Multidisciplinary child-protection case conference

Overview & Definition

Picture a six-year-old on your ward with an inflicted burn. You have treated the wound, completed the skeletal survey, consulted the child-protection team, and made the mandatory report. The child-protection authority has now convened a case conference, and you have been invited. Your job at this point is not to investigate further or to prove the diagnosis — it is to carry your clinical evidence into a room full of professionals, present it clearly, and help the group decide what happens next. ^{[1] [11]}

A multidisciplinary child-protection case conference is a formal, structured meeting convened by the statutory child-protection authority that brings together the professionals and agencies involved with a child and family. Its purpose is to share information, assess the risk of ongoing significant harm, decide whether the child needs a formal child-protection plan, and coordinate the multi-agency response. Frothingham described the British model of the case conference as a collaborative decision-making forum that contrasts with the more adversarial American approach — a distinction that persists across jurisdictions today. ^[7]

The conference is convened by the child-protection authority, not by the clinician. The social worker or case manager acts as the conference chair or co-chair; the paediatrician is an invited contributor. This distinction matters because the conference has statutory weight — its decisions may lead to a child-protection plan, a change of placement, or the initiation of care proceedings — and your role is to inform those decisions, not to make them alone. ^{[1] [5]}

The conference differs from a strategy discussion, which is an urgent, time-limited multi-agency meeting (typically police and social care) that decides whether to investigate and how. The strategy discussion happens early; the case conference happens after information has been gathered, and it makes the longer-term plan. Both are statutory forums, but they serve different purposes in the pathway. ^[1]

The core functions of the case conference are fourfold: information sharing (each agency contributes what it knows), risk assessment (the group assesses the likelihood and severity of ongoing harm), decision-making (whether the child meets the threshold for a protection plan), and care planning (the group agrees on actions, identifies a lead professional, and sets review timelines). Gilbert and colleagues framed these functions as the backbone of the multi-agency response to child maltreatment. ^[1]

References12ShowHide

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2. [2]Cowley LE, Maguire SA, Farewell DM, Kemp AM Factors influencing child protection professionals' decision-making and multidisciplinary collaboration in suspected abusive head trauma cases: a qualitative study. Child Abuse & Neglect, 2018.PMID 29913434
3. [3]Jent JF, Eaton CK, Knickerbocker L, et al. Multidisciplinary Child Protection Decision Making About Physical Abuse: Determining Substantiation Thresholds and Biases. Children and Youth Services Review, 2011.PMID 21804681
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8. [8]Okato A, Hashimoto T, Tanaka M, et al. Hospital-based child protection teams that care for parents who abuse or neglect their children recognize the need for multidisciplinary collaborative practice involving perinatal care and mental health professionals. Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare, 2018.PMID 29503560
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10. [10]Raman S, Maiese M, Vasquez V, et al. Review of serious events in cases of (suspected) child abuse and/or neglect: a RoSE by any other name? Child Abuse & Neglect, 2017.PMID 28662440
11. [11]Kirk CB, Lucas-Herald A, Mok J Child protection medical assessments: why do we do them? Archives of Disease in Childhood, 2010.PMID 19846995
12. [12]Garstang J, Eatwell D, Sidebotham P, et al. Common factors in serious case reviews of child maltreatment where there is a medical cause of death: qualitative thematic analysis. BMJ Open, 2021.PMID 34353801