Beyond the Risk Factors: Understanding Infant Harm

Overview

Babies under one year of age are disproportionately represented in cases of serious harm and death, accounting for around one third of all rapid reviews and approximately 60% of child deaths considered by the national Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel. The vulnerability of infancy is fundamentally relational: infants are entirely dependent on others for their care, safety and survival, meaning their wellbeing is inseparable from the caregiving relationships and circumstances in which they live.

Understanding the circumstances in which infant harm occurs remains one of the greatest challenges in safeguarding practice. Traditionally, our understanding has been shaped by the identification of individual risk factors – such as parental mental ill health, domestic abuse and substance misuse. Whilst these factors remain important, they rarely exist in isolation. Rather, infant harm more often emerges through the interaction of multiple influences operating within the wider context of family life, including caregiving arrangements, family histories, adversity and disadvantage, adult relationships, and the unique needs and vulnerabilities of the infant.

Rather than asking what the risk factors are, this webinar asks how these factors interact to create the circumstances in which infant harm occurs. Drawing on learning from 100 Local Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews involving infants, the session introduces the WHAI Framework – an evidence-informed framework designed to support practitioners in understanding these complex interactions. Participants will explore how the framework can strengthen assessment, professional curiosity, critical analysis and decision-making, providing a practical approach to understanding infant harm and supporting safer outcomes for infants and their families.

Audience

This webinar is relevant to professionals working with infants, children and families, including:

• Children’s social workers and social work managers
• Early Help and family support practitioners
• Health professionals, including midwives, health visitors, neonatal practitioners, paediatricians and GPs
• Domestic abuse, adult mental health and substance misuse practitioners
• Safeguarding leads and Local Child Safeguarding Partnership professionals
• Family justice professionals, including Cafcass practitioners and legal professionals
• Commissioners, policy makers and service leaders
• Researchers and academics with an interest in infant safeguarding, child protection and family justice.

Agenda

This 90-minute webinar will comprise:

• A presentation exploring learning from a review of 100 Local Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews involving infants.
• An introduction to the WHAI Framework – an evidence-informed framework for understanding infant harm through four interconnected domains:
  • Who – Who is caring for me? Looking beyond the primary caregiver to understand the infant’s caregiving world and the relationships that shape their everyday experience.
  • History – What has happened to the people who care for me? Exploring the influence of trauma, adversity, violence and other life experiences on caregiving capacity.
  • Adults – What is happening in their lives now? Considering the relational and contextual factors surrounding the infant, including family relationships, abuse, poverty, housing, social support and other pressures that shape caregiving.
  • Infant – What is life like for me? Understanding the infant’s unique needs, development, health, relationships and lived experience, and how these influence their care and safety.
• Practical application of the WHAI Framework to strengthen assessment, professional curiosity, critical analysis and decision-making.
• Questions and discussion.

Presenter

Dr Rebecca Brown is a Senior Consultant at IPC. She has published widely in this field, and her research has informed policy, practice and service development across children’s social care.

The WHAI Framework presented in this webinar has been developed through Rebecca’s analysis of 100 Local Child Safeguarding Practice Reviews involving infants, bringing together evidence from across reviews into a practical, evidence-informed framework to support safeguarding practice.