Edinburgh and the Lothians Multi-agency Child Protection Procedures - Plain Text Web Version
10. What is Child Protection?
Child Protection refers to the processes involved in consideration, assessment and planning of required action, together with the actions themselves, where there are concerns that a child may be at risk of harm (National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland, 2021).
The first stage of the Child Protection process is when a concern has been identified and a Child Protection referral is made to one of the core agencies (Police, Social Work or Health). All concerns which may indicate risk of significant harm must lead to an Inter-Agency Referral Discussion (IRD). Child Protection Procedures can and should be used to address risk of significant harm in any context or setting, within and beyond the family.
'Harm' in this context refers to the ill-treatment or the impairment of the health or development of the child, including, for example, impairment suffered as a result of seeing or hearing the ill treatment of another. 'Development' can mean physical, intellectual, emotional, social or behavioural development. 'Health' can mean physical or mental health. Forming a view on the significance of harm involves information gathering, putting a concern in context, and analysis of the facts and circumstances.
'Significant harm' is not defined in law. The extent to which harm is significant relates to the severity or anticipated severity of the impact on a child's health and development. Professional judgement about the significance of harm will consider:
- The child's experience, needs and feelings as far as they are known;
- The nature, degree and extent of physical or emotional harm;
- The duration and frequency of abuse and neglect;
- Overall parenting capacity;
- The apparent or anticipated impact given the child's age and stage of development;
- Extent of any premeditation; and
- The presence or degree of threat, coercion, sadism and any other factors that may increase risk to do with the child, family or wider context.
A single traumatic event may cause significant harm - for example a violent assault, suffocation or poisoning. More often, significant harm results from an accumulation of events, both acute and long-standing, that interrupt, change or damage the child's physical and psychological development.
