“Professor Andy Bilson explains how his research demonstrates how existing protocols on pre-mobile bruising mislead staff and risk exposing parents to damaging and unnecessary child protection action.

“The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel (“the panel”) asked safeguarding partners to review their policies on bruising in non-mobile infants “to check for consistency with the evidence base and national guidelines.”

Two articles from Community Care cover this Why child protection policies on bruising to babies need to change and Pre-mobile infant bruising should not automatically prompt section 47s, say government advisers. And my full research report with Alessandro Talia (open access) is here Bruises in Premobile Infants: A Contested Area of Research, Policy and Practice

It’s also covered in Social Work Today Local authorities urged to review policies for bruising in nonmobile infants and the Daily Mail Heartbreaking legacy of the babies taken from their mothers for a single bruise: Shattering stories of a woman who was separated from her child for a year (during which her relationship collapsed) and another left with PTSD