What to do if you are worried a child is being abused

If you are concerned about a child please ensure you contact the Central Advice and Duty Team (contact details on the top right of this page). 

You can also download more information about who to contact elsewhere on this website. 

Practice guidance has been developed to assist practitioners to work together to promote children’s welfare and safeguard them from harm.

It is for anyone whose work brings them into contact with children and families, but particularly those who work in social care, health, education and criminal justice services.

It is relevant to those working in the statutory or the independent sector, as well as to members of the wider community, and applies to all children and young people irrespective of whether they are living at home with their families and carers or away from home.

Where children are living in foster care or in an institutional setting, including custody, assessments and decisions about further action should also include consideration of the role of the responsible carers, residential or custodial staff as well as parents and other family members.

The guidance recognises that concerns about a child’s welfare can vary greatly in terms of the nature and seriousness of those concerns, how those concerns have been identified and over what duration they have arisen.

By ensuring that such concerns are appropriately shared with statutory agencies and other individuals responsible for child protection within agencies, the welfare of children and the safeguards provided for them will be enhanced.