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A new safeguarding toolkit aimed at supporting professionals working with children to take the appropriate action when identifying worrying marks, bruises or injuries has been launched.
The child protection medical assessment toolkit has been developed in partnership between health, social care and police and is aimed at anyone in Birmingham and Solihull who works with and has safeguarding responsibilities for children of any age – this includes nursery and teaching staff, voluntary organisations, health and social care professionals and police officers.
The toolkit includes a step-by-step guide for professionals to follow if they have concerns about any marks, bruises or injuries as well as a simple screening tool graphic to help professionals to quickly recognise concerning bruising on the body. The toolkit also provides guidance around what a child protection medical assessment is and explanations of language and medical terms that may be used in reports.
The toolkit includes:
NHS Birmingham and Solihull have created multi-agency training on Child Protection Medicals, led by Designated Doctors for Safeguarding Children – Dr Helen Chaplin and Dr Jane Armstrong.
Bruising is the most common injury to a child who has been physically abused. However, once children can move around independently it is also common for them to sustain injuries from daily activities and accidents, so if you spot bruising on a child it’s important to know when you should be concerned.
The NSPCC have created a leaflet on bruising on children, based on a systematic review of all the quality work in the world literature about bruising on children.