Definition & Triggers for Child In Need, Section 47 Enquiries and Child Protection

As practitioners, it can sometime be difficult to identify the level of concerns or safeguarding issues raised or highlighted by children and young
people. As such, One Stop Social has devised this useful information guide that will hopefully assist understanding in relation to what constitutes
Section 47 Enquiries, Child Protection and Children In Need.

As ever, the language used is vitally important and so too is gathering as much evidence as you can. Describing specific events (with dates)
allows for informed decision making – focusing on needs and safeguarding concerns highlighted. Remember to include names of all relevant
people, contact numbers and addresses. One Stop Social has also devised an information gathering resource for practitioners to use.

Level of involvement Trigger/guidance: What is the evidence:

Child In Need – Section Section 17 of the Children Act 1989 defines a child as being in need in law if:
17 of the Children Act • He or she is unlikely to achieve or maintain or to have the opportunity to achieve or
1989 maintain a reasonable standard of health or development without provision of
services from the LA;
• His or her health or development is likely to be significantly impaired, or further
impaired, without the provision of services from the LA;
• He or she has a disability.

Development can mean physical, intellectual, emotional, social or behavioural

development. Health can be physical or mental health.

Having a disability is defined as a person who is blind, deaf, dumb, suffering from a mental
disorder, substantially and permanently handicapped by illness, or congenital deformity or
from suffering from some other disability as may be prescribed.
 The definition will include any child or young person under the age of 18.

The service can also be provided to the child’s family or any member of his or her family
so long as the aim is to safeguard and promote the child’s welfare. Support can include
providing cash assistance to a family.
Section 47 enquiry to be • Physical harm to a child through a deliberate act, neglect or domestic violence
completed when • Any injury, however minor, to a non mobile baby or child
following have been • Allegation/suspicion of sexual abuse or of child being groomed for sexual purposes
identified: • Risk of Female Genital Mutilation
• Significant developmental delay due to neglect/poor parenting
Please note: This list • Significant emotional/psychological problems due to neglect/poor parenting
is not exhaustive but • Persistent emotional ill treatment of a child
allows an indication • Very poor home conditions/physical care due to lack of parental care e.g. no food,
as to the severity or warmth, bedding, appropriate clothing, hygiene, stimulation
level at which to treat
• Serious neglect and standards of living for adults are markedly better than for the
concerns or
child Repeat of neglect after family support services have been given previously
safeguarding issues.
• Lack of medical/dental care endangering/impairing child’s life
• Reported pregnancy where there have been previous child protection concerns
• Fabricated or Induced Illness
• A failure to thrive not due to physical illness or disability
• Serious self harm/suicide risk where parents are not working with professionals
• Parent involved in serious criminal acts that may impact on the child e.g. child
pornography, drug dealing
• Children are the subject of parental delusions, or are targets for parental
aggression, rejection or neglect for pathological reasons
• Sexual exploitation through prostitution
 • An adult assessed as being a risk to children is having contact with/living with a
child in the same household
• Allegations of abuse against people who work with children
• There is no consistent explanation/no admission of what is clearly abuse
Child Protection There are four categories within child protection – Neglect, Physical Abuse, Emotional
Abuse and Sexual Abuse. You can have more that one category. For example, primary
Neglect with secondary Emotional Abuse.

Route to Child Protection. This can be either following a significant event (or events), which
resulted in the completion of Section 47 enquiry and agreed to initial an Initial Child
Protection Conference or following the completion of an assessment (again, offers an
outcome to begin Section 47 Enquiry).
Neglect
Neglect is defined as the persistent failure to meet a child’s basic physical and/or
psychological needs, likely to result in the serious impairment of the child’s health and
development.

Neglect may occur during pregnancy as a result of maternal substance misuse and once
the child is born, neglect may involve failure to:

• Provide adequate food, clothing or shelter (including exclusion from home or

abandonment)
• Protect from physical and emotional harm or danger
• Meet or respond to basic emotional needs
• Ensure adequate supervision including the use of adequate care-takers
• Ensure access to appropriate medical care or treatment
• Ensure that her/his educational needs are met
 • Ensure that her/his opportunities for intellectual stimulation are met

Physical Abuse
Physical abuse may involve hitting, shaking, throwing, poisoning, burning or scalding,
drowning, suffocating or otherwise causing physical harm to a child.

It may also be caused when a parent or carer fabricates symptoms of, or induces illness in
a child.

Emotional Abuse
Emotional abuse is the persistent emotional ill treatment of a child such as to cause severe
and persistent effects on the child’s emotional development, and may involve:

• Conveying to a child that s/he is worthless, unloved, inadequate, or valued only

insofar as s/he meets the needs of another person
• Imposing developmentally inappropriate expectations e.g. interactions beyond the
child’s developmental capability, overprotection, limitation of exploration and
learning, preventing the child from participation in normal social interaction
• Causing a child to feel frightened or in danger e.g. witnessing domestic violence,
seeing or hearing the ill treatment of another
• Exploitation or corruption of a child

Some level of emotional abuse is involved in most types of ill treatment of children, though
emotional abuse may occur alone.

Sexual abuse
Sexual abuse involves forcing or enticing a child to take part in sexual activities, including
prostitution, whether or not s/he is aware of what is happening.

Activities may involve physical contact, including penetrative and non-penetrative acts.
‘Penetrative acts’ include ‘rape’ (forced penetration of vagina, anus or mouth with a penis)
and ‘assault by penetration’ (sexual penetration of vagina or anus of a child with a part of
the body or an object).

Sexual activities may also include non-contact activities, e.g. involving a child in looking at
/ production of abusive images, watching sexual activities or encouraging her/him to
behave in sexually inappropriate ways. It may include use of photos, pictures, cartoons,
literature or sound recordings via internet, books, magazines, audio cassettes, tapes or
CDs.

Children under sixteen years of age cannot lawfully consent to sexual intercourse, although
in practice may be involved in sexual contact to which, as individuals, they have agreed. A
child of under thirteen is considered in law incapable of providing consent.