Child protection experts should form new taskforce, doctors say

Doctors have called for a special interagency taskforce, staffed
by child protection experts, to deal with the most serious criminal
abuse of children, writes Alex
Dobson.

The new body would be staffed by highly trained police officers,
social workers, paediatricians, psychiatrists, pathologists and
lawyers, as generic workers do not have the level of expertise
required, according to a new report.

Leading paediatrician David Southall from North Staffordshire
Hospital and co-authors say that new legal definitions of child
abuse are also urgently needed and should be based on motive and
degree of injury rather the type of injury itself.

The most serious abuse would be classified as category A –
defined as deliberate ill treatment with the intention of causing
harm and suffering, and is carried out by someone who is fully
aware of the consequences of their actions.

It is category A abuse that the special interagency taskforce on
criminal abuse would investigate.

‘Classification of child abuse by motive and degree rather than
type of injury’
available here