Reflective Essay on a Missing Child in Care (England and Wales)
This piece of work gives an account of a missing young person in care and I have decided to highlight this given its frequency whilst on placement. I will like to stress that this type of case accounts for nearly 20% of all the children tasks I carried out in my 100 days placement and more prominent on weekends starting on Fridays. The referral was received from the residential care home manager that the 16 year old girl named Chloe had disappeared when she was taken out on a contact. Chloe was been looked after by social services under section 20 of the children Act 1989 (Accommodation). According to Coram (2013), children and young people can be accommodated with the consent of those with parental responsibility. The section is based on co-operative working between the local authority, the young person and his or her parents because the court is not forcing the child or young person to be looked after. If a child or young person is being accommodated by the local authority, then the local authority must have regard to his or her views.
As the case was allocated to me to handle, I looked at the child’s case history on the system before calling the residential home. On getting through to the home, I was informed by the support work who answered the call informed that one of her colleagues took the child out for a contact earlier in the day and was meant to collect her at 2 hours later but the child failed to turn up as agreed. When her colleague rang her phone, she answered to say that she was on the train. I was advised that that a similar situation happened the previous Friday and she did not return home until Sunday however, she was said to keep in touch throughout that weekend. The worker said that it was very likely that the child was on her way to see her boy-friend who lived outside the county. She advised me that they had already informed child’s mother about her disappearance. When I asked if she had informed the police, she said no because she wanted to wait a little longer. She described the child to be ‘street-wise’. Although NSPCC (2011) states that “the Sexual Offences Act 2003 states that the age of consent for sex is 16 in England and Wales”, my initial instincts as a father coming from a conservative background and a different culture, was that the girl could be at risk sexual exploitation. The word ‘streetwise’ according to online free dictionary is ‘having the shrewd awareness, experience, and resourcefulness needed for survival in a difficult, often dangerous urban environment’. I believe one needs to be careful in accepting how the society tends to label young persons in care. Lomax et al (2010) emphasise the importance for social workers of empathising with individuals and avoiding labelling service users.
In England and wales, thousands of children are reported to go missing from a care centres every year. They abscond from the program for reasons that apparently may not be good. According to NSPCC children go missing for many reasons. Being bullied, the feeling that they are miles away from their families and friends hence they miss them and some do not trust the child care enough to inform them of their whereabouts. Some disappear from the child care due to exploitation by the staff. Children in childcare need someone who can understand the difficulties that they are going through. When children abscond from the residential homes, they expose themselves to risks of sexual exploitation and grooming. The child care staff should be held fully responsible for any child that goes missing. The police and children social care should immediately be informed when a child goes missing so that they can immediately start looking for the child. Delays in bringing the child back to safety increases the chances of the child being exploited. Children and especially the girl child are more vulnerable to exploitation and the UK takes stern action against anyone found guilty of child exploitation. However, the UK government is striving to reform the child care system so that the homes become safe and secure places which will be able to provide vulnerable persons with the support and care that they need.
This prompted me to direct the carer to ring the police straight away and revert with the unique reference number (URN) to enable me add to my report at the end of the shift if she was still missing. I recorded the accounts of my conversation with the residential worker on our database including the Integrated Children Service (ICS) and emailed the details to the relevant day time team and the child’s social worker. The Joint Protocol concerning children and young people who run away or go missing from home or care – Children’s Services Authorities in Thames Valley and Thames Valley Police (2011),”there may be occasions when a child in care goes missing and police and children social care (CSC) do not feel it is appropriate to report it immediately, in these circumstances the case should be reviewed hourly by CSC and risk assessed until such time as CSC consider a missing person report should be made. In this instance, based on the fact that she had been missing for more than 2 hours before it was brought to our attention, I exercised my power acting on behalf of CSC by instructing the residential home to report the case to the police even though it was clear they wanted to wait a little longer.
In as much as I did not agree that the child should be labelled as such, I thought the carer was just giving me her own assessment of the risk. I also realised that she was trying to underplay any risk associated with her disappearance. In this particular instance I was not sure if she was actually ‘missing’ or absent unauthorised. Thames Valley Police (2009) remind that all parties should be clear about the definition of a missing person, and discourage the casual reporting of ‘absent without authority’ as missing persons. According to BSCB (2009), a child looked after may fall into one of three categories when absent from home:
Absent without authority – such as when boundary test activity is occurring, or the location of the child is known but not approved.
Missing - where the location of the child is not known but no order or requirement resulting from the criminal law is in place (e.g. remands, curfews, tagging, conditions of residence, other bail conditions, PACE detention or ASBOs)
During supervision some days later, I realised that my knowledge of the policy guiding missing children was insufficient because I was not able to answer confidently when my PE asked if I knew how long in terms of should the residential home wait before alerting the police. Consequently, it was agreed for me to go and read the policy for future purposes. I was surprised by the amount of information contained in the policy. In hind sight, asking the carer to ring the police straight away appeared to be the best option.
For children who are under residential care because their families were previously considered unsuitable for the growth and development of the child, child care program assists to reconstruct the family by providing services that will restore the functioning of the family. The primary purpose of residential care has shifted from family substitution to family intervention (Mitchels 2013). They understand that child-parent relationship is very critical for the development of the child and they are out to protect and strengthen it. Parents are allowed to regularly visit the children’s home so that the children can have contact with them. During the visits they are also counselled so that the family dysfunction can be corrected and make it possible for the child to be returned to a nurturing and less harmful environment. Creating a good relationship between the child, parent and the child care staff minimises the instances of children abscond from the child care program (Evans 2005).
According to the children’s act of 1989, when the court raises any question that regards the upbringing of a child, the child’s welfare becomes responsibility of the court. The court may decide to pass that responsibility to the residential child care staffs. It therefore becomes the responsibility of the child care program to ensure that the child is protected and their welfare is of acceptable standards. The law defines parental responsibility as powers, rights, duties and responsibility that a parent has towards their child (Sinclair 2007). When the child is in the care program, the parental responsibilities are passed on to the staff. They are therefore required to do what is reasonable in all circumstances to safeguard and promote the welfare of the child. They are therefore supposed to know the child’s whereabouts every time since it is their solitary responsibility (Mitchels 013).
In view of the high incidents of missing children and similar others involving young persons, my attention is being drawn to the importance of family intervention theories (CATCH). When the children go missing, it is the parent who suffers most. The parent is subjected to psychological and emotional torture. To prevent this child care staff should pay close attention to all children in the program and treat them with humane to make them feel at home. This will reduce instances where children abscond from the child care program. When the child is under a care plan, the plan must provide all the necessary information regarding the child in a prescribed manner. The law requires that children in UK have access to all basic needs and rights. Health, education and the general welfare of the children is given a priority. The care programs must therefore ensure that these rights are provided and upheld. However, UNCRC has not been directly incorporated into UK laws. This leaves gaps in the protection of children’s rights.
The missing of a child from a care home can cause a problematic issue. There is a lot of ambiguity in child protection. According to social works policy, roles need to be clearly defined and unambiguous. In England and wales there has been a conflict of roles. Some roles end up being overlooked while others are overemphasized. Ambiguity can occur since there is no clarity in regards to the overall aims of the service (IUC Journal of Social Work Theory and Practice 2012). Workers need be clearly informed of their duties to ensure that they perform effectively. This will better the welfare of the children who are in the care program.
Emotional neglect by the carer may cause damage to developmental prerequisites of a child. It also affects the development of the brain. The way in which the brain of a child develops depends on the kind of care provided to the child. There is a time when specific parts of the brain may fail to develop if the essential care is not denied. During infancy, neglect can have long lasting effects on the functioning of the brain. It is therefore very important for children to be given the best care. The government is trying to provide care by taking children from families that cannot take care of them to care centers. Regrettably, children flee from the program therefore divulging themselves to more risks.
There is a disparity in the kind of knowledge needed to effectively manage care programs and the knowledge possessed by the care staff. The staff should be subjected to training so that their skills in child care can be sharpened. This will reduce the instances of children absconding from the care program. The residential care homes will be friendlier and children will feel comfortable in staying there.
Bibliography
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