Child Protection and Family Matters

Richard asks what are child protection strategy meetings and do I have a right to be present when they meet and get minutes of the meetings?

A: Strategy meetings (sometimes referred to as strategy discussions) are meetings called by a member of the relevant area child protection committee (education, medical practitioner, police, social services) to share information regarding a concern or report that a child or young person may be at risk of significant harm. Such meetings normally take place within 1 working day of the concern being registered or a complaint being received.

The purpose of a strategy meeting is firstly to develop a strategy for safeguarding the child, and secondly to develop a strategy for managing any investigation that might be necessary into the claims made. A strategy meetings would be essential in cases when an allegation of abuse has been made against living carer or teacher (or any other professional).

Typically, strategy meetings include child protection social worker(s), the police, and depending on the circumstances a paediatrician, mental health worker, probation officer, head teacher, a carer (e.g. foster carer, day care provider) and, if it involves a complaint against a carer or teacher, possibly their employer (e.g. manager/head teacher)

In normal circumstances strategy meetings will take the form of a  formal meeting of individuals but in some instances they might also take the form of telephone conference. Normally minutes are taken but usually all that is recorded is information about the referral (i.e. the nature of any concern/complaint), a summary of the discussions held, what action/decisions have been taken to safeguard the child, and the outcome of the meeting.

Always keep in mind that in more complicated cases the local authority/area child protection committee might arrange a 'strategy meeting' about the strategy meeting. Such meetings are often used as organisational device for limiting the amount of information being shared with parties. You should always check out how many strategy meetings have taken place.

The decision of whether or not you will be allowed to attend for all, or any part, of the meeting will depend on local arrangements and your status. You are unlikely to be allowed to attend if there is a concern about your behaviour towards the child(ren), or if a complaint has been made about you. In some instances however you may be given very limited information and invited to respond verbally and/or in writing to the points raised.

It is important to recognise that every local authority and area child protection committees has its own policies and procedures for child protection strategy meetings. If you have a concern about the way they have been handled you should ask to see your local authority's child protection policy, and its complaint procedure. You also ask to see the ACPC's Complaint procedure. The better local authority's and ACPC's have quality standards for what is must be recorded and timescales for producing the minutes of meetings.

In our experience it is extremely difficult to get minutes of strategy meetings. If necessary obtain legal help. 

You can find some further information about strategy meetings/discussions in the Department of Health document Working Together to Safeguard Children:  A guide to inter-agency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children Para 5.29