Effective child protection practice in England: legislation, barriers and strategies

This CPD article aims to increase nurses’ awareness of their safeguarding responsibilities and to provide them with a general overview of the basic knowledge and skills needed for individualised, child-centred, and effective child protection/safeguarding practice. Specifically, the article explores the lessons that can be learned from 50 years of child death tragedies in England; the key child protection legislation that nurses should know about when undertaking work with children; the ‘usual’ barriers and challenges to maintaining child-centred safeguarding practice; and the strategies that can be employed to overcome these barriers.