Every parent is obliged to promote the welfare of their children in everyday basis. Unfortunately, not all families follow that, as a result to require the state to intervene, which is the last resort. It is accepted that parents are left alone to find solutions for their children, but if they do not, Local Authority (“LA”) will become involved if a child is suffering harm. On the scenario, Vicky does not promote the welfare of Sophie, and Melanie is required to intervene, if Sophie is suffering harm. One of the greatest powers that the state has, is to remove children from their families. The issue of child’ abuse is a major issue, after the scandal of ‘Baby Peter’ which the child was not properly protected by his abusive parents and died. …show more content…
By defining abuse, it is reasonable to be wide to include varied possible cases of child abuse. Otherwise, if it was narrow, it may weaken the protection to children. Child abuse is divided into physical, emotional, sexual and neglect. Sophie was observed to be neglected, meanwhile, she was attending the nursery without any breakfast. She was not playing and interacting with the other children which is part of an emotional condition. Similarly, Sophie observed to be physically abused as she has bruises. Therefore, CA gives specific circumstances in which LA must investigate child’s well-being and direct them to investigate. The court has no jurisdiction to prevent LA working on investigation duties, and not to contrast LA’s investigation. Conclusively, Melanie has the right to investigate Vicky’s house and identify whether Sophie is a child in need. If an investigation is successful, then she is allowed to apply to one of the possible short-term orders, which are Child Assessment Order (“CAO”), Emergency Protection Order (“EPO”), and Interim Care Order (“ICO”) for Sophie’s best …show more content…
ICO is appropriate on these sort of cases and applied after an EPO completed. An amendment to CA formed, therefore, the time period of eight weeks has been abolished and the child can remain in place until the care proceedings finished. This order can be made if there are reasonable grounds for believing that the threshold criteria and s.1 are met. LA must have reasonable grounds that the child is suffering or likely to suffer significant harm. LA requires PR and may move the child with temporary foster parents or with relatives, if their safety demands it. A medical examination can be directed from the court, if it is necessary, and for those children who are Gillick competent and refuse the examination, LA can use warship to override child’s refusal. The aim of this order is to keep children safe until an application for full care order can be
Parton, N., Thorpe, D. and Wattam, C. (1997) Child Protection Risk and Moral Order, London: Macmillan
Throughout this essay, the health, safety and welfare policy and practise that came about after the Victoria Climbie case will be reviewed and evaluated. After arriving in England in November 1991 from the Ivory Coast, eight-year old Victoria Climbie suffered abuse from her great-aunt, Marie-Therese Kouao, and her great-aunts partner. The anguish and eventual murder of Victoria in 2000 from hypothermia, caused by malnourishment and damp conditions, provoked ‘the most extensive investigation into the child protection system in British history’ as described by Batty (Macleod-Brudenell, 2004). The high media profiled incident exposed a clear lack of precision and communication between all professionals and agencies involved. This is shown by the fact that the mistreatment Victoria was suffering had gone unnoticed by the social services, police and NHS staff, who failed to make each other aware of the clear danger signs. Within the Lord Laming Inquiry into Victoria Climbie’s death (2003), it can be seen that some features recur time after time in child abuse cases; inadequate resources to meet demands, inexperience and lack of skill of individual social workers. In addition, it can also be seen that crucial procedures were evidently not being followed. The procedure that was established after this case included the recommendations made by Lord Laming such as the Green Paper of Every Child Matters (DfES, 2003) and the Children Act (DfES, 2004). These ensure that all children have the fundamental right to be protected from harm and abuse. In addition to this, it also certifies all adults who come into contact with children and families have a duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.
A state that undertakes custody of a child is declaring that it can do a better job providing protection. This system is a powerful agent of support, providing positive nurturing environments that enable a child to reach his or her potential. Nonetheless, when children suffer additional abuse in the system, this government intervention should be questioned.
The child welfare system in United States uses a dominant colonial approach to how the child welfare system is applied. They are based on the foundations of patriarchal ideology. When approaching child welfare the attention is mostly given to the families and individual blame occurs, this may reflect the way the systems are designed, operating from a liberal ideology. Furthermore, in the process of child protection family service systems are exposed to the use of formal coercion and contested court involvements, although this is considered a last resort and avoided, if possible. Typically, after a child maltreatment report, the allegation is investigated and assessed for degree of state interven...
On 12/30/2015, at about 10am CM received a telephone call from Ms. Ayala/Care Coordinator at Edwin Gould to say client weekly visitation with her son it suspends until 1/20/2016, due to the client attacking the foster mother. CM inquires for the client to report her side of the story. “As per the client she stated on the day of the incident she was examining her son and she noticed that her son was wearing soiled clothes and he had scratches on his head, forehead and arms. She also mentioned that the foster mother gave her son a bottle and she told her son in Spanish not to drink that dirty water. Client continues to mention the foster mother when she heard that call her as she quote “stupid and dumb” client say she got up of her seat and the foster mother run out the visiting room screaming that client assaulted her. CM advises the client to go see her lawyer tomorrow and to report the
The grounds for making a supervision or care order can be found in in s.31 of The Children Act 1989. Before a supervision or care order can be made, there are four areas that must be established. The court must show that ‘the child concerned is suffering or likely to suffer, significant harm’. Under s.31(2)(b) it states that, ‘The harm, or likelihood of harm, is attributable to: (i) the care given to the child, or likely to be given to him if the order were not made, not being what it would be reasonable to expect a parent to give him; or (ii) the child’s being beyond parental control’. The last two criteria are that the making of the order would promote the welfare of the child, and it is better for the child than making no order at all. A care order was explained in Hunt’s major study on care proceedings as a “last resort” and should only be used if all other options have been explored .
Anna and Steven Ford will assure the role as caregiver to Katara and Braylen MacMillian and will assure the following terms are met; Supervised contact between Lonnie MacMillian and Candice Cox at all time. This supervision is to be within sight and sound and there are to be no overnight visit between the minor children and their parents. All supervision is to be supervised by Anna or Steven Ford. If either Lonnie or Candice appear at the visit under the influence of drugs or alcohol, the Fords are granted the right to refuse the visit and is to report this to DSS Caseworker withing 72 hours after the incident has occurred. Anna & Steven Ford are to assure that all basic needs of the children are met at all times and will work in collaboration
A child can be victimized for various reasons and it can happen to anyone’s child. Chapter one of the book focuses on child victimology. The author goes into detail and provides an explanation for why some children become victims of crime. The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast an Ideal-victim from a non-ideal victim. Secondly, I’ll demonstrate the difference and provide a briefed description of a non- ideal victim.
It I to ensure the safety of children who practitioners are working with. This guide will benefit professionals within school, social services who are closely with a child. WTSC (2015) ‘This guidance aims to help professionals understand what they need to do, and what they can expect of one another, to safeguard children.’ Each and every policy changes for improvements or after a major incident that may have occurred. Changes are vital within all policies/legislations as it is important that changes are made to improve yourself whilst working together to safeguard a child. Safeguarding is an important aspect and it vital therefore services are provided for professionals so they work alongside children and have guidelines to follow. These help to shape children’s services as they give practitioners a way of looking at different aspects of safeguarding. It challenges a practitioner as you have to do certain things to make sue a child is protected. WTSC (2015) ‘all professionals who come into contact with children and families are alert to their needs and any risks of harm that individual abusers, or potential abusers, may pose to children.’ This shows that communication is vital with children’s parents as it helps you to keep a child safe from
First of all, it is necessary to be familiarized with the code of ethics and values to guide one’s practice and give guidance for decision-making. While the textbook does not mention laws specific to BC, it gives a good overview on the baseline of what social workers follow across the country. From what I have found, the relevant legislation is the Child, Family, and Community Service Act. First of all, the first relevant legislation is the duty to report, which was relevant to Raisa’s childcare worker and the neighbour. After, child protection workers are required to respond to child abuse immediately with a family based investigation to ensure the safety of the child and the parent’s ability to protect the child from harm. Because child protection workers work in the best interest of the chid, the law says that action must be taken to protect them from danger with a standardized risk assessment. In the case of Raisa, her protection must come first, preferably by maintaining the family home by reducing risk by removing Barry from the home or worse, by apprehending Raisa if her safety could not be
Agencies working in the field of child protection should be in a position to comprehend the risks that face children. Cases of child abuse are reported at the local level, and the only way to attain critical information on the nature and types of risks that face children often come by way of the establishment of critical connections between local organizations and large agencies. Watkin, Lindqvist, Black & Watts (2009) observed that the status and expertize of agencies discharging duties with regard to the protection of children are hindered by the strereotyping of agencies by other agencies. Inter-agency working can be enforced when agencies working in the filed of child protection do agree on the professional code of conduct, which can guide the operation of agencies (Watkin, Lindqvist, Black & Watts 2009). At this juncture, it is rational to observe that there is lack of external control of the agencies dealing with child protection at the national level so as to avoid all the confusion that comes with the development and implementation of critical policies. The activities of agencies dealing with the protection of children ought tobe guided by a clear policy, but as it is in a substantial number of countries, it is apparent that the there are no clear policies to
This case study will draw on a practice case from a statutory Children and Families Intervention Team. The work focused on a family, whose four children had been removed from their home, and an assessment of parenting skills. The main areas of work include the first initial visit to the family home, the outcomes of the Child Protection Conference, and observing contact supervision. The themes running throughout the essay and its composition are; power, empowerment, professional/personal conflicts, removal of children, impact of neglect, gender violence and attachment theory.
The lack of communication between the agencies and professionals involved contributed to complexity of the case. They failed “to communicate the true position of his risk of harm” (LSCB Haringey, 2009) which enabled important information to be missed. They failed to act according to The Every Child Matter’s Policy 2003 and The Children Act 2004 by not keeping Peter safe. The same policy that was introduced partly as a response to the Victoria Climbie case who, was also under the protection of Haringey Social Services. In both cases there was a lack of communication between the different agencies and professional involved. They misses key, clear signs of abuse by not working in collaboration which resulted to both Peters and Victoria’s death. They were both “failed by all agencies” (Sellgren,
However, all though the 3 sectors are different in terms of their philosophies, they are undoubtedly conditioned by the mutual ‘naming’ of the problem. Bacchi (as cited in Powell, & Murray, 2008) states that policies proposal carry with them explicit or implicit diagnosis of the problem. Law therefore becomes an important mechanism through which social problem are “addressed, defined, contested and challenged” and subsequently becomes a platform where established norms are confirmed or legitimized. For instance, the ‘naming’ of the children experiences in domestic violence is substantiated as “having witnesses or being exposed’ indicating a construction of a standardised understanding of the problem within the society. Such construction draws policies bringing attention to children’s experiences and therefore disregards the mother, and blames her as the one “constituting harm towards the child” (Powell, & Murray 2008,
In past few years, there are many countries that developed different programs and plans for intervention in child abuse and neglect. But, some of them fail to reach the goal. When there is contact with family or client, at this moment this is intervention. Effective prevention and early intervention services can make a difference when provided at the right time. Intervention is all about time, matter of weeks. In fact, at this critical period you can achieve a progress that is not even equivalent up to 3 years of case treatment and management. Intervention methods are just putting a bandage on the issue of child abuse and neglect (Mathieson, Reynolds, & Topizes, 2009).