CC Live news: Abuse should not be glossed over

The details of abuse suffered by children should not be glossed over by professionals, delegates at Community Care Live Scotland heard today.

Gill Ottley, deputy chief inspector at the Social Work Inspection Agency, the social care inspectorate for Scotland, said that there was a tendency to “sanitise abuse these days” which meant its implications were not always fully taken on board.

“We want to describe the abuse not call it abuse. I think we have stopped doing that for some reason. We need to give the panels [the children’s hearing panels which decide whether children should be taken into care in Scotland] that shock and let them have the information,” she said.

Ottley added that society needed to recognise the level of risk involved in child protection work and acknowledge that professionals would never be able to protect children from harm at all times.

“We need to get real about the level of risk that we are dealing with and get away from the culture of vilification when things go wrong,” she concluded.

www.communitycare.co.uk/childprotection

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 Amy Taylor