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Current policies and procedures in relation to child protection
Current policies and procedures in relation to child protection
Current guidelines for safeguarding in schools
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Both national and local guidelines, policies and procedures for safeguarding affect day-to-day work with children and young people in many ways. They uphold a standard of what is expected and how best to protect children and young people under the age of 18 years. Safeguarding is more than protecting children and young people from direct abuse or neglect. The wider responsibility is that the welfare of the child as a whole is protected. National legislations provide guidance for local policies and procedures. All policies and procedures are subject to review and must be adjusted/updated accordingly. Some of the national and local guidelines, policies and procedures for safeguarding that affect the day-to-day work with children and young people …show more content…
relate to childcare practice, child protection, risk assessment and advocacy. Childcare practice The 2002 Education Act puts responsibility on education authorities to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people.
This means that each setting will have safeguarding policies and procedures regarding child protection, health and safety, bullying, whistle blowing, and e-safety. In day-to-day practices this means that teachers and support staff have to be constantly mindful of child protection procedures. This includes maintaining a safe environment, wearing ID badges and restricting physical contact such as hugs. Furthermore, on a day-to-day basis staff need to know how to identify the signs of abuse and neglect, know how to report concerns and who to as well as maintaining the child’s right to privacy. Training is provided for teachers and support staff on their roles, responsibilities and recognising the signs of abuse. Each local authority will set up a Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) that ensure all multi-agencies and professionals that work with children and young people follow guidelines and work together effectively to support the welfare of the child in every way. The LSCB promote good practice developing links for professional, parents and carers concerning the safety and wellbeing of children and young people. Child …show more content…
protection In line with national guidelines, all persons working with children and young people in any capacity have to be suitable. In day-to-day work, this means it is essential for Disclosure Barring Service checks to be carried out and passed before anyone can work with children and young people. This check certifies that they do not have criminal convictions or have breached the safeguarding of a child in any way. The Children Act 1989 affect daily practices in that adult to child ratios must be adhered.
The environment has to be safe and secure and equal attention according to the needs of the child is necessary. The Act puts emphasis on the welfare and rights of the child, teachers and support staff must effectively communicate with children and young people respecting their views, wishes and feelings. Again, procedures for reporting concerns and information sharing have to be followed. Professionals such as social workers under the Act are permitted to make investigations and where significant harm is apparent; the police are permitted to take the child. The use of the Children Act 2004 in day-to-day work with children and young people allows multi-disciplinary teams to shared information, which is used to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people known to one or more agencies. The interests of the child are paramount. In the setting, a specifically trained member of staff will be appointed to supervise safeguarding and child protection. Risk
assessment When carrying out any activity with children and young people in the setting or off site risk has to be assessed. This ensures that the activity is safe and appropriate. Performing risk assessments ensure that children and young people are not put in situations that will cause them harm. They reduce the chances of danger ensuring that children are safe and resources are fit for purpose and contain relevant safety labels/markings. Daily practice allows staff to educate children and young people on risk and danger, how to keep themselves safe and steps to take when required. Advocacy Advocacy and ensuring the voices of children and young people are heard safeguard and protect them from poor practice, abuse and neglect. National guidelines along with the setting policies and procedures ensure that the voices and view of children and young people are not overlooked. In daily work with children and young people practitioners must know how and when to access advocates, how to act as an advocate if requested and where to access support. Following relevant policy and procedure teachers and support staff should show children and young people that their concerns matter and that they are taken seriously. Listening, empathy and reassurance are required and where necessary the child has to be made aware that confidentiality cannot be preserved. Concerns have to be reported following the correct procedure.
Parton, N., Thorpe, D. and Wattam, C. (1997) Child Protection Risk and Moral Order, London: Macmillan
Wilson, K. and Adrian J. L. (2007) The Child Protection Handbook: The Practitioner's Guide to Safeguarding Children. Edinburgh: Bailliere Tindall
As a Child Protective worker, my responsibilities are to assess safety (immediate), risk (future harm), abuse and maltreatment, and make a determination as to whether a child is safe or at risk of future harm and assess the need for services. The child welfare worker assigned to investigate the case failed to ensure the above. Works Cited Downs-Whitelaw, S., Moore, E., & McFadden, E. J. (2009). The 'Standard' of the 'Standard'.
Ward, H. et al, 2012. Safeguarding babies and very young children from abuse and neglect. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers. P 205.
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.
P1: To outline why children and young people may need to be looked after away from their families.
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
...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.
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.
An outline of current legislation, guidelines, policies and procedures within own UK Home Nation (England), affecting the safeguarding of children and young people.
LSCB, (2013), SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN, YOUNG PEOPLE AND VULNERABLE ADULTS POLICY, (www.safechildren-cios.co.uk), [Assessed 1 November 2013].
In a child protection work, formal knowledge is not only an understanding of the law, official regulations, and ways of practice, but also a theoretical view of 'child development, family dynamics and methods of intervention' (Munro, 20...
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,
A normal day for a daycare facility is to have many classrooms full of students like a typical public school; however, they are younger children and are being supervised by an adult. That adult is responsible for, on average, four to ten students at any given time, ages ranging from zero to six. During that time, a lot can happen. These busy workers have many responsibilities throughout the day. The most important one is safety. Because these children are so young, they are also adventurous therefore need a lot of attention. Daycare workers have to spend much time supervising these children while performing other tasks throughout the day. Not only do children need to be supervised to be safe, but they also need to have a safe, clean and presentable environment that the daycare workers of the facility are to maintain. One way to keep things clean is to sanitize, in which is a big task of these workers. Children are always putting things in their mouth and then passing it off to other kids; therefore, sanitation is a big deal in these types of facilities. Another responsibility that daycare providers have are to enforce rules. When rules are broken, these providers are to then enforce discipline policies. These can sometimes become an issue seeing that these providers are not the parents of the children thus they have to consult with the parents on certain discipline techniques to use on specific children. On the other hand, these providers are similar to parents in the sense that they wash children's clothing and clean up after every child. In addition to all the other responsibilities, daycare providers also have to maintain current, accurate and confidential client files per child. These files are to consist of observations and r...
Commission for Social Care Inspection (2005) Making Every Child Matter, Commission for Social Care Inspection