AugustEdition2025
Hello all
When we started writing this newsletter we were having glorious weather, but it is now so much cooler and Autumn officially begins on the 22 September. We are now fully ensconced on the 5th Floor at Churchill Court and getting into the swing of being in an open plan office, as well as coping with the air conditioning. We have some exciting news too as Gill has now started her flexible retirement and is now working 2 days a week – very lucky!
This newsletter needs to be read by everyone and your Team Managers will be reminding you of this during your supervision so why not take the lead and let them know you have read it before they ask you! Please remember that the newsletters will be a source of information for you all too so ensure you are aware how to access the past newsletters (clue…. EIFS Knowledge Base Bromley)
We have been busy reviewing the Practice Review audits completed on EIFS cases by Group/Team Managers within Children’ s Social Care Some excellent practice was recognised so well done!
Gill Downton and Bernadette Wyse (Team Managers, AQaI)
Updates&ReminderstoPracticeChange
You may be interested to know that Serious Case Reviews (SCRs) are now known as Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews (CSPR) and, as with SCRs, they are carried out for every case where abuse or neglect is known or suspected and either a child dies or a child is seriously harmed. A great deal of learning can be had from reading SCRs/CSPRs and the National Case Review Repository (hosted by NSPCC) provides a single place for published case reviews to make it easier to access and share learning at all levels It is good practice to review SCRs/CSPRs as part of your own safeguarding professional development The Bromley Safeguarding Children Partnership have a very accessible website and we would all benefit from accessing it more regularly
Go onto the Bromley Safeguarding Children Partnership and read a few SCRs/CSPRs
As you will be aware from our February Newsletter, GDPR is now completed by the Intelligence and Operations and the Business Support Teams However, it is crucial that FSPPs and CFCSOs check this has been completed at the first meeting with the parent
Just to clarify, when a family is referred into EIFS, the referrer has already obtained the family’ s agreement to work with us. The requirement to obtain GDPR is for outside case work where there may be an activity which could be of interest to the parent. There is no longer the requirement for the Privacy Notice to be completed, unless the parent has not returned the GDPR sent to them by I&O.
Check the GDPR has been completed for all new cases Do not take a paper copy of the Privacy Notice to the first visit with the family unless the family has not returned the GDPR form sent to them by I&O
This form was introduced to ensure that all information about the family is accurate. Not using this form could mean that a family’ s information is incomplete and this gap would then appear on the AnnexA report.
Use this form for the first visit to the family and ensure that all the ‘admin’ tasks have been completed.
We have noticed that sometimes, cases are not being accurately recorded The information about the intervention is present, which is great, but is it not identified by the correct method
If contact is via the telephone, ensure it is logged under telephone call. If contact is via email, ensure it is logged under email, text messages and add the email to the running record, along with any attachments referred to in the contact
When working with a family, it is helpful to know about the health of the family. This is because if a parent/child has a diagnosis of, for example, ADHD or ASC, we know that we would need to adjust our interventions. Equally, if a parent has a mobility issue this may dictate where the parent is met.
The family’ s disabilities need to be recorded under the ‘Health’ tab in the person profile.
If a child has an EHCP, this needs to be added to the Health log and we need to ask the family if they are happy to share this with us, and if yes, add to EISi too. Once you have the information, the BSO team can be asked to support with this task.
Ensure the disabilities are logged under each individual family member on EISi. If a child has an EHCP, please ensure a copy is obtained for the system.
It is important that when EIFS is involved in TAF meetings, there is a record of what was discussed. We recognise that when EIFS is not the organiser of the meeting, it can sometimes be difficult to obtain a copy of the minutes but we need to chase the organiser so that minutes are shared. In all meetings, we always take our own notes, and these should always be included in EISi; your notes may even offer a different perspective!
Ensure there is a record of TAF minutes on EISi
We know there are many young people who are acting as a Young Carer for someone in their family. However, the statistics on EISi are not reflecting this fact and it is important that the Local Authority is aware of the number of Young Carers in the Borough. If a child is recognised as a Young Carer, this should be added to the Assessment/CURGI goals under 5.4 – the goal could read ‘To explore with the family the role of the Young Carer’ or, if not yet identified as a Young Carer, ‘To explore with the family what support is required for the Young Carer’ .
If a family you are working with has a Young Carer in the home, please add this under to the Assessment/CURGI goals under the 5.4 criteria.
The Local Authority takes the safety of staff very seriously Within EIFS, we have personal devices which we should be using for all initial visits and with visits where there is a potential risk (i e domestic abuse in the family, addiction issues, visits to properties not on well lit and densely populated roads etc). We are working towards obtaining more personal devices but please, please use them – we know they are not being fully used because we have a report to show this. It would be great to see greater usage of personal devices on the next report.
Please use personal devices for all initial home visits and where there is a potential risk to safety.
Research
The ‘Social Work Today’ magazine offers a couple of articles which we feel might be of interest to you. The first is on the long term impact of the ‘No Recourse to Public Funds’ (NRPF) status on migrant children and families.
Between the ‘Light Touch’ cases allocated to CFC Support Officers and 121 cases allocated to FSPPs, there are approximately 20 cases per annum which fit the NRPF criteria. Whilst this is not a high number, it is growing and will potentially reach everyone at some stage. NRPF is a visa condition within UK immigration policy that prevents most people who are migrants to the UK from accessing social security benefits. This can obviously leave families in extreme poverty and the only help from the local authority that families with NRPF can get is ‘Child in Need’ support
This support for children in need can include housing and cash support. There are a growing number of research studies about the effect of NRPF on children’ s health and academics from the University of Birmingham and Glasgow Caledonian University are currently engaged in a study looking at NRPF and the long term effects on children The view is that this study has the potential to enhance social work education – so watch this space
For us in Early Intervention, NRPF can be a challenge because the individuals concerned may be barred from looking for work, may have mental or physical health issues and housing may be a concern. We need to think about the impact living in inadequate accommodation, with little available money, relying on ‘handouts’ and, possibly, living with a parent who has high levels of anxiety and the impact this can have on a growing child who is unable to have friends over for tea, share in the experiences their peers enjoy or one who may have caring responsibilities.
When we start thinking about what life might be like for a child in this scenario, we can quickly see that introducing the parents to the Swap Shop, the BookTrust scheme, the CFC and all the activities offered, we can soon help the family to see there is ‘hope’ for the future If we can develop a relationship with the family based on honesty and trust and the feeling that there is an agency that listens and cares, this will always be remembered
The next time you have a case which is NRPF, don’t get bogged down in trying to deal with the Home Office and remedy the family’ s status, think more widely about what we in EIFS is able to do to support the family in their journey; be practical and identify what that family needs.
Ref : “Research in this area could benefit those with NRPF status in the UK, which disproportionality affect marginalised groups, particularly low-paid women of colour and families with children, impacting social mobility and perpetuating discrimination.” Social Work Today (14.04.2025)
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Another area which we feel is of interest is an article entitled ‘There is a Role for Emotion: Difficult conversations in Social Work’ Social Work Team Managers, Hardeep Sandhu and Emma Porter from Worcestershire County Council looked at tools to help social workers with challenging conversations and this is as relevant to EIFS as it is to social workers.
Emma Porter feels there is a role for emotion in work as every day will contain an element of emotion and she feels this helps practitioners to have meaningful discussions in which people feel respected and listened to This has been our ethos since the very early days of ‘The Mottingham Children Project’ – later to become ‘Bromley Children Project’! Clearly, we have always been ahead of the curve but it may be good to highlight a few salient points:
Generally, parents want to do the best for their children and we need to understand and match that thought BUT we still need to maintain a level of curiosity. When faced with a family shouting and swearing at us – we need to remember that they may be feeling threatened or scared so try to remain calm and not join in with the chaos.
Building relationships with families helps the family to become resilient and fulfil their potential. Show you care by listening.
We need to be aware of the feelings the parent may evoke in us – add this to your reflections of the visit.
We need to remember that we are not ‘the fixers’ we are ‘the enablers’ , so we should note our own value base. We have to make sure our interventions are appropriate to the situation. We are all aware of the term ‘good enough’ and we need to apply that to all situations we come across when dealing with a family For example, dog poo in the living room is a problem but a sink full of dishes is not such an issue
If we are concerned about something which may be challenging the way we work with families, we need to take this concern to our Line Manager and explore it in supervision. Always do what you say you will do.
Many of us now listen to Podcasts on a regular basis. There are so many excellent podcasts around, but the beauty of them is that we can learn from them and they can inform us of the intricacies of the wider world.
There are a few podcasts featuring social work which have had excellent reviews If you are interested in some late night listening, a couple for you to consider are:
The Social World Podcast: Disaster Social Work, Digital Support and Global Collaboration with Professor Johnston Wong (China) who is a social work and psychology expert at Beijing University. He has spoken about the importance of multi agency and global collaboration in tackling human trafficking, poverty and post disaster trauma
The Relational Social Work Podcast with Matt and Hannah feel that relationships are central to social work practice and the podcast focuses on the importance of connection and relationships in social work with children, young people and their families, exploring this through meaningful conversations with inspiring leaders from across the sector. There is a minimum of one episode released every month
Verbal abuse by adults can harm children for life, say Psychologists. (Denis Campbell, Health Policy Editor, Guardian)
On 28 April 2025, MPs were told by experts in child development and mental health that being shouted at by their parents makes children more likely to suffer mental ill health, struggle to maintain friendships and have issues in understanding their sense of self. Imaging studies have shown that verbal abuse can alter a child’ s brain so that the world is perceived as a more dangerous place. This is because the biological alterations in the brain’ s structure and function affect the ‘threats’ and ‘rewards’ circuits and these play a key role in helping children to navigate the world and build and maintain relationships. th
The aim of the meeting with MPs was an effort to ‘bring verbal abuse out of the shadows and give it the same attention as other forms of maltreatment’ (Prof Peter Fonagy, Head of Psychology and Language Sciences, UCL).
We are sure we can all name someone who is verbally abusive to their children but when we consider that verbal abuse is one of the most preventable causes of mental health problems, we all need to try and make parents more aware of the outcomes
Prof Andrea Danese from King’ s College said ‘The sticks and stones rhyme is wrong. Words can harm a child’ s well being and development and leave lifelong psychological scars ’ . Now we know that verbal abuse is not anecdotal, we need to ensure as many parents are aware of this as possible.