Emerging results of the evaluation of an assessment service for known or alleged perpetrators of sexual abuse, not in the criminal justice system. Trish O'Donnell & Jon Brown NSPCC

1. Assessing the Risk
Protecting the Child
Emerging results of the evaluation of an
assessment service for known or alleged
perpetrators of sexual abuse, not in the criminal
justice system
TRISH O’DONNELL & JON BROWN
EDINBURGH BASPCAN 2015

2. Presentation
Context and background to the Guide, known as
Assessing the Risk Protecting the Child
Description of the service offered
Evaluation Questions and process
Key Findings from the staff interviews and referrers
Comment on the Service users views to date
Next steps
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3. About the service
Practice guide for assessing men with:
• Historical convictions pre-dating Sex Offence Act
1997 or no longer subject to registration
requirements
• Finding of fact from a family court
• Allegations of sexual abuse but insufficient evidence
for a criminal prosecution
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4. The Assessment Guide
Risk to children posed by the man assessed
Capacity to protect of the protective parent or carer
and support needs
Voice of the child - views and wishes of the children
How safe is the child in this family setting?
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5. Evaluation
How NSPCC staff use the assessment guide and
how could it be improved?
How do assessments produced using the guide
help child protection decision making?
What do service users think of the assessment
process?
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6. Findings from staff
Practitioners were positive about the fact that the guide includes three
perspectives in the assessment: the man posing a risk; the protective
parent/carer, and the child. Incorporating the views of the child was
especially important, as this aspect had often been missed in earlier NSPCC
assessment services for men who pose a sexual risk to children, and was
not always covered by local authority social workers.
The guide is primarily theory-based, and needs more practical guidance and
detail.
The guide was intended for use by practitioners who have previous
experience of working with sex offenders. In practice, it was also used by
those without previous experience, and the information from the training and
guide needs further enhancement
„„
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7. Findings from Staff continued
Experienced co-workers and managers is essential for practitioners who
were new to this area of work, coaching and mentoring particularly when
assessing the men
Based on their own experience of using the guide and knowledge of
local children’s services teams, practitioners felt that the Guide needed
suggested improvements if children’s services social workers without
previous experience were to use it
The impact of assessments could be limited if there are no appropriate
intervention services for the men or educational support for the
protective parent/carer available locally
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8. Referrers - social workers and managers
Views on the process for conducting assessments and how this
could be improved
Views on the quality of the assessment reports and how they
could be improved
What influence have the assessment reports had in informing
child protection decision making?
What safeguarding actions have been taken as a result of the
assessment report?
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9. Referrers - Main Findings
Generally positive about the outcomes for safeguarding
children
Assessment reports were viewed as rigorous and thorough
pieces of work which gave referrers a more detailed
understanding of the service user’s life.
Sometimes referrers felt that the length of the reports and
language used meant that the documents were not always
accessible to service users.
Reports made clear recommendations and included sufficient
evidence to explain how the report author came to those
conclusions. In some cases they would have welcomed more
guidance from the NSPCC about how to implement the
recommendations.
.
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10. Referrers Main findings continued
Mixed views on the time taken to produce the assessment
reports.
NSPCC staff had worked hard to engage service users and get
them to open up in the assessment sessions.
The assessments helped children to understand more about
what had been happening
Helped protective parents or carers understand more about the
risks posed by the man.
Some children and protective parents or carers would have
benefited from a longer period of input from the NSPCC than
the assessment process allowed
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11. Engaging with service users
Quickly building relationships
Service users not feeling judged
NSPCC perceived as different to children’s services
Focusing on a different angle
Motivated to engage to get contact
“It was really valuable especially because I don't know whether if I'd
conducted those assessments myself whether I would have got the same
kind of result because obviously I was known as the children’s social worker
so you have a different relationship with the family and whether grandfather
would have been so open about his actions and I don't know whether that
would have been the case” [Referrer 10]
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12. The process was positive for Fred
and he enjoyed the experience. He
felt empowered by it. He gained
an understanding of controlling
behaviour about keeping himself
safe, his own boundaries and
things like that. I did think the one
to one work with the child that
was done was excellent. I was
really impressed with that and the
child actually kept it and was
quite proud of it and was able to
talk about all the different things
that he'd done so that was good
for him” [Referrer 14]
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13. Quality of assessments
Strengths
• Detailed understanding of service user’s lives and views on the
allegations
• Brings together evidence to form a rounded picture of the family
• Based on research and theory
• Clear evidence base for decision making
Areas for improvement
• Accessibility for service users
• Descriptions of risk
• Commissioning process
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14. Influence on child protection decisions
Confirm existing concerns
• Useful to have it confirmed independently
• In writing
• Wait for the report before implementing planned safeguarding
actions
Highlight new concerns
• Different perspective on a case
• More in-depth
• Direct influence on safeguarding action
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15. Protective parents
• The evidence in the report was a turning point for mum as she hadn't
realised these behaviours the dad was presenting could have possibly
been because of his feelings towards young women. It was backed up
with evidence that she'd not had before. That was the most useful bit and
that was what we went through with mum and highlighted those areas. I
think it will be more helpful in the future so that if Mum is going to have
him back and needs to protect her two younger children as they grow up
she's equipped to look for those type of behaviours in him and be more
vigilant if he was to present those behaviours again at home” [Referrer 11]
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16. Finally
The staff findings will be used to improve the Guide
the training and NSPCC will plan how to share and
apply the learning
A final evaluation report bringing together the
qualitative findings and the results from the tracking of
what happens after each completed assessment will
be published in October 2015
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