Article 42 Child Protection Enquiries Under the Ministers Duty to Investigate

This guidance is for all practitioners (paid or unpaid) who work with children (including the unborn child), and those who work with adults who are parents/carers and therefore hold responsibility for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. It is intended to be read alongside the Children and Young People (Jersey) Law 2022, the commensurate Statutory Guidance and the Jersey Children’s First Framework (JCF).  Practitioners must follow the Statutory Guidance on sharing information (which follows Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2019) and should follow the SPB Child Protection Procedures and SPB Children and Young Person Safeguarding Referrals Procedure.

This chapter provides information on: -

• The responsibilities of all agencies to work together (see Statutory Guidance);
• The concept of significant harm;
• Steps practitioners must take to protect children (including the unborn baby) and young people from immediate harm;
• The purpose of Strategy Discussion/Meeting;
• The duty to initiate child protection enquiries via the Article 42 Enquiries.

The responsibility for initiating Strategy Discussion and child protection Article 42 Enquiry lies with Jersey Children's Social Care where a multi-agency response is required to protect children (including the unborn child) and young people from the risk of significant harm, (see Statutory Guidance and JCF Framework).

Note - In this chapter the term Children’s Social Care is used as the overarching term for the responsibilities of Children’s Social Care as a single agency. Implicit in this the responsibility for Children’s Social Care Managers to lead on Strategy Meetings, oversee practice decisions and case management where Article 42 Enquires are commenced and before case closure.

Where a child (including the unborn child) or young person (under the age of 18) is suspected to be suffering, or likely to suffer, significant harm, Children’s Social Care are required by Article 42 of the Children (Jersey) Law 2002 to make enquiries. Where under the Ministers duty to investigate will decide whether it should take any action to safeguard and promote the welfare of the child.

The concept of significant harm and safeguarding the Welfare of Children:

Article 42:

• Where the Minister:
  • Is informed that a child is subject of an emergency protection order or is in the police protection; or
  • Has reasonable cause to suspect that a child is suffering, or is likely to suffer, significant harm.

the Minister shall make, or cause to be made, such enquiries as the Minister considers necessary to enable the Minister to decide whether he or she should take any action to safeguard or promote the child’s welfare.

The Children (Jersey) Law 2002 introduced the concept of “significant harm” as the threshold that justifies compulsory intervention in family life, in the best interests of children. This threshold gives statutory agencies such as Children’s Service and the Police a duty to make enquiries under Article 42 Enquiries, and to decide whether they should take action to safeguard or promote the welfare of a child who is suffering, or likely to suffer, significant harm.

Where Article 42 Enquiries are progressing it is the duty of the multi-agency to assist with Article 42 Enquiries, to work together and to provide relevant information to safeguard the welfare of children (Children and Young People (Jersey) Law 2022 and commensurate Statutory Guidance). When requested to do so by children's social care, the multi-agency of professionals have a duty to cooperate to assist Children’s Social Care to carry out its children's social care functions.

Where there is risk to life of a child or young person or the child or young person is at risk of serious immediate harm practitioners must call the police on 999, where agencies with statutory child protection powers (the Police and Children’s Social Care) must act immediately to secure the safety of the child or young person.

Where a child (including an unborn child) or young person presents with a health or development need) or where there is a safeguarding Need  (see Statutory Guidance – Levels of Need) practitioners must follow the SPB Child Protection Procedures and SPB Children and Young Person Safeguarding Referrals Procedure and make referral to the Children and Families HUB.

Responsibility for immediate action rests with the Children’s Social Care where Children's Social Care must obtain legal advice before initiating legal action.

Police Powers of Protection (PPP) should only be used in exceptional circumstances where there is insufficient time to seek an Emergency Protection Order (EPO) or for reasons relating to the immediate safety of the child.

As well as securing the safety of the child or young person at risk if immediate harm agencies with statutory child protection powers must also be steps to safeguard other children in the same household (e.g., siblings), or any other children or young people in the household of an alleged perpetrator, or elsewhere.

Where there are concerns an adult is at risk of harm or is at immediate risk steps must also be taken to protect them (see SPB Jersey Adult Protection Procedures and Domestic Abuse).

Emergency action may be necessary as soon as a referral is received by the Children and Families HUB. Or emergency action may be required where a child or young person/family have their case already open to Children’s Social Work (see SPB Jersey Referral Procedure, children living away from home, children moving into and out of Jersey).

The need for emergency action may become apparent over time, as more is learned about a child or adult carer's circumstances. Neglect can pose such a risk of significant harm to a child that emergency protective action is required.

To support practitioners in their assessment of risk of the risk of Neglect, they should use The Continuum of Children’s Needs and a JCF Multi-Agency Chronology to assess risk, understand outcomes and to support their decision making in practice.

Actions to protect children or young people from immediate harm will normally take place following an urgent Strategy Discussion/Meeting.

Immediate protection of a child may be achieved by:

• The child being removed from home, either on a voluntary basis or by Children’s Social Care obtaining an Emergency Protection Order (EPO);
• Removal of the child/ren or prevention of removal from a place of safety under police powers of protection;
• Gaining entry to the household under police powers and to assess the situation - when police powers of protection are used, an independent police officer of at least inspector rank must function as the Designated Officer;
• Where the police use their powers to protect, or children’s social work obtain an emergency protection order a strategy discussion will take place as soon as possible after action has been taken to protect the child or young person from risk of immediate harm).

Where the police use their powers to protect, or children’s social care obtain an emergency protection order a strategy discussion will take place as soon as possible after action has been taken to protect the child or young person from risk of immediate harm). Immediate action to protect addresses the immediate risk of significant harm, where this must be followed as soon as practicably possible by a strategy meeting to decide the need for Article 42 Enquiries to commence or continue, and holistic assessment of the wellbeing, health and development needs and circumstances of the child(ren) (including the unborn child) and young people concerned. Where an EPO applies, children’s social care will consider whether to initiate care or other proceedings or to return the child(ren) and young people to their home with commensurate safety planning to safeguard their welfare.

Other means of providing immediate protection can be achieved where parents and carers are supported to:

• Remove an alleged abuser from the child or young person’s home;
• An alleged abuser agrees to leave the home.

Whenever there is reasonable cause to suspect that a child is suffering or is likely to suffer, significant harm, there should be a strategy meeting/discussion.

A Strategy Discussion had by telephone may be used to plan Article 42 enquiries or joint investigation.

In deciding whether to call a strategy meeting / discussion children's social care manager must consider the:

• Seriousness of the concern/s;
• Repetition or duration of concern/s;
• Vulnerability of child (through age, developmental stage, disability or other pre-disposing factor e.g. 'looked after');
• Source of concern/s;
• Accumulation of sufficient information and patterns of concerns;
• Context in which the child is living (e.g. a child in the household already subject of a current child protection plan;
• Predisposing risk factors in the family that may suggest a higher level of risk of harm;
• The need for pre-birth assessment of an unborn child (see Pre-Birth Multi-Agency Policy).
• Risk factors which increase the risk of sudden unexpected death in infancy (SUDI) (see Multi-Agency Child Neglect Strategy).

A face to face or online strategy meeting will be co-ordinated and chaired by Children’s Social Care first line manager.

The strategy meeting as a minimum must involve Children’s Social Care, the police (and a paediatrician (see Section 18, Paediatric Assessment), and should include relevant health professionals, educational representatives, nursery, the referring agency and other relevant agencies, (so long as the attendance of other relevant agencies does not result in delay of the meeting see Section 8, Participants to Strategy Discussion.)

Professionals participating in strategy meetings must have all their agency's information relating to the child to be able to contribute it to the meeting and must be sufficiently senior to make decisions on behalf of their agencies.

In the following circumstances, a Strategy Discussion/Meeting must be held on the day of the referral:

• Allegations / concerns indicating a risk of significant harm to the child for example serious physical injury or neglect (see Recognising Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation Procedure), and or sexual abuse (see Sexual Abuse in the Family Environment Procedure, Child Sexual Exploitation Procedure and Harmful Sexual Behaviour Procedure);
• Where immediate action to protect has been required by any agency to safeguard and protect the child prior to a Strategy Discussion/Meeting;
• Where there are concerns of a particularly complicated or sensitive nature such as Organised and Complex Abuse, Perplexing Presentation or Fabricated Induced Illness, Multi-Agency Managing Allegations Framework for Children (in relation to allegations against staff);
• Where the concerns relate to an extra familial risk and more than one child is the subject of the concerns;
• The allegations concern a single abuser and multiple victims;
• The allegations concern a child with disabilities / complex needs.

Where the concerns are particularly complex there may be the need for further Strategy Discussion/Meetings, with the most relevant and expert professionals required to understand risks. Time may be required to ensure the attendance of all the relevant agencies, and these must be held within a maximum of 3 working days.

If there is a decision which includes a plan to convene an Initial Child Protection Conference (ICPC) the requirement to convene the ICPC within 15 working days of the Strategy Discussion/Meeting will be considered. Or where more than one Strategy Discussion has taken place, within 15 working days of the Strategy Discussion/Meeting which initiated the Article 42 Child Protection Enquiry.        

Where there is no risk of immediate harm Strategy Meeting/Discussion and follow up discussions will be held within 3 working days and must be convened in the following circumstances – (this list is not exhaustive):

• The child is being beyond parental control;
• There has been an accumulation of incidents / concerns;
• There have been several re-referrals;
• There have been significant historical concerns;
• Where added information on an existing case in Children’s Social Care indicates that a child is suffering or likely to suffer significant harm;
• Where an unborn child is likely to suffer significant harm without intervention when born;
• Where a child or young person is at risk of child exploitation or child sexual exploitation.

The purpose of a strategy discussion/meeting is to share relevant information from safeguarding partners to gain multi-agency perspective (following information sharing principles in Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018) to:

• Clarify the nature, the known or potential level of harm and known or potential risks and why they are significant;
• Agree what action is required to safeguard and promote the welfare of the child, (including the unborn child) or young person and / or provide interim services and support;
• Share available expertise, advice and information;
• Agree the conduct and the timing of criminal investigation;
• Decide if an Article 42 Child Protection Enquiry should be initiated, or continued if it has already begun and plan how the Article 42 Child Protection Enquiry should be undertaken and if this should be a single or joint agency enquiry;
• Plan how the Article 42 enquiry should be undertaken (if one is to be initiated), including the need for medical treatment, who will carry out what actions, by when and for what purpose;
• Decide time scales, when, which and where agencies will visit the child to capture their voice and understand their perspective;
• Decide if there will be a single agency or joint agency response to visit the child and their family;
• Decide other actions such as the need for Wellbeing, Health and Development Assessments, and partner agency actions;
• Understand the health needs of the child and/or family members, determine immediate actions required to meet health and wellbeing needs and enable access to timely health care;
• Understand the outcome of risk assessments such as the Child Exploitation Risk Assessment Tool, Brook Traffic Light Assessment (training in Brook Traffic Light available here);
• Determine the need, place and timing for child protection/child sexual abuse medical assessment, following Jersey’s ratified Child Protection Medical/Child Sexual Abuse Medical Pathways;
• If the child is in hospital, understand the significance of injury, their health needs, the length of time they are likely to remain in hospital and when appropriate consider safe discharge;
• Determine the information from the Strategy Discussion which will be shared with the parents/carers, (without placing a child at increased risk of significant harm or jeopardising police investigations into any alleged offences);
• Decide on the need for visually recorded interviews and Achieving Best Evidence (ABE) interview (See Section 16, Visually Recorded Interviews / Achieving Best Evidence Interviews);
• Decide when and which children and young people need to be interviewed and the order in which they will be best interviewed. (The way interviews are conducted play a significant part in minimising distress to children and increase the likelihood of maintaining constructive working relationships with families);
• When a criminal offence may have been committed against a child, the timing and handling of interviews with victims, their families and witnesses, can have important implications for the collection and preservation of evidence (See Section 16, Visually Recorded Interviews / Achieving Best Evidence Interviews);
• Determine any legal action which may be required;
• Where more than one Strategy Discussion/Meeting may be required to understand outcomes determine timescales, purpose of follow up strategy meeting and attendees required from which specific agencies.

Other relevant considerations:

• Agree a plan for how the Assessment and investigation will be conducted and what further information is required about the child(ren) (including the unborn child), young person(s) and family and how it should be obtained and recorded. What further information is required about the child/ren and family and how it should be obtained and recorded;
• Agreeing when the child or young person will be seen by the lead child social worker alone (unless to do so would be inappropriate for them) and the methods by which the child's wishes and feelings will be ascertained so that they can be taken into account when making decisions under Article 42 of the Children (Jersey) Law 2002;
• Decide whether a child / young person will be spoken to without parental consent;
• Decide ways to work with cultural competence and inclusion, understanding the relevance identity, race and ethnicity of the child and family;
• Establish whether an interpreter will be required;
• Establish who is required to support the child and family for example interpreter or independent advocacy, and the professionals who have the best therapeutic relationships with the child or young person and who is therefore best placed to work support them;
• Consider absent parents, and other significant adults who frequent the household.

Children’s Social Care decides will decide who will chair the Strategy Discussion/Meeting. Strategy Discussions/Meetings are confidential, and minutes will not be shared without the permission of the Chair. The strategy Discussion/Meeting must involve both Children's Social Care and the Police Public Protection Team, and should include the referring agency, health services, and educational agencies involved with the child and their family. Where the following multi-agency or practitioners must be considered:

• A paediatrician - where the child or young person requires a Child Protection Medical Assessment and/or Child Sexual Abuse Medical Assessment. Where the concerns that led to the need for a strategy meeting / discussion have medical implication, or where a paediatric examination has already taken place (See Section 18, Paediatric Assessment);
• Sexual Abuse Referral Centre (SARC) Practitioners - Where a child or young person has or may have been sexually abused the Child Sexual Abuse Pathway must be followed, with representation of a practitioner from Dewberry House and Forensic Medical Examiner (FME);
• Independent Domestic Violence Advisors - Where a child or young person, or their parent/carer is at risk of domestic abuse representatives from IDSVA/IDVA;
• Health - Health representation can come from GP, Health Safeguarding, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, Drug and Alcohol Services dependant on which safeguarding partner is most appropriate and holds the most relevant information;
• Family Nursing & Home Care (FNHC) - Where there is risk to an unborn child, the health visitor should be invited. For children up to age five, a health visitor should be invited, children between 5 years to 18 years a school nurse;
• Adult Services - Where parents have learning difficulties, are problematic alcohol and substance users, or have mental health, representatives from adult social services should be considered where they can provide information and advice and can form part of the multi-agency safety plan for the children;
• Where children go missing from home or places of education, education, youth services, and representatives who can offer support from the Child and Family Hub;
• Practitioners may need to be included in the strategy meeting / discussion who are not involved with the child, but who can contribute through expertise relevant to the particular form of abuse or neglect in the case.

The core agencies (children’s social care, police, and health) must make arrangements to ensure that they have staff available to attend strategy meetings at short notice. If one of the core agencies or another significant agency is unable to provide a representative to attend a strategy meeting / discussion, and the circumstances of the child are such that a delay would increase the risk of significant harm or impede the investigation of the allegations of significant harm, then the meeting / discussion may proceed in the absence of that agency representative. Information should be sought from that agency as soon as possible following the strategy meeting / discussion and the reason that agency was unable to provide a representative together with the nature of the urgency recorded in the minutes of the meeting / discussion.

The Designate doctor, nurse or Lead professional for safeguarding should ensure that arrangements are coordinated across primary, secondary and tertiary health services in their area so that the most appropriate health representative can be identified and invited to attend strategy meetings and to assist with identifying the relevant health professional(s) who should be in attendance.

It is the responsibility of the chair of the strategy meeting / discussion to ensure that the decisions and agreed actions are fully recorded using an appropriate form / record. All agencies attending should take notes of the actions agreed at the time of the meeting/discussion.

A copy of the record should be made available for all those, who had been invited, as soon as practicable by local authority children's social care.

For telephone strategy discussions, all agencies should make a record of the outcome of the telephone discussion and actions agreed at the time. The record of the notes and decisions authorised by the local authority children's social care manager should be circulated as soon as practicable to all parties to the discussion.

At conclusion of the Strategy Meeting/Discussion the social worker together with their manager must decide when to inform the parents/carers. The social worker and their manager must decide whether to seek parental permission to undertake multi-agency checks. If the manager decides not to inform the parents, they must record the reasons why, for example it may:

• Be prejudicial to the child's welfare;
• Have serious concern about the behaviours of the adult;
• Have serious concern that the child would be exposed to immediate risk of harm.

Where permission is sought from parents and carers and denied, the manager must determine whether to proceed, and record the reasons for the decision they make.

Where more than one strategy meeting / discussion is required, there should be a clear rationale and where this should take place in a timely manner. Attendance requirements determined by the needs of the child or young person.

If the conclusion of the strategy discussion is that there is no cause to pursue Article 42 enquiries then consideration must be given to continuing a multi-agency assessment to establish the wellbeing, health and development needs of the child(ren) (including the unborn child) or young person(s), the need for early help or family support services (see Statutory Guidance and JCF Framework).

In certain cases, such as Perplexing Presentation/Fabricated and induced illness, Organised and Complex Abuse, enquiries will be more complicated and may require more than one strategy discussion. If the strategy meeting / discussion concludes that a further strategy meeting / discussion is required, then a clear timescale should be set and be subject to regular review by the social work manager bearing in mind the safety of the child at all times.

Following Strategy Discussion/Meeting, Article 42 Enquiries must be commenced when:

• There is reasonable cause to suspect that a child is suffering or likely to suffer significant harm in the form of physical, sexual, emotional abuse or neglect;
• Following an Emergency Protection or the use of police powers of protection are initiated.

The threshold criteria for Article 42 Enquiries may be met during an early assessment, may be apparent at the point of referral to the Children and Families HUB, during the multi-agency checks or during a wellbeing, health and development Assessment where Children’s Social Care will call a Strategy Meeting/Discussion as explained.

Article 42 Enquiries can equally be called for in new referrals to the Child and Family Hub as well as in respect of those children, young people who are already open and accessing support from Children’s Social Care.

 It is important partner agencies who are made aware of incidents of concern where the child is open to a children’s social worker, make timely referral to notify the children’s social worker of incidents of concern.

Practitioners who hold concern should call the duty social worker, the child or young person’s named social worker and/or their manager as soon as they become concerned for the welfare of a child or young person. Once a referring practitioner has shared their information and understands this has been received verbally, and they have understanding around actions required commensurate to risk. The referring practitioner must follow this up in writing.

Alternatively, where there is an inability to talk to an existing social worker or the social worker Is not known advice and guidance can be sought from the Children and Family HUB ensuring the information commensurate to risk has been received in a timely manner and by making a Child and Family Hub referral where the named social worker is not known.

Children’s Social Work have statutory responsibility to lead on enquiries under Article 42 of the Children (Jersey) Law 2002, the Children and Young People Law 2022 and commensurate Statutory Guidance. A multi-agency assessment will be initiated when threshold for Article 42 Enquiry is met.

The JCF Framework provides the framework for gathering and analysing information for the enquiry and for following Core Procedures on Assessment, where conclusions and recommendations will then be made (see Child Protection Conferences Procedure and Implementing Child Protection Plans Procedure).

In all cases where there is high risk and ongoing concern, safeguarding action to protect the welfare of the child or young person and legal advice sought where required.

In the majority of cases, children and young people live with their parents/carers whilst Article 42 Enquiries progress, where risk associated with substantiated abuse or neglect are mitigated with a multi-agency plan care to around them. Enquiries will be conducted in a way which allows for future constructive working relationships with families following Working Together Principles in the Children and Young People (Jersey) Law 2022 Statutory Guidance.

Article 42 enquiries should always involve separate interviews with the child or young person (see Respecting and Capturing the Voice of the Child Procedure) and, in most cases, the parents/carers who will be viewed as partners in the care of their children. Assessments include the thoughts and feelings of children and young people, their parents/carers and observation of interaction between the parent/carer and child.

Article 42 Enquiries will include interviews and observations of parents/carers, any other carers and the partners of the parents, (this should include adults who are in regular contact with the child or young person including those who do not live in the family home). Where the primary risk is from outside of the family home there will be a wider network of people to be interviewed.

The allocated children’s social worker will contact agencies involved with the child to inform them that Article 42 Enquiries have been initiated and to seek their views. These checks should be undertaken directly with involved professionals and not through messages with intermediaries.

Agency checks should include accessing any relevant information that may be held in one or more other countries. Practice guidance is available for social workers working on child protection cases and care orders, where the child has links to a foreign country in Cross-border Child Protection Cases: The 1996 Hague Convention (PDF).

Safeguarding Partner agencies and corporate parents for example Police, Health, Education, and other relevant professionals must support Children Social Care in undertaking the enquiries.

Article 42 Enquiries are carried out, through multi-agency assessment, the assessment will commence and must continue whenever the criteria for Article 42 Enquiries is satisfied. The conclusions and recommendations of the Article 42 Enquiries inform the plan of care to meet wellbeing, health, development needs and to safeguard the welfare of the child (including the unborn child) or young person. This must be completed at least in 35 working days of the date from when the referral has been received or within 15 working days where an Initial Case Conference is planned. The Jersey Children’s First provides the framework for gathering and analysing information for the enquiry (see Assessment Procedure). The conclusions and recommendations of the enquiry should inform the assessment (see also Child Protection Conferences Procedure and Implementing Child Protection Plans Procedure).

If access to a child or young person is refused or obstructed, the social worker (in consultation with their manager) will co-ordinate a follow up Strategy Meeting / Discussion, including Law Officers, to develop a plan to locate or access the child or young person and progress the child protection enquiry.

If, at the conclusion of Article 42 Enquiries, it is decided an ICPC should be convened (see Child Protection Conferences Procedure and Implementing Child Protection Plans Procedure), the conference will be held within 15 days of the strategy meeting / discussion which decided to initiate the enquiry.

The primary responsibility of the Police is to undertake criminal investigations of suspected or actual crime and to inform Children's Social Care when they are undertaking such investigations and where appropriate to notify the Designated Officer.

The police and children's social care must co-ordinate their activities to ensure the parallel process of Article 42 enquiry and a criminal investigation is undertaken in the best interests of the child. This should primarily be achieved through joint activity and planning at strategy meetings / discussions.

At the Strategy Discussion/Meeting, the Police will share relevant current and historical information with other services to safeguard the welfare of the child.

All suspected, alleged or actual crime must be referred to the police. Telephone referrals should be confirmed in writing, within 48 hours). Concerns relating to radicalisation should be referred to the police.

The police will always investigate the following matters:

• All alleged sexual assaults;
• Allegations of physical abuse amounting to offences of actual bodily and more serious assaults;
• Allegations of serious neglect / cruelty;
• Allegations and concerns involving minor offences but where there are aggravating features.

An Article 42 enquiry may run concurrently with police investigations. When a joint enquiry takes place, the police have the lead for the criminal investigation. Where Children's social care continue to have the lead for the Article 42 enquiry and the child's welfare.

If the whereabouts of a child subject to an Article 42 Enquiries are unknown and cannot be ascertained by the local authority children's social care social worker, the following action must be taken within 24 hours:

• A strategy discussion/ meeting with the police and agreement reached with the Children's social care manager responsible as to what further action is required to locate and see the child and carry out the enquiry.

If access to a child is refused or obstructed the social worker, in consultation with their manager, should co-ordinate a strategy meeting / discussion, including legal representation, to develop a plan to locate or access the child/ren and progress the Article 42 Enquiry.

See also Children Missing from Care Framework and Children Missing from Home and Places of Education Procedure.

See also Respecting and Capturing the Voice of the Child Procedure.

Visually recorded interviews must be planned and conducted jointly by trained Police officers and trained social workers in accordance with the Achieving Best Evidence in Criminal Proceedings: Guidance on Vulnerable and Intimidated Witnesses (Home Office 2022). All events up to the time of the video interview must be fully recorded.

Visually recorded interviews serve two primary purposes:

• Evidence gathering for criminal proceedings;
• Examination in chief of a child witness.

Relevant information from this process can also be used to inform Article 42 Enquiries, subsequent civil childcare proceedings or disciplinary proceedings against adults, where allegations have been made.

Sufficient time must be allowed for planning. It is important that the interview team meet to consider the circumstances of the case and to plan for the interview. The interview planning will usually only involve the social worker and police officer who are going to conduct the interview, but specialist advice may be required in some circumstances, for example, when a child or young person has special needs as a result of a disability or impairment, or where English is not the child’s first language. In the event of criminal proceedings being pursued, notes relating to the preparation and conduct of the video recorded interview will need to be disclosed.

When interviewing children and young people with disabilities or those who have communication difficulties, an interpreter or specialist practitioner who can communicate with the child, and with whom the child feels comfortable will be required. The interpreter’s communication skills should be at the required level for them to be accepted in court proceedings. Where the child or and young person’s rights to give consent to treatment or interview will be gained in a child centred and most appropriate way.

With all children, the child or young person’s capacity to understand the purpose of the interview and to give informed consent should be ascertained and include:

• The provision of play material, drawings and so on to facilitate the child or young person’s communication;
• Ensuring that every effort is made to explain to the child or young person what is happening, and that his or her wishes and views are ascertained and recorded;
• Ensuring that assumptions are not made about the ability or inability of the child or young person to understand procedures;
• Establishing how best to accommodate individual methods of communication, or the identifying alternatives, setting out basic ground rules for their use;
• Establishing whether the child or young person uses a communication board; ensuring that one is available for the interview and that any specialised help is supplied;
• Clear recording of both the interpreter’s signals and the child or young person’s responses on the video tape, including any use of a communication board or written material;
• Ensuring that the investigators direct questions to the child and not to the interpreter;
• Requesting the child or young person to show their method of saying ‘yes’ and ‘no';
• Familiarising interpreters with the interview suite and procedures prior to the interview taking place; responsibilities should be clarified and their role during the interview explained.

Where the child appears in urgent need of medical attention (e.g. suspected fractures, bleeding, loss of consciousness), they should be taken to the Emergency Department.

Only a registered doctor or paediatrician, may medically and physically examine a child. A paediatric assessment will be carried out using a holistic approach to the child or young person and will assess their well-being, including their health and development. The paediatrician will give particular attention to assessments of infants under the age of one, who can be divided into two groups: non-mobile and mobile or partially mobile, for example there are certain injuries which do not usually occur as a result of an accident in non-mobile infants.

A paediatric assessment is necessary to:

• Understand the health and developmental needs of the child (including the unborn child) or young person;
• Inform and provide a treatment plan, with timed follow-up and review of any injury, infection, potential infection (such as sexually transmitted disease, hepatitis);
• Provide ongoing care for fractures, burns, other injuries and events resulting from abuse such as pregnancy or care for termination;
• Give information to the child, young person and their parents/carers on how they access help if there are any new symptoms which would require further paediatric assessment;
• Include referral to other services such as orthopaedics, dental, speech and language, orthoptic, dietetics, child and adolescent mental health, drug and alcohol services (list not exhaustive);
• Provide re-assurance for the child and parent/carer;
• Secure forensic evidence;
• Obtain medical documentation of injury, presentation, behaviour and interaction between child, young person and their carer where appropriate.

All other practitioners should note visible marks, including burns, or injuries on a body map and record, date and sign details in the child's file.

Children Social Care is responsible for deciding how to proceed and for collating multi-agency information and the actions required to be taken following the gathering of all information and the completion of the Article 42 Enquiry. Ensuring that both immediate risk assessment and long-term risk assessment are considered. (See Assessment Procedure).

During the enquiry, the scope and focus of the assessment will be that of a risk assessment which:

• Identifies the cause for concern;
• Evaluates the strengths of the family;
• Evaluates the risks to the child/ren;
• Considers the child's needs for protection;
• Evaluates information from all sources and previous case records;
• Considers the ability of parents and wider family and social networks to safeguard and promote the child's welfare;
• Considers how these risks can be managed.

At the completion of Article 42 enquiry, Children's social care must evaluate and analyse all the information gathered to determine if the threshold for significant harm has been reached.

The outcome of the Article 42 enquiry may find original concerns are:

• Not substantiated; where consideration must be given to whether the child (including the unborn child) or young person requires Wellbeing, Health and Development Assessment where a plan of care must be formed following the Jersey Children’s First Framework;
• Substantiated and the child is judged to be suffering, or likely to suffer, significant harm and an initial child protection conference will be called, or legal steps taken to protect.

Not Substantiated

Where the concerns are not substantiated, the Children's Social Care Manager must authorise the decision that no further action is necessary, having ensured that the child, any other children in the household and the child's carers have been seen and spoken with.

The social worker should discuss the case with the child, young person and their parents/carers and other professionals and determine whether support services may be helpful. They should consider whether the child's health and development should be re-assessed regularly against specific objectives and decide who has responsibility for doing this. Arrangements noted for future referrals, if appropriate.

Substantiated

Where concerns of significant harm are substantiated and the child is judged to be suffering or likely to suffer significant harm, Children’s Social Care will convene an Initial Child Protection Case Conference where the child is not already open to services and within 15 working days of the initial strategy discussion, or the strategy discussion where the threshold for an Article 42 Enquiry was initiated. 

Where suitable multi-agency arrangements must be put in place to safeguard the child until such times as the ICPC has taken place. Where the Child Social Worker and their manager, will co-ordinate and review such arrangements. or take the legal steps required to protect the child from significant harm or risk of significant harm. The timing of action will depend on the urgency of the circumstances; respond to the needs of the child and the nature and severity of the harm they may be facing.

Feedback from Enquiries

The children's social worker is responsible for recording the outcome of the Article 42 enquiry consistent with the requirements of the relevant recording system. The outcome should be put on the child's electronic record with a clear record of the discussions, authorised by the local authority children's social care manager.

Notification, verbal or written, of the outcome of the enquiries, including an evaluation of the outcome for the child, should be given to all the agencies who have been significantly involved, the parents and children of sufficient age and appropriate level of understanding, in particular in advance of any initial child conference that is convened. This information should be conveyed in an appropriate format for younger children and those people whose first language is not English.

If there are ongoing criminal investigations, the content of children's social worker's feedback should be agreed with the police and law officer’s department.

Where the child concerned is living in a residential establishment which is subject to regulation, the Jersey Care Commission or the relevant regulator body if the child is off island should be informed.

Practitioners should have access to regular Internal agency safeguarding supervision.

Agencies should consider multi-agency reflective supervision where cases are complex, stuck or drifting.

Where there are differences of professional opinion about the outcomes of a Strategy Discussion/Meeting, Article 42 Enquiry, these should be stated, and minutes taken in the meeting and should then be resolved by respective agency Senior Managers and/or Designate Safeguarding Leads.

Actioned within a timescale commensurate with the need to safeguard the child and using the SPB Jersey Resolving Professional Difference/Escalation Policy.

The responsible manager in Children’s Social Care must countersign / authorise children's social care Article 42 recording and forms.

Practitioners should, wherever possible, retain rough notes in line with local retention of record procedures until the completion of anticipated legal proceedings.

Children's social care recording of enquiries should include:

• Agency checks;
• Content of contact cross referenced with any specific forms used;
• Strategy meeting / discussion notes;
• Details of the enquiry;
• Body maps (where applicable);
• Assessment including identification of risks and how they may be managed;
• Decision making processes;
• Outcome / further action planned.

At the completion of the enquiry, the social work manager should ensure that the concerns and outcome have been entered in the recording system including on the child's chronology and that other agencies have been informed.