Nursery World - To the point... (75)

Our weekly columnist Beatrix Campbell says childcarers could learn from the child protection training offered to doctors Doctors sometimes drive childcare professionals crazy. They've got such power, and sometimes seem so reluctant to use it. In the olden days that might have been because while everyone else was going on child protection courses, they didn't.

Doctors sometimes drive childcare professionals crazy. They've got such power, and sometimes seem so reluctant to use it. In the olden days that might have been because while everyone else was going on child protection courses, they didn't.

In the last decade or so, however, doctors' reluctance has been driven less by ignorance than fear. We know this because the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health has told us so. This month a former president, Professor Sir David Hall, has rather bravely argued that it is a 'bitter irony' that among the doctors hauled before the General Medical Council (GMC) are some who have contributed 'so much to our knowledge about child abuse'. Furthermore, he adds, their discoveries about how parents sometimes harm their children, and their diagnosis of Fabricated or Induced Illness - the most contested in recent years - are 'often more robust than in many other aspects of child abuse'.

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