Child Protection Guidance 2021

National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland 2021 Part 1: The context for child protection 16 Version 1.0 September 2021 1.57 For some actions and legal measures the test is ‘significant harm’ or risk of significant harm. There is no legal definition of significant harm or the distinction between harm and significant harm. The extent to which harm is significant will relate to the severity or anticipated severity of impact upon a child’s health and development. 1.58 It is a matter for professional judgement as to whether the degree of harm to which the child is believed to have been subjected, is suspected of having been subjected, or is likely to be subjected is ‘significant’. Judgement is based on as much information as can be lawfully and proportionately obtained about the child, his or her family and relevant context, including observation. Assessment frameworks and tools, some of which may be specialised, can assist professional judgement. The way in which information about children’s developmental needs, parenting capacity, and family and community context is recorded will help professionals analyse the child’s needs, and the capacity of the parents or carers. Purposeful and accurate chronologies assist in analysis and decision-making ( Chronologies – Part 3) . 1.59 Professional judgement entails forming a view on the impact of an accumulation of acts, events and gaps or omissions, and sometimes on the impact of a single event. Judgement means making a decision about a child’s needs, the capacity of parents or carers to meet those needs, and the likelihood of harm, significant or otherwise, arising. 1.60 A National Risk Assessment Toolkit i s a resource which integrates the GIRFEC National Practice Model in a generic approach to assessment of risk, strength and resilience in the child’s world. 1.61 When there are concerns that a child may have experienced or may experience significant harm, and these concerns relate to the possibility of abuse or neglect, then police or social work must be notified. Along with other relevant services they will form a view as to whether the harm is or is likely to be significant (Information sharing: inter-agency principles) . Professionals must also consider what harm might come to a child from failing to share relevant information, within the terms of their respective duties. Police and health also have single-agency duties in relation to protection from harm. 1.62 In assessing whether harm is or may become ‘significant’, as indicated in Part 3, it will be relevant to consider: • the child’s experience, needs and feelings as far as they are known • the nature, degree and extent of physical or emotional harm apparent • 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 • the presence or degree of threat, coercion, sadism and any other factors that may accentuate risk to do with child, family or wider context 1.63 Sometimes, a single traumatic event may constitute significant harm – for example a violent assault, suffocation or poisoning. More often, significant harm results from an accumulation of significant events, both acute and long-standing, that interrupt, change or damage the child’s physical and psychological development.

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