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The importance of safeguarding children
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
The importance of safeguarding children
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There are various legislation, policies, guidelines and procedures to safeguard the wellbeing to children and young people. These vary within the home nations, but all have the same end goal.
An element of legislation is the United Nations on the Rights of the Child 1989 (UN, 1989)(UN, This officially validated within the UK in 1991, although various UK governments
Within England the following Safeguard legislation applies:
Working Together to Safeguard Children (2010) provides guidance for practitioners and organisations that are working with children/young people. T
Children Act 1989 and the Children Act 2004
Within Wales the following Safeguard legislation applies:
The Children Act 1989 (The guidance for Wales is a little different as it
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Schools and further education establishments also promote welfare & safeguard children and young people under the Education Act 2002 and OFSTED promotes policies and procedures for schools/education establishments to …show more content…
This would include health, social services, police, probation service and education. This guidance is to ensure everyone works together to help safeguard and advocate the welfare of children supporting the Children Acts 1989 & 2004. This legislation details a breakdown of the nature & impact of child neglect and child abuse, the best practices to follow for child protection procedures, responsibilities and actions of the different types of practitioners and agencies and the procedure that should be followed if there are any concerns about a child and following on the actions that should be taken to promote the welfare and safeguard the child. It also highlights training, the role of Local Safeguarding Children Boards and principles that are to be followed whilst working with the child/family/carer.
The Protection of Children ACT 1999 also requires that anyone working, voluntary working with children/young people should be CRB (now called DBS - Disclosure and Barring Service) checked before such contact can occur. People working with children can also be excluded if they appear on the Department of Health list and the Department for Education and Employment list â€TM99.
Policies & Procedures - the schools/organisations will have policies/procedures in place for safeguarding children which will include responsibilities and roles of employees
If the local authority establishes that the child is a child in need or at risk of harm, it has a duty under section 47 of the Children Act (1989) to make a care plan or child protection plan to provide support which involves adequate supervision and checks to ensure that the child is no longer at risk. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) promotes empowerment for children as they can exercise their right to express their views and be heard and their best interest would be at the centre of the intervention and social workers need to ensure that decisions made are not affected by the influence from family or professionals they work with (Lee & Hudson,
Wilson, K. and Adrian J. L. (2007) The Child Protection Handbook: The Practitioner's Guide to Safeguarding Children. Edinburgh: Bailliere Tindall
The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 was established because an American boy was abducted form a Florida shopping mall and was later found murdered. The act was signed into law by George W. Bush on July 27, 2006. This act is established to protect children from sexual exploitation and violent crime to prevent child abuse and child pornography to promote internet safety. This act is also known as the sex offender registration and notification act. It was established with the intention to strengthen laws related to child sexual predators. This law was instructed for each state and/or territory to apply criteria’s for posting offenders data on the internet.
Ward, H. et al, 2012. Safeguarding babies and very young children from abuse and neglect. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. P 205.
Legislations are laws derived from current government policies and outlines rules and principles that everybody must follow. (Peteiro et al, 2017) There are multiple, current, legalisation that have been created in regards to the safeguarding of children and adults. The Data Protection Act of 1998, for instance, was created as a way to control how organisations use personal information. In a health and social care setting, the Data protection act ensures that personal information about individuals will be kept confidential and not misused. The act gives service users the right to determine how their personal data is used and who it is used by to prevent the risk of the information not being private and being put at risk for abuse. (Peteiro et al, 2017) This includes things such as date of birth, national insurance number and medical history. If certain personal information is not protected, then it puts the individual at risk of harm, or abuse. The Data Protection Act safeguards individuals against this. Similarly, The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 safeguards against children and adults by ensuring that only appropriate persons are allowed to work with certain groups. This act created the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) who deal with criminal record checks and overlooks the Barred Children’s and Barred Adult’s Lists of unsuitable
All physical contact with the children should ideally be avoided but in some situations this is not avoidable. E.g young children sometimes need a hug if they have hurt themselves, and at times the children will make physical contact an adult without warning. In these situations the adult should be aware of where they are and who is nearby. The adult should aim to never be left alone with a child (although in some situations this may be unavoidable such as personal care) and if they are the adult must go to lengths to protect themselves, such as leaving the doors open, telling other member of staff where and why they are going to be alone with a child. Ensuring they are observed from another adult if possible, even if at a distance. Any physical contact with a child should always be as a response to the child initiating it.
The legislation regarding safeguarding and chid protection ensures that all the children are safe, secure and protected from any kind of potential harm which may affect their health or development.
Department of Children and Youth Affairs. (1999). Children First-National Guidelines for the Protection and Welfare of Children. Available:http://www.dcya.gov.ie/documents/publications/Children_First_A4.pdf. Last accessed 23/01/14.
Since the enactment of the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA) a resistance is marked by the English judges in relation to disputes involving children. English courts have a difficult task in balancing the interests of parents and children since the welfare principle only looks at the interests of the child. Contrary article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) gives precedence to the rights of parents. Consequently are these two principles in conflict? Before answering this question, it is better to take things from the beginning.
There are many different regulations and strategies which are used to safeguard young adults and one of these strategies is the recruitment of staff and preventing people who may harm vulnerable people from getting assess to them. for example, the adults barred list. The is a list of people which either has a high risk of harming others or a probable risk of harming others. The people on the list are barred from working in health and social care settings and around vulnerable people. There are many different places where information is received from and this may include the police, courts, or health and social services. all this information is used to decide whether they are at risk of harming vulnerable people in order to decide whether they
Children’s Social Care work with parents and other agencies to assess the stages of child protection procedures, record information and make decisions on taking further action. The police work closely with this agency to act on decisions made such as removing a child or the person responsible for the abuse while gathering evidence and carrying out investigations regarding the matter. Health professionals have a duty to report suspected non-accidental injuries to Children’s Social Care and examine children to give evidence of abuse. The Children Act 2004 requires every local area to have a Local Safeguarding Children Board to oversee the work of agencies involved in child protection, place policies and procedures for people who work with children and conduct serious case reviews when children die as a result of abuse. The NSPCC is the only charitable organisation that has the statutory power to take action when children are at risk of abuse. They provide services to support families and children and two helplines for children in danger and adults who are concerned for a child’s safety. They also raise awareness of abuse, share their expertise with other professionals and work to influence the law and social policy protect children more efficiently. There are also acts in place to protect children such as the Children Act 1989, the United Nations Convention On The Rights Of The Child 1989, the Education Act 2002 and the Children Act 2004. Legal framework from such acts are provided for Every Child Matters which requires early years practitioners to demonstrate that they provide activities that help children protect themselves. This may be through books and group talks known as “Stranger
United Nations (1989). Convention on the Rights of the Child.[online] Available at: [Accessed 1 April 2014].
• International treaty covering the rights of all children, through 54 articles, including the right of the child to express his/her views in relation to decisions being made that may affect them and their
LSCB, (2013), SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN, YOUNG PEOPLE AND VULNERABLE ADULTS POLICY, (www.safechildren-cios.co.uk), [Assessed 1 November 2013].
Commission for Social Care Inspection (2005) Making Every Child Matter, Commission for Social Care Inspection