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Letter
Safeguarding in the COVID-19 pandemic: a UK tertiary children’s hospital experience
  1. Kavitha Masilamani1,
  2. William B Lo2,
  3. Ashish Basnet2,
  4. Jane Powell3,
  5. Desiderio Rodrigues2,
  6. William Tremlett4,
  7. Deepthi Jyothish5,
  8. Geoff Debelle1
  1. 1 General Paediatrics, Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham, UK
  2. 2 Neurosurgery, Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham, UK
  3. 3 Safeguarding Team, Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham, UK
  4. 4 Paediatric Intensive Care Unit, Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham, UK
  5. 5 Birmingham Children's Hospital, Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Kavitha Masilamani, General Paediatrics, Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham B4 6NH, UK; kavitha.masilamani{at}nhs.net

https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2020-320354

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    Introduction

    There is emerging evidence of increase in injuries to children associated with abuse or neglect during the lockdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.1 We report an increase in the numbers of children under 16 years, during the COVID-19 lockdown period, with safeguarding concerns, and who were admitted under neurosurgery for head/spinal injuries following falls from height.

    Methods

    Retrospective analysis of referrals from our hospital to children’s social care (CSC) from 1 April to 30 June 2020 was compared with data from the same period in 2018 and 2019. Children admitted with neurosurgical trauma, including falls out of buildings during school closure, were analysed. Referral to CSC and multiagency strategy meetings were used as an indicator of verifiable safeguarding concerns, justified by established organisational processes for convening strategy meetings after individualised case review, when there is risk of significant harm.

    Results

    During …

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    Footnotes

    • Twitter @docwt

    • Contributors Conceptualisation, study design and writing the first draft: KM, WBL, DR, WT, GD and DJ. Acquisition of data: JP, WBL, AB and DR. Analysis of data: WBL, KM, WT, JP, DJ and GD. Review and approval of the final manuscript for submission: KM, WBL, DJ, GD, DR and WT.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent for publication Not required.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.