Child protection experts have called for national standards toensure voluntary organisations are not kept in the dark after they havemade child protection referrals.

Anthony Douglas, chief executive of Cafcass, said some social workerswere better than others at passing on information to organisations thathad made such referrals. He added: "There are many protocols that insistreferrers are kept informed of outcomes. But the challenge for us all isto have a national standard for communicating information, as at themoment it is patchy."

It comes as some delegates at Children Now's conference on childprotection accused social workers of not keeping voluntary organisationsinformed of what was happening.