Child protection guidelines

Child protection guidelines

The Scottish Government’s National Guidance for Child Protection in Scotland describes the responsibilities and expectations of everyone who works with children, young people and their families in Scotland. Paragraph 2.118 describes the role of dental care practitioners, and Part 3 describes processes involved in identifying and responding to concerns about children.

Public Health England’s Safeguarding in general dental practice clarifies the roles and responsibilities of the dental team in promoting the safety and wellbeing of children, young people and adults at risk of abuse and outlines the pathways to be followed in cases of concern.

As missed appointments can be an important indicator of dental neglect, the Was not brought toolkit provided by the British Dental Association encourages the dental team to consider non-attendance from the child or young person’s perspective. It also provides advice on when and how to take action to safeguard the child or young person.

The British Society of Paediatric Dentistry (BSPD) policy on dental neglect in children recommends a long-established tiered approach to managing dental concerns. It also describes how the dental team should both contribute to the child protection process and implement wider measures to safeguard and promote children's welfare.

The tiered approach includes three stages of intervention, implemented according to the level of concern:

• preventive dental team (single agency) response
• preventive multi-agency response
• child protection referral

The following questions are suggested as a starting point for ascertaining whether a child protection referral may be required: