Referral for child protection investigation
3.27 If it is believed that children are at risk,
Child Protection Guidelines must be adhered to, and the need to
follow these procedures should be discussed with the parent and
their consent obtained, if possible. However, the interests of the
child are paramount, and initiating child protection procedures is
not conditional on obtaining consent.
Record
keeping
3.30 Extreme care needs to be taken with
documenting domestic violence. In order to maintain
confidentiality, any record of domestic violence should be kept
separately from notes which may be held by the parents or which the
perpetrator may have access to.
3.31 In General Practice it may be particularly
important that any record of domestic violence can be seen within
the context of the whole record, since this may be needed to
understand, for example, a wider pattern of repeated consultations
for depression, or of multiple problem, which may be connected to
the violence.
Confidentiality and danger to
individuals
3.41 Guidance by the GMC on confidentiality
makes it clear that disclosure can exceptionally be made in the
public interest, and without the patient’s consent, when it is
believed that failure to pass information to an appropriate
authority may expose the patient, or others, to risk of death or
serious harm. Whatever decision is made, the health care
worker must be confident that their action will not place someone
at greater risk of violence.