Constitution

Title

The Group shall be called ‘Child Protection Special Interest Group’ (CPSIG). It is a subgroup of the British Association of Community Child Health (BACCH) and is affiliated to the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH).

The Group is supported by BACCH financially.

Aims

1. To identify and discuss issues relating to Child Protection.
2. To advise BACCH and the RCPCH (via the Standing Committee on Child Protection) about the issues identified.
3. To bring to the fore amongst British paediatricians child abuse and neglect as a major morbidity for children in the UK.
4. To ensure that there are regular multidisciplinary national study days on child abuse and neglect including a regular session at the RCPCH annual spring meeting and the annual scientific meeting of BACCH.
5. To encourage research into child abuse and neglect.
6. To encourage standard setting and audit.
7. To promote close working relationships with other members of the RCPCH and BACCH who share a common interest in child abuse and neglect, in particular with the RCPCH standing committee on child protection as well as other groups such as the British Paediatric Psychology and Psychiatry group and the British Association for the Study and Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (BASPCAN).
8. To allow for a co-ordinated opinion from the RCPCH on matters relating to child abuse and neglect.
9. To provide a means of support for colleagues who as a result of conscientious work in this difficult area find that they are the result of unfair criticism or disciplinary action.

Membership

This shall be open to doctors who are members of BACCH, the RCPCH or other appropriate professional organisations.The Administrator and Secretary shall keep a list of members.

The Executive Committee shall fix any charge levied for joining the Group.

Executive Committee

The Executive Committee shall consist of two members and one chairperson, one secretary and one treasurer. Elections will be held at the annual general meeting. The term of office of the Executive Committee is four years thereafter re-electable yearly by ballot. Members of the Executive Committee shall not serve longer than six years unless there are no nominations for replacement members. There shall be an overlap in the terms of office of the committee members, to avoid a situation where all members of the committee will be new. A possible solution is to extend the term of office of one or two of the committee members, and also to stagger the election of committee members.

Meetings and Study days

The Annual General Meeting of the Group will be held each year. Any member of the Group is allowed to vote at the Annual General Meeting.

The Executive Committee will meet as and when required to deal with any business. The Secretary will take minutes in the absence of support from the BACCH administrator.

The Group will organise around 3-4 study days per year, held at a variety of locations. These include a session at the annual spring meeting of the RCPCH and one at the annual scientific meeting of BACCH.

All study days will be multidisciplinary and will be open to members and non-members.

Accounts

Accounts will be kept by the Treasurer and submitted to the Treasurer of BACCH annually. CPSIG shall abide by the BACCH standing financial instructions.

Amendments to the constitution

Amendments to the constitution may be proposed by any five members. The proposed amendments shall be forwarded to the Chairman or Secretary not less than two months before the annual general meeting of the Group and the Committee shall inform all members of the Group of the proposed amendments not less than 28 days before the annual general meeting at which the changes are to be discussed and voted on. Due notice shall be given to all members of the date, time and place of that meeting.