Abuse and Neglect: Child abuse can take four forms, all of which can cause long term damage to a child; physical abuse, emotional abuse, neglect and child sexual abuse. Bullying and domestic violence are also forms of child abuse.

Accommodation: Section 20 of the Children Act 1989 enables a Local Authority to provide accommodation for a child who has no person with parental responsibility for him/her, is lost or abandoned or whose parent cannot provide suitable accommodation and care.

Allocated case: A case that has been made the responsibility of a named Social Worker or other key worker until such time as the case is closed, transferred or managed in such other way that the named worker no longer has responsibility for it.

Assessment: The assessment of developmental needs of a child within their family and wider environmental context to determine, if the child has needs and want services they require.

Care Order: A Court Order under S.31 of the Children Act 1989 placing a child in Local Authority care to protect the child from harm they are suffering or may suffer, whilst under the care of his/her parent or being beyond a parent’s control.

Child: Anyone under the Age of 18.

Child in Need: Section 17 (10) of the Children Act 1989 defines a child in need as a child who, without the provision of Local Authority services:

• Is unlikely to achieve or maintain a reasonable standard of health or development;
• Whose health or development is likely to be significantly impaired;
• Or a child who is disabled.

Child Protection: The process of protecting a child who is identified as either suffering or at risk of suffering harm.

Child Protection Enquiry: Section 47 of the Children Act 1989 gives children’s social care a duty to make enquiries to decide whether they should take action to safeguard or promote the welfare of a child who is suffering or likely to suffer, significant harm.

Child Perceived as Different: Research and anecdotal evidence indicates that children who may be perceived as “different”, e.g. disabled children, children from minority ethnic groups or cultures and children with differing sexual orientations, are more vulnerable to abuse. It is therefore vital that all agencies promote equality of opportunity and anti-discriminatory practice. Failure to do so may expose particular children to significant harm.

Common Assessment Framework (CAF): The CAF is a standardised approach to conducting an assessment of a child’s additional needs and deciding how those needs should be met. It can be used by practitioners across children’s services in England. The CAF is intended to provide a simple process for a holistic assessment of a child’s needs and strengths, taking account of the role of parents, carers and environmental factors on their development.

Core Assessment: An assessment conducted by a Social Worker which addresses the central and most important aspects of the needs of the child and the capacity of their parents to respond to these needs. It is to be undertaken where circumstances are complex and should be completed within 35 working days of referral.

Criminal Record Bureau (CRB): The CRFB is an Executive Agency of the Home Office set up to help organisations make safer recruitment decisions.

Duty Children Social Worker: Professional from the Children’s Social Care team that receives and responds to all child concern referrals – in office hours.

Emergency Duty Team: A Social Work team providing an out of hours Social Care Service for the Country.

Emergency Protection Order: A Court Order under S44 of the Children Act 1989 giving Children’s Social Care and the Police the power to protect a child from harm by removing the child to suitable accommodation or preventing a child from being removed (e.g. from hospital).

Enquiry Checks: Checks made of agencies involved with a child for Section 47 Child Protection Investigation Purposes.

Electronic Social Care Record (ESCR): Fully electronic case record.

First Line Manager: The Manager with responsibility for supervising the frontline professional with case or immediate responsibility for the child, adult or family.

Framework for Assessment of Child in Need and their Families (often referred to as the Assessment Framework): The Assessment Framework is a systematic way for professionals to assess a child’s needs and whether she/he is suffering or likely to suffer significant harm, what actions must be taken and which services would best meet the needs of the child and family. All professionals should be competent to contribute to the assessment which is usually determined by children’s social care under the Children Act 1989.

Gillick Competence/Fraser Ruling: The competency test resided by Lord Fraser, 1985 (known as Gillick Competence), which laid down criteria for establishing whether a child, irrespective of age, had the capacity to provide valid consent to treatment (by health professionals) in specified circumstances.

Impairment of Health and Development: Where professionals are seeking to judge whether a child’s health and development have been significantly harmed, the Children Act 1989 (S31 (10)) directs them to make a comparison with the health and development which could reasonably be expected of a similar child.

Initial Assessment: An initial assessment of the developmental needs of each child referred to the Local Authority with a request for services to be provided. This should be undertaken within the maximum of seven working days of the initial referral, but could be very brief depending on the child’s circumstances.

Integrated Children’s Services (ICS): Case Management Systems for case recording within Children’s Social Care. Introduced in 2008, this is a government sponsored system with national criteria for local software providers to adhere to. It ensures that there is consistency of practice across all social work teams, improves transparency and accountability.

Key Worker: The key worker has an important role that involves administration, information, co-ordination and the professional management of a case. Their prime responsibility is to maintain a child protection focus to the work being undertaken with families and to maintain and co-ordinate the core group, who will ensure the progress of the child protection plan.

Lead Professional: The practitioner who has the most ongoing contact with a child at the time and who is in a position to co-ordinate the professional network to support the child.

Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB): Local Safeguarding Children’s Boards (LSCBs) are a statutory body established in each Local Authority area to ensure that organisations work together effectively to safeguard children and promote their welfare.

Neglect: Neglect is the persistent lack of appropriate care of children, including love, stimulations, safety, nourishment, warmth, education and medical attention.

Network Checks: Checks made of agencies for screening and for initial assessments – helps Children’s Social Care decide whether a Section 47 investigation is required.

Nominated Safe Guarding Children Adviser: The person in each agency who has responsibility for child protection issues in that agency and provide child protection advice to front-line professionals.

Parental Responsibility: All the duties, rights, powers, responsibilities and authority which by law a parent of a child has in relation to the child and their property. A Care Order confers the responsibility to a Local Authority but it does not remove it from the child’s parents.

Police Powers of Protection (Section 46): Section 46 of the Children Act 1989 giving the police powers to protect a child from harm by removing the child to a suitable accommodation or preventing a child from being removed (e.g. from hospital).

Private Fostering: An arrangement made directly by a parent for their child to be looked after for more than days by an adult who does not have parental responsibility for the child and is not a close relative/step-parent.

Referral: A request for services to be provided by a Local Authority. A case can become current only after a referral has been made.
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Risk to Child: Description of a an adult or child who has been identified (by Probation services/Youth Justice Service, Police or health services, individually or via the Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements) as posing an ongoing risk to a child (replaces the term Schedule 1 Offender).

Safeguarding and Promoting the Welfare of the Children: The process of:

• Protecting children from maltreatment;
• Preventing impairment of children’s health or development;
• Ensuring that children are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care;
• Undertaking that role so as to enable those children to have optimum life chances and to enter adulthood successfully.

Section 17: Section 17 of the Children’s Act 1989 imposes on every Local Authority a duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in the area who are in need.

Section 47 Enquiry: Section 47 of the Children Act requires every Local Authority to make enquires about children though to be at risk, enabling them to decide whether they need to take further action to safeguard and promote the child’s welfare.

Senior Manager: Manager in any agency above first line manager.

Serious Case Review: Chapter 8 of Working Together to Safeguard Children sets out the purpose and process of serous case reviews (SCRs). SCRs are undertaken when a child is very seriously injured or abused or neglect is known or suspected to be a factor in the death.

Significant Harm: There are no absolute criteria on which to rely when judging what constitutes significant harm. Consideration of the severity of ill-treatment may include the degree and the extent of physical harm, the duration and frequency of abuse and neglect, the extent of premeditation, and the present or degree of threat, coercion, sadism, and bizarre or unusual elements. Each of these elements has been associated with more severe effects on the child, and/or relatively greater difficulty in helping the child overcome the adverse impact of the maltreatment. Sometimes, a single traumatic event may constitute significant harm (e.g. a violent assault, suffocation or poisoning).
Working together to Safeguard Children: Working Together to Safeguard children (2006) is a guidance document produced by the DCSF setting out how all agencies and professionals should work together to safeguard children and promote children’s welfare.