Glossary: Section 47 Enquiry (and Sec or S 47)

This is often referred to as a Child Protection Enquiry.

If there are reasonable grounds to suspect that a child is suffering or is likely to suffer Significant Harm, a Core Assessment, incorporating a Child Protection Enquiry, is initiated.

This normally occurs after an Initial Assessment and a Strategy Discussion/Meeting.

Child Protection Enquiries are usually conducted by a social worker, jointly with the Police, and must be completed within 15 days of a Strategy Discussion.

At that stage, an Initial Child Protection Conference is convened to establish whether the child is at continuing risk of significant harm and, if so, to draw up a multi agency Child Protection Plan for the child.

(Definition provided by tri.x)