Routine inquiry, IRIS, Red Book observations, and escalation to MASH. The role of primary care in safeguarding children online and offline.
As a GP or health visitor, you may be the only universal professional a family sees regularly during a child's earliest years. Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023 places safeguarding firmly within primary care's role: routine inquiry about domestic abuse, observation of parent-child interaction, and escalation through the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) when concerns cross threshold. This guide focuses on the everyday clinical contacts where safeguarding intersects with digital risk: a parent disclosing online abuse from an ex, a teenager presenting with anxiety linked to sextortion, a Red Book check where bruising does not match the account given.
Primary care sits at the front door of every safeguarding system. A delayed referral from a GP or health visitor can mean weeks before intervention; a well-timed one can prevent serious harm. Online harm now reaches primary care directly — through self-harm presentations linked to harmful content, eating-distress linked to algorithmic content, and adolescent mental health crises following grooming or sextortion. Recognising the digital dimension shortens the route to help.