🔍 Professional Curiosity

⚖️ What WT2026 Requires

Working Together 2026 is explicit: practitioners must maintain professional curiosity and not accept information at face value when working with families.

SCR and SUSR learning repeatedly identifies a failure of professional curiosity as a factor where children came to serious harm — particularly in cases involving:

• Domestic abuse hidden from services
• Neglect normalised over time
• Disguised compliance by parents
• Professionals seeing the adult, not the child
• Optimism bias — assuming things will improve

🔢 The 6 Practical Methods

🚧 Common Barriers

• Disguised compliance — family appear engaged; scrutinise actual change, not just co-operation
• Optimism bias — hoping things will improve; focus on evidence
• Familiarity — long-standing cases; step back and view with fresh eyes
• Fear of conflict — professionals avoid challenge to keep relationship intact
• Workload — high caseloads suppress curiosity; escalate if this is the case
• Cultural humility deficit — assumptions about "normal" that exclude marginalised groups

🗣️ Voice of the Child

Professional curiosity includes actively seeking and recording the child's own perspective — not just what adults say about the child.

• See the child alone where possible — even briefly
• Use age-appropriate language and tools (drawing, Three Houses)
• Record what the child said, not your interpretation of it
• If the child is non-verbal — observe closely and document
• Ask: "What do you like? What worries you? What would you like to change?"
• Don't stop at one visit — trust develops over time

📝 Recording Standards

• Record facts separately from analysis
• Note what you observed, smelled, heard — not just what was said
• Record your professional judgement and why you made the decision you did
• If you did NOT refer — record why not
• Use contemporaneous notes — record same day where possible
• Avoid jargon and abbreviations that others won't understand
• Records may be read at a serious case review — write accordingly

🚨 When to Escalate

If your professional curiosity raises concerns that are not being acted on, escalate:

• Speak to your line manager / DSL immediately
• If disagreement with another agency — use the professional challenge / escalation policy
• If a child is at immediate risk — do not wait for agreement: refer to MASH or call 999
• Whistleblowing protections apply (Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998)