Child Protection Guidance 2021

Appendices: Appendix A: Glossary of terms 217 National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland 2021 Version 1.0 September 2021 Child protection: 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 from abuse, neglect or exploitation: • child protection guidance provides overall direction for agencies and professional disciplines where there are concerns that a child may be at risk of harm • child protection procedures are initiated when police, social work or health professionals determine that a child may have been abused or may be at risk of significant harm, and when an inter-agency referral discussion (see below) takes place Child Protection Planning Meeting: A multi-disciplinary meeting, formerly termed a Child Protection Case Conference. Involvement of child and relevant family members should be supported. The purpose of the meeting is to consider and agree an assessment of risk and form a plan of required action to protect a child or young person. Participants are those persons essential to the Child Protection Plan. Child Protection Committee: The locally-based, inter-agency strategic partnership responsible for child protection policy and practice across the public, private and Third Sectors. Working on behalf of Chief Officers, its role is to provide individual and collective leadership and direction for the management of child protection services in its area. child protection register: All local authorities are responsible for maintaining a central register, known as the child protection register as described in Part 1 of this Guidance. This is a list of all children, including unborn babies, who are subject to a Child Protection Plan. Core Group: A group of identified practitioners, and child/family including the lead professional, who liaise regularly between Child Protection Planning Meetings to ensure that actions are being progressed and to monitor risk. This may be a smaller group than the team around the Child, involving those practitioners with direct and regular engagement. Disabled children: A term used in this Guidance and in Scottish Government policy documents to reflect a social model of disability in which the barriers created by society are recognised as a cause of disadvantage and exclusion, rather than the impairment itself. (p7. A Fairer Scotland for Disabled People.) It is the right of individuals, families and groups to use terms which feel acceptable to them, such as ‘children with disabilities’. Domestic abuse: Domestic abuse is a form of violence, committed predominantly by men, predominantly towards women. It is any form of physical, verbal, sexual, psychological or financial abuse which might amount to criminal conduct and takes place within the context of a relationship between partners (married, cohabiting, civil partnership or otherwise), or ex-partners. Abuse may include controlling, isolating, degrading, threatening and humiliating behaviour. It may be committed in the home or elsewhere; and may include online activity. The offence of abusive behaviour towards a partner or ex-partner is defined in section 1 of the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018. Harm: 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. Risk in this context refers to the probability of harm given the presence of adverse factors in a child’s life. There is no statutory definition or uniform defining criterion for significant harm , which refers to serious interruption, change or damage to a child’s physical, emotional, intellectual or behavioural health and development.