Assessing deaf parents in safeguarding and child protection processes: Deaf experts’ experience of routine social work practice

Abstract

This study concerns Deaf parents whose primary language is British Sign Language (BSL) and who are assessed as part of safeguarding and child protection processes. Seven Deaf-specialist professionals were interviewed in BSL about their experiences of usual practice with Child and Family Social workers who have little or no experience of child protection investigation and safeguarding assessments involving Deaf BSL users. The Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) informed data generation and the approach to analysis in BSL. Findings focus on: (i) getting early interactions right between mainstream social workers and Deaf parents (ii) the practice of relying on written English (iii) problems of cultural adaption between languages (iv) cultural norms in asking questions and (v) challenges arising from a poverty of background information. Recommendations are offered for improving cultural-linguistic practice when working with Deaf parents within safeguarding/child protection.