The Scottish Government

« Previous | Contents | Next »

Listen

"It's everyone's job to make sure I'm alright"
Report of the Child Protection Audit and Review

Chapter 6: The views of children, parents and the public

What do children say about the risks they face?
What do children do when they need help?
What do adults do when they have worries about a child?
How well are children protected?
Key messages

6.1 The previous chapters described the findings of the case audit of practice. This chapter considers what children, parents and other adults have to say about child protection. If it is 'everyone's job' to protect children then we need to listen to the views of children and young people, parents, and members of the public who all have important things to say on the subject. The information in this chapter is based on our analysis of:

• 217 contacts with ChildLine Scotland.
• 21 interviews with young people with experience of the child protection system.
• 100 calls to ParentLine Scotland.
• MORI's analysis of information from eight focus groups (each comprising eight to ten members of the public).

6.2 The views which are presented in this chapter are those of the children or adults who took part in these studies. The full reports of the MORI study, ChildLine study, ParentLine study and Messages from Young People studies can be viewed on our website at: www.scotland.gov.uk/socialwork/-childprotection2

What do children say about the risks they face?

6.3 More than half of new calls to ChildLine Scotland relate to physical abuse. The physical abuse which drove young people to contact ChildLine during the period we monitored was often very serious. Callers reported that they had been physically assaulted with weapons and had often sustained serious injuries. Most physical assaults were carried out by parents.

6.4 Forty per cent of the calls to ChildLine were about sexual abuse. Many callers reported that they had been seriously sexually assaulted or raped. Most sexual abuse reported was by fathers or other male relatives but some children reported that they had been sexually abused by other young people or neighbours or, in a minority of cases, by strangers. Very few young people reported that they had been sexually abused by a female.

6.5 Only small numbers of children who rang ChildLine Scotland during the study period reported that they had been neglected or emotionally abused. Some of those who did ring about neglect spoke of being left alone. Others reported that they were hungry; or described their homes as dirty.

6.6 Many children who rang ChildLine were experiencing more than one form of abuse. Children and young people often cited parental alcohol or drug misuse, domestic abuse or break up of their parents' relationship as causing or at least contributing to the abuse or neglect.

6.7 Children and young people described the ways in which the abuse or neglect had affected them. The experience of being abused had led to them getting into trouble, becoming aggressive, running away, wanting to be in care, getting pregnant, feeling suicidal or inflicting self harm upon themselves.

6.8 The child protection system as professionals know it may not mean much to children. We know from research that children and young people often suffer abuse in silence. Almost a third of young people in a large study by the NSPCC (Cawson et al 2000; Cawson 2002) had never told anyone they had been abused and a further 28% had not told anyone at the time.

6.9 ChildLine is often the first point of call for many children and young people who need help. Many of the children and young people who contacted ChildLine during the project period said they found it difficult to tell others. They were prevented from telling someone for a variety of reasons. Many of them had a sense of responsibility about what disclosure might do to their family. They were particularly concerned where the abuser was their mother's husband or boyfriend.

6.10 Some young people were worried that they would not be believed. Their fears appeared to be justified since a number of young people told ChildLine counsellors that they had tried to tell someone, usually a parent, but occasionally a professional, but they had not been believed.

6.11 Only 29% of children and young people who called ChildLine had shared information, and in many cases this was with a friend. In some instances it was a friend who made the initial contact with ChildLine. Young people normally described their friends as very supportive. When children considered 'telling' someone about the abuse, they were normally talking about telling a friend or other family member rather than a social worker, police officer or teacher.

6.12 There was considerable reluctance to inform statutory agencies about abuse. Some young people saw schools as a more user-friendly point for referral than social work or police, but others reported that they were given little support when they approached teachers. A couple of young people did consider approaching child protection agencies following their discussions with ChildLine counsellors. For example, one boy stated that he would now call the police and have his father charged.

6.13 It is of concern that boys are less likely than girls to consider calling ChildLine when they need help. ChildLine carried out a large survey in schools and found that 89% of girls would be prepared to ring them, but only 43% of boys would do so (Macleod and Barter 1996). In our study there were fewer ChildLine contacts from boys (41%) and the boys who did ring were less likely to have told anyone that they had been abused. Our study included more calls from boys than ChildLine's own studies have done, however.

6.14 More worryingly, is the fact that ChildLine Scotland are able to answer only 48% of calls which are made to them (ChildLine statistics). Whilst many of the unanswered calls will be children trying for a second or third time, this figure reflects a great unmet need.

What do adults do when they have worries about a child?

6.15 The role of child protection agencies appears to be reasonably well understood by the public as evidenced by the MORI research. However, although social work followed by the police, were cited as the main agencies, the names with which people were most familiar were not necessarily those agencies or people who could help. For example 'Children in Need' (the fundraising event) and 'Esther Rantzen' were mentioned.

6.16 Some people had reservations about what might be involved if they were to contact social work. Most seemed to assume that if they reported abuse a child would be taken away. They were, therefore, very concerned about 'getting it wrong', particularly in cases of sexual abuse. Some respondents said they would have been reluctant to refer to the police or social work services but would happily have spoken to a doctor in the belief that the information about abuse would be kept confidential. Others said they would be more comfortable approaching schools than the social work department.

6.17 This reluctance to contact statutory agencies is confirmed by recent research undertaken by the Scottish Executive on 'disciplining children' where around a quarter (28%) of parents of children under 5 years of age said they would seek advice about their child's behaviour from a health visitor and only 15% of parents of school-age children said they would seek advice from a teacher (Scottish Executive Central Research Unit 2002). No parents mentioned either social work or the police as agencies to whom they would turn. Most parents did not think that how they disciplined their children was a matter for anyone else outside the family.

6.18 Some people who took part in the MORI study felt that in cases where a child looked abused or neglected it was the responsibility of schools and hospitals to pick up on this and act accordingly. While they felt that schools had an important role to play they saw child protection less as a role for mainstream teachers and more for staff specially allocated a guidance role.

6.19 There were mixed views on the role the public should play in child protection. Some people commented that recollections of the James Bulger case would motivate them to act. Some people felt that everyone in a community had a responsibility to keep an eye on children. On the whole, however, people tended to be more willing to act when they knew the person involved. Where a stranger was involved they felt that it would be more difficult to act. Men over 50 said they would be particularly reluctant to do anything for fear of approaching women and children and some commented that action would be more appropriate if instigated by a woman.

6.20 While people were generally willing to act, the results of the MORI study indicated that they may have found gaining access to help problematic. Worryingly, many respondents, in searching for telephone numbers in a directory, said they would have searched for 'social services' or the 'NSPCC' rather than social work services or Children 1st, as these services are known (and found in telephone directories) in Scotland. A national helpline number was a popular suggestion for improving access to help.

6.21 The ParentLine Scotland data indicated that parents, relatives and neighbours who had concerns about children knew of the statutory agencies' responsibilities for child protection. They knew how to access them and many had already done so. This might suggest that when concerns become particularly acute, people will find out how to make contact with agencies designed to help.

6.22 A number of those who contacted ParentLine Scotland were doing so because they were frustrated with the response they had received from the statutory agencies. In contrast to the general public's perception that a referral to the police or social work services would result in immediate separation of a child from his or her family, most of those who contacted ParentLine Scotland were concerned about a perceived lack of activity on the part of statutory agencies. In particular, they were concerned about lack of feedback after they had referred a concern. For example, a woman whose daughter had been sexually assaulted said she had repeatedly phoned the woman in charge of the case at the Child Protection Unit only to be told that she was too busy. Further attempts at contacting someone of a higher authority had been met with 'a blank wall'. She said she was becoming more and more frustrated and upset and finding it more and more difficult to stop her partner from taking matters into his own hands.

6.23 For those adults who had not already been in touch with child protection agencies such as social work or the police, an important part of the ParentLine Scotland process was exploring their concerns. Callers were reluctant to contact child protection agencies for a number of reasons including:

• fear of the impact on the child or family concerned;
• fear of retribution; or
• concerns about involving social work.

6.24 Some people wanted advice about whether it was possible to make an anonymous referral. Some had already decided to make a referral and wanted a counsellor to tell them that this was the right thing to do. Others decided to make a referral after speaking to a counsellor. One caller said she was reluctant to inform child protection agencies that her daughter had been sexually abused by her father, because her daughter said she did not want her father charged. Her daughter did not want police or social work to know and refused to talk about the abuse.

6.25 Males appear to feel less able to act when they are worried about a child than females. Males made fewer calls to ParentLine Scotland and the reluctance of older males to act was confirmed by the MORI study.

How well are children protected?

The views of children

6.26 Some children who rang ChildLine indicated that reporting abuse to the statutory agencies was protective. For example, one boy said he was now feeling 'great' as the police had been very helpful and supportive and were now going to proceed with an investigation. Many children and young people indicated that they were glad they had told someone they had been abused. A girl who had told her teacher said she felt like he was someone who 'knew the answers'. She said she felt good that someone knew and that there was someone who could take her problems away.

6.27 Occasionally however, children indicated that they were more vulnerable after reporting an incident. One boy said his father had been charged with assault but he had not been away for long and when he came out the abuse started again. He said his Mum was now too scared to phone social work or the police but they would not do anything without her permission.

6.28 Messages from the young people who were interviewed for the review were mixed. Some young people felt they had been protected and were glad they had told. Others quite clearly felt that they had not been protected because their abuser had not been prosecuted. A number of young people who had become looked after now felt protected and safe but a small number of interviewees felt they were not protected in residential care. They said they were safe from the person who had abused them but were now vulnerable to other forms of abuse.

6.29 Significant numbers of children and young people in the ChildLine and Messages from Young People studies described feeling distressed and upset at the way the child protection system had treated them. They felt they had been 'abused' by the very system which was supposed to help them. One girl said her social worker had not told her that she was being taken to foster carers. She had been picked up by strangers '... and I'm not safe with them' and had not been allowed to go home and collect her teddy bear or her clothes. Another girl said she had been very distressed because she had been examined by a male doctor. She felt she should have been given the choice of a female doctor. Another girl said she was frightened about going to court, she said she had had vivid nightmares about having to see her parents in court. Other research studies have also found that children are often frustrated by the way in which they are treated by the child protection system and many feel they have not been protected because the abuser was never prosecuted (Taylor et al 1993; Roberts and Taylor 1999; NCH Action for Children 1994).

The views of parents

6.30 It was in the ParentLine Scotland study that concerns about the system's ability to protect children were most strongly expressed. A number of callers were using the service because of their negative experience of seeking help to protect children from the statutory agencies, particularly social work services and the police (in cases where the abuser was not prosecuted).

6.31 In cases of separating or divorcing parents, where perhaps it is difficult to assess if a call is malicious or an expression of real concern about a child's safety, callers often feel children have not been protected. A father claimed the police were slow and ineffective when he had phoned to inform them that his ex-partner was drunk and incapable of looking after their children. He also felt the social work department had been ineffective. He said he wanted to protect his children but he did not know how. A mother said she had had contact with her GP, health visitor and a social worker but felt that none of them believed her 2-year-old son was in danger when he was with his father, even though they had acknowledged he had a bruise and his character had changed.

6.32 There were many more examples of calls where the caller alleged abuse by an ex-partner and indicated that the child had not been protected by statutory agencies. There were only a few calls where parents felt their child had not been protected where the abuser had been someone other than a parent. One woman said she felt the authorities protected the abuser and not the victim. She said the police and social work had not been able to do anything when her son had been sexually abused by another boy. She had now contacted a solicitor because she wanted to take out an 'injunction' (interdict). Another call was from a father whose 9-year-old daughter had been abused by a man in the community. He was angry that the police had not been able to proceed with the case particularly as he said he knew of other incidents involving the same man.

6.33 Most of the other calls to ParentLine Scotland indicated implicitly that the abuse, particularly sexual abuse, had stopped. Therefore, taking action by contacting statutory agencies had some effect, if only to warn the abuser away from the identified child. Where callers, particularly parents, were upset, it was usually in relation to the absence of ongoing help for the child and the family. For example, a woman whose 9-year-old son had been sexually abused had been informed that no professional counsellors were available; a woman whose 10-year-old daughter had been raped had been informed that counselling would not be available until nearer the time of the court case.

The public's perception

6.34 The respondents in the MORI study were aware which agencies might be best placed to assist a child but they were not confident that help would be forthcoming. None of the respondents expressed confidence in the system and the majority felt that agencies did not work effectively together.

Key messages

• Many children do not tell anyone they are being abused or neglected and when they do tell they normally tell a friend, not an adult and particularly not a professional.
• Boys are less likely to seek help when they have been abused.
• When children seek help from agencies they seek help from ChildLine but ChildLine Scotland are only able to answer 48% of calls.
• Adults, particularly men, are often reluctant or anxious about contacting child protection agencies when they have worries about a child.
• Young people and adults are often critical of the service they receive from child protection agencies.
• The child protection system does not always protect children and young people.

« Previous | Contents | Next »