Have you attended a Child Protection Conference since COVID (from 2022 onwards)?

[Research CPCs]

We are a research team from the Universities of East Anglia and King’s College London, working with the Parent, Families and Allies Network (PFAN) and Kinship. We are carrying out a national study (in England) to understand and improve families’ experiences of Child Protection Conferences.

Before starting the main study, we would like to hear from parents and carers who have attended a Child Protection Conference in England since 2022. This will help us make sure we are focusing on the issues that matter most.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, many conferences have changed. Some are no longer fully in person. They are often a mix of people attending in the room and others joining online. These are sometimes called hybrid conferences. We want to understand how this affects people’s experiences and whether it influences how conferences are run and decisions are made.

Who we would like to hear from:
Parents or carers who have attended a Child Protection Conference in England since 2022 but are no longer currently involved in Child Protection processes and feel comfortable speaking to a researcher in confidence via a video call

What we would ask about:
This is not about discussing your personal case. We are interested in:
· How the conference was organised and run
· Your experience of taking part (including any technology used)
· Whether you felt able to contribute and be heard
· Your views on hybrid (part in-person, part online) conferences
· Any suggestions for how conferences could be improved for families

Taking part:
Getting in touch does not mean you are agreeing to take part—there is no obligation. If you would like to find out more, please email:
CPConferences.research@uea.ac.uk

We can’t offer advice or change what happened in your CPC, but we hope this research will help improve how Child Protection Conferences are run in the future.

[finaldj0]

Hi,

I'm not fussed to do a video call but I just wanted to say that we are currently on our 2nd child protection plan.

What I would like to say is and whether that is a question you ask. Professionals get invited to attend these and they don't often turn up it's very sporadic, sometimes in person and sometimes online. You might see them at one meeting but not turn up for another 2 and while they might get updates on those none attended meetings I feel it doesn't benefit those involved at the time as feel they are missing important information or input on the day that they could have a say and they aren't present to hear the parents thoughts.

I also find it delays possible help were it maybe something they could have input in but we may not find that out until they eventually turn up to a meeting which could be months away were as if they attended most meetings they would be up to date with all information.

Our first CPP was 12 months long and not once did the GP attend any appointments. We are now on our 2nd CPP and he turned up to our 2nd CPP only after I put a complaint in about him at the surgery.

So as you may know when on a CPP you have a child protection meeting every 6 months and core group meetings every 6 weeks other than school and social workers almost nobody else turns up to these and the only reason people turned up to the last CPM is that I pushed for it.

All I hear is well invites were sent out and it's optional if they turn up whether that be online or in person. It's so unprofessional in my opinion that CPM's can lead to care proceedings that you'd think the Chair that runs these seem to have little to no power at all and they should tell people this is the date you need to be here not well never mind they didn't turn up.

[Research CPCs]

Thank you Finaldj0, the points you make are incredibly useful and might be something that we missed if just observing one off conferences, so very helpful to know. If you are able to talk via a video call do let us know.

For you, or anyone else able to talk on video call, we don't have to record etc., and there are v**c5er* available, just advertising as such, unfortunately gets picked up by bots.

[Research CPCs]

Hi, we are still keen to hear from parents about recent experiences of conferences, if it feels comfortable - email CPConference.research@uea.ac.uk. There are v0uch£rs available and video calls can be arranged at convenient times etc.

If it feels too much to talk to us, but you want to have a say, you can email us your thoughts (no v0uch£rs), or please also write any suggestions (that you don't mind being open to others reading) in this link. We will be observing conferences across England over the next 12 months and hopefully interviewing parents, so if there's anything you think we should focus on, from a parent/carer perspective, do let us know. Thanks for reading this.