Professional curiosity is a key part of safeguarding which involves exploring a person’s life and situation by asking questions, listening, and looking. It’s about trying to understand what’s happening for a person, rather than making assumptions or accepting things at face value.

‘Professional curiosity is a recurring theme within safeguarding reviews, highlighting the need to fully understand a family’s situation. Therefore, professional curiosity is important, as it enables a practitioner to have a holistic view and understanding of what is happening within a family and what life is like for an individual and use this information to fully assess potential risks.  Being professionally curious enables practitioners to challenge parents/ carers, in order to understand a child or young person’s vulnerability or risk, while maintaining an objective, professional and supportive approach.’ Professional curiosity – one minute guide

Maintaining a professional curiosity ensures information is gathered and shared which will inform and assess needs and risks. Professional curiosity means we try to understand what life is like for a child on a day-to-day basis: their lived experience.

‘The ‘lived experience of the child’ is; ‘What a child sees, hears, thinks and experiences on a daily basis that impacts on their personal development and welfare whether that be physically or emotionally. We need to; actively hear what the child has to say or communicate, observe what they do in different contexts, hear what family members, significant adults/carers and professionals have said about the child, and to think about history and context. Ultimately, we need to put ourselves in that child’s shoes and think ‘what is life like for this child right now?’ The lived experience of the child

In order to be truly curious about a child’s life professionals also need to maintain an attitude of respectful uncertainty. This means applying a critical eye to the information given by a child’s parents/carers, rather than just ‘taking their word for it’ and keeping an open mind and being able to think objectively about the evidence presented.

There are several barriers to professional curiosity, including:

• Over optimism
• Making assumptions
• Unconscious bias
• Lacking confidence or assertive to ask sensitive questions
• Being afraid to raise concerns.

Ways to be curious include:

• Ask questions of families, doing so in an open way
• Don’t make presumptions, be open to the unexpected
• Consider what you see as well as hear
• Take time to reflect and collate information
• Work together with agencies and professionals engaged with the child and family
• Be aware of how you interpret situations through your own background and beliefs
• Triangulate multiple sources of information – do not rely on a single set of details

The following resource pack: Professional Curiosity Resource Pack and information sheet: Professional curiosity information sheet

This blog was written by Bretta Townend-Jowitt, Education Consultant and Trainer.