Hierarchies should not hinder child protection investigations

Staff hierarchies must not stop child protection concerns from
being dealt with, delegates at a child protection in schools
conference in London heard today, writes Amy Taylor
from the conference.

Jenni Whitehead, child protection development co-ordinator for
Bradford local education authority, said that professionals needed
to have ways to raise child protection concerns outside the body
they are employed by to prevent their concerns from being overruled
by staff in more senior positions.

She highlighted that while the junior paediatrician who saw
Victoria Climbie thought that she had been abused, the senior
paediatrician had overruled them and said that no abuse had taken
place.

Whitehead added that if the junior paediatrician had had
somewhere else to take her concerns, the outcome could have been
different.