Edinburgh and the Lothians Multi-agency Child Protection Procedures - Plain Text Web Version

What is harm and abuse?

Abuse or neglect may involve inflicting harm or failing to act to prevent harm. Children may be abused or neglected in any setting, and online (for example, social media and gaming forums). Children can be exposed to abuse or exploitation in their school, community or peer group, which makes it hard for those caring for them to keep them safe. Those responsible may be previously unknown or familiar, or in positions of trust. They may be family members. Harm may occur pre-birth, for instance by domestic abuse of a mother or through parental alcohol or drug use.

Consideration of the impact of systemic pressures (including for example, poverty or homelessness) and structural inequalities on children is a core consideration in Child Protection assessment and family support. The way in which risk to a child is impacted by their wider circumstances should always be considered as part of an assessment and plan.

The following list is not exhaustive; see Appendix 1 for more detail about types of harm and abuse.

Physical Abuse

Is causing physical harm to a child or young person. Physical abuse may involve hitting, shaking, throwing, poisoning, burning or scalding, drowning or suffocating. Physical harm may also be caused when a parent or carer feigns the symptoms of, or deliberately causes, ill health to a child they are looking after. All forms of physical punishment of children are against the law in Scotland regardless of personal attitudes towards reasonable discipline.

Emotional Abuse

Is persistent emotional neglect or ill treatment of a child causing severe and lasting adverse effects on the child's emotional development. 'Persistent' means there is a continuous or intermittent pattern, which has caused, or is likely to cause, significant harm. Emotional abuse is present to some extent in all types of ill treatment of a child, but it can also occur independently of other forms of abuse.  It may involve:

• Making a child feel that they are worthless or unloved, inadequate or valued only because they meet the needs of another person;
• Having unrealistic expectations or imposing demands inappropriate for their age or stage of development;
• Repeated silencing, ridiculing or intimidation;
• Extreme overprotection, such that a child is harmed by prevention of learning, exploration and social development; and/or
• Seeing or hearing the abuse of another (in accordance with the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018).

Child sexual abuse (CSA)

Is an act that involves a child under 16 years of age in any activity for the sexual gratification of another person, whether or not it is claimed that the child either consented or assented. Sexual abuse involves forcing or enticing a child to take part in sexual activities, whether or not the child is aware of what is happening. Children under the age of 13 cannot consent to any form of sexual activity.

For those who may be victims of sexual offences aged 16-17 and who are at risk of significant harm, Child Protection procedures apply, and must be followed when there is concern about sexual exploitation or trafficking.

Sexual abuse may involve physical contact, including penetrative or non-penetrative acts or may involve non-contact activities, such as involving children in looking at, or in the production of, indecent images, or in watching sexual activities, using sexual language towards a child, or encouraging children to behave in sexually inappropriate ways.

Child sexual exploitation

Is a form of child sexual abuse. It occurs where an individual or group takes advantage of an imbalance of power to coerce, manipulate or deceive a person under 18 into sexual activity in exchange for something the victim needs or wants, and/or for the financial advantage or increased status of the perpetrator or facilitator. The victim may have been sexually exploited even if the sexual activity appears consensual. Child sexual exploitation does not always involve physical contact. It can also occur online.

It is important to remember that victims of child sexual exploitation (CSE) may not recognise the abuse and may regard themselves as being in a consensual sexual relationship.

Criminal exploitation

An individual or group may use an imbalance of power to coerce, control, manipulate or deceive a child under the age of 18 into any criminal activity in exchange for something the victim needs or wants, or for the financial or other advantage of the perpetrator or facilitator. Violence or the threat of violence may feature. The victim may have been criminally exploited, even if they appear to have agreed to the activity. Child criminal exploitation may happen in person or online.  It may involve gangs and organised criminal networks, for example using children to store, move or sell drugs or money (known as 'county lines').  Coercion, intimidation, violence (including sexual violence) and weapons may be involved.

Child trafficking

Involves the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt, exchange or transfer of control of a child under the age of 18 years for the purposes of exploitation. Transfer or movement can be within an area and does not have to be across borders. Reasons for trafficking include sexual, criminal and financial exploitation, forced labour, removal of organs, illegal adoption, and forced or illegal marriage. The National Referral Mechanism process helps identify victims of human trafficking and exploitation.

Neglect

Is the persistent failure to meet a child's basic physical and/or psychological needs, which is likely to result in the serious impairment of the child's health or development. Single instances of neglectful behaviour may cause significant harm. Early signs of neglect indicate the need for support to prevent harm.

Once a child is born, neglect may involve failing: to provide adequate food, clothing and shelter (including exclusion from home or abandonment); to protect a child from physical and emotional harm or danger; to ensure adequate supervision (including the use of inadequate caregivers); to seek consistent access to appropriate medical care or treatment; to ensure the child receives education; or to respond to a child's essential emotional needs.