Health leaders reveal shortage of 'vital' child protection specialists

A report by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) says that rising demand and shortages across the children's health workforce mean many trusts and clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) are not recruiting or failing to fill vacancies for specialist health roles for their area’s most vulnerable children.

This includes specialist support for safeguarding, looked-after children, young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or posts related to child deaths.

The RCPCH’s focus on vulnerable children and families paediatric workforce report found that in England around a quarter (23.1 per cent) of trust do not have a designated doctor for child deaths, while just under half (45.1 per cent) do not have a named doctor for looked-after children.

Meanwhile more than a third (36.2 per cent) do not have a designated medical officer for children with SEND.

This is either because the roles have not been created or there is “widespread vacancies where roles exist”, states the report.

Even where the role does exist and is filled, those in such specialist posts are struggling to help vulnerable children as “the post holder is often awarded insufficient time to fulfil their responsibilities”.

Being called for by the RCPCH are mandatory appointments to ensure all trusts can provide specialist support to vulnerable children.

Nationwide guidance on developing roles needs to be in place as does a review of gaps in provision, the RCPCH says.

Also being called for is recruitment and training of more child health specialists and measures to be put in place to ensure they are being supported.

“Governments and membership bodies should explore whether new statutory roles for vulnerable children and families need to be developed across their nation to close existing gaps in service provision and to better care for the most vulnerable members of the population,” the report states.

The lack of specialist roles to support vulnerable children is part of wider shortage of professionals across the child health workforce, in particularly among community paediatricians who fill most child protection roles.

According to the RCPCH there has been a decline in community paediatric consultants, from 18.5 per cent of the total consultant workforce in 2015 to 17.4 per cent in 2017.

Dr Alison Steele, RCPCH officer for child protection said: “In many parts of the UK, vital child protection roles simply don’t exist.

“Even where they do, they are too often vacant or filled by clinicians who have neither the time nor the support to deliver the duties of the role. 

“The reality is we don’t have enough suitably trained paediatricians to fill all the vulnerable children posts. We are storing up significant future problems with our failure to adequately resource the specialty.”