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Recognising and responding to child maltreatment
Ruth Gilbert1, Alison Kemp, June Thoburn
1Centre for Evidence-based Child Health and MRC Centre of Epidemiology for Child Health, UCL Institute of Child Health, London, UK.
Insights
Child maltreatment is under-reported across sectors due to lack of awareness and fear of negative consequences. Integrated child welfare systems improve service provision for maltreated children.
Area of Science:
- Child protection
- Pediatric health
- Social services
Background:
- Child maltreatment recognition and response involve multiple professional sectors.
- Under-reporting of suspected child maltreatment is a significant issue across all sectors.
- Barriers to reporting include lack of awareness, unclear processes, and concerns about negative outcomes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore strategies for improving the recognition and reporting of child maltreatment.
- To examine the impact of different policy approaches on service provision for maltreated children.
Main Methods:
- Review of strategies used in pediatric practice, such as training and questionnaires.
- Analysis of international studies comparing maltreatment substantiation policies with broader child welfare responses.
Main Results:
- Training, questionnaires, and evidence-based guidelines are key strategies for improving recognition in pediatric settings.
- Policies focusing solely on maltreatment substantiation, without considering welfare needs, result in less service provision.
- A broad child and family welfare approach is more effective in providing services for maltreated children.
Conclusions:
- Improving child maltreatment recognition requires multi-sectoral awareness and clear reporting protocols.
- Addressing barriers to reporting, such as fear of harm, is crucial.
- Integrating child maltreatment response within a comprehensive child and family welfare system enhances service delivery and outcomes for children.
Abstract:
Professionals in child health, primary care, mental health, schools, social services, and law-enforcement services all contribute to the recognition of and response to child maltreatment. In all sectors, children suspected of being maltreated are under-reported to child-protection agencies. Lack of awareness of the signs of child maltreatment and processes for reporting to child-protection agencies, and a perception that reporting might do more harm than good, are among the reasons for not reporting. Strategies to improve recognition, mainly used in paediatric practice, include training, use of questionnaires for asking children and parents about maltreatment, and evidence-based guidelines for who should be assessed by child-protection specialists. Internationally, studies suggest that policies emphasising substantiation of maltreatment without concomitant attention to welfare needs lead to less service provision for maltreated children than do those in systems for which child maltreatment is part of a broad child and family welfare response.
