Introducing a statutory duty on individuals working with children to report child sexual abuse about which they have received a disclosure or which they have witnessed themselves was a key recommendation of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), led by Professor Alexis Jay, which ran from 2015 to 2022.
Children's sector leaders have warned that government plans to introduce mandatory reporting duties for practitioners will need to be backed with additional resources to avoid the child protection system being overwhelmed.
Giving evidence to the House of Commons Education Select Committee recently, leaders from children's social care and education said introducing a mandatory reporting duty could lead to overly cautious practice that would result in a surge in referrals to children's services.
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