054 Mandatory Reporting Debate

The formal debate on mandatory reporting took place at the BASPCAN Congress in Edinburgh  where a packed theatre voted substantially against the proposal initially and , at the end, still voted against but with a much reduced majority. This debate, whoever wins the General Election, will continue to divide the professional community. Peter Garsden, the President of the UK Association of Child Abuse Lawyers has represented over 25 class actions of survivors of abuse and speaks for the introduction of legislation to make this compulsory with sanctions imposed on professionals who knowingly fail to report abuse. Dr Jill McLeigh, a clinical assistant professor at the Kempe Centre for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse at Colorado University argues against the proposal citing the unsatisfactory situation in the USA where it has been Federal Law since 1963. Associate Professor Ben Mathews from the Australian Centre for Health Law research at Queensland University of Technology has researched this comprehensively and draws on over 10 years of data to argue the case, though not speaking in the main debate. The podcast is a bit longer than usual but , I hope you agree worth it. Thanks as always to Alba Digital Media for technical support, audio production and podcast syndication.