What to do

If you have concerns the child or young person is being abused or neglected or is at risk you should report this without delay to your line manager or designated child protection person. Check your own procedure to make sure you know who this is. 

If this person is not available or there is immediate risk you should telephone your locality social work children and families team or contact the police to report your concerns or for advice.

Line managers

Line managers should contact the locality social work team, call SWES on 0800 121 4114 (if out of office hours), or the police depending on the nature and urgency of the situation without delay and follow this up (within 24 hours) with the information recorded on a notification of child protection concern form unless after discussion they agree with the worker to whom they reported the concern that it is not 'child protection' and that a request for assistance would be the appropriate response. 

Template forms 

We have template forms for making notifications of child protection concerns or requests for assistance. 

If the line manager or the front-line worker is in any doubt about the significance of the concern he/she should phone the locality social work team for advice.

Contact your local social work office to obtain the forms.

Refer to the National guidance for child protection in Scotland 2021 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot), which has been adopted by North Lanarkshire Child Protection Committee. 

You can also access regional and local guidance and procedures on a range of specific child protection-related topics.

You can find out more about our multiagency child protection training programme by seeing the child protection workforce learning and development programme..

If you want more information on national developments in child protection including the Child Protection Improvement Programme visit the Scottish Government Child Protection site and the CELCIS Protecting Children site.