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Child Protection Enquiry
The 1989 Children Act places a duty on Children's Social Care at Sheffield City Council to make enquiries following concerns and / or allegations being raised regarding children and young people in the City.
The Sheffield Safeguarding Children Board is a multi-agency body responsible for monitoring child protection in the City. Different agencies such as health, education, police and the Children's Social Care work together in order to protect children, but the enquiry about your child / children will be led by staff from the Sheffield Safeguarding Children Service.
When does a Child Protection Enquiry begin?
A Child Protection enquiry starts because someone has concerns that a child may be:
- being physically injured
- being neglected
- being emotionally harmed
- being sexually harmed
This concern may come from:
- the police, Children's Social Care, the NSPCC or other agencies
- a parent who has injured a child
- a neighbour
- a teacher at a child’s school or nursery, a health visitor or another health worker
- from a hospital when a child has been taken to the casualty department or admitted to a ward
Some concerns are made anonymously. Some turn out to be malicious, but others turn out to be correct. Therefore every concern is treated seriously.
Any concern or allegation will be looked into as soon as possible.
In the very early stages Children's Social Care will make enquiries about your family with other agencies such as schools, nursery, GP, police and other health services.
- If it seems necessary, you and the child will then be seen and interviewed by a Social Worker and / or Police Officer to discuss the allegations. This will usually be within 24 hours of the allegation being reported to Children's Social Care.
- After these initial enquiries have been completed a decision will be made whether to pursue the matter further. If no further action is to be taken you will be informed of this as soon as possible. If it is decided that further action is necessary you will be informed of what action is to be taken.
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