Dealing with an allegation that a professional, staff member, foster carer or volunteer has abused a child is difficult but must be taken seriously and dealt with carefully and fairly. Every organisation that provides services for children, or works with children, needs to:
carry out checks all new staff and volunteers as part of a safe recruitment process to ensure, as far as is possible, that they are safe to work with children and young people; and
have procedures in place for dealing with allegations of abuse against people who work with children.
It is important that all who work with children are aware of these procedures within their organisation or setting and know where to access them should the need arise.
If it appears that the person has:
behaved in a way that has harmed a child, or may have harmed a child, or,
possibly committed a criminal offence against or related to a child, or,
behaved in an inappropriate way towards a child which may indicate that he or she is unsuitable to work with children,
then these procedures must be followed.
Additionally these procedures may be used:
if there are concerns about the person's behaviour towards their own children, or
children unrelated to their employment or voluntary work, and there has been a recommendation from a strategy discussion that consideration should be given to the risk posed to children they work with, or,
when an allegation is made about abuse that took place some time ago and the accused person may still be working with or having contact with children.
When a report is made to the designated senior manager it will be clear in some cases that an immediate referral must be made to social care or the police for investigation.
This would be if a child appears to have been harmed or is at risk of significant harm or a criminal act appears to have been committed. However, in many cases it may be difficult to judge on the basis of the information provided; it may be more about unprofessional behaviour or blurred boundaries between a staff member and a child or there may be foundation in the allegation at all. However all allegations must be taken seriously and objectively and dealt with in a timely manner.
Every Local Authority has an identified Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) who has responsibility for:
managing and overseeing individual allegations from across the children's workforce,
providing advice and guidance to senior managers and employers etc.,
liaising with social care, police, Crown Prosecution Service and other relevant agencies,
monitoring progress of all cases to ensure they are dealt with in accordance with recommended timescales, as set out in these procedures,
co-ordinating and collating reports to provide information to the LSCB and DfES.
Your LADO should be informed of all allegations and will provide advice and guidance in the management of these.
Every organisation should have a manager who is designated to deal with issues of child protection.