The drip, drip effect: avoiding drift and delay
Drift and delay are common features of neglect and were present in a third of all children’s situations reviewed in Ofsted’s 2014 thematic report In the Child’s Time: Professional Responses to Neglect.
The drip, drip effect of neglect accumulates over time which can lead to serious impact for children. Both families and professionals can become blind to the increasing severity of neglect as sometimes the changes are so small and incremental that we don’t see them in the moment, we explain them away, we get lost in the complexity or normalise the situation etc.
Children with disabilities and health needs
Children with disabilities are 3 to 4 times more likely to be neglected and are also at an increased risk of drift and delay. In addition they can be abused in ways non-disabled children cannot e.g. not feeding a child to keep their weight low so that they are easier for lifting. For our children with disabilities and health needs we therefore need to ensure we focus on their general welfare not just their disability/health needs, don’t assume signs of neglect are attributed to their disability/health needs and don’t overly compensate for parents because of the additional responsbilities they may face in caring for a child with a disability/health needs.
Below are further ways in which we can avoid a start/stop approach when working with families taken from the above Ofsted thematic report, our own local practice audit learning and a neglect literature rapid review by Scott et al (2018)
The Importance of Family History
A family’s situation should always be seen in the context of their current situation. However this needs to be balanced with a consideration of the family’s history. How has this influenced their parenting, have you noticed any patterns, have you noticed any changes or improvements? Chronologies are a useful tool to help us do this. If we see things as seperate incidents then we become part of the drift and delay for children and contribute to the start/stop cycle.
Maintain a Child Focus
Througout this practice guidance we have highlighted the importance of maintaining a focus on the child and their lived experience and it is equally crucial in protecting against drift and delay.
For children experiencing neglect their parents are not prioritsing their needs, not anticipating how these change depending on age and development and so we need to make sure we don’t mirror this and always bring our attention back to the child.
Social & Community Support
If attention is given to social support as well as
direct interventions then we improve the likelihhood of any change being sustained and reduce the dift and delay experienced by children.
Social support for parents may be having someone to talk to, people they can do things with etc. So our support planning must include engaging the strength of available community support.
Avoid the ‘you’ll be rid of us’ culture
With the best of intentions we can contribute to drift and delay by saying things such as ‘you don’t want us in your life forever, if you just do the things in the support plan then you’ll be rid of us and you can get on with your life.’ What this means for a family is that any changes they are making are only being done because ‘it says so on the plan.’ When a child comes off a support plan, the likelihood of change being sustained is reduced because the family was motivated by the plan which is now no longer in place. All our conversations about change need to be rooted in the value for the child. Instead of ‘you’ll be rid of us,’ say ‘just think what a difference it will make to your children if they don’t have to worry about….’
Building Relationships
The important role of relationships between the parent and child, family and worker, and family with the community for sustaining change cannot be underestimated. Relationships need to be collaborative and authentic. In terms of worker and family relationship consider how you are coming across to the family/are you showing that you genuinly care or are you presenting your own workload stresses?
The Involvement of Managers
Practice learning tells us that the regular oversight of managers can help lift workers out of a situation and help focus on identifying drift and delay. This could be in regular supervision/safeguarding consultation or when there is a professional difference.