NCJ Number
220456
Journal
Child Abuse Review Volume: 16 Issue: 4 Dated: July-August 2007 Pages: 268-273
Date Published
July 2007
Length
6 pages
Annotation
The audit examined and assessed General Practitioners (GPs) awareness of child protection issues, local referral processes and robustness of arrangement within practices.
Abstract
The audit shows a low level of awareness of policies and procedures regarding child protection arrangements amongst General Practitioners (GPs). Most of the GPs know how to contact social services during and after office hours. However, the GPs factual knowledge was low in areas of identifying the designated and named child protection health professionals. There were inconsistent methods of recording concerns and many practices had no mechanisms for proactively updating basic information on children. There were also weaknesses in policies and procedures, and poor understanding of referral pathways; few GPs were aware of standard referral forms and most were unaware of requirements for making referrals within agreed timescales. There was poor uptake of child protection training among GPs with only a minority of respondents receiving formal training in child protection, and only 20 percent could recall being offered the training in the last two years. GPs along with other members of the primary healthcare team play a key role in the identification and subsequent intervention and protection of children at risk of abuse, and their familiarity with the local child protection arrangement is crucial to fulfill their roles and responsibilities; however, it is possible that GPs consider that there are other members of the primary care team who are more skilled and experienced in this area, and who would be the first source of advice should concerns arise. Moreover, the fact that child protections problems are not commonly dealt with by GPs and the likelihood of a case requiring referral is low means that this area of work is not seen as a priority for general practice. They survey respondents consisted of mixed gender, full-time and part-time GPs; Only 65 percent of the questionnaires were completed and returned. Table, references