Chronologies (Multi-Agency)

It is widely recognised by almost all Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews (CSPRs), that children and young people are most effectively safeguarded if practitioners work together and share information. Single factors in themselves are often perceived to be relatively harmless; however, if they multiply and compound one another the consequences can be serious, on occasions, devastating.

A multi-agency child protection chronology

provides a mechanism through which information can be systematically shared and merged
enables agencies to identify the history of a family
provides invaluable information about a child’s life experience
can reveal risks, concerns, patterns and themes, strengths and weaknesses within a family
identify previous periods of practitioner involvement/support and the effectiveness/failure of previous intervention
informs the overall assessment regarding the caregivers’ ability and motivation to change.

Chronologies are not only a means of organising and merging information; they enable practitioners to gain a more accurate picture of the whole case and highlight gaps and missing details that require further assessment and identification.

The chronology provides a skeleton of key incidents and events that inform the assessment of children and young people who are considered at risk of significant harm and are the subject of Child Protection Plans. If they are to be of value they should be:

succinct - If every issue/contact is recorded, the chronology loses its value
simple in format – thus ensuring that information can be efficiently merged, sorted and analysed
in the agreed typed format - all contributions should be submitted in the Microsoft Word template and shared via secure email.

See DSP Multi-Agency Chronology template [Word document].

The purpose of the Multi Agency Child Protection Chronology is to inform assessment and analysis of progress and levels of risk. It is therefore essential that the chronology is owned by the Core Group and that all members contribute to its production and analysis, including the formation of protection plans based on the outcome of such analysis. The chronology is only headline information and reports are still crucial to provide a full picture. Getting the facts agreed and seeing the overall pattern is essential and can often be informative and revealing.

Responsibilities

It is the responsibility of each agency to ensure that there is a mechanism to collate all significant events in the child’s life over time:

it is expected that any practitioner or agency that contributes to the protection of children will provide up-to-date information for the Multi-Agency Child Protection Chronology
the Multi-agency Child Protection Chronology will commence at the strategy discussion/meeting verbally. In addition, some families have long and complicated histories – the compiling of a chronology will be a more onerous task and cannot be completed within a short period of time. It is essential that as much work as is practicable is completed in the early stages and continued commitment and time be given to the completion of a full chronology through the course of the child protection period. Basic chronological information must be shared with the social worker in time for a merged document to be included within their Assessment and subsequently shared at the Initial Child Protection Conference
at the Initial Child Protection Conference, when a child or young person is made the subject of a Child Protection Plan, the continued requirement of a Multi-agency Child Protection Chronology will form part of the Child Protection Plan – the chair of the conference will be responsible for reinforcing the requirement in the planning stage of the meeting. Members of the Initial Child Protection Conference will decide the timescale for the chronology.
thereafter, the chronology will be updated prior to each monthly core group and a copy sent to the social worker prior to the core group meeting. The chronology will be presented to each Child Protection Review Conference by the Key Worker as an appendix to the social work report. It is the responsibility of all core group members to ensure that the chronology is kept up to date and the key worker must ensure that the chronology is disseminated with core group minutes As the lead agency, the responsibility for collating the information gathered is that of Children’s Social Care. In these cases, it will be the key worker who is identified at the Initial Child Protection Conference.
it is essential that all practitioners and agencies understand that they have a joint responsibility in safeguarding vulnerable children and young people and should be active participants in the child protection process. All practitioners are to ensure that information describing key incidents/events/information is passed on to the key worker, each month, in the agreed typed format. This can be done by secure email.
it is the responsibility of all practitioners not just to provide information but to contribute to its analysis. The analysis of the multi-agency information is key.
core group minutes must reflect the discussion of the chronology at all meetings and the analysis of improvements and levels of risk as a consequence.
the Social Work Team Manager is responsible for ensuring that all chronologies are maintained and kept up-to-date for each child subject to a Child Protection Plan.
managers of all workers involved in the supervision and support of children who are the subject of Child Protection Plans, are responsible for ensuring that workers actively contribute to the Multi-agency Child Protection Chronology in the agreed format.

Format of the chronology

The formatting of shared information will be done so in a simple, agreed format.

Heading:

Name: This is the name of the child

DOB: This is the child’s date of birth

Address: This is the address of the child

Agency: This is the agency sharing the information

Author: This is the name of the author of the chronology

Subheadings:

Date and time

The date the episode event is said to have taken place (not the date of recording) Dates should be recorded in the following format to enable electronic merging of each agencies chronology DD/MM/YY. Time in the following format 00:00 (24 hour)

Significant event

The significant piece of information e.g. police log of reported incidence of domestic violence: report from school that child arrives from home hungry, unkempt and tired: missed medical appointments: allegation of non-accidental injury: anonymous referral regarding child left unsupervised: Section 47 enquiry etc.

Agency and professional records

The agency the information is obtained and the record from which the information was obtained, e.g. social work record, health visiting record, school nursing record, police record, probation record, etc.

Who was involved

Who was involved in the event. The names of each individual involved in the episode including practitioners, child/ren or parent/s, carer/s other adults.

Decisions/outcome

Comments should inform the reader of key decisions taken, any action taken and the outcome in response to the event or episode.

Child seen/views obtained

Yes or No. If obtained, statement re the child’s views, either expressed or observations of behaviour should be noted.

Author comments

Any additional information that may inform the context of the entry.

Significant information/events

A significant event is an incident that impacts on the child’s safety and welfare, circumstances or home environment. This will inevitably involve a professional decision and/or judgement based upon the child and family’s individual circumstances.

A chronology provides a sequential story of significant events in a family’s history whilst interweaving information about emotional and/or relationship difficulties. It contributes to an emerging picture, based on fact and interactions of a case – current information is understood in the context of previous information, informing professional assessment.

There are a number of core incidents, which should be recorded. Dependent upon the nature of the harm, these may differ from case to case. Examples of Core Incidents:

contacts or referrals about the child and/or family
assessments e.g. family support
strategy discussions/meetings
section 47 investigations
house moves
school exclusions
school attendance/major incidents e.g. bullying racism
attendance/admittance to Accident and Emergency Department or hospital
frequent use of out of hours and walk in services rather that GP services
criminal proceedings
change in school
change in GP e.g. this could be particularly significant in cases of Fabricated and Induced Illness
referrals to other agencies/teams
enquiries regarding whether the child is subject to a Child Protection Plan
child absconded/missing
child becomes looked after/child is discharged from local authority care
death in the family
parent/Carer has new partner
another person moves into the family home
birth of a new baby
person moves out of the family home
attempted suicide or overdose
bereavement
failure to attend/no access
evidence of parental or young person’s substance misuse/ mental health difficulties
police logs detailing pertinent info re family members/family home e.g. reported incident of domestic violence; drunken behaviour of carers.

There are also a number of other incidents, which may be significant to the child and family, depending on their circumstances. Examples include: a significant observation during home visits e.g. the frequent presence of unknown adults, evidence of damage to the property.

If chronologies are to accurately reflect family circumstances, protective factors should also be recorded. Examples include: Evidence of the family’s engagement with practitioners, parent’s self-referral for help/guidance support with relevant agencies. The child’s presentation in school significantly improves.

The above provide a small number of examples and it is essential that practitioners use their professional judgement in identifying pertinent information. Workers are encouraged to use this information and to consult with their managers and/or safeguarding leads if clarity is needed regarding significant events/ episodes/ information.