Learning from Reviews Child F Summary Child F

Learning from Reviews – Child F Summary Child F: 16 yr old boy, Black Carribean ethnicity, April 2019 • Sustained serious stab injuries sustained after he went missing, was involved in selling drugs in a county lines operation far from his home. • Presented as traumatised on his return, disclosed he had been assaulted and threatened that he would lose his life by those organising the drug-selling. • Highly anxious about his safety • Next day: taken to hospital after being stabbed in his leg and back. February 2021 Themes Immigration status, homelessness and poverty Homelessness and poverty negatively impact on a child’s mental and physical health, as well as their attainment, attendance and behaviour at school. • Children and young people experiencing financial hardship are more vulnerable to exploitation. • Lack of awareness in professionals that financial support can be provided under Sc 17 and sc 47 of the Children Act 1989 • Education and Ethnicity The impact of exclusion is a highly significant event in any child’s life, creating vulnerabilities and risk, especially for young black men. • Schools should look for the root cause of why a young person was displaying challenging behaviour. • Reintegrating a child back into mainstream education too quickly can fail •

Learning from Reviews – Child F Emotional health and mental well-being • Difficult for practitioners and services to work therapeutically with young people who are frequently in crisis and safeguarding and risk issues to deal with • Children and young people accessing multiple services benefit from having a “trusted adult” • Children and young people can be better supported by adopting a multi-agency trauma-informed approach. • • Offending Prevention Organisational pressures and/or the way that works and intervention is structured can result in relationships between young people and practitioners ending. Poor information sharing between agencies resulted in missed opportunities to intervene. Child Criminal Exploitation • Young people who go missing from home = higher risk of sexual and criminal abuse and exploitation. This wasn’t always recognised by practitioners, so plans for effective multi-agency support were not always put in place. • Children who are being exploited may not disclose information, so the police can't take action. • When a child is being criminally exploited, the approach must bring all agencies together. • A multi-agency contextual safeguarding response enhances the identification, assessment, intervention and prevention activities needed to address ongoing issues and prevent new ones emerging. Practice Improvements Strengthen joint working relationships between Housing and Children’s Services • Refresh professional knowledge of pathways for financial support • Greater oversight of exclusions by the Education Panel is needed The package of support provided to excluded children should be reviewed and strengthened “Lammy Scrutiny Test”. • •