Men play a very important role in children's lives and have a great influence on the children they care for. Despite this, they can be ignored by professionals who sometimes focus almost exclusively on the quality of care children receive from their mothers and female carers.
From NSPCC analysis of case reviews, two categories of "hidden" men emerged:
- Men who posed a risk to the child which resulted in them suffering harm
- Men, for example estranged fathers, who were capable of protecting and nurturing the child but were overlooked by professionals.
Reasons case reviews were commissioned
This briefing is based on case reviews published between 2008 and March 2015 that highlighted the issue of professionals not identifying and/or assessing key men, such as fathers and mothers' partners, involved in the care of children who died or suffered harm.
In these case reviews, children died or suffered serious harm in a number of different ways:
- Physical or sexual abuse by the mother's partner
- Killed by a father with mental health problems.
Risk factors for hidden men in case reviews
Lack of information sharing between adults' and children's services
Professionals such as substance misuse workers and probation officers involved with men who are fathers, do not tend to share information about potential risks with other professionals supporting the children and partners of those men. This may be because they are unaware the men have contact with their children.
Consequently, practitioners depend entirely on parents to share this information, which they may or may not do.
Relying too much on mothers for information
Professionals sometimes rely too much on mothers to tell them about men involved in their children's lives. If mothers are putting their own needs first, they may not be honest about the risk these men pose to their children.
Professionals do not always talk enough to other people involved in a child's life, such as the mother's estranged partner(s), siblings, extended family and friends. This can result in them missing crucial information and failing to spot inconsistencies in the mother's account.
Judgments about parents' personal relationships
Professionals can be reluctant to judge the decisions parents make about their personal and sexual relationships. However, this is to ignore the risks that might be posed to children by men who are in short-term, casual relationships with the mothers.
Overlooking the ability of estranged fathers
Failing to identify and/or engage with fathers ignores their fundamental importance in a child's emotional and psychological development.
When a vulnerable child's needs are not being met by their mother, an estranged father may be able to provide the protection and stability that the child needs.
Learning for improved practice
Identifying the men in a child's life
Professionals should consider the following approaches for how to identify men in a child's life.
- During pregnancy and after birth, make active enquiries about the child's father, the mother's relationships and any adults in contact with the child. Record these details.
- Identify and carry out checks on any new adults who have significant contact with vulnerable children. Always clarify who the members of a household are each time you visit a family.
- Be aware that some individuals will have a number of aliases. Try to find out what these are and carry out checks accordingly. You might also receive names which are spelled incorrectly. Make sure you carry out checks that allow for different spellings of a surname.
- In an assessment, always put the child's needs before those of an adult.
- It can be difficult to get mothers to open up and discuss their partners' involvement in their children's lives. Supervisors should support practitioners to find ways to engage with mothers and build trust.
- Supervisors also need to offer guidance and training on working with fathers and male carers, monitor fathers' engagement with services and evaluate how effective direct work with them is.
Involving fathers
There are a number of methods for increasing the involvement of fathers.
- From the very beginning, emphasise to parents how crucial the father's role is to the child's wellbeing.
- Encourage fathers to attend antenatal appointments and classes. Make appointments for times convenient to them, such as evenings.
- Involve fathers and male carers in assessments. Ask them directly about risky behaviours such as drug and alcohol use and offer them services based on their needs.
- Make sure fathers and male carers, including those who are not directly involved in mothers' and children's lives, know about concerns relating to their child. Consult them about plans, invite them to child protection conferences and include them on core groups.
Men as protectors
Estranged fathers and ex-partners may be able to give crucial information about a mother and her children. Likewise, the siblings of an at-risk child can give insights into family dynamics and important people in their lives. Explore the potential of estranged fathers to offer protective care and stability.
GUIDE HELPS SOCIAL WORKERS ASSESS THE RISK POSED BY ‘HIDDEN' MEN
There are approximately 30,000 registered sex offenders in England and Wales. However, some estimates put the proportion of sexual abuse incidents that are not reported as high as 95 per cent, indicating the majority of adults who pose a sexual risk to children are not in the criminal justice system. This includes persons who:
- Have historical convictions (including those that predate the Sex Offences Act 1997) or are no longer subject to registration requirements
- Have never been convicted of sexual offences against children but have a "finding of fact" from a family court against them
- Are alleged to be perpetrators of sexual abuse but have not been prosecuted due to insufficient evidence.
Often these adults will not have been assessed or treated, yet they can be living with or having contact with children. In such situations, children's services departments need to take decisions and actions to protect children. However, staff in these departments do not always have the specialist skills and experience to carry out such assessments, and there are few resources to help them do that.
The NSPCC therefore commissioned the Sexual Behaviour Unit in Newcastle to bring together the existing research in this area and develop a good practice guide for conducting such assessments. This resulted in Assessing the Risk: Protecting the Child - The Assessment of Men's Sexual Risk in Child Protection Settings, a guide produced in 2011.
The guide is based on the best knowledge and practice in sex offender assessment, drawing on cognitive behavioural therapy, attachment therapy and the Good Lives approach - a strengths-based model of rehabilitation that helps offenders achieve their goals in socially acceptable ways.
It is aimed at local authority and voluntary sector social workers to assist them in undertaking assessments of the risk to children posed by a known or alleged adult male sex offender who is not in the criminal justice system.
The assessments focus on risk in the family context.
The guide has been in use by NSPCC practitioners since 2011, and currently forms the basis for assessment in nine teams across the UK. It was revised following an evaluation in 2014.
Referrals to the service are made by local authority children's services departments.
Practitioners then use the guide to undertake an assessment of:
- The risk to children posed by the man
- The capacity of the non-abusing parent or carer to protect the child from the alleged risk
- The views and wishes of the child or children deemed to be at risk.
Practitioners carry out the assessment through individual sessions with the male who poses the risk, the protective parent or carer, and the child or children involved.
They also examine other sources of evidence from, for example, previous social services case files.
Sessions with the man and the protective parents or carers are co-worked, but sessions with children are usually delivered on an individual basis.
An assessment report is then written with recommendations about risk and actions needed to protect the child. This is given to the referrer and used to inform their decisions relating to the case.
All practitioners receive training in how to use the assessment guide before starting the work. In response to feedback from staff, the required training pathway for undertaking this work has changed since the original service began.
The 2014 evaluation by Emma Belton involved interviews with practitioners about how they used the guide.
Staff were positive about the holistic nature of the assessment process set out in the guide, and felt it provided a good evidence base for assessing men who pose a risk.
However, they wanted more practical detail on how to undertake each part of the assessment.
Assessment guide and evaluation available from www.nspcc.org.uk
FURTHER READING
Working Effectively With Men in Families, frontline briefing, Research in Practice, August 2017
Working Effectively With Men in Families, Brigid Featherstone blog, Research in Practice, February 2017
All Babies Count: The Dad Project. How to Support Dads During Pregnancy and the First Year, Sally Hogg, NSPCC, 2014
Hidden Men: Taking Men into Account When Working With Families, Ruth Pearson video, Virtual College, 2013
Working With Hostile Or Unco-operative Families, Ruth Pearson, inGood Practice in Safeguarding Children, Hughes & Owen, Jessica Kingsley Publishing, 2009
