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Social Work vocabulary · Child Protection and Safeguarding

Disclosure

Meaning in social work, with examples

/dɪsˈkləʊʒə/nounCommon term

In social work, disclosure means: The moment when a person, often a child, tells someone that they have been harmed or abused; also the release of information to another person or agency.

In Turkish: açıklama, anlatma, bilginin açıklanması

How it is used

In child protection training, staff learn how to respond to a disclosure: listen calmly, avoid leading questions, never promise to keep it secret and report it the same day. The verb is disclose.

Example sentences

  1. The girl made a disclosure to her teacher at the end of the school day.

  2. Never promise a child that you will keep a disclosure secret.

Common collocations

  • make a disclosure
  • respond to a disclosure
  • disclosure of abuse
  • disclosure of information
  • abuseTreatment that causes someone physical, emotional, sexual or financial harm, usually by a person they know, trust or depend on.
  • safeguardingAll the measures taken to protect children and adults at risk from harm, abuse and neglect, and to promote their wellbeing.
  • mandatory reportingA legal duty for certain professionals, such as teachers, doctors and social workers, to report suspected abuse or neglect to the authorities.
  • confidentialityThe duty to keep information about clients private and to share it only with their consent or when there is a clear professional or legal reason.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Child Protection and Safeguarding

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