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UN Convention on the Rights of the Children
UK National legislations and policies for safeguarding children
Current safeguarding children legislation uk
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Recommended: UN Convention on the Rights of the Children
Each UK nation is responsible for its own laws and policies around health, social welfare and education. This covers most aspects of child protection and the safeguarding of children and young people in the UK. All child protection systems are different in each nation, however they are all based on similar principles, and laws are put into place to help prevent behaviour that can harm, place children at risk, or require action to protect children. There are set guidelines that show different organisations what they should be doing to ensure children are kept safe.
It is the Department for Education that is responsible for child protection in England, and it sets out statutory guidance, legislation, and policy on how the child protection system should work.
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It also states that there should be a central database that holds records of all children and whether they are known to different services, such as social services. As well as this, it shows that in order to protect children and young peoplesâ€TM rights there should be an independent commissioner for England. In addition, there should be a childrensâ€TM and familiesâ€TM board which must be chaired by a senior government minister, and to monitor childrenâ€TMs services, Ofsted will set a framework.
There is also a human rights treaty called The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
(1989) (UNCRC), which sets out the right of all children to be treated equally and fairly. Every child under the age of 18 has a list of rights that they are entitled to which are set out in this treaty. The full range of human rights: civil, cultural, economic, social and political are included through articles such as: • The right to services such as education and healthcare • The right to grow up in an environment of happiness, love and understanding • The right to develop their personalities, abilities and talents to their own potential • The right to special protection measures and
Wilson, K. and Adrian J. L. (2007) The Child Protection Handbook: The Practitioner's Guide to Safeguarding Children. Edinburgh: Bailliere Tindall
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.
All children and young people should have support regardless of who they are and the environments they come from. Children and young people should be supported to be healthy, enjoy life, have a good standard of living and be successful in everything they do. These are the five key principles to help get children and young people the best start in life. Children and young people have the right to voice their opinions and share any issues that are of importance to them. In the past this was often disregarded. Protection of the children’s act 1999 is so that any people who are considered unsuitable to work with children and young people are put on a list also known as (POCA). This list is to prevent the unsuitable people from gaining access to children. Unsuitable persons will not be allowed to work with any children weather its paid work or voluntary work. All childcare organisations must refer to this list through the criminal records bureau to check off names against the list and any persons found to be on it must not under any circumstances be employed. The UNCRC (United Nations Convention on the rights of a child) The UNCRC is an international agreement that
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
Ifezue G. Rajabali M., ‘Protecting the interests of the child’ [2013] Cambridge Journal of International and Comparative Law 1: 77–85
Some of the national and local guidelines, policies and procedures for safeguarding that affect the day-to-day work with children and young people
• 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].
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
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.
United Nations (1989). Convention on the Rights of the Child.[online] Available at: [Accessed 1 April 2014].
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,
OFSTED is the school specific regulatory bodies for England, they are responsible for inspections of services carried out by schools, colleges and children's homes making sure they provide the quality of service adequate for every child and young person. OFSTED make professional judgment when inspecting the settings ,it will then be published in an OFSTED report outlining any required improvements that may be needed and the necessary actions to improve their facilities to provide adequate standards in care and education .
In 2003 the government reviewed a new policy on inspection services. Its aim was to ensure that inspection keeps making useful contribution to local services (Mathews, 2004, p. 6). The value of inspection is to ensure that all childcare provisions meet every child’s needs in the setting where they are looked after. Morton (2014, Aug 08) suggests that, Ofsted inspection must assess how childcare settings deliver the EYFS. In addition to this, Ofsted assess childcare providers to make sure that they follow EYFS framework.
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, hereafter referred to as ‘CRC’, is the most inclusive legal document devoted to the promotion and protection of children’s rights. Upon ratification, State Parties are supposed to be bound to the CRC through international law. However, as Cynthia Price Cohen (one of the drafters of the CRC) identifies, the CRC ‘does not lay down specific rules with sanctions for noncompliance’. Thus, it is imperative that the CRC have enforcement mechanisms in place to ensure implementation. This essay will discuss how the existing weak enforcement mechanism is hindering the State Parties from reaching the objectives of the CRC.