RCPCH: Child protection standing committee update November 2023

Rowland, Andrew; Fussey, Elizabeth; Raffeeq, Zara

Abstract

Our knowledge
Changes to consent guidance for Child Protection medicals: We have strengthened our guidance on obtaining consent for Child Protection medicals. This will be uploaded to the child protection companion shortly.

Guidelines for Initial Health Assessments: We are currently in the project planning phase of developing a new workstream to create a set of outcomes and standards for Initial Health Assessments. We will be contacting the relevant stakeholders for this work in the coming weeks.

Our children
Children seeking asylum and refuge: In October, we provided evidence to the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee in relation to new regulations which would allow the biological age assessment of children seeking asylum and refuge in England. We have regularly spoken out against this policy, due to the lack of specificity in the outcomes data and the potential harms children may incur as a result of this testing. We were pleased to see our evidence cited in the committee’s response, which rightly highlighted significant gaps in the proposed policy.

Survey: Delivering Care for Asylum Seeker and Refugee Populations in the UK ReSPOND, an integrated refugee health service based at University College London Hospital, are gathering data on the training needs of clinicians working with children seeking asylum or refuge in the UK. Do you work with this group of children as a part of your role? Share your thoughts via their survey.

Our workforce
Child Protection Audit: Findings from the Child Protection Audit are due for publication shortly. We will be considering how best to implement these findings at the next Child Protection Standing Committee

Vulnerable Children’s Workforce Strategy: We are currently collaborating with the RCPCH Workforce team to better understand the pressure on the vulnerable children’s workforce, as well as exploring initiatives to support the growth of the safeguarding workforce across the four nations.

Our future
Equal Protection for Children in England and Northern Ireland: We are working with external stakeholders to develop a lobbying strategy for the removal of the Reasonable Chastisement defence in law in order to secure equal protection for children in England and Northern Ireland. We look forward to sharing more information about this strategy with you as it develops.

Professor Andrew Rowland
Officer for Child Protection
RCPCH
[e-mail]

Citation

Rowland, A., Fussey, E., & Raffeeq, Z. (2023). RCPCH: Child protection standing committee update November 2023. London: Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health

• Report Type: Research Report
• Acceptance Date: Nov 10, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Nov 10, 2023
• Publication Date: Nov 10, 2023
• Deposit Date: Nov 10, 2023
• Keywords: Child protection; safeguarding children; Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
• Publisher URL: https://childprotection.rcpch.ac.uk/about/committees/?utm_source=Royal%20College%20Of%20Paediatrics%20and%20Child%20Health&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=14200037_Child%20Protection%20update%20November%202023&dm_i=12S1,8GCTH,140PWD,YX1BV,1#page-section-1