Sheffield Children Safeguarding Partnership

Physical abuse

Abuse is a form of maltreatment of a child. Somebody may abuse or neglect a child by inflicting harm, or by failing to act to prevent harm. Children may be abused in a family or in an institutional or community setting by those known to them or, more rarely, by others. Abuse can take place wholly online, or technology may be used to facilitate offline abuse. Children may be abused by an adult or adults, or another child or children.

Physical abuse may involve hitting, shaking, throwing, poisoning, burning or scalding, drowning, suffocating or otherwise causing physical harm to a child. Physical harm may also be caused when a parent or carer fabricates the symptoms of, or deliberately induces, illness in a child.

The Sheffield Children Safeguarding Partnership (SCSP) has resources and guidance for all practitioners working with children and their families in Sheffield below.

SCSP fact sheets:

• Fabricated or induced illness

• Sexual, physical & emotional abuse by children & young people of other children & vulnerable adults

SCSP policies & procedures:

• Recognition of Significant Harm and Types of Abuse and Neglect

• Section 47 Protocol for Responding to Concerns about Injuries or Abuse in Infants under Two Years Old

• Breast Ironing

National guidance:

• Working Together to Safeguard Children 

There is a link at the top of the page to use if you are concerned about a child.