Systematic assessment in child protection: improving outcomes

Abstract

As part of the multidisciplinary safeguarding team, children’s nurses should have a clear understanding of child protection processes and how they have sometimes lacked a systematic approach. Methods of detecting threats to patient safety in high-risk clinical care can also be employed to analyse child protection processes. This article outlines one tool, known as failure mode and effects analysis, which can be used in a framework that takes into account human factors that can influence an individual’s performance. It discusses how this tool can be used to identify and reduce the potential for failure in the serious case review process, in particular by not attributing blame.