Protecting Children at a Distance Delphi Quantitative Data 2021
The following dataset consists of a spreadsheet file containing survey data from the second-stage of the Protecting Children at a Distance study.
The study utilised a two-stage modified Delphi methodology to elicit responses from safeguarding leaders from all
professional disciplines involved in child safeguarding and protection. The first stage, which
took place between June and September 2020, comprised 67 interviews with London-based
safeguarding and child protection leaders within seven professional groups: Children’s Social
Care, Health, Mental Health, Police, Education, Law and Safeguarding Partnerships.
Interviewees’ priorities and responses informed the questions and response options for the
second stage, a national survey distributed to similar professional groups in February–March
2021, which elicited 417 responses for analysis. Respondents represented all regions in England, with London and the South East accounting for 45% of overall survey representation.
Respondents were a very senior and experienced group of respondents with a predominantly
strategic perspective, including Directors of Children’s Social Care, Safeguarding Partnership
Independent Scrutineers/Business Managers, headteachers or Designated Safeguarding
Leads, Designated and Named Health and Mental Health Professionals, Police safeguarding
leads at area level, and local authority and children’s panel lawyers.
Ethical approval for the study was granted by the King’s College London Research Ethics
Committee [LRS-19/20-19420]. Stage 1 was deemed a service evaluation by participating NHS
organisations. The Health Research Agency (HRA) confirmed that NHS ethical approval was
not needed for stage 2 on 13th January 2021. The study is funded by the King’s Together: Multi
& Interdisciplinary Research Scheme and the Economic & Social Research Council Impact
Acceleration Accounts Social Science Impact Fund.
Survey respondents were provided with a study information sheet and provided consent prior to starting the survey.