The NHS Future Forum report, based on a two-month consultation into proposed reforms in the government’s Health and Social Care Bill, argues that "there should be robust arrangements for designated and named professionals for safeguarding children in the new system as part of wider systems to maintain and improve safeguarding arrangements for children".
Dr Chris Hanvey, chief executive of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH), said the college believes the reforms have the potential to weaken accountability in child protection arrangements.
But he said the Future Forum report is a promising move forward and could help stop the most vulnerable children falling through gaps in the system.
"Our president Professor Terence Stephenson was a member of the Future Forum and we are encouraged that the final Future Forum report acknowledges the concerns he raised about the extent to which the impact of the Health and Social Care Bill on children’s health had not been reflected," Hanvey said.
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