Appealing a Case Conference Decision and the Child Protection Register
A case conference will decide whether to put your child’s name on the Child Protection Register. Each Health and Social Care Trust (HSC Trust) is required to keep a register of every child/young person in its area who is considered to be suffering from, or likely to suffer, significant harm and for whom there is a Child Protection Plan.
The Register is not a list of names of children/young people who have been abused but of children/young people for whom there are unresolved Child Protection issues and who are currently the subject of an inter-agency Child Protection Plan.
The purpose of the register is to provide record about a child/young person for whom there are unresolved Child Protection issues and there is in place an inter-agency Child Protection Plan. It also ensures the Child Protection Plan is formally reviewed at least every six months (and initially after three months of the decision to place the child/young person’s name on the Register).
It is also useful in that it provides a central point of enquiry for professional staff who are concerned about the welfare of a child/young person and who need to know whether the child/young person is the subject of an inter-agency Child Protection Plan.
The information on the Register must be kept up-to-date and its contents must be confidential other than to authorised, legitimate enquirers. It must be held securely and separately from other agency records. It must be accessible to enquirers both in and outside office hours.
Who Can Appeal a Decision to Place a Child’s Name on the Register?
A parent, a person who has parental responsibility, or a person who was invited as the primary carer of a child/young person who has been subject to a Child Protection Investigation and Child Protection Case Conference. Children/young people, according to their age and understanding, who have been subject to a Child Protection Investigation and Child Protection Case Conference, may also appeal the decision.
The decision can only appealed if one of the following grounds are satisfied:
SBNI Regional Child Protection Policy and Procedures in respect of the Child Protection Case Conference were not followed, with associated implications for the decisions and outcome of the Child Protection Case Conference;
Information presented at the Child Protection Case Conference was inaccurate, incomplete or inadequately considered in the decision-making process;
The threshold for registration/de-registration was not met;
The category of registration was not correct.
Finally appeals must be made within 15 days of the Initial Case Conference Decision.