Multiagency safeguarding arrangements during and beyond the Covid‐19 pandemic: Identifying shared learning

Driscoll, Jenny; Hutchinson, Aisha; Lorek, A; Stride, Chris; Kiss, Katrina

doi:10.1002/car.2774

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…While we are still learning about the impact of COVID-19 on vulnerable children and families, early research suggests that child-and family-serving professionals struggled to fully comprehend the level of stress children and families faced [57]. This was evidenced in our study by the grandmother whose child's school treated her as incompetent and incapable of supporting online learning.…”

Section: Practice Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 83%

When Kinship Caregivers Became Teachers: Role Stress and Strain from Remote Learning during COVID-19

Klein-Cox,

Tobin,

Denby

2023

Societies

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For caregivers of school-age children, schooling at home was a significant stressor during the COVID-19 pandemic. Research demonstrates the emotional burden of taking on the role of teacher while trying to balance responsibilities related to work, household, and childcare. Yet little is known about the well-being of kinship caregivers during this time, although this population is at heightened risk for role stress and strain and emotional distress. This article shares the results of focus groups conducted as part of a larger qualitative study, the purpose of which was to understand the factors that influenced the well-being of kinship families during the pandemic, from the perspective of kinship caregivers and child welfare professionals. From these conversations, the challenges of remote learning emerged as a prominent theme, particularly for caregivers raising children with special healthcare needs, who comprised the majority of the sample. Given their pre-pandemic role stress and strain due to caregiving responsibilities, most caregivers struggled with managing their child’s learning, working from home, and caring for children with trauma histories, often with limited support and access to needed services. These findings suggest that this population needs support—potentially in the form of wrap-around services and/or social safety net provisions—to reduce their role stress and strain and improve well-being.

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Section: Practice Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 83%

When Kinship Caregivers Became Teachers: Role Stress and Strain from Remote Learning during COVID-19

Klein-Cox,

Tobin,

Denby

2023

Societies

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“…Our third paper by Jenny Driscoll et al (2022) identifies shared learning from adaptations to professional practice in response to the COVID‐19 pandemic. The study underscores the formidable barriers faced by professionals in understanding and assessing the changing living environments of children in the context of dramatic reductions in direct engagement and disruption to well‐established pathways for sharing of information.…”

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confidence: 99%

Editorial

Bunting

Bhatti‐Sinclair

2022

Child Abuse Review

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The extent to which social workers are able to delve into the depths to protect children and explore the deeper reaches and inner lives of service usersthe degree to which they feel able to get up and walk across the room to directly engage with, touch, and be active with the child or follow through on seeing kitchens and bedroomsis directly related to how secure and contained they feel in separating from the office/car. They can only really take risks if they feel they will be emotionally held and supported on returning to the office that their feelings and struggles will be listened to. Workers' state of mind and the quality of attention they can give to children is directly related to the quality of support, care and attention they themselves receive from supervision, managers and peers. Ferguson (2011, cited in Munro, 2011 More than a decade ago, Professor Eileen Munro's (2011) review of the child protection system highlighted how, to practise well, social workers need to work in organisations that recognise the uncertainty inherent in child protection work, understand the impact of the work on staff and families alike, and take active steps to support staff and foster their professional development. Although written with a focus on social work, the points made by Munro (2011) andFerguson (2011) still have clear resonance across the range of disciplines involved in the complex and emotionally taxing work of child safeguarding. As the current move towards trauma informed practice and service provision gathers momentum, there is increasing recognition that whole system change requires effective leadership that takes account of staff wellbeing and service user involvement alike. This edition of Child Abuse Review reiterates this message through four themed papers focusing on the organisational context of safeguarding.Based on an extensive review of literature, our first article by Miriam Bowman (2022) underscores the organisation's role in mitigating staff burnout and proposes a model for workplace wellness in child welfare organisations. Agency funding for wellness and health promotion programmes, additional staff to reduce caseloads and time for additional supervision, health promotion engagement and training, are all identified as necessary organisational inputs to reduce staff stress. Bowman (2022) also highlights how an agency emphasis on worker self-care alone is insufficient to address the pervasive stress that workers face. She emphasises the need for organisational support to create an environment in which social workers can engage in self-care during working hours.Our second article by Antonio Garcia, Ibekwe-Okafor and Wasch (2022) examines the organisational and systemlevel characteristics that affect efforts to prevent or intervene in child fatality and near fatality cases. It reports on perceived stressors and sources of support, client and perpetrator risk factors, system-level risk and protective factors, case descriptions and lessons learned. In keeping with previous research, high caseloads, cou...

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Multiagency safeguarding arrangements during and beyond the Covid‐19 pandemic: Identifying shared learning

et al. 2022

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Measures to combat transmission of the coronavirus presented unprecedented challenges for safeguarding and child protection practice, including through withdrawal of routine opportunities to observe and engage with children and families and disruption of systems for inter-agency communication and coordination. This article reports on a two-stage study designed to identify shared learning from adaptations to professional practice in response to the measures. Interviews with 67 London-based senior safeguarding leads from seven professional groups undertaken during the summer of 2020 informed an Englandwide survey to similar groups in February-March 2021. SPSS was used to analyse 417 responses, which were supplemented by answers to open questions. Findings are reported using the six practice themes which the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel expects to inform shared learning to improve safeguarding at national and local levels. The study revealed the formidable barriers facing professionals in understanding the changing environments in which children were living and in identifying and assessing new or altered risks due to the pandemic; steps taken to respond to changing risks and to keep in touch and re-engage families; strategies to support critical thinking and challenge among professionals working under unprecedented pressure; and opportunities for enhanced multiagency working and inter-agency collaboration. KEYWORDS child protection, child safeguarding practice review panel, Covid-19 pandemic, multiagency collaborationKey Practitioner Messages • The challenges appear to have fostered an enhanced commitment to interagency collaboration.• The pandemic has highlighted the importance of an organisational culture that attends to staff well-being, supervision and support. • Online early help services may place greater onus on families to take the initiative to contact services, raising concerns as to accessibility and evasion of professional scrutiny. • Families appeared to experience 'keep in touch' strategies as more supportive and less threatening than professional involvement under normal circumstances.

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Multiagency safeguarding arrangements during and beyond the Covid‐19 pandemic: Identifying shared learning

Cited by 3 publications

References 13 publications

When Kinship Caregivers Became Teachers: Role Stress and Strain from Remote Learning during COVID-19

When Kinship Caregivers Became Teachers: Role Stress and Strain from Remote Learning during COVID-19

Editorial

Multiagency safeguarding arrangements during and beyond the Covid‐19 pandemic: Identifying shared learning

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