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 Collections under
which this article appears: Abuse
(child, partner, elder) |
A radical shake up is needed in the way child protection cases are tackled, with a harder line being taken when professionals suspect premeditated abuse, argue UK paediatricians in two articles in the latest issue of Archives of Disease in Childhood (2003;88:101-4, 105-7).
The authors of the two papers are consultant paediatricians Professor David Southall and Dr Martin Samuels of North Staffordshire, Stoke on Trent, and Michael Golden, emeritus professor of medicine, University of Aberdeen.
Professor Southall and Dr Samuels attracted controversy when they were
suspended in 1999 following allegations that they conducted a
clinical trial on children without parental consent. They were also
accused of harassing parents whom they suspected of child abuse (BMJ
2001;323:885)
In the two articles Professor Southall and colleagues propose that instead of the current arrangement, whereby multidisciplinary child protection teams handle all cases of alleged child abuse, and social workers are trained to work with the parents, there needs to be a tougher approach to handling cases where there is suspicion of deliberate, premeditated child abuse by the parent or carer for gain.
They propose a new, three point classification of suspected child abuse cases:
All suspected category A cases should be handled by a newly established special interagency task force led by the police, say the authors. Parents suspected of category B child abuse would be referred to the more traditional child protection team. Category C abuse should be tackled through education.
Professor Southall told the BMJ that the report into the death of Victoria Climbié (which is currently with ministers) is just one example of how the current arrangements are failing children whose carers are deliberately harming them.
Working with parents in the category A group had proved incredibly difficult for professionals. Professor Southall said: "These people are very threatening. One of the ways they manage to succeed is to frighten professionals."
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