Designed to help improve the investigative interviewing of child victims and witnesses in possible child abuse cases - and entirely applicable when undertaking investigative interviews with children in any other circumstances - this manual provides material for extensive, advanced-level joint training of police officers and social workers. It diligently follows statutory guidance on interviewing child victims and witnesses in criminal proceedings, in ways that are made directly relevant to possible child abuse cases. This is high level material. Its successful delivery requires the direct co-operation of appropriately skilled and experienced police officers and social workers, working together, to deliver the training. A wide range of activities is presented in order to achieve clear learning objectives and, although some choices of material are offered, trainers should follow the suggested programme, which is timed to run over a full 5-day week.Ideally any social worker or police officer undertaking this training would already have gone through the Joint Investigation in Child Protection training.
It contains 20 presentations and 23 activities which include a wide range of materials suited to adult learning.It is recommended for use in training with: social workers and police officers of varied levels of experience, knowledge and prior learning, including those who are involved in the work of Local Children's Safeguarding Boards, as well as in SSAFA (who respond to the needs of children of families in the armed forces); several teams in each constabulary: child abuse investigation, domestic violence units, complex abuse investigation, investigation of serious sexual assault, investigation of trafficking of children and of other organised crime, schools liaison, public protection, Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPAS); and, social workers in Children's Services with responsibility for the protection and safeguarding of children and young people, including those who work in specialist teams such as those for disabled children, unaccompanied minors and child and adolescent mental health.Extensively tested, this specialist, advanced-level, high-quality and material directly addresses major current gaps in training that is available to police officers and social workers.
It will enable them to work together on the investigation of possible child abuse in ways that can meet concerns raised by high profile inquiries of the last two decades...but not yet addressed. This material will help police officers and social workers to meet their performance objectives, but it also challenges and goes beyond existing government guidance in ways that can significantly improve work with both the victims and perpetrators of child abuse. This should become a 'must have' resource that can help police officers and social workers start right away to make real progress and improvements in their work.