Recommendation LAMI-68: Doctors must make comprehensive, contemporaneous notes for suspected child deliberate harm.
From Laming Inquiry — Final Report, published 28 January 2003.
Recommendation
When concerns about the deliberate harm of a child have been raised, doctors must ensure that comprehensive and contemporaneous notes are made of these concerns. If doctors are unable to make their own notes, they must be clear about what it is they wish to have recorded on their behalf.
Government response
No government response to this recommendation is on the record yet.
Delivery
No statement on delivery from the addressee has been found in the sources searched (last checked 27 February 2026). This is separate from the response above.
What other bodies have found
In their own words. These do not change the delivery statement above.
Thirlwall Inquiry legal team (27 February 2026)
The Government accepted this recommendation: This is included in the checklist of good practice recommendations issued on publication of the report (paragraphs 40-47). The booklet What To Do If You’re Worried A Child Is Being Abused also covers the issue of record keeping (paragraphs 49-52).
Site note: The Thirlwall Inquiry legal team's own notes on implementation, from its Review of Implementation of Recommendations from Previous Inquiries into Healthcare Issues (version dated April 2025, published 27 February 2026). The review does not colour its Extent of Implementation cell for this recommendation green; it leaves the cell uncoloured where a recommendation was rejected, where evidence of implementation was insufficient, or where steps had been taken but implementation was not yet complete. Table row: section 7.2 No. 68, PDF page 164-165.
Themes and tags
Who has spoken
- Thirlwall Inquiry legal team
Finding