What do we mean by 'Professional Curiosity' and why is it important?
‘Looking beyond what you see’ is an approach which enables practitioners to explore and understand what is happening in someone's life, rather than making assumptions or accepting what they are told at face value. It involves looking out for signs that things are not right and seeking out the evidence of what is really happening. It is a combination of looking, listening, asking direct questions, checking out and reflecting on ALL the information you receive.
Sometimes practitioners can feel they are being intrusive or that they may be overstepping their role if they ask that extra question, if they consider alternative explanations, if they start contacting others to check out their concerns. This is not the case. Safeguarding is everyone's responsibility, and seeking out all available information which helps keep children safe is what all practitioners should be doing as part of their everyday practice.
Looking beyond what they see is everyone’s responsibility. Many people we work with are unable, or feel unable, to speak up for themselves. Many people are relying on us to identify the signs, to uncover what is really happening in their life, and to provide them with help to be safe.
Why is looking beyond what you see important?
Working in this way enables a practitioner to have a holistic view and understanding of what is happening within a family, to know what life is like for a child or young person, to fully assess potential risks.
A lack of curiosity can lead to missed opportunities to identify less obvious indicators of vulnerability or significant harm. We know that in the worst circumstances this has resulted in death or serious abuse as confirmed by the learning from case reviews, both nationally and locally where practitioners have responded to presenting issues in isolation. It is often suggested by review authors, that practitioners in Leeds need to be more curious about a child’s life and experience.
Relevance to practice
How can you make ‘looking beyond what you see’ part of your everyday practice?
Don't be afraid to ask questions of families, and do so in an open way, so they know that you are asking to keep their children safe, not to judge or criticise.
Be open to the unexpected, and incorporate information that does not support your initial assumptions into your assessment of what life is like for the child in the family.
Seek clarity either from the family or other professionals.
Be open to challenging, or having challenged, your own assumptions, views and interpretations as to what is happening; triangulate the information you hold.
Consider what you see as well as what you’re told. Are there any visual clues as to what life is like, or which don’t triangulate with the information you already hold?
Useful practice models
The following simple model can be very effective in supporting you to look beyond what you see, to identify causes for concern:
Look, Listen, Ask, Checkout
As practitioners, ask yourself these questions to help you think in a curious way:
a) Look
- Is there anything about what you see that makes you feel uneasy?
- Could what you see be a sign or indicator of abuse, neglect or self-neglect?
- Consider why someone is behaving a certain way; think broadly about what this might mean?
- Does what you see match with what you are being told? Could there be an alternative explanation?
- Be aware of people's responses to questions and read body language; do they seem reluctant to answer the question, is something being held back? If so, why might that be?
b) Listen
- Does something not sound right?
- Are you being told anything which needs further explanation?
- Have you spoken to the person that you are concerned about? Are they free to give their views? Can you talk to them on their own?
- Does what you hear, match with what you have seen? Could there be an alternative explanation?
c) Ask
- Are there questions you can ask, to explore what you have seen or been told?
- Maintain an open mind; try to avoid making assumptions, taking information at face value and jumping to conclusions.
- Is your use of language, clear, accessible, understandable to the person you are talking to?
d) Check out
- Treat what people say with 'respectful uncertainty'. This means taking what people say seriously, but then looking for other information which confirms or challenges what you have been told.
- Be the first to check out your concerns, be proactive, don't wait for others to ask you. Can you build a picture of what is happening?
- Are other professionals involved? Have other professionals seen or been told the same as you? Are there family members you could speak to?
- Are others concerned? If so, what action has been taken so far?
- Have you recorded your concerns? Have you discussed them with a manager?
- Is there anything else which should or could be done by you or anyone else?
- Refer to your organisation's policy and procedures
- Consider the need to raise a safeguarding concern
What if your contact with a family is made from a distance? Can you listen beyond what you hear?
When making contact with a child or family member on the phone or by video call, the usual clues that could help you detect any safeguarding issues won’t be available to you, meaning that you need to think of more creative ways to look beyond what you see.
Here are some tips to help you:
On the phone, ask:
Can you speak freely?
Are there other members of the family in the room that can hear our conversation?
By asking the child or family member if they can talk openly (closed question) should give you an indication of whether there is the potential for guarded answers to your question. By establishing this at the very beginning you can reduce the pressure on them.
Can you move to another room?
Asking them if they can talk in another room or outside might help them to talk more openly. It may be that you might need to talk another time.
Agree a code word.
Agreeing a code word between you and the person you are talking to so you can quickly establish on further meetings whether that person can talk safely and openly.
It should be recognised that children or families that cannot talk openly means there may be coercion and controlling behaviour within that family.
Overcoming barriers to looking beyond what you see
It is widely recognised that there are many barriers to seeking out information effectively. It is only by knowing and challenging these within ourselves and in our practice that we are often able look further, think wider and see more.
Try not to: Make assumptions
What you should do instead: Consider other explanations. Look for the evidence
Try not to: Accept the first explanation, as the only possible explanation
What you should do instead: Be open minded. Act with 'respectful uncertainty'. Look for information that confirms and challenges it.
Try not to: Be rigid about what you believe to be true
What you should do instead: Be open to new information. New information can come to light, which offers an alternative view.
Try not to: See an incident, and not the circumstances
What you should do instead: Look for the whole picture; look for patterns, is this a one-off event? how do you know?
Try not to: Take risk for granted: When we get so used to risk, we can see it as normal, and fail to act
What you should do instead: Look at risk with a fresh pair of eyes. See it for what it is. Use supervision to re-evaluate your assessment
Try not to: Minimise risk because you have limited information
What you should do instead: Stay focused on risk. Limited information is common. It is not always possible to know for sure what has happened, but the concern for the person needs to remain.
Try not to: Be overly optimistic about a person's situation or the help that is being provided.
What you should do instead: Sometimes all the right things are said by paid and unpaid carers and services, but there is little or no evidence of change. Consider if progress is really being made? Are intended outcomes actually being achieved?
Try not to: Focus on the problem and not the person
What you should do instead: Always seek to understand the person behind the concern. This will help you to identify the best path forward.
Try not to: Avoid difficult conversations
What you should do instead: Have courage, gain support, use supervision. Plan for difficult conversations, wherever possible. For further guidance see Managing difficult conversations.
Finding support to look into, through and out of a concern, to make the best use of the information you have
Supervision
Using supervision effectively provides you with a real opportunity to explore cases fully; practitioners and supervisors should be open to considering if there is more they can know and find out, in order to make better safeguarding decisions. You can use a number of approaches in supervision, to help you do this:
- Play ‘devil’s advocate’
- Present alternative hypotheses
- Present cases from the child, young person, adult or another family member’s perspective.
Best practice guidelines
In safeguarding reviews, the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel has highlighted the importance of looking beyond what you see, emphasizing the important of this skill in identifying potential risks and ensuring appropriate support is provided.
Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel Annual Report 2022/23 - Patterns in Practice; Key Messages
Prompts for learning
A ‘Looking beyond what you see’ Team Briefing has also been developed, to support practice discussions and reflection in team meetings.