Child protection staff need to 'own' concerns about child well-being

Workers in child protection need to "own" the concerns they have about a youngster's well-being.

Colin Anderson, independent chairman of Glasgow's Child Protection Committee, was speaking after the sentence of two mothers whose daughter died in hospital from complications caused by malnutrition.

He told the BBC what lessons he believed should be learned from the case: "It is about empowering workers to have more professional curiosity, to demand evidence of alleged improvements in a child's well-being and to follow up on their professional instincts and to challenge other professionals and not to fall into a trap of handing off concerns 'I reported it to the social worker, I reported it to the health visitor', but to own these concerns until they are satisfied that the child's welfare and the child's safeguarding needs have been met."