When the child comes into care

Being placed in interim care is often an abrupt and bewildering experience for children who may already have endured trauma such as child sexual abuse. It means big changes to the child’s life, possibly at short notice.

• They have been separated from their parent(s)/carer(s) and are living in a new home. They may also have been separated from siblings (including step-siblings), other family members and pets, their friends and their community.
• They may have changed schools and had to stop their usual extra-curricular activities and sports.
• They may feel lonely and isolated, and/or experience stigma from others.
• They often feel uninformed about what is happening and why.

The decision about permanent care can take a long time. Some children’s interim care setting becomes their permanent care setting, but others face one or more moves. Coming into permanent care means that the child will not go home to their parents, but it doesn’t necessarily mean they will find a permanent and stable home to live.

The child may feel intense, complex and often conflicting feelings:

• While permanent care may offer the psychological permanence and safety of a settled future, it can also involve profound loss and identity issues.
• The child may feel relief at being protected from the source of harm, yet simultaneously grapple with feelings of confusion, guilt and loyalty to their birth family.

Finding the right care setting for children who have been sexually abused requires a child-centred, multi-agency approach focused on safety, recovery and supporting the child’s emotional and psychological needs as they adapt to their new home.

Recognise that the child may feel misunderstood by the system, perceiving themselves as being placed in the 'wrong place' if their needs are not fully met.

The primary consideration in finding the right care setting is ensuring a stable, safe environment. 

Children with a history of sexual abuse often experience higher number of moves and instability compared to other children in care.

Bear in mind that a child who has been sexually abused may also display harmful sexual behaviours, in which case the choice of care setting for them may be limited:

• Balance the child's acute vulnerability with the need to manage their behaviour safely.
• Where possible, prioritise therapeutic care over restrictions.
• Undertake a holistic, child-centred assessment to understand any complex care needs.
• Assess their environmental and social risks.
• Support them if a specialist placement leads them to feel shame.
• Help them maintain stability and connection.

A child may come into care suddenly, or it may be planned. However it happens, social workers, police and other practitioners involved at the point of the child’s removal from their home can support them in practical ways:

• Talk openly with the child about coming into care.
• Relationship-based practice is key – be the ‘person’, not the ‘process’.
• Make sure the child has their own belongings, familiar things and comfort objects to support their move.
• Ensure proper holdalls are provided – don’t use dustbin bags or similar which de-value the child and their belongings.
• Be clear with the child about what will happen to their siblings and step-siblings, especially if they are remaining in the home – and if the child has a pet which it is not coming into care with them, ensure a plan is in place for care of the pet.

When a child has been sexually abused, safe and meaningful contact must prioritise their psychological safety and physical protection over any parental rights to contact.

• In principle, contact should only proceed if it is demonstrably beneficial to the child's recovery and identity.
• However, contact often occurs during proceedings before facts have been found or a final decision has been made.
• Where there is uncertainty, give priority to whether and how safe contact can proceed. While the risks of retriggering trauma are significant, it’s important to recognise that safe contact can have therapeutic value.
• Consider the emotional weight of contact and whether the child shows somatic symptoms of anxiety, such as ‘tummy aches’ or ‘headaches’, ahead of family contact.
• Decide what needs to happen before, during and after contact to ensure it is safe and meaningful for the child. Keep the child’s safety and wellbeing to the fore, and agree a ‘safe word’ that the child can use if they need to leave.

Safe contact arrangements will be specific to the circumstances of the case, and practitioners and the parent(s) must adhere to the court order.

Care planning is often influenced by stereotyping and unconscious bias. For example, some care-experienced children say they feel their parents were treated more harshly, were investigated more quickly, and had their children taken into care more readily because of their ethnic background; others believe that practitioners had assumptions about and low expectations of their parents, based on their ethnicity, and so did not intervene.

• Consider what it’s like to walk in the child’s shoes as they navigate what may be a difficult family situation.
• Consider how racial and cultural stereotypes may distort the perception of a child's trauma, including through adultification bias.
• Bear in mind that the scarcity of culturally matched placements often forces a choice between geographical stability and cultural safety.

Children may not understand what it means to be placed into care, why it is important, and what to expect.

• A decision about who the child should live and spend time with should involve them wherever possible.
• Whether the child’s move is a planned or unplanned, they should be supported to understand what has happened and why. Don’t assume they know.
• When you talk to the child, ensure you explain everything in a way that’s appropriate to their age and developmental level, and check – both at the time and later, especially if the move was unplanned or sudden – that they have understood.
• When you talk to the child, ensure you explain everything in a way that’s appropriate to their age and developmental level, and check that they have understood. 
• Encourage the child to ask questions, and reassure them that this is OK. If they have been abused or neglected, they may need to be given ‘permission’ to ask adults questions.
• Remember that people in crisis or shock may not remember information or process it well; this is a trauma response. Give the child multiple opportunities to understand and process what has happened to them and what will happen next.
• Consider using memory aids so the child can look back over what you have discussed in their own time.
• Make sure the carer has the information they need to help the child understand and to answer any questions from the child when you are not around.

For a child, permanence is an emotional state best described as a felt sense of stability, not a legal milestone. Telling them they are in permanent care does not make them feel safe or create a sense of belonging. In fact, many care-experienced children say they felt they could be moved at any time, regardless of the legal status. 

Whether the child is in interim or ‘permanent’ care, stability is important – but it may seem unattainable during ongoing care proceedings. 

• Find out the child’s first impressions of their new home.
• Consider how to build a felt sense of safety and stability in care.
• Consider what is happening in the child’s internal world and what their behaviour is telling you.
• Consider how to build agency and preserve the child’s identity and their connections to family, culture and community. Don’t assume what these are to the child – ask questions and let them guide you.
• Be mindful of the emotional labour of building new relationships and attachment – and of the importance of trust and keeping promises.

Ongoing care proceedings, and possibly criminal investigations and proceedings, creates a state of legal and emotional limbo which is inherently destabilising. Unresolved proceedings create uncertainty and may affect the child’s felt sense of stability. Focusing constantly on the past may prove a persistent barrier to the child’s ability to ‘move on’ emotionally and invest in their new environment. Uncertainty can lead to a sense of powerlessness.

• Consider what needs to happen to support the child before and after court dates and/or interviews.
• Recognise the emotional weight of court proceedings on the child.
• Recognise and respond to their behaviour in a trauma-informed way which is appropriate to the ‘age they are demonstrating’ in that moment, not their chronological age.

Take the time to help the child understand how they can participate in decisions about their care plan. By providing children with genuine opportunities to express their views and make choices, you can help them restore a sense of control and agency that was taken away when they were sexually abused.

• Take the time to help the child consider their options, and listen and understand what the child would like to happen next, ensuring that you explain legal restraints of orders and other limitations clearly.
• Ask if they have any family members they would like to be assessed as safe carers. If family members have been nominated for assessment, ask how the child feels about these family members.
• Consider the child’s internal barriers to participation. For a child who has been sexually abused, expressing a ‘view’ may be an act of extreme vulnerability.
• Trauma often creates physiological barriers to communication. It is vital to distinguish between a child who is ‘cooperating’ and a child who is ‘surviving’
• Move from ‘seeking views’ to ‘empowering voice’, by adopting a relationship-based approach which prioritises felt safety.