Professional curiosity when safeguarding children

Professional curiosity is the capacity and skill to explore and understand what is happening within a family rather than making assumptions or accepting things at face value.

This has been described as the need for workers to practice ‘respectful uncertainty’ – applying a critical eye to any information they receive and keeping an open mind. In safeguarding the term ‘safe uncertainty’ is used to describe an approach which is focused on safety but that takes into account changing information, different perspectives and acknowledges that certainty may not be achievable.

Nurturing professional curiosity and challenge is a fundamental aspect of working together to keep children and young people safe. In this interactive workshop we will look at what professional curiosity means to you in your role, why it's so important and how we be curious when working with children, young people and their families.