MRC Webinar - Child Protection Conferences: The Evolving Role of the Child Protection Chair
A quarterly forum for Child Protection Advisors and Chairs
Description
Child Protection Chairs play a unique role in the practice systems within their respective boroughs. They provide independent oversight of the children protection process, promoting professional accountability and
challenge. In so doing they are pivotal to assuring quality standards, and undertake other associated tasks such as audit. In acting as ‘critical friends’ they also are also a source of support and expertise for practitioners and
managers. They work directly with families through the conferencing process, and also play a key role in relation to inter-agency working.
The overall aim of this group is to provide a forum for child protection chairs to come together and critically reflect on local practice. In the process of doing so they will identify specific areas in need of further development, and the sessions will in turn respond to these.
It is anticipated that the group will specifically address the following:
• How best to promote the role so that it is accepted, respected and effective across the practice system in each borough;
• To further develop the effectiveness of the child protection processes in each local authority (for example, how the CPC can ensure that the recommended child protection plan becomes a working tool);
• How best to improve communication, so that CPCs become more established, helpful and a constructive resource and safety net;
• To build better working relationships, and make relationships with managers and practitioners more effective;
• Provide greater consistency in how CPCs chair conferences;
• Provide greater consistency in thresholds, and improve
decision making at all levels;
• Lead by example: model good practice – enhance our capacity to be and remain critically reflective;
• Support the process of change and improvement through reflective practice not blame;
• Identify and develop practice in specific areas that are challenging, such as contextual harm and emotional abuse.