Background
As RCPCH, we play a unique and vital role in championing the safeguarding agenda for children and young people. In June 2020, we launched the Child Protection Portal to deliver trusted content for those involved in child protection and safeguarding.*
About the Portal
The Portal provides a range of child protection and safeguarding resources, along with links to courses to support health professionals and different audiences with a special interest in child protection. It offers further evidence-based resource for clinicians in the UK and internationally to help inform clinical practice, child protection procedures and professional and expert opinion in the legal system.
The site includes the Child Protection Companion and the Child Protection Evidence systematic reviews, as well as other complementary resources and information on child protection processes across the whole range of medical and social interactions, including research, guidance, publications and standards that are applicable to all four UK devolved nations and internationally.
How to access secure content
Some content on the Portal requires a log in. This currently comprises the Child Protection Companion, which describes the essential context and the pathway of child protection cases. Later in 2024 it will include the Physical Signs of Child Sexual Abuse, also known as the ‘Purple Book’.
RCPCH members
Most members have access to secure content as part of their annual membership subscription. Go to the Portal, click Log in, then enter your membership number and password used for your RCPCH online account.
Medical student members and Honorary Fellows are not eligible for access as part of their membership. However, there are some ways in which you will be able to access the resources, per the below.
Others, UK and international individuals
If you are a healthcare professional, social worker, legal professional who works in child health or a medical student and wish to access the Child Protection Portal, you may apply for associate or affiliate RCPCH membership.
Your subscription starts on the date you subscribe and lasts for 12 months, with an option to renew each year as part of your RCPCH membership.
Access is for one person only, and is non-refundable and non-exchangeable.
Check your membership type and apply
Team or whole organisations
We will be happy to discuss options for your organisation.
- Bulk individual licences: users would be able to log in from a variety of desktops, regardless of where they were located
- Access via referring URL: this is commonly used for those institutions who would like to place the online link to the portal on their intranet
- Access via IP range: this enables access on any device that is using a specific IP range (or set of IP ranges)
To find out more about subscribing for a team or organisation, please contact child.protection@rcpch.ac.uk.
Contact
For more information about the Child Protection Portal, please contact child.protection@rcpch.ac.uk
- *This replaced Paediatric Care Online (PCO UK), which was launched in 2016 as a decision-support tool with funding from the Department of Health, in partnership with Royal College of General Practitioners, Royal Pharmaceutical Society, Royal College of Nursing, Institute of Health Visiting and American Academy of Pediatrics. Many other decision-support tools had become available, and our users told us they need more focused content on child protection and safeguarding. We therefore made some changes, driven by a need for longer term sustainability, which the College has prioritised and reinvested in to achieve this going forward. See more information and our FAQs at www.rcpch.ac.uk/resources/paediatric-care-online-pco-uk