Child welfare policies and initiatives target the care, health and well-being of children. There is no single piece of legislation that covers children’s right, but rather a multitude of laws and guidance that are continually amended, updated and revoked. Most of policies and procedures for Safeguarding and Child Protection are the result of the Children Act 1989.
Legislation and guidelines related to safeguarding children and young people
Children Act 1989
The aim of this act is to simplify the laws, which protect children and young people in the UK. It provided details on children’s rights and protection, and also states that any individual who comes into contact with children and their families in their daily work, even if they don’t
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Schools use this guidance to develop their own policy and procedures which must be followed. Two of these are listed below
Working together to safeguard children (2015)
A guide to inter-agency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children
The Department for Education published an updated version of the key statutory guidance for anyone working with children in England in March 2015. It sets out how organisations and individuals should work together and how practitioners should conduct the assessment of children. This latest guidance updates the previous version published in 2013. Which includes following changes:
• Referral of allegations against those who work with children
• Clarification of requirements on local authorities to notify serious incidents
• A definition of serious harm for the purposes of serious case reviews.
It also incorporates legislation and statutory guidance published over the last two years.
This release is one of a draft of new and updated guidance released by the Department for Education in recent days. Further amendments include the specification that LSCBs, local authorities and their partners should be commissioning and providing services for children at risk of sexual exploitation, female genital mutilation and
1.1: List current legislation and guidelines relating to the health and safety of children Laws relating to health and safety in the childcare setting: Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 Data Protection Act 1998 Children Act 1989, 2004 Regulatory Reform ( Fire Safety) Order 2005 Health and Safety ( First Aid) Regulations 1981 Childcare Act 2006 Healthy and Safety at work Act 1974 Personal Protective Equipment at work 1992 2.1: Identify policies and procedures relating to the health and safety of children Every setting will have to make sure that the children are safe when entering the setting, leaving the setting. When children arrive to the setting, you will have to make sure that they enter the setting safely. When leaving the setting you as a early years practitioner has to check who is collecting the child. There even is a policy in every setting that is about parents and carers collecting their child.
Several organisations have been set up to assist or care for children who are primarily vulnerable; the trustees are responsible for ensuring that those benefitting from, or working with, are not abused in any way through contacts with it; they have a legal duty to act cautiously and this means that they must take all realistic steps within their power to ensure that this does not happen. It is particularly important where recipients are vulnerable children in the community; trustees are expected to find out what the relevant law is, how it applies to their organisation, and to comply with it where applicable, they should also adopt best practice as far as possible. In addition the main purpose of this module is to be accountable for the
2.4 Issues of concern including, children 's needs, harms, risk and protective factors Issues of concern, children’s needs, harms, risks and protective factors in this case study are illustrated in this section through the use of social work knowledge, theories and values. The children’s needs can be assessed through the use of The Barker and Hodes Common Assessment Framework (CAF). This tool provides a nationally standardised approach to assessing children and young person’s in need and deciding how the needs should be met. The CAF focuses on three areas including developmental needs, parenting capacity and family and environmental factors (Barker & Hodes, 2007). It also takes into account the parent’s ability and willingness to take responsibility and work with professionals to achieve change.
As practitioners, it’s our responsibility to look after the children in our care and to help us do this we have the E.Y.F.S ‘The Early Years Foundation Stage’ which took effect from September 2008 for certain parts of the UK and it includes the legislation and standards for keeping children safe. Some of the legislation which is included in the eyfs is: • The health and safety at work act 1974 • (COSHH) The control of substances hazardous to health • Childcare Act 2006 • The food safety Act 1990
Working together to safeguard children (2013)- Outlines the legal requirement for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people , the roles and responsibilities of professionals and how organization and individual should work together to keep children safe from harm. The munro review of child protection; moving towards child centered system (2012)- Outlines a more child—focused system in safeguarding childrenâ€TMs welfare and explores how the right wishes, feeling and experiences of children and young people inform and shape the provision of services . The safeguarding and welfare requirements of the statutory framework for the early years foundation stage (2014)- Outlines the responsibilities of registered providers for children aged 0-5 years to safeguard children, promote good health, ensure the suitability of adults who have contact with children and maintain records, policies and
Families, children and young people have the right to live free from abuse, harm and neglect. If harm or abuse is suspected or alleged the child or young person has the right to be listened to, to be respected and to kept informed and be involved (where appropriate) in any decision making. †̃Anyone working with children should see and speak to the child; listen to what they say; take their views seriously; and work with them collaboratively when deciding how to support their needs.â€TM (Working Together to Safeguard Children) The Children Act 1989 requires that local authorities give due regard to a childâ€TMs wishes when determining what services to provide.
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.
Listening to children The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child shows a child’s right to his or her own views in all matters and the right to the freedom of expression. This includes the right to receive and be part of information about themselves. All people around children need to make sure that rights are upheld and matters affecting children are looked after. Children can experience worries at home, at school or with their peers and children need to talk about their issues. Parents, professionals and practitioners need to pay attention not only to what children say, but also what they are saying.
McKeen (2006) explains that the framework of the current child welfare approaches was directed from the dominant discourse of ‘national children’s agenda’ initiatives. Since then, there have been many major changes happened in the mainstream social policy in child welfare sector. The national and global political influences and world economic pressure forces federal and provincial governments to control the social security and welfare programs and it reflects in child welfare system too (McKeen, 2006). Politics in Canada has a serious notion on key ideologies while restructuring child welfare policies (McKeen, 2006). Ontario’s Child and Family service Act 1984, was developed on the principle of minimal family intervention with a view that children need to be protected in their own homes (Dumbrill, 2006b).
There are a numbers of policies with the UK that affect the safeguarding of children and young people. The United Nations brought in the Convention of the Rights of the Child 1989 which sets out the rights of children. Included in these rights are the right to an education, the right to privacy and the right to be protected from physical harm, abuse and exploitation. The rights apply to all children and ensure that they are protected and looked after in an appropriate way.
1. Know about legislation, guidelines, policies and procedures for safeguarding the welfare of children and young people, including e-safety. 1.1 Identify the current legislation, guidelines, policies and procedures for safeguarding the welfare of children and young people, including e-safety. Children Act 1989 This act was bought about to simplify the laws that protect children by bringing private and public law together.
Services that may be provided, in liaison with local authority childrenâ€TMs social care services, include the provision of reports for court, and direct work with children, parents and families. Services may be provided either within general or specialist multi-disciplinary teams, depending on the severity and complexity of the problem. In addition, consultation and training may be offered to services in the community – including, for example, social care schools, primary healthcare professionals and nurseries. Question: Question 10
Child protection is an aspect of safeguarding and it refers to protecting individual child from maltreatment. Professionals in Setting X are able to recognize the signs and symptoms of child abuse that are identified in document Working Together to Safeguard Children 2015 as physical, emotional, sexual and neglect. Knowing about the forms of abuse allows the practitioner to identify them and report to stop the abuse from happening. Other forms of abuse according to NSPCC (2016a) are also Bullying, Female Genitals Mutilation (FGM), child grooming, child trafficking and online abuse.
It focuses on the idea that children are best cared for within their own families, however, it also makes some provisions for instances when parents and families do not co-operate with legal bodies. It also specifies that any delays in the system processes will have a harmful impact on children’s welfare. The court should take into consideration, the child’s wishes – like their physical, educational needs and emotional, age, sex, the background circumstances, likely effect of change on the child, the harm the child has suffered or suffering, parent's ability to meet the children’s needs and the powers available to the