern being identified unless there is a good reason for a delay, e.g. to ensure attendance of all relevant agencies where more than one child is involved / complex abuse etc. If the meeting is not held as soon as the concern is identified, then consideration should be given to the safety of the child(ren) until the strategy meeting takes place.
• Where immediate emergency action is apparent from the presenting circumstance, a safeguarding response must not be delayed by convening a strategy discussion. The strategy discussion should take place ASAP after the immediate emergency action.
• In cases of suspected recent sexual abuse (within 10 days) contact SARC immediately to discuss forensic timescales that may indicate a child needs to be seen before the discussion.

Decision Making

• Threshold Discussion: Led by the Chair, focusing on the need for a Section 47 enquiry based on the likelihood of significant harm.
• Section 47 Enquiry: Decide if it will be a joint or single agency investigation.
• Child in Need or Targeted Early Help: If Section 47 is not required, discuss if Child in Need or Targeted Early Help is appropriate.
• Rare Outcomes: Rarely conclude with no further action or step down to Early Help/Universal Services.

Outcomes

• Further Discussions: If professionals remain concerned, further discussions should be held.
• Multiple Strategy Discussions: If necessary, with regular reviews to ensure child safety.
• Multi-Agency Assessment: If no Section 47 Enquiry, consider continuing a multi-agency assessment for early help or family support services.

Planning Section 47 Enquiries

• Initial Planning: Agree on key tasks, dates, and responsible individuals.
• Example Tasks:
  • ABE interview: Joint task for Police and Children’s Social Care.
  • Child Protection medical: Involves Children’s Social Care, Paediatrician, and possibly Police.
  • Chronology of concern: Each agency contributes, with a lead professional collating information.
• Further Information: Identify missing participants and gather additional information as needed.

Agenda for Strategy Discussions

1. Welcome and Introductions
   • Chair introduces themselves and outlines confidentiality.
   • Participants introduce themselves.
2. Reason for Meeting
   • Summary of why the meeting was called.
3. Discussion of Each Child
   • Cover social care, education, health, and criminal history.
   • Balance positive information with concerns.
   • Consider harmful and protective factors for adults involved.
4. Chair’s Summary
   • Summarize findings and concerns for each child.
   • Provide an overview of evidence and subsequent concerns.
   • Provide the members an opportunity to share any concerns they have over the decisions made and ensure any disagreements that cannot be resolved are recorded and escalated.

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