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The face of child protection is constantly changing and there is an inevitable time-lag in recognising emerging problems and developing the knowledge, skill and confidence to deal with them on a multi-agency basis.

There are currently challenges in identifying and communicating with the numbers of new communities and faith groups which have emerged in London and other cities in recent years. Any challenge to the culture of a community, particularly if linked to religion or belief, must be handled very sensitively.


It is not the role of safeguarding agencies to judge culture or belief - our job is to protect children. We need to be careful not to be seen to "demonise" whole communities and faith groups as this will prevent us gaining trust and confidence and could undermine our objective of improving the protection of children.

Lord Laming's Inquiry into the death of Victoria Climbie was a defining moment for child protection in London. As a response to the inquiry, the Metropolitan Police established the largest group of child abuse investigators in the world, now officially named the Child Abuse Investigation Command (CAIC) with 470 police officers and 180 policy support staff working to make London safer for children.

Senior officers from CAIC joined with colleagues from health, education, social services, probation, Association of London Government and the voluntary sector, to form the London Child Protection Committee (LCPC) to provide a strategic lead for the protection of the city's children. Pan-London child protection procedures have been a successful outcome.

London is home to nearly half of England's ethnic minority population. Over 30 per cent of Londoners belong to an ethnic minority community and over 300 languages are spoken by pupils in London schools. This presents its own special challenges for safeguarding agencies. Lord Laming's report touched on race and diversity and focused on whether ethnicity or race clouded judgements about protecting children. Most professionals would agree with the position that child abuse is a crime and cannot be excused on any grounds, but how culture and diversity are addressed within the child protection context is crucial to successful safeguarding strategies.

Generally people from all cultures want the best for their children and want to keep them safe. We need to work towards empowering communities to take responsibility for implementing the changes needed to protect children. The police and their partners do not have the will or the ability to police places of worship or family homes. We rely on communities to alert us where crime is suspected or committed.

The challenge from Victoria's parents to the Metropolitan Police after the Laming Inquiry was: the community tried to support Victoria, what are you doing to support the community? In response, the Metropolitan Police formed an independent advisory group on child protection from a broad range of ethnic and cultural backgrounds and employed two community partnership officers on an 11-month pilot.

These were non-police officers tasked to engage with the community regarding child protection and focusing mainly on black and Asian communities in two East London boroughs. They spent time with community and faith groups discussing cultural and child protection issues. Although there was some initial resistance, with reassurance and patience, the workers were able to effectively engage with community groups. The project provided an extraordinary amount of information and several common themes emerged:

• Different thresholds were applied by communities for what constituted child abuse.
  
• The impact of cultural values on child abuse such as honour and respect.
  
• Culture, traditions and faith were used to deny, minimise or justify serious harm to children.
  
• Communities would often have rationales to justify some forms of child abuse.
  
• All of these acted as inhibitors to reporting crimes against children.
  
  The community partnership officers were very careful to differentiate between real and anecdotal evidence as there are no easy ways to quantify the concerns and allegations relating to potentially abusive customs and practices. Safeguarding agencies are dealing with a relatively small number of child protection cases identified as cultural or religious abuse and it is important to keep a perspective on the size of the problem while preparing to identify and deal with any incidents arising. Project Violet is an important part of the police and partner agencies' response to ritualistic abuse of children linked to cultural beliefs in witchcraft and demonic possession.
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  We have to recognise that there is a general lack of awareness and skills within the safeguarding agencies in identifying the causes and effects of this type of child protection concern and that, as in the case of forced marriage, practitioners and managers need expert guidance and training in recognising and dealing with the issues.
  
  The learning and sharing of good practice from the Project Violet pilots are being rolled out across London through workshops which will engage community and faith groups as well as staff from the statutory and voluntary sectors. A number of London boroughs, most notably Tower Hamlets, were commended by a recent BBC survey as proactively engaging with its diverse communities and identifying hard-to-reach groups and sects.
  
  The Association of Directors of Social Services has urged its members to use local community contacts and intelligence to engage with all faith communities including the smaller less formalised sects. The strong message to the ADSS is to raise awareness and clarify standards on the treatment of children by all communities and faiths. We must not hesitate to protect children and cannot allow political correctness or accusations of racism to prevent decisive intervention if there is potential or actual harm to a child.
  
  The funding of the Metropolitan Police Community Partnership pilots has now been taken over by the LCPC which is setting up a multi-agency group to co-ordinate and advise on these issues from a pan-London perspective. Concerns about "missing" children will also be on the agenda for the group which will have representatives from the Department for Education and Skills and the Commission for Social Care Inspection, as well as key safeguarding agencies and voluntary organisations.
  
  There will be many challenges to face in filling the gap between culture, belief and safeguarding children. Based on the Metropolitan Police Community Partnership pilots and the outreach experience of some London boroughs, a solution appears to lie in engaging with communities and building bridges to influence the thresholds of child protection.
  
  There is a significant amount of work to be done to build trust and alliances in order to gain acceptance by all communities and faith groups but this must be prioritised if all London's children are to be safeguarded.
  
  Training and learning
  The author has provided questions about this article to guide discussion in teams. These can be viewed at www.communitycare.co.uk/prtl and individuals' learning from the discussion can be registered on a free, password-protected training log held on the site. This is a service from Community Care for all GSCC-registered professionals.
  
  Abstract
  In response to concerns that some children are being harmed by cultural and religious beliefs and practices, London's safeguarding agencies are working together through the London Child Protection Committee to actively engage and support all communities and faith groups in the protection of children.
  
  Contact the authors
  Contact Hannah Miller by e-mail at hannah.miller@croydon.gov.uk or Chris Bourlet by e-mail at chris.bourlet@met.police.uk 
  
  BOXTEXT: HANNAH MILLER is director of Croydon social services department and the ADSS representative on the London Child Protection Committee. Detective superintendent Chris Bourlet is the deputy head of the Metropolitan Police Child Abuse Investigation Command.