This essay will discuss the safety of children, and the responsibilities of those involved in keeping them safe. The discussion will also include the different perspectives on the meaning of ‘safe’ and the safeguarding of children. It will address the relative responsibilities of families, practitioners, government and children themselves. Furthermore, it will also discuss the relevant law and policy, taking into consideration the diversity of children. ‘Staying safe’ is a complex notion with varying denotations. It is a broad concept that must look at individual children and their experiences and denotes extensive responsibility for all those involved in caring for children, specifically to provide children with the skills to keep themselves …show more content…
Page 1) and in response to her review into child protection, it was evident that local authorities and practitioners had a commitment to learn and a will to improve their practice with children. It is fundamental to this process of change that the voice of the child is heard throughout, and that they are provided with the opportunity to share their views and experiences. This will in turn assist to shape a future system that is more child-centred. Children and young people are best protected when professionals have a clear understanding of what is expected of them by both policy and procedure and the core legislation. In addition, when procedural safeguards are in place to support and protect the decisions and actions of the practitioners. Safeguarding children continues to be a challenging practice area and as highlighted in the Munro Review, information sharing and working together are crucial to enable this. The introduction of the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) and the support it offers to partnership working through co-location of agencies has given evidence of reduced barriers and increased information …show more content…
Laissez faire and patriarchy, which supports minimal state intervention and the preservation of family life, state paternalism and child protection, supporting extensive local authority intervention with a role of removing children from an inadequate home life, parental rights placing a focus on early intervention with preventative and supportive measures, and children’s rights which considers children as having full rights with emphasis on their wishes and feelings (Fox Harding, 1997). This in itself is open to various debates. Children’s rights are underpinned by existing frameworks such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). Article 54 highlights the child’s right to protection and participation, and local authorities and practitioners are obliged to ensure compliance with this. The dominant hypothesis within society is that the upbringing of children is significantly a matter for parents. However, it may be argued that the state has greater power in this role, for they dictate the legal responsibility of parents (CA 1989, s2) as well as having a duty (s47) and power (s44) to intervene when there are concerns over the welfare of a child. Debatably, there will always be a challenge between providing a laissez faire approach of preventative early intervention, and state paternalism of protecting a child from significant harm by removal from
Wilson, K. and Adrian J. L. (2007) The Child Protection Handbook: The Practitioner's Guide to Safeguarding Children. Edinburgh: Bailliere Tindall
he Importance Of Reflecting On Changes In Children’s Behaviour Regarding Abuse And Strategies Children Have To Protect Themselves
The main points of the children’s act 1989 are parental responsibility and the welfare of the child. Children are best cared for within their own families. The act states that the mental and physical wellbeing of the child is important. Professionals and parents/carers must work together to ensure the safety of the child. Local authorities have a duty to look into situations where they suspect a child or young person to be suffering from significant harm. Duties get allocated to local authorities, and other agencies to ensure that all children are safeguarded. The children’s act 2004 reinforces that all organisations that work with children and young people must help to safeguard
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
The tragic story of Veronica Climbie is an unfortunate example that highlights the impact that not only unprofessional practice but what miscommunication amongst disciplines can have on the life of a client, in this case, a young and innocent little girl. The Veronica Climbie Inquiry (lord lamming, 2003) was established after the tragic and preventable death of a young abuse victim in the UK caused an understandable amount of outrage and consequent reassessment of the functioning and protocol of many multi-disciplinary domains related to her untimely death. In the report, Lamming makes numerous recommendations to improve the child protection sector and prevent unnecessary deaths like Veronicas from happening again, one of these such recommendations is the need to enhance communication between the many disciplines involved with the complex issue of child abuse and protection, and the need for agencies to take accountability of their workers, their decisions and their actions within this context. It is unfortunate that the death of an innocent child had to be the catalyst for positive change and development within multi-disciplinary practice, nonetheless , we can see that a push in policy to create a greater structure for accountability and communication in complex social issues that require interprofessional collaboration can help us overcome these negligent and potentially detrimental barriers of
...children, young people and their families can be both complex and difficult. Social work practice is one of the most challenging as it involves work with a diverse range of both professionals and service users. However, there is more that one single reason for this. As all professionals, agencies and parents continue to work together in various different cases, a variety of skills are required including: communication, preparation, intervention skills, assessment of significant harm, research of current legislation and decision making skills, all of which contribute to the complexities and difficulties of social work. It could be argued that these difficulties are highlighted most in many public cases of child abuse; moreover these cases can be seen to be changing social work practice, affecting the difficulties and complexities of working within this profession.
The update of 2006 report included statements from Lord Laming’s report. The protection of Children in England: A Progress Report on March 2009. It was revised to follow progress in legislation, scheme and tradition related to the safety of children. Harbouring children from misfortune and raise their well-being under this act bank on a mutual trust and useful functioning ties between different organisations.
It is a holistic approach to caring for children which combines education and care, emphasising that bringing up children is the shared responsibility of parents and society. It is a practical and theoretical framework.
An outline of current legislation, guidelines, policies and procedures within own UK Home Nation (England), affecting the safeguarding of children and young people.
Child protection is very important because the impact of child maltreatment can have profound effects on mental and physical life that can last throughout a lifetime (Ferguson, 2011). Concern about child protection has grown in recent years, which has required professionals to form a range of services to collaborate together (Payne, 2000). The second part of this essay will examine the advances that have been made in interagency working, paying attention to legislation and policies that have been developed in order to cope with these safeguarding issues. However, it will be argued that these policies are inadequate to effectively address interagency working difficulties. The reasons for interagency failure Despite the advances that have been made in recent years to promote better interagency working, the child protection system is still under enormous pressure.
Working Together to Safeguard Children 2015 “The legislative requirements and expectations on individual services to safeguard
...be seen gave the author a clear vision on how child protection has developed. Looking at the death of children and discussing them also gave some answers on how children services have developed over time over the years. In the evaluation the author discussed Tthe benefits and challenges offered by inter-agency and inter-professional partnership work have also been considered and it has emerged . By weighing the pros and cons of the author finds out that there is limited evidence on the outcomes for children and families. Even though a number of outcomes were discussed by Atkinson et al., their review provides evidence on the outcomes from professionals’ view point. Therefore, their review is not representative. Perhaps more study based on the outcomes or children and families will provide us a better understanding of on how effective inter-agency working really is.
United Nations (1989). Convention on the Rights of the Child.[online] Available at: [Accessed 1 April 2014].
Munro (2003) states child abuse is treating a child in a way that is harmful or morally wrong however, goes on to explain it is hard to find a universal agreement of the definition of child abuse. NSPCC (2010) further explains child abuse as maltreatment of a child. This can be done directly by inflicting harm or indirectly by failing to prevent harm from happening. Abuse can be perpetrated by an adult or another child. Working Together to Safeguard Children (2013) states that it’s the responsibility of everyone who works with children to make sure that a child is safeguarded and their welfare promoted. The Purpose of this essay is firstly to discuss risk factors posed to Simone and Sasha through the scenario provided and highlight ways a professional should assess whether a child is suffering from an abusive or neglectful situation. Secondly the appropriate action that needs to be taken, and the support that needs to be given, and what services will be involved with the family in order to prevent a family brake down while safeguarding and protecting the children’s welfare, will also be discussed. Lastly this essay will draw on current legislation, guidance and procedures that promote multi– agency working in order to effectively safeguard and promote children’s welfare.