| PART
3: THE CHILD PROTECTION REGISTER |
| 3.1 Local
authorities are responsible for maintaining a central
register, known as the Child Protection Register, of all
children who are the subject of an inter-agency child
protection plan. The authority may have its own Register,
or may maintain a combined Register with other
authorities. 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, and ensures that the
plans for these children are formally reviewed at least
every six months. Further inquiries, including criminal
investigation, may continue beyond this stage. The Child
Protection Register provides a central point of rapid
inquiry for professional staff who are concerned about a
child’s safety, development or welfare. |
| 3.2 Standard
definitions of abuse and criteria for placing a
child’s name on the Register were adopted nationally
in 1993 following the recommendations of a joint steering
group on Child Protection Management Information.(10) The categories of abuse for registration
are: |
- Physical injury
- Sexual abuse
- Non-organic failure
to thrive
- Emotional abuse
- Physical neglect
|
| 3.3 The
categories are not discrete and may be present in
combination. For example, sexual abuse may be associated
with physical injury or neglect. Emotional abuse is a
factor present in all forms of abuse and a child should
be registered under this category if persistent and
pervasive emotional abuse is the main reason for
impairment to the child’s health or development in
the absence of other forms of abuse or neglect.
Definitions of the present standard categories are given
in Annex C. In time new forms of abuse of children may
emerge and the standard definitions may have to be
extended. |
| 3.4 Agencies
should be mindful of the need to take an overview of a
child’s welfare and development. A series of
apparently minor injuries, illnesses or infections, or
repeated absences from school may seem insignificant when
looked at as individual incidents. Cumulatively they may
present a pattern, which when considered with all
available information, including that from other
agencies, may indicate neglect or abuse. |
| 3.5 The
decision to place a child’s name on the Register
should be taken by a child protection case conference, or
the chair of the conference, when there are reasonable
grounds to believe or suspect that a child has been
suffering, or will suffer, abuse or neglect, or the child
is at risk of suffering abuse or neglect, and an
inter-agency agreement is needed to protect the child. A
child’s name should be placed on the local Child
Protection Register when: |
a. one or more of the
criteria for registration are met (11); and
|
b. his or her safety
and welfare is considered to require an inter-agency
child protection plan.
|
| 3.6 The
child protection plan provides a framework for
inter-agency assessment, casework and review. The
child’s name and details should be entered on the
Register, with a record of the plan for the child and the
services to be provided. (See Annex B for minimum
information to be entered on the Child Protection
Register.) The local authority should inform the
child’s parents or carers and, if he or she has
sufficient age and understanding, the child, orally and
in writing about information held on the Register and who
has access to it. |
| 3.7 A parent
who is concerned that information held on the Child
Protection Register is inaccurate should be given an
opportunity to discuss this with a manager in the social
work service. Child Protection Committees should consider
a local mechanism enabling parents to challenge decisions
taken by an inter-agency child protection conference, if
they believe the decision is based on inaccurate or
partial information or assessment or other objective
grounds. |
| 3.8 When a
registered child moves from one local authority area to
another the child’s name should be placed on the new
authority’s Child Protection Register pending a
review case conference to discuss the child’s new
circumstances. The local authority in whose area the
child was registered should retain responsibility for the
management of the case until a review case conference has
been held and arrangements agreed for the transfer of the
inter-agency child protection plan to agencies in the
receiving local authority area. The authority into whose
area the child has moved should arrange a review
conference without delay. Education and health records
should be transferred speedily to the relevant receiving
authority. Where the transferring school has contributed
to an inter-agency child protection plan the Head Teacher
should ascertain what arrangements the family have made
for the child’s education in the receiving
authority. These arrangements also apply to cases
transferred to local authorities in England and Wales,
and Northern Ireland. |
| 3.9 The
transferring authority should provide comprehensive
information in writing about the registered child(ren)
and their family, and should include a social and family
history, minutes of the last child protection case
conference and a copy, or written details, of the child
protection plan. If a family in which a child has
previously been named on the Child Protection Register
moves to another local authority area, the transferring
local authority should give the receiving local authority
written information about previous concerns and previous
and current inter-agency involvement. Both authorities
should consider together whether the family’s new
circumstances increase the likelihood of any risk to the
child recurring, or whether the child and family may be
in need of support. |
| |
| Decision
to remove a child’s name from the Child Protection
Register |
| 3.10 When
the professionals who are working with the child and
family decide that the risk to the child has been
eliminated or reduced, the local authority should remove
the child’s name from the Child Protection Register.
A decision to remove a child’s name should normally
be made by a review case conference with representation
or views from all the agencies working with the child. If
an agency does not think a child’s name should be
removed, this should be noted in the minutes of the case
conference which considers de-registration. Child
Protection Committee procedures should describe how these
disagreements may be resolved. |
| 3.11 Removal
of a child’s name from the Register should not
necessarily lead to a reduction or withdrawal of services
or support to the child or family by any or all of the
agencies. The risk of child abuse or neglect may have
been eliminated or reduced but the child may continue to
be a child in need, and require a variety of services
from any or all of the agencies to safeguard and promote
his or her welfare. |
| |
| Making
use of the Register |
| 3.12 The
Register should be maintained by the social work service.
It should be held separately from agency records or case
files, in secure conditions. The social work service
should appoint a person to maintain and manage the
Register - generally known as the Keeper of the Child
Protection Register. The Keeper of the Register should
make sure that all agencies know how to obtain access to
information from the Register at any time. There should
be 24-hour access to the Register for all professional
staff who need to make an inquiry about a child. |
| 3.13 The
Scottish Office Social Work Services Group maintains a
list of current Keepers of Child Protection Registers in
Scotland, and contact points for Child Protection
Registers in other parts of the UK. Local authorities
should notify SWSG, Children’s Services Division
at James Craig Walk, Edinburgh, EH1 3BA
(Telephone 0131 244 5486) of any changes so that the list
can be kept up-to-date. All professional staff should
notify the Keepers of local Registers of any changes in
the details about children named on the Register. |
| 3.14 When a
person makes an inquiry of the Register by telephone, the
Keeper, or equivalent, should confirm the person’s
identity, by calling them back at their place of work,
before giving out information. The inquirer should be
given the name, office address and contact telephone
number of the child’s keyworker, so that the
inquirer can obtain relevant information directly. If the
child about whom an inquiry has been made is not
registered, but has the same address as another child
named on the Register, the inquirer should be given the
same information about the keyworker. In such
circumstances the Keeper should also contact the
keyworker to find out if there is a need to revise
registration information, or for the local authority to
make further inquiries. Where the keyworker is unlikely
to be available, for example out of office hours, the
social work service should make arrangements for minimum
information to be disclosed directly to inquirers at the
point of inquiry, for example through an Out of Hours
Service. A note should be kept of all external inquiries.
The Keeper is responsible for notifying other local
authorities of the need to transfer child protection
registration and copying case conference records when a
family/child moves into, or out of, their area. The
Keeper will also be responsible for attempting to trace a
registered child whose whereabouts becomes unknown. |
