A child protection investigation can be very stressful for children, parents and carers and their loved ones. The purpose of the investigation is to establish whether children are currently safe and/or whether there is a risk that they might be harmed in the future.
There are lots of different elements to a child protection investigation. It may be that police and social work interview your child together to understand what might be happening with them, your child might be examined by a doctor if there are concerns that they have been injured or that they are in need of medical care. Organisations and people involved with your family will be asked to share information about you - the information should be limited to whatever is needed to understand the risk that they are concerned about and to help the assessment process. You should be kept informed of what is happening at each stage of the process.
Child Protection Investigation might result in a number of possible outcomes:-
- The professionals involved may examine all of the information provided and assess there to be no concerns for your child and decide to take no further action.
- They may think you need some help, support or guidance with a particular issue (e.g. support for discipline or getting children to school) and be able to put some support in place for you through people and agencies you already know.
- If there are serious concerns for your child's safety, and the professionals involved think you might not be able to keep them safe or care for them, your child will be referred to a Reporter at the Scottish Children's Reporter Administration. A Reporter will arrange a Children's Hearing (sometimes called a Children's Panel, or the Panel). The Children's Hearing has the power to make a Legal Order to make sure your child is cared for in a particular way.
- If there are concerns that your child is being harmed or might be harmed in the future you will be asked to attend a Child Protection Case Conference, which is a meeting to look at how best to keep your child safe now and in the future.