Poster (Non‐Prize) Category

Abstract

Background: Following a Paediatric liaison meeting, a communication form has been completed to raise safeguarding concerns about children referred/seen in the Paediatric Dentistry Clinic. Aim: To determine the outcomes from the communication form.Method: This was a retrospective case note review of all forms completed in 2010. Outcomes were sought for children who had been a form completed, including the reason for the concern and the action plan implemented. Results: Data were obtained for 71 patients, who had a mean age of 7.8 years (range 1-16 years). Forms were completed for a variety of reasons including non-attendance, child not receiving regular dental care with untreated disease, child missing from education and concerns regarding parental/child interaction and enquiries were undertaken by a Senior Dental Nurse in a child protection/liaison role. The majority of the forms were completed by Consultants (45.6%) or Specialist Registrars (42.3%) for either new patient assessments (32.4%) or follow up attendances (67.6%). A variety of contacts were made for example parent/guardian, health visitor, social worker, school nurse, missing from education team, general medical practitioner, general dental practitioner, hospital services and safeguarding teams. The number of contacts ranged from 1 to 23 (mean 5.45) with ultimately 70.4% of the queries had been resolved. Conclusion: The communication form achieved high success rates in achieving resolution of queries benefiting the outcome of the child's wellbeing.