What does 'Continue to Monitor' actually mean?
Two weeks ago I mentioned how often the phrase 'Continue to Monitor' gets bandied about in safeguarding. So let's take a closer look at what it actually means for DSL's...
*NB This article contains references to families or children. The details in these descriptions are completely made up, but used to represent underlying truths that have come from real experiences I have had in my work.
Last Summer, for reasons I can’t completely remember, my family hired a small boat for the day. Obviously as soon as we were out of sight of the kind and naïve people that rented us this boat, it seemed necessary to give all of our children (aged 12, 10 and 3), a go at steering it along the river. This in turn involved lots of zig-zagging, quite a lot of shouting and a near death experience for a family of ducks that found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. The reason for this chaos is that steering a boat along a straight river is actually quite boring, and kids do not really like boring. They are very fond of pressing buttons and making wild swings on the steering wheel. Basically, they like doing things, or failing that watching things happen. What they like a lot less is just keeping a watchful eye on something that isn’t really doing much. So they are not very keen on going along at a leisurely pace, sitting still, keeping their eyes on the river ahead whilst making only minor adjustments to the direction of travel. There are other activities like this: activities that involve a lot of watching and not a lot of doing, like fishing, bird-spotting or watching a cricket match. If you ever have the misfortune to attempt any of these activities with young children, you have my sympathy.
What’s all of this got to do with being a DSL though? Well sometimes – maybe even most of the time – being a DSL is like this. Because so much of the time our safeguarding efforts revolve around watching and observing. Yes, we take actions. But as we discussed in the last piece, for a whole host of reasons, lots of the time the best course of action for a situation or child is to monitor them. We monitor in our heads, we monitor on the playground and we monitor in conversations with colleagues. We write ‘Continue to Monitor’ on our safeguarding recording systems. We say we will ‘continue to monitor’ in meetings. Social workers ask us to ‘continue to monitor’ things. But what exactly do we mean when we say we are going to monitor something? What is monitoring, and how can we make sure we do it really well?
I think as DSL’s we are naturally drawn to the idea of monitoring, perhaps even more than safeguarding professionals from other agencies. This might be mainly because of the sheer amount of contact time we have with our children. A class teacher will often spend more time with a pupil in their class in one week than all of the professionals from the police, health services and social care might do put together over a whole year. We are very well placed to monitor our children and families. It’s one of the essential – and unfortunately sometimes under-appreciated – roles schools can fulfil in multi-agency networks.
Monitoring is also often not just a failure to act, but actually the best action available. Putting aside for a second the fact that we have to choose which things to spend our time and efforts acting on, and which to leave, there are lots of situations where jumping to conclusions, storming in or meddling unnecessarily can do real damage. And lots of situations where taking the time to better understand the problem, build relationships and identify solutions is a good idea. For all of these reasons, ‘just monitoring’ a situation is not only justifiable, it is also often the best way forward.
But saying we are going to monitor something doesn’t completely explain what we are actually going to do. Who is going to do the monitoring? What specifically are they going to monitor? And how? These might seem like silly questions, but are the answers always really that obvious? What does the word ‘monitoring’ mean in your school? This is something I’ve thought about quite a lot. And now, whenever I read a concern on our system, and I am going to write ‘Continue to Monitor’ on it, I will try to provide a little bit more detail about what I actually mean.
Broadly speaking, our monitoring falls into one of four different levels, which I’ve outlined below. The examples I’ve used for each level are not important, because different contexts will have different thresholds, and your monitoring will often happen alongside other actions you are taking, which I haven’t gone into here. Hopefully the useful thing is to demonstrate how different levels of monitoring can be used and how you can be clear in what these levels are.
1) ‘Continue to monitor through whole school processes’
You could call this Standard Monitoring, and it’s basically the lowest level of monitoring that you do. For example, a staff member has recorded that Charlotte told them that Mum has been getting more grumpy recently. From your knowledge of the family this does not ring alarm bells. From what you know of Charlotte this seems like a likely thing she would say, that probably reflects the normal ups and downs of family life. You’re pleased it’s been recorded but you don’t feel like it requires further attention at this point. So you say that it will have standard monitoring, or monitoring through whole school processes. This means that staff will monitor this situation in the same way that they monitor everything, and will record any further observations or concerns around Charlotte and her Mum in line with their general training and your normal safeguarding policies. It essentially means that the situation will get the attention that you would expect any issue to get: any significant things will be recorded as and when they happen, nothing more, nothing less. It’s business as usual.
2) ‘Staff to monitor and record, specifically observations or comments around Mum and any changes or developments in relation to this’
You could call this Targeted Monitoring. Continuing our earlier example, you might use this if the staff member has recorded that Charlotte also been more emotional recently, as well as saying that Mum is often tired and grumpy. It’s an instance where you want the relevant staff to be looking out for something specific that they might not ordinarily be looking out for. So, in this example, they might record in a few days time that Charlotte has been falling out with her friends more, or that Mum seemed unusually distracted at parents evening. You’re basically saying we are now keeping an eye on this situation in a more deliberate and concentrated way than we were before. Obviously for this to work, all of the relevant staff who might possibly be able to do this monitoring need to have been told what it is that you really want them to be looking out for.
3) ‘Monitor and Review in 8 weeks’
Hands up, this is a favourite of mine. I’m going to call it Scheduled Monitoring. As before, you need staff to be aware of what they are looking for and recording any observations they make. But the additional step here is that you’ve identified a timescale for this monitoring to take place, and you are going to come back at the end of that timescale to ensure that the monitoring has been adequately completed and that the information you have gained has been adequately assessed. To return to our previous example, you might use this in response to a concern that Charlotte has been more emotional recently and she has said that Mum’s new partner seems nice but Mum keeps getting upset with him because he doesn’t help out enough. The timescale for review could change depending on the situation: if you’re monitoring the treatment being applied to a wound you might set the review for three days away, if you’re monitoring for potentially concerning injuries you might set it for six months. But the concept is the same. Decide how long to allow for your monitoring and then at the end of that period review what you’ve learned. What else has been added to the chronology in the mean time? What observations have colleagues made on how the child is presenting, or how Mum seems and any interactions they’ve had with the new partner? Are there any changes in attendance? Has the partner been added to the contact list? Does someone need to check in with the kid, and if so what did they say? And then once you’ve reviewed all of this monitoring, you can reach a new decision (which may be an action to take, may be to extend the monitoring or may then be to file your original concern). The point is it’s robust and brings an element of rigour that you won’t get through just writing ‘Continue to Monitor’ on a concern.
*Word of warning here: through my job I have now become a bit obsessed with ‘Scheduled Monitoring’ and I do it all the time. At work, for safeguarding things. But also for other stuff. And even at home. There are dates in my work diary to review specific safeguarding concerns, but also now to review things like whether the Year 5’s have gotten any better at sorting their football teams. There are dates in my personal diary to review the leak under the bath or whether I have been managing to eat more fruit.
Why do I like doing this so much? I guess it prevents you from spending every day thinking “Should I do something about this?”. In other words, it’s a way of parking situations and creating some space in your brain, without leaving you feeling like you’re just ignoring a problem or trying to forget about it. It feels controlled and reassuring. It is like monitoring with a plan and a built-in safety net.
4) ‘Daily Monitoring Sheets to be completed for 3 weeks’
This is Intensive Monitoring. We have a few different monitoring recording sheets which we give to staff in specific instances (usually, but not always, around basic care or neglect). Here’s an example you can use…
[NB: I can only upload PDF’s on here, but if you want a Word version that you can edit yourself, drop me a message with your email address and I’ll send you one.]
We use these forms when we want staff to record an observation on a daily basis. The sheets help to capture a really detailed picture of a situation over a period of time (which can be used to assess things, make further decisions, and where necessary used as evidence). It is also a way of ensuring that the monitoring is actually getting done (the sheet acts as a reminder to staff that they’re supposed to be monitoring the situation and gives you a way of checking that they are doing so). More often than not this is for cases where there is already a social worker involved. Either way, we always tell parents/carers if we’re going to be doing these - which they don’t always like, but at least it’s transparent and it reflects and demonstrates the fact that you’re concerned.
So roughly speaking, they are the four levels of monitoring that I operate with. You can think of them as like different strength lenses to put into your microscope. Maybe you’ll find my model helpful, maybe you’ve got your own better way of doing things (in which case please get in touch!). The important thing is that you’ve got monitoring processes that are clear and effective. Because ‘Continue to Monitor’ isn’t just something we say, it’s something we actually do. A lot. And so for the sake of the vulnerable children we work with, it’s worth trying to figure out how we can do it really well.
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Take care and stay safe(guarding).