Recognise your responsibility to contribute to
inter-agency processes, such as Child Protection
Conferences
GPs currently attend very few child protection conferences
(CPC) (23) though they have a responsibility in the joint decision
making about children and they have useful information to
contribute for the benefit of the child. Time constraints make it
difficult to attend conferences themselves, but they can contribute
to the inter-agency process in several ways; GPs can ensure that
the appropriate documentation is completed and available; they can
brief others from the practice, such as Health Visitors, to
officially represent their views at the conference; if they know
that the mother is experiencing domestic violence they can warn the
conference that the parents should be seen separately, so that a
proper assessment can be made.