Support for Staff on the Child Protection Rota

IntroductionStaff working in the field of children’s safeguarding often have to make difficult decisions and come across disturbing scenarios. They are likely to witness significant distress in others and often have little... [ view full abstract ]

Introduction

Staff working in the field of children’s safeguarding often have to make difficult decisions and come across disturbing scenarios. They are likely to witness significant distress in others and often have little time to prepare before moving on to their next case.

During safeguarding supervision quality of practice can be monitored, professionals can be encouraged to reflect on their work and develop new skills, and strategies for coping and self-care can be explored. However staff working in this field remain a vulnerable group in terms of risk to psychological well-being e.g. development of post trauma distress, and many may feel ‘they should be able to cope’ making it more difficult to acknowledge psychological distress or seek help.

Aim

The aim of this presentation is to promote thought and discussion about the psychological support needs of staff working in the field of children’s safeguarding, to normalise the need to address this as an understandable human need, and to think about the most appropriate and helpful ways to do so.  

We will present a review of the literature on different support options e.g. debriefs, Schwartz Rounds and present ‘conversations with staff’.