1. Chronology Guidance

2. What is a chronology?
Safeguarding practice is about assessing situations and making key decisions about children’s lives, and good up to date chronology helps
Ordered, dated record of significant events in the child's life. It can identify patterns of events, concerns, positives, strengths and unmet needs
Gives a clear account of all significant events in a child’s life to date, based on knowledge and information held by the agencies involved
The chronology reflects the best knowledge an agency has about a child’s history at a point in time
You could ask the group what a chronology is NOT?
X it is not…..the record of all your involvement in the minutes detail or an assessment
We need to be evidenced based and clear about decision making –why are we deciding to go down the PLO route? Why do we need care proceedings? Why is a CP plan no longer necessary
OUR RECORDS? Not really-chronology will be record of our involvement and we need to get “our ducks in a row” internally but it is also about recording other professionals involvement and the STORY of a child in that family

3. A Chronology is NOT..
It is NOT gathering together large amounts of information for the sake of it!
It is NOT an end in itself!
It is NOT an assessment!
Should not contain opinion!
It is NOT a substitute for recording!
If practitioners are worried about that a child or young person is at risk they may try to record everything
Too much detail will make it more difficult to highlight important issues and themes
Will support professional judgement but shouldn’t contain opinion e.g. permanency planning meeting on 6th June 2010 decision made not to pursue rehabilitation is recording the fact that this decision was made NOT your opinion that this was the right decision
It doesn’t replace recording which is about more detail and more sensitive info
This may result in “not seeing the wood from the trees”
Chronologies are not a substitute for effective recording

4. Good practice: a good chronology should be:
Factually based & accurate, mistakes particularly concerning dates of birth can get repeated
Based on information contained in the child’s file, including multi-agency interventions
Include a very brief summary of the action or non action taken
Up to date and reviewed -used as a current working tool
Would you like your records to be inaccurate?
Inaccuracy could be dangerous e.g age of child or getting dates wrong about events
It would be great if we could move to a MULTI-AGENCY chronology but at least lets try to get our records in order so we as a single agency know what has happened
Think about WHY you are recording what you are recording “Phonecall to Mrs Jones” on 6/6/2010 is neither use nor ornament-what did you discuss? Was there any action needed afterwards?
Up to date-its not an add on or a luxury ,if we establish a chronology and maintain it this will save time in the long run and will promote SAFER practice
Would you (if you were a service user) want services from an agency who coulnt get the names of your children right or who expected you to tell your story over and over again as they see different SWs who havent read the files?
Conversely lots of service users will deliberately mislead us-poor recording means they can get away with this and that child will not be safe as we do not really know whats gone on before (past history best predictor)

5. Why do we need up to date chronologies?
Gives relevant information about previous history, including strengths
Provides continuity so we can see immediately what has happened
Presents clear accurate information
Helps focus on key events
Gives an evidence base
Allows professionals to put the pieces of a jigsaw together
Previous history is one of the key ways we can gauge risk and predict what may happen in the future
The UP TO DATE bit is extremely important-a chronology that is 6 months old and hasn’t been updated would be no good to a new social worker taking over the case and may give a completely false picture of whats happening to the child

6. Key questions in considering the importance of chronologies:
What information are we using to make our decisions?
Do we have the ‘full picture?’
What are the implications for the child if we don’t have the full picture?
Children and families often have extensive histories, contained in multiple case files. These families will have experienced changes of social worker and of team, often over a number of years.
We need to know what life has been/ and is like for that child or young person
A person who knows nothing about the case beforehand should be able to read it and get a good over view
The child should emerge from it! The child’s story is important

7. Multi Agency Chronology in child protection practice
A single incident, no matter how significant or insignificant it may appear in itself, often takes on a far greater importance in the life of a child when placed in the context of a proper, time-lined integrated chronology.
When should you write a chronology?
At the beginning of any assessment involving risk or complex need.
At any “threshold point”
When work on a case is stuck; interventions are not effective and a change of course is required.
Who should write a chronology?
The key worker should be responsible for creating the multi-agency chronology following discussion with multi- agency partners. This should be collated from the individual agency chronologies
A good starting point for this would be at core groups
How should you write a chronology?
Talking directly to service users
Talking to families and professionals
Case records
Information from other agencies
Medical history
Caution!
When completing a chronology in a core group be careful not to take your eye off the progress of the protection plan

8. A tool for analysis, detecting patterns, gauging risk
Highlights risks & vulnerabilities, strengths & resilience
Patterns in social history & behaviour detected, events can appear insignificant in isolation but together can be identified as warning signs
Highlights people in the child’s life already known by agencies, the nature of current relationships between families and their wider social networks
Highlights gaps, missing details and inconsistencies that require further assessment and identification
Use as a reflective tool -for multi-agency working together-in supervision and for key decision making
Professionals judgement comes into it- why they attach significance to some issues and not to others
Past events are often good predictors for the future
Use it in supervision-should be used for key decision making-should be updated and reviewed
Can use it with multi-agency group of professionals to gauge risk and protective factors
One professional may have a vital piece of info or a different perspective on it which is crucial in gauging risk
Patterns and connections are important-don’t treat pieces of information separately-how do they link together?
Professionals must use judgement-one key event in one child’s life might not be relevant to another child

9. What information should be included?
Chronology starts with d.o.b of child generally but where appropriate it is important to record previous family history e.g mother was abused when she was a child
A significant event is one having an impact on the child’s development, either directly to the child, or through the child’s environment.
There are key events that should be included in all chronologies, however this can never be an exhaustive list, as every child’s circumstances will be different.
What may be a key event on one child’s life, such as a good school attendance after a long period of absence, would not be of relevance to another child.

10. Chronologies should include:
Date of birth of child
Start/end dates of practitioner involvement
Changes of practitioner
Strategy meetings and S47 investigations
Assessments
Also significant other incidents e.g significant observation during home visits
CP plans / de-planned
Changes in GP/Health professionals
Medical history including accidents/incidents requiring treatment
Serious illness
Hospital admissions
Diagnosis of specific condition
Being looked after
Changes in placement
Change in legal status
Change of name
Change in birth family household/relationships
Change in birth family address
Change in school/college
School exclusions/incidents
Absence from school
EHC Plan
Educational performance & results
Employment
Police logs about family/household including DV
Criminal proceedings & offences
Transition Plan
Permanence Plan
Pathway Plan