Guidance on Joint Investigative Interviewing of Child Witnesses in Scotland

APPENDIX A: Quick Guide: Conducting the investigative interview

1. At the planning meeting

• any reason not to visually record?
• any special needs?
• equipment available/location?
• is this a complex case needing special arrangements?
• agree who will lead, and signals if one interviewer is to be in the control room
• discuss whether support person is necessary

2. Prepare the interview setting

• ensure there will be no interruptions ( e.g. unplug telephones, switch off mobiles)
• remove any distracting material
• ensure adequate seating and equipment are available and laid out in a 'child-friendly' arrangement
• insert new DVDs
• check camera angles and focus and carry out other technical checks
• record reasons, time and date, officers involved, child's name and age

3. Information about the interview and its record

• inform the child and their parent/carer that an interview is being undertaken and how it is to be recorded
• check understanding and allow child to ask questions
• do not imply that recording means no further interviews
• if child objects, reconsider visually recording - may use audio recording only option and/or written record instead
• brief support person where one is to be present for any part of the interview

4. Introductions

• state date and start and end times for the record
• introduce yourself to the child, giving name, occupation and role (in a general way; don't mention words such as "risk" and "child protection")
• allow child to settle; have brief "icebreaker" chat about neutral event ( e.g.TV) Avoid using reference to school as an "icebreaker" chat as the child's experience of school is unlikely to be known to the interviewer
• avoid mentioning the allegation and avoid instilling any stereotypes about the alleged perpetrator

5. Establish the interview principles; not just a litany at start but throughout

• the child will do most of the talking
• the interviewer wasn't there so needs the child's help to understand what happened
• it is OK to say "I don't know/remember/understand" and to correct the interviewer when they get something wrong
• the child should not guess, or make up any answers. They should always tell the truth ( i.e. what they know from having seen with their own eyes, heard with their own ears, etc.)
• if questions are repeated this does not mean the child's first answer was wrong or thought to be a lie

6. Reminders for interviewers

• the recording includes pace, pauses, questions and body language of both interviewer and child, and anyone else (such as a supporter) present
• the interview should follow the child's pace
• be tolerant of pauses; don't interrupt the child
• be aware of signs of fatigue or loss of concentration. Let the child know how long the interview might take and when breaks will be available
• keep an open mind

7. Second interviewer

• take note of salient points only; remember that these will be submitted in evidence
• focus on monitoring the interview, welfare of the child, alerting lead interviewer of points to probe
• agree to use prearranged signals to contribute when invited
• if in control room, check one camera focused on child's face throughout and other shows a view of the whole room including everyone present

8. Complete rapport building with a practice interview

• ask the child to recall a neutral personally-experienced event ( e.g. a holiday)
• tell them to report everything they remember about the event from beginning to end
• avoid specific questions
• encourage a spontaneous narrative from the child using facilitators, e.g. "That sounds interesting, tell me more"

9. Raising topic of concern

• raise the topic, beginning with the least suggestive prompt
• if this is not successful, proceed gradually onto more specific prompts
• avoid suggesting any wrongdoing ( e.g. by using words such as "hurt", "bad")

10. Free narrative

• encourage a spontaneous account from the child using general probes, e.g. "Tell me about that"
• use open-ended prompts to follow when the child has finished speaking, e.g. "And then what happened?"
• also use facilitators to keep the narrative flowing, e.g. "uh huh"

11. Questioning

• refer back to things that the child has mentioned previously in free narrative
• try to determine whether the episode of abuse was single or repeated
• try to cover the sequence of topics in the same order as the child raised them
• use the least direct/specific types of questions wherever possible
• clarify any ambiguities, inconsistencies, or unfamiliar terms/names used by the child, in a way that does not imply suspicion, disbelief or mockery

12. Closure

• summarise main evidential points using child's language as much as possible
• check whether second interviewer has any questions
• ask child if they have any questions
• don't make promises that cannot be kept
• provide contact names/addresses/numbers
• thank child for their time
• revert to neutral topics

13. Afterwards

• ask parent, carer or child to sign the consent form
• obtain recording number from log
• seal master copy of DVDs with evidence labels
• store in secure location
• arrange the debriefing session with further action to be considered