A child protection conference (the first one is called an Initial Child Protection Conference) is a meeting where we arrange to talk about serious concerns about your children’s safety or wellbeing.
The meeting can be attended by a range of people including:
- you and any adult you want to come with you to support you. This could be a friend, relative, solicitor or an advocate who is an independent person to help you have your say
- The child, if they are old enough and able to understand
- Brothers or sisters of the child, if they are old enough and able to understand
- The chairperson who leads the conference
- A social worker
- A police officer who specialises in working with children and their families
- The child’s school nurse or health visitor
- A representative from the child’s school
- The doctor who will be asked about your family’s health and who will usually write a report
- Any other professionals involved with you and your family, and
- Someone to take notes of the meeting.
Professionals taking part in your conference are not allowed to talk about what is said with anyone except people who need to know.
The conference will analyse the information that is known about your child/children and your family and decide whether a child protection plan is needed to keep the children safe. If it is decided that a plan is needed this should set out:
- What you need to do to keep the child safe
- What professionals need to do to keep the child safe
- What needs to change to make sure your child is safe e.g Sian will not allow her children to have any contact with Matthew as he is a risk to children.
A review meeting will be set, where you and professionals will get the chance to think about what has changed and whether your child remains at risk or not.
When will my child stop having a child protection plan?
A review conference will take place three months after the first conference. After that, there will be a review conference at least every six months.
The review conference decides whether your children still need a child protection plan.
The decision is based on what changes have happened since the previous conference. It is important you take part in review conferences by either coming to the meeting or talking or writing to the social worker to give them your views. This will help to make sure you have your say.
Complaints
If you don’t agree with the decision the conference makes to give your child a child protection plan, you or your advocate can write or phone the chairperson saying why you disagree. The chairperson will try and sort it out for you.
If you want to complain about the chairperson of the meeting, phone the Manx Care, Safeguarding Manager on 686179. Further information can be found here.