Damning safeguarding report says young rape victim’s safety was affected by lack of multi-agency work across Northamptonshire authorities
A damning safeguarding report looking at the actions of Northamptonshire authorities has been published after a sexual abuser was jailed for rape against a young girl.
Northamptonshire Safeguarding Children Partnership (NSCP) has today (Wednesday October 16) published a Child Safeguarding Practice Review into the case, alongside another review looking at a second child sexual abuse case. The purpose of the reviews is to identify improvements to be made to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. There are common themes throughout both cases, which have been fed back to the relevant authorities, according to NSCP.
In April 2019, police began investigating the offender in the first case - who is referred to in the report as Mr D - for downloading and distributing child sexual abuse images of children. He was, in time, sentenced for this offence, however, in the meantime, he was released on bail.
The bail conditions instructed the offender to live with his parent, in order to protect his own children whom he previously lived with. However, the report says “there was no exploration by the police about the parent’s circumstances or links to children”.
The link was not made between his parent and the girl - who is referred to in the report as Child Bk - he went onto sexually abuse over the course of 12 months. The report says no connection was made, so no risk assessment was completed, specifically relating to the child who was abused.
Concerns were also raised that the child’s mother “dismissed concerns that the offender posed a risk to her child” and “failed to keep her safe”.
The report looks at how each authority, including the Northamptonshire Police, Northamptonshire Children’s Trust, the child’s school and GP, acted during the course of safeguarding proceedings and makes nine recommendations relating to what needs to be improved.
The recommendations include:
- “Guidance needs to be developed regarding multi-safeguarding agency responsibilities with regarding to bail conditions including communication by the police, the expectations of when strategy meetings should be convened, the role of children’s services and what action is required from all agencies.”
- “This review has found that the Child and Family Assessment was of poor quality, lacked multi-agency input and was superficial in its analysis of risk and need. NCT needs to consider what action is necessary to assure themselves that this is not representative of practice more widely and consider what action to take to address this.”
The report concludes: “This review highlights the importance of appropriate risk assessment processes being undertaken when concerns emerge that an adult has downloaded and viewed sexual abuse imagery.
“There needs to be consideration of strategy discussions, based on the known circumstances. This should consider all children about whom there might be concerns and with whom an adult has connections with. In considering the risk posed by Mr D, there was little multi-agency working, the lynchpin of effective safeguarding practice.
“This lack of working together had consequences for the safety of Child Bk.
“This LCSPR highlights the impact of silo practice and the importance of multi-agency discussions to build a holistic picture of a child’s circumstances.
“These multi-agency exchanges are more difficult outside of established frameworks such as of child in need or child protection processes and significant resource constraints, but they are important.”
The child is now in local authority care. The report says the impact of the abuse has been “profound” for her and that she is now receiving help and support.
Learnings from a second case
A second Child Safeguarding Practice Review has been published regarding another child sexual abuse case. However, this review does not include any specific details of the case or the circumstances. Instead an executive summary has been made public. The NSCP says this is to “avoid jigsaw identification of the victim”. All sexual abuse victims get automatic lifetime anonymity.
The executive summary does, however, highlight “missed opportunities” in the case and again shows a need for improved multi-agency working.
In the executive summary, there are ten learnings.
They include:
- “Professionals did not use the full range of support options available to them which resulted in a missed opportunity to better understand the risks to Child BM and the support available.”
- “A missed opportunity to convene a strategy discussion resulted in potential delay to multi-agency information sharing and multi-agency consideration of risk.”
- “Improvements must be made to ensure that strategy minutes are being sent to, and received by, all agencies.”
- “Concerns for a young person should always be escalated (if appropriate) to allow multi-agency consideration and planning of a support offer.”
The review said: “This review hopes that its reflection upon professionals understanding of Child BM will serve as a driver of change moving forward and will lead us to better practice.”
Response from NSCP
Helen Adams, who chaired both panels on behalf of the NSCP, said: “These are distressing cases and no child should have to suffer this kind of abuse.
“By its very nature, child sexual abuse is most often covert and therefore not easy to detect.
“We need to ensure those who work with children in tackling these issues are equipped with the tools and skills they need to identify where abuse might be taking place.
“These two reviews have certainly identified where changes can be made and we have already started working with all agencies concerned to improve our approach.
“Child sexual abuse and exploitation is a national issue and the work we have already done has prepared the partnership in anticipation of national guidelines.”