If there are concerns that your child might have been harmed or be at risk of harm in the future, you may be invited to a Child Protection Case Conference. This is a meeting to talk through the concerns and to decide how best to keep your child safe and well.
The case conference meeting will include people who know you and/or your child and may include:-
Nursery or School Staff
Health Visitor
Social Worker
GP
Police
Housing Staff
Youth Worker
Addiction Services
Voluntary Organisations
You will also be invited to attend and depending on your child's age, they might be invited to attend all or part of the meeting too. If they don't come to the meeting someone will speak to them beforehand in case there is anything they want people at the meeting to know. You are entitled to bring someone with you to the meeting to support you, like a friend, family member or legal representative.
The people who attend will usually provide a written report about their knowledge of you and your family. A copy of the report should be shared with you and you should have the chance to talk to the person who wrote the report before the meeting. They won't necessarily change what they have written, but can talk to you about why it's important to share what they have written with the people at the case conference.
You also have the opportunity to share your opinion about what has been happening. This can feel quite difficult to do and it might help you to really think about what you want to say. You might want to write something either to read out loud yourself, or to remind you of the things that feel important to say, or to give to someone else at the meeting to read for you. If you are finding it hard to think about what you want to say, you could ask a family member, friend or solicitor to help you - or talk to your Social Worker as it's part of their job to make sure your views are heard.
At the meeting, there will be a full discussion about the reasons why there has been a child protection investigation, and what was found. There will be an opportunity for everyone to ask questions and the Chair of the meeting will make sure everyone has a chance to speak. Once everyone has had space to speak if they want to, the professionals around the table will make decisions about what happens next. Again, there are a few different outcomes at this stage:-
- That there aren't any concerns for your child's safety (perhaps because the situation has changed during the time of the investigation) and that no further action needs to be taken.
- That there's a need for you to be supported in your parenting role and that this support can be given by one agency (e.g. additional support at school).
- That your child's name needs to be placed on the Child Protection Register because there are concerns about their safety.
- That your child needs to be referred to the Reporter at the Scottish Children's Reporter Administration because the professionals at the meeting think you may not be able to keep your child safe.
The Chair of the meeting will ask the professionals in the room to say what they think should happen next, and if the professionals don't all agree, the Chair will decide on what they think the best outcome should be. If you don't agree with the decision that has been made, you can ask the Chair to record that you aren't in agreement.
After the meeting you'll be sent a note of the decisions that were made and a copy of the Minute of Meeting, which is simply a record of who said what at the meeting.