This guide is aimed principally at social workers in multi-agency safeguarding hubs (MASH) or the Integrated front door (IFD) who receive and respond to referrals relating to child sexual abuse. This guide uses the terms ‘referral’ and ‘front door,’ acknowledging that local areas may use different names for the initial receipt of referrals where there are concerns about a child's welfare.
It is also relevant to other professionals involved in protecting children including the person who made the referral, to help them understand what will happen at this stage. If you are considering making a referral because of concerns about the sexual abuse of a child, see our practice guide. Making a referral to children’s social care
What happens when a referral is received?
If a child tells a professional they are being or have been sexually abused, or if a professional has concerns that a child has been or is being sexually abused, a referral to children’s social care must be made.
Receipt and initial review
Once children’s social care receives a referral or the police receive a report, they must decide on the next steps. At this stage, they check the information against local threshold criteria to see if it meets the legal standard for help.
The outcome
Social care, often working with multi-agency partners like the police or health services, will decide on one of several pathways within 24 hours:
- Multi agency strategy discussion: Whenever there is reasonable cause to suspect that a child is suffering or is likely to suffer significant harm, a multi-agency strategy discussion is held to plan the next steps and decide if a formal child protection investigation is needed.
- Multi-Agency Assessment (Section 17): If the child is in need of support a multi-agency assessment is started to understand the family’s needs and how to help.
- Early Help or Family Help: If the concerns do not meet the legal threshold for social work intervention but the family still needs support, they may be referred to local early help or family help services.
- No Further Action (NFA): It may be decided that they do not need support from children’s social care. Sometimes, the agency decides there is not enough evidence or information to take statutory action. This is often called "No Further Action".
How may the child be feeling?
A child who knows that a referral has been made to children’s social services may feel a range of complex emotions. The child may:
- fear being blamed for what has happened.
- worry about the stigma of children’s social care involvement.
- feel scared about what will happen to themselves and their family, especially if threatened by the person of concern.
- feel relieved that someone knows and responsibility can be handed to adults.
- feel hopeful that something will be done to help them.
- panic about the consequences of telling, sometimes more than the situation itself.
- not be aware a referral has been made if it’s due to immediate safety concerns.
Contact from children’s social care can be a shock, especially if abuse has been discovered through images. Children who are sexually exploited or groomed online may not recognise themselves as victims, but it remains sexual abuse.
“It just got to the point where I just couldn’t really take any more and at that point I kind of had the courage to fight, fight against it and tell my mum.”
“I was scared [when someone said they were going to contact social services] ’cause like so many people try so hard like to keep it quiet then you just get scared by what will happen … It kind of panicked me more what would happen, than like the situation that it was at the time.”
How can you best help the child?
As the social worker receiving the referral, you may not have ever come into contact with the child or their family – or, if you have worked with them, it is unlikely to have been in the context of child sexual abuse. When you receive the referral, it’s important that you:
- have all the information you need.
- carry out background checks, including on the known history of the child or family, making good use of existing chronologies and seeking appropriate background checks from other agencies.
- decide what action is in the best interests of the child, which could include a strategy discussion to decide next steps.
- take appropriate steps once a decision has been made, such as informing the referrer of the outcomes, communicating the decision to the child, and where appropriate, inform the parents about what the next steps will be.