1.9 Working with Parents and Carers

1. Introduction

In the context of a child-centred approach, all practitioners should work in partnership with parents and carers as far as possible. Parents and carers need to understand what is happening, what they can expect from the help and support provided, what is expected of them and be supported to say what they think. This is particularly important when there is reasonable cause to suspect that a child is suffering, or is likely to suffer, significant harm, whether the harm is from inside or outside the home including online. Working collaboratively will mean parents and carers have the best chance of making changes, and practitioners can make fair and accurate decisions about how to support children and keep them safe.

While collaborative relationships between practitioners and, parents and carers are important, the wishes and feelings of the child and what is in their best interest remain central to decision-making. Practitioners need to be particularly skilled in engaging and working with parents and carers whom services have found difficult to engage. Some examples may be parents and carers of disabled children, parents, and carers whose children are at risk of, or experiencing, harm from outside the home, fathers, and male carers, and those who are neurodivergent. Practitioners also need to recognise, engage, and work with parents and carers who are unwilling or unable to engage with services.

2. Principles of Working with Parents and Carers

There are four principles which underpin work with parents and carers

2.1 Effective partnership with parents and carers

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. Seeking to understand how adversity and trauma might manifest and affect children and parents’ engagement and using 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. Using 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.

2.2 Communication considerations

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.

2.3 Involvement in decision-making

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.

2.4 Co-production

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.

3. Providing Information, Support and Advice to Parents and Carers in Child Protection

3.1 Overview

Parents and carers involved in child protection need high quality information, advice and support to engage effectively and make meaningful change to keep their child(ren) safe. Local partnerships should develop consistent approaches to working collaboratively with all parents and carers, having regard to the principles set out in Working Together to Safeguard Children.

3.2 Expectations

The Families First Programme Guide sets out the following expectations.

Through both Family Help and Multi-Agency Child Protection Teams, local areas should:

• build positive, trusting and co-operative partnerships with parents wherever possible;
• set out their engagement, information and support offer for all parents and carers in child protection;
• provide clear, accessible information and signpost support for all parents and carers from the point a section 47 enquiry is initiated. This should cover the process, what they can expect, what is expected of them, and their rights;
• work with parents and carers, including those with direct experience of child protection, those living in areas of high deprivation and from diverse communities to design and deliver the service;
• develop and implement a plan to reach a wide range of parents and carers including fathers and male carers, those who are neurodiverse and parents and carers where the harm is extra-familial, and parents are a protective factor;
• consider innovative approaches to working with parents and carers who may be unwilling or unable to participate in decisions about their family;
• adapt responses to meet the diverse needs of parents and carers including parents/ and carers of disabled children, parents and carers that are disabled, with mental health needs and/or who have English as an additional language;
• understand the family members’ background, ethnicity, religion, financial situation, education, sex, ages and sexual orientation, and potential barriers certain groups may experience in seeking and accessing help and support; and
• have in place relevant and appropriate data sharing arrangements to support identification of children and families needing support, help or protection.

For further information on the strongest available evidence on working with parents and carers (including ways of working and specific interventions), see Foundation’s Parenting Practice Guides.