10.2 Local Protocol - Solihull MBC and Heart of England Foundation Trust Hospital (Acute Services): Child Protection Referrals of Solihull Children |
| 1.1 | This agreement applies to children attending either Heart of England Foundation Trust Hospital; Accident and Emergency, Outpatients or admitted as in-patients; who have a Solihull address (B37, B90-B98 and some B36, CV5 & CV7 postcodes). |
| 1.2 | Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust will share safeguarding issues/concerns or information with the hospital where children are transferred to because of the seriousness of their condition and/or for specialist treatment. In turn these establishments will operate within their own safeguarding procedures |
| 1.3 | Where a member of medical, nursing or midwifery staff has reason to believe that a Solihull child may be at risk of Significant Harm, the member of staff should immediately contact the Solihull Children's Social Work Services (DART or Emergency Duty Team for telephone numbers, see Contact Details Appendix) in accordance with the Referral Procedure. |
| 1.4 | A record of the referral and any action taken should be entered on the clinical notes at the time the referral is made. As stated in the Referral Procedure, a Multi Agency Referral Form must be faxed to confirm the details of the referral within 48 hours. Referrals regarding Solihull children should not be made to the on sight hospital Social Work Team, as they are not the responsible local authority for Solihull children. |
| 1.5 | Access to the clinical notes may be required by staff from the Police or from Children's Social Work Services and should be provided. See Information Sharing and Confidentiality Procedure |
| 1.6 | Solihull Children's Social Work Services will be responsible for undertaking an Initial Assessment and, if required, a Section 47 Enquiry and Core Assessment. This may be a joint enquiry with the Police. A hospital representative will be invited to participate in any strategy discussion and Initial conference where one is held. |
| 1.7 | Where a child is made the subject of a Child Protection Plan the conference will make a decision as to the need for a hospital staff representative to be a member of the Core Group and invited to contribute to review conferences whether the child is receiving ongoing treatment/services from the hospital. |
| 1.8 | Solihull Child Protection and Review Service will provide the Heart of England NHS Trust (Acute Trust) with the name, DOB and address of all children residing in Solihull who are the subject of a Care or Child Protection Plan. This information will be held by the trust as confidential information used by hospital staff to inform their service delivery and management of an individual child's needs. An information sharing agreement exists between Solihull Child Protection and Review Service and Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust to address the safe transfer and management of this information. |
| 1.9 | Where hospital staff check against their system and identify a child is not the subject of a care or child protection plan they must still consider the identified concern in full and where they believe a child to be a child in need of support, care or protection, a referral to Children Social Work Services should be made in line with the agreed threshold for referral as set out in Section 1, paragraph 1.1 of the Referrals procedure. |
| 1.10 | This is a formal working agreement to promote best practice, information sharing and working together. It will be issued by the Hospital Trusts to all relevant medical, nursing and midwifery staff and be held within Solihull LSCB procedures for reference |
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