‘Sorry I did not attend my appointment but I can’t see over the steering wheel yet’

Sorry I did not attend my appointment

An excellent little animation video by Safeguarding Nottingham brings to life the dangers in applying adult-based DNA (Did Not Attend) policies to children. While a competent adult can choose whether or not to attend an appointment, for children this is not the case.

A simple adjustment to using the term ‘Was Not Brought’ can help shift our thinking and behaviour in relation to children’s health care.

This was one of the messages in our recent triennial review of Serious Case Reviews (http://seriouscasereviews.rip.org.uk/) and is flagged up again in the latest issue of Child Abuse Review

Was Not Brought – Take Note! Think Child! Take Action!

The impact of children not being brought for appointments is explored in a paper by Jenny Harris and colleagues on missed dental appointments. This paper is just one of a number of original articles covering research, clinical audit, safeguarding practice and interventions, including an evaluation of a parenting programme for adolescent mothers; a Healthy Eating Active Living programme for young people living in residential out of home care; a systematic review of the use of digital technologies to prevent violence against children; and a report on the differences between accidental and abusive ano-genital injuries.

All of these papers provide different snippets of evidence to help practitioners in working effectively to safeguard children, while keeping a focus on the child at the centre.

Authoritative practice… is dependent on a careful analysis of current best evidence, high-quality research to promote and extend our evidence base, and practitioners who retain a focus on the child, recognising and responding to vulnerability in a supportive but challenging manner.

You can access the editorial for free, along with the table of contents and all the research papers (subscription or BASPCAN membership only) at the journal website.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/car.v26.3/issuetoc

Child Abuse Review Issue 26:3

Table of Contents

Was Not Brought – Take Note! Think Child! Take Action!

Jane V. Appleton and Peter Sidebotham
Clinical Audit of Children’s Missed Dental Appointments in a City-Wide Salaried Community Dental Service in Relation to Guidance on When to Suspect Child Maltreatment

Jennifer C. Harris, Lauren M. Firth and Barbara L. Chadwick

An Adolescent Parents’ Programme to Reduce Child Abuse

Margaret T. McHugh, Alexandra Kvernland and Vincent J. Palusci

The Healthy Eating, Active Living (HEAL) Study: Outcomes, Lessons Learnt and Future Recommendations

Rachael Cox, Helen Skouteris, Matthew Fuller-Tyszkiewicz, et al.

From Innovation to Transcreation: Adapting Digital Technologies to Address Violence against Children

Carmen Cronin, Suruchi Sood and Dawn Thomas