This is the legal position for Dctors, none of which flows from the Children Act as amended. It is professional guidance as I stated. It is not part of the criminal Law:
http://careers.bmj.com/careers/advice/view-article.html?id=20007924All doctors have a duty to report concerns that a child may be at risk of abuse or neglect, even if their work is with adult patients, says new guidance from the General Medical Council.[1]
Niall Dickson, the GMC’s chief executive, said that doctors need not worry that the regulator would “come after them” as long as they followed the guidance and took action through the proper channels.
Paediatricians have shunned child protection work after high profile cases in which some have been hauled up before the regulator after complaints by parents. Two paediatricians with an international reputation, Roy Meadow and David Southall, were ordered to be struck off the medical register but eventually had the decisions quashed on appeal.
The guidance, to be sent to more than 230 000 doctors in the United Kingdom, comes from a working party whose establishment was announced when Southall was restored to the register in May 2010.[2] Paediatricians were outraged that one of the group’s members was Penny Mellor, a parents’ advocate they accused of orchestrating a campaign of complaints against child protection doctors, but she stepped down after Southall threatened a High Court challenge to her appointment.[3]
The GMC’s chairman, Peter Rubin, said that he could see how doctors who worked with adults could overlook child protection concerns. But a patient’s chaotic lifestyle, alcohol or drug misuse, or “serious mental health issues” could lead to worries about the welfare of children in the home.
The guidance outlines the advice doctors should take and how they should raise their concerns with child protection colleagues and agencies. It states, “Taking action will be justified, even if it turns out that the child or young person is not at risk of, or suffering, abuse or neglect, as long as the concerns are honestly held and reasonable, and the doctor takes action through appropriate channels.”
