5.1 Child protection procedures are initiated when police, social work or health determine that a child may have been significantly harmed or may be at risk of significant harm.
5.2 Concerns about harm from abuse, neglect or exploitation may arise in a number of ways including:
- because of what a child has said
- over a period of time
- in response to a particular incident
- as a result of direct observations
- through reports from family, from a third party, or from an anonymous source
- if children are known to social work or have an existing child’s plan
- through notification that a child may become a member of the same household as a child in respect of whom any of the offences mentioned
- in Schedule 1 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 has been committed, or as a person who has committed any of the offences mentioned in Schedule 1
5.3 All Referrals for born and unborn children - are received through the Single Access Point (SAP ) who assess the referral and decide whether this should go to the MASH for consideration of an Inter-agency Referral Discussion (IRD). If there is an accumulation of concerns or crisis, the allocated worker/ SSW can request an IRD. Police and Health professionals can bring their own information to request an IRD. All requests for an IRD are recorded on an Inter-agency Referral Discussion Notification Form (IRDNF) which are then considered in a tripartite discussion (Police, Health and Social Work). This involves initial screening and then a decision is made regarding whether an IRD will be held. If agreed this should take place within 24 hours.
Dumfries and Galloway Social Work Call Handling Team
Telephone: 030 33 33 3001
5.4 Social Work will gather background information from education (Named Person when available or the Education Safeguarding Manager during holiday periods) to inform the IRD. Relevant persons who have important information will be included within the IRD as necessary. Consideration should be given to whether a joint child and adult IRD is required if there are concerns of an adult support and protection nature as well as child protection. All 16–17- year-olds should be considered within child protection processes unless there are exceptional circumstances. This decision will be made within MASH alongside adult colleagues to ensure the best support and protection is received using the most appropriate legislation.
5.5 Pre-Birth - To assess if an unborn child is at risk of harm or exposed to parental behaviours which could have a significant impact on their health, safety and development, consideration needs to be given to the seriousness of the behaviours, the impact (on the unborn child) and likelihood of the harmful behaviours happening in the future.
5.6 Concerns for unborn children may include, but not exclusively, domestic abuse, parental substance use, parental mental health issues and criminality, where these would impact on the child’s health, care and safety. Parents themselves may be vulnerable adults who require support and/ or protection. Certain risk factor are specific to pregnancy and include late presentation/ booking and concealed pregnancy.
5.7 Confirmation of an ongoing viable pregnancy should be sought with the specialist midwife if this is unclear prior to the IRD. If an IRD is being held for an unborn child, the specialist midwife should be advised by either health or social work representative from MASH and updated of the outcome and recommendations the same working day. If the decision is not to progress under child protection processes, a recommendation should be made as to whether or not a Pre-Birth assessment and plan are required.
5.8 If child protection concerns arise at any stage of a pre-birth assessment for an unborn child, these should be referred to the Single Access Point/ MASH. If an assessment is in the process of being completed this can be updated to include a risk assessment in place of a child protection inquiry.
5.9 If child protection concerns are identified for an unborn child and there are older children in the care of the parent, the older children’s needs and vulnerabilities should also be considered within the risk assessment.