Engaging men in safeguarding work
Safeguarding work has been in the headlines again because of recent tragic cases, including those of Peter Connelly, Hamza Khan and Daniel Pelka. And once again, a key issue that emerges from the recent serious case reviews is the failure of services to pay sufficient attention to the men in the child’s life.
This failure is repeatedly highlighted in analysis of serious case reviews (Ofsted,2010; Brandon et. al., 2009) and yet it repeatedly gets overlooked in policy and practice development. In the sad case of Daniel Pelka the failure to engage and work with key male figures is highlighted in the analysis and summary of findings in the serious case review – but is NOT addressed in the lessons learned or the recommendations that follow.
Both the Department for Education and the European Union have in the last three years commissioned the Fatherhood Institute to research and develop approaches to help services tackle this deficiency. There are a range of actions that you could be taking in the immediate future that will make positive changes to your safeguarding services – we’re here to help you make them a reality. They include:
- training
- local/regional conferences
- audits of policies, procedures and practices, and
- our free good practice guide.
For more information on any/all of these, please contact our safeguarding programme manager, Dr Mark Osborn at m.osborn(at)fatherhoodinstitute.org or tel 01603 470158.
Tags: Child protection, Safeguarding, Vulnerable families
