OST and felt that having these
conversations might risk
disengagement.
‘We’re so busy we forget to ask the
right questions,’ commented Sue Smith,
CRI’s national safeguarding lead. ‘But
we need to challenge… it’s our role.’
‘I was bemused and shocked that my
staff used to struggle around asking
about safeguarding,’ said Birmingham
commissioning manager, Max Vaughan.
But, he added, ‘the combination of
policing and being supportive can be
really difficult.’ It was about
confidence, suggested one delegate,
adding ‘It shocks me that other
agencies say “how do we ask those
questions?” You just do. You have to.’
So apart from asking the right
questions – about drug and alcohol use,
drug storage, and making sure that risks
to children were minimised – what
were the key areas for improvement?
Better engagement between all of
the professional partners involved with
the family came high on the list.
In Birmingham, the safeguarding
‘G
raham Greene said
“There is always one
moment in childhood
when the door opens
and lets the future
in”. We are responsible for opening that
door,’ Joy Barlow told the Adfam/
DDN
Everybody’s business
safeguarding
conference, sharing her vision that we
should refocus on the rights of the child.
The event brought together
professionals with an interest in this
sensitive issue and did not shy away
from the challenging questions. Why
were we missing signs that children
were at risk? Were we aware that
methadone soothing took place? How
could we work more effectively with
fewer resources? Why were we scared
of even talking about this issue?
‘This is one of the most difficult and
fraught areas of practice,’ said Barlow,
who was formerly head of STRADA
(Scottish Training on Drugs and
Alcohol). ‘We need to incorporate
respectful uncertainty,’ she said,
quoting Dr Marion Brandon’s research
from serious case reviews. ‘We need to
demonstrate empathy and acceptance,
but balance it with a healthy dose of
scepticism… if the truth is not always
presented to us, we have to ask why.’
Tackling safeguarding needed a
fundamental shift in thinking,
according to many of the day’s speakers
and workshop contributors. Nic
Adamson, CRI director, said drug and
alcohol workers ‘often used to see it as
their job to rock up and defend the
client.’ But this area required a different
way of working: ‘We need to learn to
challenge clients’ behaviour – really
challenge it,’ she said.
‘It’s a Pandora’s Box – there’s a fear
in what we do,’ said one delegate, and
this theme kept resurfacing, in relation
to safeguarding, methadone, and the
delicate issue of challenging clients and
asking them difficult questions.
‘There are around 400 adult deaths
involving methadone a year. Say this in
the wrong room and you can be
intellectually decapitated,’ said Martin
Smith of Derbyshire Safeguarding Team,
who brought the risks to children into
sharp focus.
‘Hair testing has shown that
methadone soothing is more common
than we like to acknowledge,’ he said.
Examples from his caseload included a
child death which the mother had said
was accidental, but tests had shown the
child had been routinely given
methadone: ‘A methadone storage box
had been in place, she attended
appointments, her engagement was
good, there was a supportive
grandmother – she gave the picture
that all was OK.’ In another case, ‘a
woman let a toddler ingest enough
methadone to kill an adult’.
‘We lack honesty and courage as a
sector – let’s not shy away from difficult
challenges,’ he said. ‘It’s really hard to
hear the bar is so low in certain areas…
we’ve all got work to do.’
Rachael Evans, policy and research
officer at Adfam, brought evidence from
case reviews that the charity had
examined to produce the new report,
Medications in drug treatment: tackling
the risks to children – one year on
. The
main findings confirmed that there was
insufficient appreciation of the dangers
of OST by parents and professionals,
and critical issues around safe storage.
Practitioners were struggling to accept
the idea of intentional administration of
10 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| December 2015
Austerity is ‘the
spoiler’ that leads
to ‘the deadening
hand of conflicting
priorities’.
Pete Burkinshaw, PHE
Safeguarding
Playing safe
Are we doing enough to protect
children from their parents’ drug and
alcohol use? At a recent safeguarding
conference there was plenty of cause
for concern, as DDN reports
