By Gerard Kiely-Jones
By now many of you will have heard of the death of Ayeeshia-Jayne Smith the 21-month-old little girl brutally murdered by her mother.
By now you'll also have heard a lot about how social workers missed danger signs to save Ayeeshia’s life, how more could have been done to save this child from a horrific death.
There has been a great deal of emphasis placed on the lack of “professional curiosity”. ‘An attitude of professional curiosity requiring practitioners to examine the lived experience of (Ayeeshia-Jayne) was often missing by all agencies.’
So…what is professional curiosity, what are the skills needed and how do we develop such skills?
Professional curiosity is the capacity and communication skill to explore and understand what is happening within a family rather than making assumptions or accepting things at face value.
The skills and insight needed, by all professionals who have contact with children, rests largely on the use of one simple word… WHY?
Why is this child behaving this way, why are the adults presenting this way, is this child trying to tell me something is wrong? Professional curiosity can start simply by asking the question WHY?
We have been promised, as always in Serious Case Reviews that lessons will be learned and that services will improve because of the findings.
The same promises made after the deaths of Daniel Pelka, Peter Connelly, Victoria Climbie and Hamza Khan.
However, we need to accept some uncomfortable facts:
- This will happen again.
- Some parents can and do abuse their own children.
- Some parents can and do neglect their own children.
- Some parents can and do sexually exploit, assault and rape their own children.
- And some parents murder their own children.
There is nothing we can ever do that will prevent any child on this earth coming to the same harrowing fate that Ayeeshia suffered; her life brutally ended for no apparent reason by a vicious beating inflicted by her mother.
Peter Connelly, known to the world as Baby P, was smeared in chocolate by his mother to hide the bruises on his body. Victoria Climbie was not allowed to speak to professionals, Daniel Pelka was claimed to have an eating disorder.
This is what devious people who abuse children will do to hide their crimes.
This is what social workers are up against.
Social workers didn't kill these children, their parents did. That is where the blame must lie. Even though Social Workers may not be able to save every child, they can get better. But they need help to do that.
Social Workers need public support for their profession, not more stories about blame and failure. There is now a greater need that ever for all agencies to work collectively to protect children. Rather than saying we are teachers, we are nurses, we are police. Isn’t it time we simply become professionals who protect children.
Our new mantra is easy … Protect children. Support parents. Work together.
Gerard Kiely-Jones is Child Safeguarding and Child Sexual Exploitation Specialist at Ven Training Solutions