Logging a Child Welfare Concern 

A Child Welfare Concern (previously referred to as a Child Protection Register check) must be logged every time a professional from an agency represented on the GSCB has a child welfare concern.

This should always occur when the professional has not received a clear or plausible explanation in response to any child welfare concern that has arisen during the course of their work, or where explanations have been contradictory and give rise to concern.

The concern is logged with the Safeguarding Children Service (based in Children and Young People�s Directorate).

01452 58 3636 (During normal office hours)

In this way a database of concerns is being built up on the children of Gloucestershire and an opportunity to pull together concerns from different agencies is provided, even on those occasions when a referral to Children and Young People�s Directorate is not made.

The professional will be asked to provide names, DOB, and address of all family members if at all possible and details of the concern. They will also be asked for their name, professional role and a contact telephone number (in order that authenticity can be checked and the results of the searches then be given).

The Safeguarding Children Service (SCS) will carry out the following searches:

• Check the current Child Protection Register

• Check for previous registration

• Search Children and Young People�s Directorate information system for current involvement and previous child protection concerns

• Search SCS records of previous child welfare concerns

The caller will be given the results of the searches and may be offered advice from a Safeguarding Children Co-ordinator about how to proceed. If the welfare log is about a child currently on our Child Protection Register the caller must share their concerns with the appropriate key worker.

All child welfare concerns that are logged will become part of a database that is maintained in the Safeguarding Children Service.

Logging a child welfare concern is not a �referral� to Children and Young People�s Directorate and so will not, ordinarily, lead to any action by the Children and Young People�s Directorate department.  However a child welfare concern must be logged in order to maintain a list of concerns about a child. Concerns must be logged with the Safeguarding Children Service regardless of whether the child is known to have a Child Protection Plan.

Information is passed on to the appropriate social work team manager on any second or subsequent child welfare concern made on a particular family or where the concern is in relation to a child under twelve months of age. The team manager will decide if further action is required. The person making the check will be advised to contact the appropriate social work team in serious cases and that the SCS may follow this up.

A child welfare concern can be logged with the Children and Young People�s Directorate Safeguarding Children Service, Tel: 01452 58 3636, during normal office hours or to the Police Control Room Tel: 0845 090 1234, outside normal office hours, although the Police will be able to access less information. The Safeguarding Children Service will follow up child welfare concerns made through the Police during the next working day.

It is considered good practice to inform parents that a child welfare concern is being logged, as this will help to preserve relationships between the professional and the parent and avoids surprises if the social work team contacts the parent as a result of the concern being logged.