Gonzalez-Izquierdo, A;
Ward, A;
Smith, P;
Walford, C;
Begent, J;
Ioannou, Y;
Gilbert, R;
(2015)
Notifications for child safeguarding from an acute hospital in response to presentations to healthcare by parents.
Child Care Health Dev
, 41
(2)
10.1111/cch.12134.
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Abstract
BACKGROUND : Consideration of child safeguarding is routine within maternity services but less common in other health services for adults. We audited notifications for child safeguarding from an acute general hospital where the policy includes questioning adults presenting with violence, mental health problems or drug or alcohol misuse to any department within the hospital about children at home and notifying to the local authority children's social care services if there are safeguarding concerns. METHODS : Cross-sectional audit of notifications for child safeguarding, including abuse, neglect or victimization, from all departments in one hospital to the local authority children's social care department during 12 months (2010/11). RESULTS : Of 681 notifications (57 per month), 40% (270/681) were triggered by parents' presentation to acute hospital services. Of these, 37% (100/270; 12 teenage mothers) presented for maternity care and 60% (162/270; 8 teenage parents) presented to the emergency department (ED). Of the 60% (411/681) of notifications prompted by children presenting for healthcare, most originated from the ED (358/411; 87%): two-thirds of these presented with injury (250/358; 70%). CONCLUSION : Given a policy to ask adults about children at home, a substantial proportion of children notified for child safeguarding were recognized through presentations to acute healthcare by their parents. Further research and development of this policy needs to ensure that questioning results in effective interventions for the children and their parents.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Notifications for child safeguarding from an acute hospital in response to presentations to healthcare by parents. |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1111/cch.12134 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/cch.12134 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2014 The Authors. Child: Care, Health and Development published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made. |
| Keywords: | child maltreatment, child safeguarding, paediatric emergency, social care, victimization |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Health Informatics UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Health Informatics > Clinical Epidemiology UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health > Population, Policy and Practice Dept |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1425475 |
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