| SUMMARY
OVERVIEW |
| Paragraphs |
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Purpose and scope of the guidance |
| 1.7 - 1.9 |
This guidance is addressed to all agencies
working with children and families in the statutory,
voluntary or independent sectors, who may have to respond
to information or allegations that a child is at risk of
significant harm or abuse. It should help agencies and
professionals to understand each other’s roles and
functions, and make the best use of their experience and
expertise in safeguarding children. The guidance
complements The Scottish Office guidance issued on the
Children (Scotland) Act 1995 and other guidance to
specific agencies, such as education or health services.
It should inform local agency guidelines and procedures. |
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Context |
| 1.1 - 1.13 |
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
and the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 set out the
principles and themes which underpin good practice in
work to protect children. At the heart of these is
listening to children and their families and taking
account of their views. Agencies should provide
sufficient help at an early stage to reduce the need for
compulsory intervention in families’ lives. But
where a family is not able to care for their child
safely, agencies must act promptly and with skill, to
protect the child. In doing so they should avoid causing
the child undue distress or adding unnecessarily to any
harm already suffered by the child. The welfare of the
child is the paramount consideration when his or her
needs are considered by Courts, Children’s Hearings
and local authorities. |
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Research indicates that many children at
risk of harm live in families in which social exclusion,
domestic violence, mental illness or misuse of drugs or
alcohol are significant factors. Good health care,
education and family support are essential services to
safeguard and promote children’s welfare and
strengthen the capacity of families under stress to meet
the needs of their children before problems escalate to
abuse or neglect. Child protection is one aspect of
services geared towards meeting children’s wider
developmental needs and should not be seen as a separate
activity. No one agency should be seen as solely
responsible for the protection of vulnerable children. |
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| 1.15 - 1.16 6.1
- 6.12
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Some groups of children are particularly
vulnerable or have additional needs, and agencies should
consider their circumstances with special care. These
include children affected by disability, children from
minority ethnic groups or who do not have English as a
first language and children living away from home in
residential or other settings. |
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ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES |
| Part 2 2.11
- 2.15
2.21
- 2.23
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Child abuse and neglect have implications
for child welfare, criminal justice and other agencies'
responsibilities. Each agency makes a distinctive
contribution to safeguarding children’s welfare
within a context of collaboration and shared
understanding. Co-operation in child protection is
underpinned by joint procedures prepared by inter-agency
Child Protection Committees, to which all relevant
agencies contribute, and appropriate inter-agency
training. These procedures should deal with the
arrangements for responding to and sharing of information
about allegations of child abuse, and accessing
specialist advice or expertise. All agencies should have
arrangements in place for selecting suitable staff, and
for supervising, training and supporting them to carry
out their tasks. |
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THE CHILD PROTECTION REGISTER |
| Part 3 |
Registration is an administrative system for
alerting workers to the fact that there is sufficient
professional concern about a child to warrant an
inter-agency child protection plan. It ensures that the
plans for these children are reviewed at least every six
months. Local authorities are responsible for maintaining
a Register of all children who are the subject of an
inter-agency child protection plan, which provides a
central point of rapid enquiry for professionals who are
concerned about a child’s development, welfare or
safety. The decision to place a child’s name on the
Child Protection Register is taken by a
multi-disciplinary case conference. |
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WORKING TOGETHER TO PROTECT CHILDREN |
| 4.1, 4.7 - 4.9 |
Part 4 provides guidance to agencies on
responding effectively to allegations of abuse or neglect
in individual cases: |
| 4.4 - 4.6 |
- agencies need to
understand the causes and be alert to signs of
child abuse and neglect, and be willing to
provide help and support at an early stage
|
| 4.10 |
- informed responses to
reports of abuse from a child or any other person
should not pre-empt or prejudice child protection
inquiries or criminal investigation
|
| 4.8 |
- local authorities
should plan child protection inquiries in close
consultation with the police and other agencies,
in particular health and education
|
| 4.26 - 4.29 |
- evidence should be
gathered in ways which ensure the effective
prosecution of crimes against children
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| 4.17 - 4.20 |
- legal measures to
protect children are available through the Courts
in emergencies or when families are unwilling to
assist
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| 4.49 - 4.55 |
- all agencies should
contribute to assessments and decisions about how
to protect children from abuse, and give priority
to helping children recover from the trauma of
child abuse or neglect
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| 4.43 - 4.48 |
- agencies should work
in partnership with families, by informing and
involving them in decisions and enabling them to
participate actively in plans
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JOINT INVESTIGATION |
| 5.1 - 5.3 |
Joint investigation describes the process
whereby social work, police and health professionals plan
and carry out their respective tasks together when
responding to complex or substantial child protection
referrals. All referrals of child sexual abuse should be
considered for joint investigation. |
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| 5.4 - 5.13 |
The police and social work service should
share and jointly evaluate all relevant information at an
initial planning meeting or discussion, involving health
services wherever possible. Planning should consider the
needs of and risk to the child, as well as the conduct of
child protection inquiries and any criminal
investigation. Medical information and assessment may
assist the planning and management of any inquiries. |
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| 5.14 - 5.24 |
When dealing with allegations of organised
abuse, agencies should adopt a measured approach to
investigation which takes care not to prejudice efforts
to collect evidence for criminal prosecution of an abuser
or group of abusers, but which has the welfare of any
child or children at risk as the paramount consideration.
The senior investigating police officer may decide to
make use of the Home Office Large Major Enquiry System
(HOLMES) to enable effective investigation of suspected
multi-abuse cases. |
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Note: This summary overview provides readers
with a brief indication of what the guidance contains.
Those who will need to use the guidance in their
day-to-day work should study the whole document. |
