Ghana is a West African country with a population of nearly twenty six million inhabitants. Children constitute almost half of the population (MESW & UNICEF, 2010). An elected president is the head of state of the presidential governmental system. To ensure fair allocation of resources and efficient administration, the ten administrative regions are decentralised into 216 municipal, metropolitan, and district assemblies. Ghana has experienced rapid economic growth and political stability in the last two decades (Breisinger et al., 2011). Significant strides have been made in reducing poverty in recent years, with poverty halved since 1992 (52%). In spite of the political and economic successes, several child welfare problems exist in Ghana …show more content…
The Act is a consolidation of all civil issues affecting children. It stipulates that a child (anyone under 18 years) has a right to education and well being as well as protection from exploitative labour, degrading treatment and child marriage and betrothal. The guiding principle of the Act is that parents have the primary obligation to maintain, care, and bring up children except the court determines that it will result in abuse or harm. In matters relating to children, their best interest is paramount (Kuyini & Mahama, 2009). According to section 11 of the Act, children have the right to express their feelings and participate in decisions affecting …show more content…
If this is not possible, the homes find children family based care through foster care and, if necessary, adoption. While the public homes mostly adhere to this principle, several children in the private homes stay in care longer than necessary. Some homes, like SOS Children 's Villages, believe that they serve children in care better by keeping them permanently in the institutional setting until they are independent and self-supporting. Other orphanages too have difficulty releasing children to their families as the children are tied to their sponsorship. Therefore, reintegrating children would mean a loss of revenue and
Protecting the child and provide an opportunity in which they will live a close to normal life is the goal. But with so many children in foster care and so little workers, children can be over looked. How can a child live in foster care their whole life? “It has been long stated and strongly held belief that foster care must not be a way of life for children, but rather that it is intended as a short-term treatment measure which, for the children’s welfare, must eventuate in their return to their parents or in legal adoption” (Kline,1972,p.51). Children eventually need to be put into long term, permanent homes.
When children are forced out over and over again it makes them feel unwanted or that they did something wrong. Patricia George writes, “Shuttling children off to a strangers home for a period of days or weeks, only to be potentially shuttled off to another home… simply underscores the frightening and traumatic experience of seeing ones family fall apart” (George and Walker). Not only do children have to deal with the constant moving around, they also have to deal with complications such as sibling separation. Sometimes a family isn't always looking to foster or adopt more than one child at at time so social workers tear brothers and sisters apart. In some cases, siblings will never see each other for years or even ever
They need to prioritize kinship care and make foster homes a last resort. This will allow children to remain in a comfortable environment. At least in kinship care, they are placed under the care of someone they already know and are comfortable with. This makes their transition
AO4 - Government responses to social issues and welfare needs Introduction Tony Blair came into power in 1999, he then declared that child poverty should be eradicated from the UK by the year 2020. The Child Poverty Act was introduced and recognised in 2010; it was made legislation to meet four targets for child poverty by 2020. These targets are to reduce the amount of children living in relative poverty to less than 10%, the second target is to reduce the amount of children that live in a low income household and material deprivation to less than 5%, the third target is to reduce the amount of children suffering from persistent poverty and lastly, to reduce the amount of children living in absolute poverty to less than 5%. The legislation involves the state considering a new child poverty strategy every three years, where policies are set to attempt to meet the targets established. Child poverty fell to 2.3 million in 2010/11, however this did not meet the Governments target of halving child poverty, this number remained consistent up until 2012/13 (Kennedy, 2014).
The most important current legislation and regulation in UK are Childrenâ€TMs Act 2004, Childrenâ€TMs Act 2006 and Lord Lamingâ€TMs report. It means that all professionals and everyone who is care of children and young people must be aware of the legal aspects. It also gives guidelines to schools and agencies how to deal with problems and issues relating to children. Childrenâ€TMs Act 2004 †“ it was established to offer legal groundwork to the Every Child Matters document for the care and support of children.
Many children go through a lot of problems and situations which can make them end up being looked after. There are children and young people benefiting and beginning a new life from this it gives them hope, self-confidence and joy to life and realising how to love and to be loved by another human being. Also, that freedom from whatever they have gone through before and recovering from that but, unfortunately not all gets a good care. Just the reason because they are being looked after care does not that mean they cannot have the same opportunities as others. A good guidance of new foster or adopted parents that local authority arranges for the child can lead them to have a happy and successful person in life.
There is kinship care, which full time care of child by a relative or an adult that has a bond with the child (Reuters, 2015). Now that the foster care system has firmly been
Describe the actions to take if a child or young person alleges harm or abuse in line who policies and procedures of own setting. If a child alleges harm or abuse it is vital that the person that they tell are trained to deal with this effectively so that the child can be reassured that they have done the right thing and that the allegation can be acted upon. The school at which I work provides regular Safeguarding training to all staff which refers to policies such as Keeping Children Safe in Education, as well as providing practical advice to all staff in the event of a disclosure.
Many of the placements are done to carry out the systems policies and other placements are done if foster parents don’t meet the child needs. Children are less likely to be moved many times if a foster family is prepared to meet the child 's challenging needs. The foster care system is also in need of more social workers that will ensure that the child is placed in a good family so that they are not moved several times. Plenty of placements are also done if the child is initially placed in short-term care but needs to be moved to long term. However, the more changes a child experiences decreases the chance of them returning home or being adopted.
When working with children and young people, it is important that their safety and well-being is paramount. There are a number of guidelines, policies and procedures which cover the safeguarding of pupils, including; Working together to safeguard children (2013)- This policy sets out guidelines of how organisations and individuals should work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people in accordance with the Children Act 1989 and the Children Act 2004. As well as laying out these guidelines, the document also provides a summary of: The nature of child abuse and neglect and the impact it may have on children and young people. How to operate the best practice in child protection procedure.
Safeguarding is the action that taken to promote the welfare of children and protect them from harm. The Children 's Act of 1998 put procedures in place that mean local authorities, courts, parents and other agencies in the United Kingdom have been given specific duties to ensure children are safeguarded and their welfare is promoted. The UK has policies and laws around education, health and social welfare which cover most aspects of safeguarding and child protection. Laws ' are passed to prevent behaviour that can harm children, or require action to protect them and informs what agencies should do to play their part in keeping children safe Guidelines and procedures have been put in place for people who work with children.
ummarise the laws and codes of practice affecting work in schools. The UN Convention on the Rights of a Child 1989- This law helps a child by giving them a right to protection from any form of discrimination, it gives a child a right to recieve and share information as long as the information is not damaging to others. This law also gives the child a right to have freedom of religion.
Child Poverty in the U.S About nine months after conception, newborns come out of the wombs and come to the world. The newborns must be the most beautiful gift the mothers have ever received. It is always moved that the mothers finally see their babies after have waited for long time. The newborns start their new journey in the world. Meanwhile, the babies will embody tomorrow’s world.
• Be told what their rights are. United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child 1989 The UK signed up to this treaty in 1991. This sets out the rights of children in a set of 54 articles, some of these are to ensure children are safe and looked after. All the countries who have signed up to this are legally obligated to implement legislation that relates to the articles. Some of the articles that relate to the rights of children include: • Children need to be shown love and feel secure • Children have the right to family life • A child’s right to be protected from all forms of abuse or neglect
The association of poverty with Africa goes together like apple pie and America. From the advertisements of malnourished, African children to our education, or rather lack of education, about African countries in the American school system, the concept of Africa as an impoverished continent has been engrained into our minds. This rhetoric of Africa has lasted over decades, with a substantial amount of aid being given to African countries to rectify this problem. And yet, sixteen of the world’s poorest countries were identified as being in sub-Saharan Africa as of 2013. This insinuates that foreign countries and organizations that provide aid, need to reevaluate why aid isn’t making a bigger impact at fixing the problem.