Advice for professionals

What to do if you have concerns about the safety or welfare of a child or young person

Everyone working with children and families should be familiar with their organisation’s policies and procedures to safeguard children, including which individual they should notify if they have any concerns. This is likely to be their line manager or a designated person with responsibility for child protection. This person will usually be responsible for referring concerns on to the social work team.

Some organisations, such as health trusts, expect all professionals to act on their own initiative and refer concerns directly to the social work team. Everyone should know the procedure in their own organisation before the need arises to report abuse or neglect.

Whether or not your organisation has its own policy, all professionals must follow the All Wales Child Protection Procedures.

When there is a suspicion or allegation that a child is being abused or neglected

All suspicions or allegations should be reported to the duty social worker at the Intake and Referral Team.  If the situation arises out of office hours and you feel that an urgent response is needed, you should contact the Emergency Duty Team. Where immediate action is required to ensure a child’s safety - for example if they are left alone or found wandering in a public place - the police should be contacted. Contact numbers are at the bottom of this page.

If you are unsure whether or not you should be making a referral you should telephone the duty social worker and discuss your concerns. It is part of their role to advise referrers as to the best course of action in cases of doubt. It may be that you will be advised to monitor the situation or gain further information.

Sometimes the level of concern from one professional is not enough in itself to warrant an investigation. If this is the situation you will be told and given advice about what to do in future. Whatever the outcome, your concerns will be recorded so that, if another person should contact the social work team with further information, your call will be taken into account when they decide what action to take. Often it is only when information has been received from several sources that a picture emerges of a child who is suffering significant harm.

If your referral is accepted you will be asked to fill in a referral form and send or fax it to the Intake and Referral Team within 2 days. Please include as much information as you can without causing further delay.

Professionals cannot remain anonymous when making a child protection referral. If you feel that you could be put at risk if your name is disclosed to the family you will need to discuss this with the duty social worker.

Experience has shown that children can be more effectively safeguarded if parents are kept fully informed about the process. It is good practice to inform the family if you are intending to make a social work referral, unless to do so would put the child at risk of further harm. If you need advice about whether and how to do this you should ask the duty social worker.

All concerns about a child should be noted in detail in your own records, together with any action you have taken and the response from other agencies.

Confidentiality

Information about possible harm to a child is sensitive personal information and should not be shared with anyone who does not need to know. You should only discuss concerns with your line manager or a designated person with responsibility for child protection and the duty social worker in the first instance.

The Data Protection Act 1998 makes it clear that any duty of confidentiality which a professional owes to their client is overridden by the duty to report information about possible harm to a child or vulnerable adult. It is good practice to obtain the consent of the parents and child or young person before sharing sensitive information; but if this is not possible or advisable there is nothing in law which stops you from passing on your concerns.

What next?

Protecting children is a multi-agency responsibility, and you may be asked to attend a case conference and meetings of the core group which ensures that action is taken to keep the child safe. You will need to be committed both to attending those meetings and to being actively involved in supporting the family and / or monitoring the child’s safety and welfare. If for any reason you are unable to attend a conference or core group meeting you should inform your line manager or the designated person with responsibility for child protection and ask them to arrange for a colleague to attend in your place.

The All Wales Child Protection Procedures can be accessed on the Children in Wales website - follow the ‘websites’ tab above.