Professional curiosity
What is professional curiosity?
Professional curiosity is a communication skill to explore and understand what is really going on within a family.
We develop this critical skill instead of:
- making assumptions
- accepting versions of events at face value
- accepting the opinions of one person
All practitioners working with children, young people and their family need to have this skill.
As professionals, we have a duty to be curious and inquisitive about families’ circumstances and events. We can then effectively identify vulnerabilities and support the family appropriately within safeguarding responsibilities. We need to be aware of potential or actual risks of harm.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the emphasis on this skill has become even more apparent. With less opportunities for ‘face to face’ meetings and visits – and the switch to online methods and phone calls – our ability to pick up on visual ‘signs and clues’ has been restricted.
We must be creative in our thinking and approach, utilising professional curiosity through the range of different contact methods.
Children rarely, as we know, disclose any worries, abuse or neglect directly to practitioners and, if they do, it will often be through certain behaviour or comments.
To be professionally curious is the first step in keeping children and young people safe and to provide the right help at the right time.
We must engage with children, young people and their families at the earliest opportunity before problems escalate into a crisis.
Using your professional curiosity
We should use our curiosity to:
- test out our professional assumptions
- see past the ‘obvious’
- to triangulate the information we receive from various sources so we can better understand the functioning of a family functioning which, in turn, helps us to predict what may/is likely to happen in the future
It’s about:
- looking
- listening
- asking direct questions
- checking out and reflecting on all the information we receive
Why is professional curiosity important?
- As practitioners, professional curiosity gives us the ability to take a ‘holistic view and understanding’ of what life is like for a child and young person within their family environment and what may be happening with that family
- It helps us to assess the needs and any potential risks
- Without our professional curiosity, we risk missing opportunities to identify less obvious indicators of vulnerability
- Case reviews have shown us that, in the worst circumstances, missing opportunities and not utilising our ‘professional curiosity’ has resulted in death or serious abuse. This has occurred both nationally and locally, when practitioners have responded to presenting issues in isolation
How to be professionally curious
- don't be afraid to ask questions of families
- ask questions in an open way so families know that you are asking to keep children and young people safe, not to judge or criticise
- ask for clarity from the family or other professionals
- be open to challenging, or having challenged, your own assumptions, views and interpretations as to what is happening – triangulate the information you hold
- be open to the unexpected, and incorporate information that does not support your initial assumptions into your assessment of what life is like for the child in the family
- think about what you see as well as what you’re told. Are there any visual clues as to what life is like, or which don’t triangulate with the information you already hold
- think is there anything about what you are seeing which prompts questions or makes you feel uneasy or concerned?
- think about the body language you are seeing, what is it telling you?
- think about the behaviour you are seeing, what is it telling you?
- think, does what you are seeing contradict or support what you are hearing?
