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organisations there is little or no acknowledgement of the emotional, mental and physical toll such experiences are having on workers, nor the knock-on impact it is having on their ability to protect children. Research by Professor Chris Goddard of Child Abuse Prevention Research Australia at Monash University in Australia suggests that, left unsupported, social workers can become hostages to violent parents. His findings are backed up in the survey. Social workers reported that not only were they often being literally held hostage (see p20) but also emotionally so. It affects my ability to concentrate on tasks and to raise child protection issues and concerns, one wrote. Another said: It has made me reluctant to visit a particular family. A third noted: Felt undermined, scared of repercussions, powerless and bullied into not being able to speak openly with parent about my concerns for his children and that he was emotionally abusing and intimidating them. Many in the survey reported managers telling them to get on with the job or to toughen up. One respondent wrote: There is an unspoken expectation that social workers should tolerate aggressive behaviour from service users and that somehow it is our fault if threats spill over into actual phyisical violence or if we feel affected by such behaviour.

children

How should I react to hostility?

the initial interview in a child protection investigation when evasive, dangerous or difficult service users are involved is a complex process, writes Jim Wild, training associate with Reconstruct. it is up to the worker to mediate the hostility in ways that are not defensive or susceptible to manipulation. they must acknowledge what the service user is saying in genuinely sensitive and empathetic ways. However, they also need to practice exit strategies as, in my experience, workers are often unclear about what is a dangerous encounter. on Reconstructs training course workers have to face actors who simulate challenging situations. they are recorded and later evaluate their own performance - many are shocked or surprised when they see the way they approach an interview. Example scenario: there have been a number of referrals about screams coming from the Smiths house late into the night. there are two children aged four and seven in the house. Mr Smith is raising his voice and being quite challenging. Mr Smith to worker: You come round here asking these sort or questions and it makes me angry, oK? So what gives you the ******* right to do that? can i come round to your house and ask you that same sort of questions can i? no! But you come round here and you think youre really ****** big with your new car and fancy words, do you know what its like to live on 70 a week do you? Because if you did maybe you would lose your temper a bit! Poor response: Mr Smith i have a referral and it is the job of childrens services to see if your child is at risk and i have every right to ask you questions and the sooner you answer them the better it is for you and your family... the response here has too much jargon, does not acknowledge what the service user is saying and is too provocative. Good response: Mr Smith i realise it is very unusual to be asked such questions and it is part of my job to do this. it sounds like it is very hard for you and your family at the moment, but if we can try and work together and get through this i will do my best to sort this out with you... this is a more collaborative, acknowledging and supportive approach. it is not authoritarian but it is authoritative.

When interviewing a person considered to be a risk to children, he named my baby son and asked how he was doing
SociaL WoRKeR ReSpondent to Community Care/ReconStRuct SuRVeY
It is pertinent to note that the majority of the respondents to the survey were not young and inexperienced workers 40% had more than 10 years experience. More than 80% were female, with the majority of incidents recorded featuring aggressive males. Many workers had children of their own, making them far more vulnerable to threats against their family. One wrote: When interviewing a person considered to be a risk to children, he named my baby son and asked how he was doing. I have no idea how he got that information and it put cold fear into my being. Goddard says the size of the problem, as illustrated by the survey, means it is imperative there there is more creative and critical thinking around reforming supervision in social work, as often supervisors themselves
17 November 2011 www.communitycare.co.uk

require further training. There is excellent work done outside social work that could be used. In some specialist Australian police squads, for example, team leaders describe their roles as protecting workers not only from the stress of the work but also from the stress imposed by management. This starts with induction into the squad. Contrast this, he says, with the findings in the survey that showed 52% of respondents either had no procedures or guidelines to deal with hostile and intimidating parents in their organisation or, if they did, they were not aware of them. Professor Brian Littlechild, associate head of the School for Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work at the University of Hertfordshire points out that this lack of concern goes right to the top. Despite a government analysis of serious case reviews in 2008 raising issues around hostile and intimidating parents and the impact on social workers ability to think and act clearly, these areas of concern have been airbrushed out of government regulation and guidance in recent years, says Littlechild. Although it was mentioned in the 1988 orange book it disappeared from subsequent government guidance and regulation. In the lastest version of Working Together to Safeguard Children there is only one reference: Some children may be living in families that are considered resistant to change.

Littlechild says while he is in favour of the move to reduce prescriptive guidance, given the size, scale and importance of the issue there is a need for national good practice guidance for agences, supervisors and social workers to help but not restrict staff in how they operate. Pointing to the 43% of survey respondents who felt children were being put at risk by the current situation he says children who are so severely abused should expect such guidance to give more credence to the effects of parental violence and resistance. They deserve no less from us.
professor Brian Littlechild and Reconstruct trainer Jim Wild will be discussing these issues at community care children and Families Live in London on 16 november, 2011. together with professor chris goddard and Community Care they will lobby for best practice guidelines to be in place across the country. For readers who are interested to read more about professor goddards research on supervision and pressures on child protection workers, see his forthcoming article (with Sue Hunt): the complexities of caring for child protection workers: the contexts of practice and supervision to be published in decembers Journal of Social Work Practice, Vol. 25, no. 4. Subscribers to Community Care inform can access guide to how to deal with hostile and aggressive adults or young people and how to manage intimidating www.ccinform.co.uk situations by trainer Ray Braithwaite continued on page 20

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