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Administration
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Safeguarding Children
What to do if you're worried a child is being abused –
Children's services guidance
All those who come into contact with children and families in their everyday work, including people who do not have a specific role in relation to child protection, have a duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. You are likely to be involved in three main ways:
- you may have concerns about a child, and refer those concerns to social services or the police (via your designated teacher in the case of staff in schools);
- you may be approached by social services and asked to provide information about a child or family or to be involved in an assessment or to attend a child protection conference. This may happen regardless of who made the referral to social services (for more about sharing information, see the appendix, which explains how you should share information in order to safeguard children);
- you may be asked to carry out a specific type of assessment, or provide help or a specific service to the child or a member of their family as part of an agreed plan and contribute to the reviewing of the child’s progress (including attending child protection conferences).
The flow charts illustrate the processes for safeguarding children:
- from the point that concerns are raised about a child and are referred to a statutory agency that can take action to safeguard the child (flow chart 1);
- through initial assessment of the child’s situation and what happens after that (flow chart 2);
- taking urgent action, if necessary (flow chart 3);
- to the strategy discussion, where there are concerns about the child’s safety, and beyond that to the child protection conference (flow chart 4);and
- what happens after the child protection conference, and the review process (flow chart 5).
This information is taken from the Department of Health website on Safeguarding children.
Click on the link below for more information and advice:
For more helpful information click on the links below:
Click below to access the section on Allegations against Staff:
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