Child Protection Law

Charlene Egan- 30159346 cyp3. 3 safeguarding 01/01/13 1. 1 The current legislation, guidelines, policies and procedures within our UK nation affecting the safeguarding of children and young people are: The children’s act 2004- this law was brought out as it was clear that in 2003 children were still not being properly protected from harm, abuse and vulnerability. This was highlighted by the case of Victoria Climbie who suffered abuse and a tragic death at the hands of her carers, it was reported that there were many signs missed by society that could have saved her life.

Relevant materials:

There for the children’s act was brought out in 2004 to try and further protect children, this act mainly consists of: Reference for the information in bullet points below- children and young people’s workforce early learning and childcare text book, page 110 level 3 diplomas Heinemann learning work based, author- Penny Tassoni. • Interrogation of children’s services and the introduction of children’s directors with responsibility for local authority education and children’s social services. • Lead councillors for children’s services with political responsibility for local child welfare. The establishment of local ’s boards with statuary powers to ensure that social service, the NHS, education services, the police and other services work together to protect vulnerable children. • A new common assessment framework to assist agencies in identifying welfare needs. • Revised arrangements for sharing information. The children’s act 2006- this legislation makes it clear to all those that work with children of their duties and responsibilities to care for children. It outlines how to work together in the event of allegations and suspicion of child abuse and how to deal with such situations.

This emphasises the responsibilities of professionals towards the children who may be or are at risk of harm. It states that professionals must work together with other agencies to help protect children. It is in place to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people. Every child matters- this pieces of legislation consists of five outcomes, these out comes are: • To be healthy- enjoy good physical and mental health and live a healthy lifestyle. • Staying safe- be protected from harm and neglect and grow up to be able to look after themselves. Enjoying and achieving- getting the most out of life and develop broad skills for adult life. • Making a positive contribution- to the community and to society. Not to engage in anti-social behaviour and offensive behaviour. • Economic well being- to not be prevented by economic disadvantages from achieving their full potential out of life. Vetting and barring scheme- this piece of legislation is there to prevent unsuitable people from being able to work with children and vulnerable adults. Everyone who wishes to work with children must now have a CRB check done before being employed to work with children.

The CRB gives employers the details of any criminal records an employee may have, this helps the employer choose suitable and safe people to work within their setting and help to keep children safe. The children’s act 1989- the aim of this law was to simplify the laws that protected children and young people. It made it clear to all those that work with children of children’s rights and how they need to be protected. It made clear the duties of practitioners and how they need to work together to protect children in the event of signs of abuse.

United Nations convention for the rights of the child 1989- has five outcomes these are: • Being healthy- enjoying good physical and mental health and living a healthy life style. • Staying safe- being protected from harm and neglect and growing up able to look after themselves. • Enjoying and achieving- getting the most out of life and developing the broad skills for adulthood. • Making a positive contribution- to the community and to society and not engaging in antisocial or offending behaviour. Economic wellbeing- not being prevented by economic disadvantage from achieving their full potential in life. All of these outcomes should be achievable if a child is protected, if people who work with children do their best to safeguard children in every manner from abuse or neglect then children are more likely to have these five positive outcomes and achieve to the best of their potential. Policies and procedures that are in place in setting to help safeguard children are set out by the legislation above, some of these polices and procedures you may find are listed below with brief explanations.

Equality of opportunities- this aims to provide a secure environment in which all children and in which all contributions are valid. We have a commitment to working with families and other agencies to enhance our understanding of equality and diversity. We encourage positive role models with the use of non-stereotypical images, resources and activities. We ensure to make inclusion run through all our activities within the nursery. Health and safety policy- the main objective of this policy is to ensure that reasonable practical steps are taken to ensure the health, safety and welfare of all persons using the premises.

To achieve this healthy and safe environment will be maintained, safe working procedures amongst practitioners and children will be maintained, arrangements will be made for to ensure safety and the absence of risks to health in connection with the use of handling, storage and transport of articles and substances. To maintain a healthy and safe place for work, formulate effective procedures for use in case of fire and other emergencies for evacuating the nursery premises. To follow regulations of the health and safety at work act 1974 and other relevant legislation.

Mobile phone policy- staff should not have their mobile phones in the rooms with them and staffs are not permitted to use recording equipment on their mobile phone for taking pictures of children or recording. Nappy changing policy – no students are allowed to change nappies unless they are qualified to level 2 and have had their CRB check approved by the manager. All staff must also have a CRB check before changing nappies. Premises and security policy- the premises both indoors and outdoors must be safe and secure at all times.

Children are only allowed to be collected by the named persons on their child record forms. If the child needs to be collected by someone that is not on the form then parents/careers must let the nursery know and a password should be given. Ratios- they must be kept in ratio at all times and this change when on outings to ensure children’s safety. Missing child policy- in the event of a child going missing practitioners should thoroughly search the premises inside and out, while ensuring all other children are adequately supervised. Then phone the police, inform parents, inform manager and write up a full report.

Reporting and recording incidents policy (child protection)- when recording incident the practitioners should follow the format provided for them to use as there template it should be recorded in conjunction with the child protection action plan. Safeguarding policy- the nursery and all practitioners who work within it has a duty to be aware that abuse does occur in our society. Our safeguarding policy lays out the procedures that should be taken if we should believe any of the children are subject to emotional, physical, or sexual abuse or neglect.

Anything found or disclosed will be recorded. Safety policy (risk assessment) – the nursery will be a safe place for all children and practitioners at all times. Risk assessments will be carried out regularly to identify possible hazards by all members of staff. Security policy- the nursery staffs are to ensure that the premises and outside play area are secure and children are not able to leave unsupervised. All visitors to the premises must sign in and out of the visitor’s book and if necessary identification will need to be provided.

Staff shortage policy- if the nursery is short of staff then numbers should be checked. If we find we are understaffed then we need to call in agency staff. If necessary children should be turned away and explain to parents that it is for their Childs safety. Worst case scenario would be to close the nursery. Student placement policy- when accepting a student they will need to have a full formal interview and full induction training before beginning their placement and a CRB check will also need to be done.

Suitable persons policy- all staff must be CRB checked before beginning their job if they are to start before this is processed then they will not be allowed to change nappies until it has been received. As many staff as possible should hold a valid paediatric first aid certificate. Whistle blowers policy- under certain circumstances, employees have legal protection if they make disclosures about organisations for which they work, these employees are commonly known as Whistle Blowers.

Whistle blowers should report any concerns to the manager or straight to the appropriate organisation or body. 1. 2 Child protection within the wider concept of safeguarding children and young people. Protecting children from abuse is a very big part of safeguarding but it is not all that it’s about; it has a wider role than simply protecting children from neglect and abuse. To keep children safe it is also important to ensure that we are keeping children safe from accidents, from bullying and stereotyping.

We need to ensure our premises are safe and secure so children can’t go missing, we need to ensure children and young people aren’t forced to do anything they do not wish to by making sure children’s voices are heard to. It is our job to safeguard children and actively promote their welfare in a healthy and safe environment. It is our duty to teach children the necessary steps to learn to take care of themselves by using simple things like stranger danger, explain right and wrong and set those boundaries to follow by. 1. How national and local guidelines, policies and procedures for safeguarding affect our day to day work with children and young people. When working with children it is our duty of care to protect children we need to be able to recognise when a child is at risk of harm, abuse or vulnerability, it is our job to be able to recognise signs of this and how to protect children and safeguard them this is important because the earlier it is recognised that a child may be at risk the better the outcome for the child involved.

It is our job to safeguard the children within our setting part of this job is to follow the policies and procedures set out by the setting to help safeguard and protect children, one of these policies will be to record and report any findings we may come across and be able to work with other agencies to support the child’s best interests.

There are many other polices and procedures to help safeguard children for example first aid policies to ensure enough staff are trained, risk assessment policies to ensure the premises and equipment used within them are safe for the children to use and also activities are planned well with risk assessment, many of these are set out by the health and safety legislation, child protection legislation, working together to safeguard children 2006, early years foundation stage, the UNCRC 1989,the vetting and barring scheme.

So many policies and procedures are set by the legislation to help safeguard children. Settings will have a policy for staff to have a CRB check to ensure they are safe to be with children and this will also usually include regular visitors to the nursery or long term workers like plumbers that may need to be on the premises for a length of time.

There will be policies for outings, visitors to the setting, nappy changing, whistle blowing, working together to safeguard and working with other agencies, correct ratios at all times, student placement, security, health and safety, staff shortage, reporting and recording. All of these policies and procedures are there to help us safeguard and protect children on a day to day basis in many different ways and we must use this in our day to day practice. 1. 4 When and why inquiries and serious case reviews are required and how the sharing of findings informs practice.

Inquiries or serious case reviews will occur when a child dies, suffers serious injuries, abuse or avoidable serious accidents. This may happen if a child has suffered a serious accident happens within a setting or even dies because of an avoidable accident, the setting will likely be temporarily closed to review how and why this may have happen and things like policies and procedures and practice will be reviewed to find the cause of why this may have happened.

Also cases of child abuse or neglect may be looked into thoroughly to find out if signs may have been seen and recorded by a setting but communication and information sharing may have stopped this from being recognised earlier. Ways to help setting ensure this does not happen is to review practice regularly ensuring information sharing, communication, keeping accurate recordings of incidents, clear roles and planning, risk assessment, good assessment of a Childs situation, early recognition and partnership working are all being done to a high standard to safeguard children.

An example of when a serious case review and inquiries may have happened is: Heinemann learning work-based level 3 diploma text book, children and young people’s workforce by Penny Tassoni. – (reference) page 114 The Bichard inquiry- this inquiry resulted from the murders of two young girls in Suffolk by a school caretaker, who was known as a danger to children by the police authority. The information had not been indentified when he had a CRB check in Suffolk.

It led, among other things, to the formation of the independent safeguarding authority. Another example is the laming inquiry- lord laming produced a landmark report in 2003 following a public inquiry into the death of Victoria climbie. She died in February 2000 of malnutrition and hypothermia, having suffered horrific abuse at the hands of her great-aunt and the aunt’s boyfriend. Lord Laming’s public inquiry found a series of missed chances for the authorities to save her life.

A lack of communication between social workers, nurses, doctors and police officers allowed her aunt and her lover to torture the little girl to death. Many professionals involved in the case admitted their workloads were too big while pay and morale were low, and that they did not communicate with one another. The inquiry made a number of key recommendations for improvements to services that led to the Children act 2004.