Consultation on new child protection guidance
The General Medical Council is consulting on new draft guidance Protecting children and young people: the responsibilities of all doctors.
The draft guidance has been developed by a working group chaired by the Rt. Hon. Lord Justice Thorpe. The group has been brought together by the GMC to develop clear principles for all doctors, including those who do not routinely treat children.
The draft guidance gives advice to doctors on:
- a. their duty to identify children and young people at risk of abuse and neglect, even when only treating adults
- b. the boundary between parental freedoms and child protection concerns
- c. good communication with children, parents and families when there are child protection concerns
- d. respecting confidentiality and when to share information
- e. good record keeping practice
- f. seeking consent to examination or investigation
- g. understanding how other professionals involved in child protection work consider and act on child protection concerns
- h. training and skills development
- i. giving evidence in court as a witness of fact and as an expert witness.
The consultation will interest organisations, doctors, young people, parents and carers with an interest in, or experience of the issues addressed in the guidance. It will also interest other professionals that have a role in child protection work, for example nurses, social workers, lawyers and the police.
To supplement the draft guidance, we have produced the Factsheet: paediatricians and our fitness to practise procedures explaining how the GMC's fitness to practise procedures work, and how paediatricians are represented within them. The paper aims to make this information more widely available to the profession and the public and we are not therefore seeking views on it.
The Working Group
We have set up a working group to gather evidence about doctors' roles and responsibilities in child protection work and to make recommendations about the guidance the GMC should issue.
You can view the working group’s
terms of reference,
membership list, and notes of the working group meeting:
Call for evidence
We ran a call for written evidence between July and September 2010 to help us understand the views of all those that play a role, or are affected by the issues that arise, in child protection work.
You can read about the call for evidence.
Oral evidence sessions
We conducted 24 oral evidence sessions in January 2011 with individuals and organisations who shared their experiences and knowledge of child protection. An analysis of the sessions was conducted by Ipsos Mori.
You can read the analysis report (pdf).