The 1989 Children Act
Produce a table outlining the current legislation and guidelines relating to safeguarding. The 1989 Children Act This is the most important piece of legislation with regards to childcare. It simplified the laws that protect children and young people and made clear the duty of care for all those who work with children or young people. Working together to safeguard children 2010 This document was produced to safeguard and protect children. To create and maintain a safe learning environment for children and young people.
To give local authorities (LSCB) the power to produce own . Laming Report 2003 Independent enquiry into the death of Victoria Climbie and other serious case reviews. It identified wide ranging failings of the safeguarding system. Many professionals working with children not following guidance in “working together” brought about the following piece of legislation Every child matters guidelines and children’s act 2004 This brought together agencies such as healthcare professionals, schools and welfare services.
Created central database containing records of all children and whether known to different services. Independent children’s commissioner to oversee and protect all children’s rights and Ofsted to monitor children’s services. Other pieces of legislation Human rights act 1989 United Nations convention on the rights of the child 1989 Sexual Offences Act 2003 (New offences created such as grooming) Protection of children act 1989 (dealt with staff misconduct and recruitment ie POCA list) Safeguarding vulnerable groups act 1986
Independent safeguarding authority (ISA) was given a wider role in checking new workers, poor practice etc. Munro report 2011 – recommends a less bureaucratic and more child centred approach. 2/3 Write an explanation of child protection within the wider context of safeguarding children and young people, relating it to the policies and procedures in the school environment. Safeguarding is the new term used to describe “child protection”. It refers to the ways in which adults and professionals working with children need to act when managing issues regarding child protection.
Everyone working with children has a duty to keep children safe, protected from harm and any concerns regarding any form of abuse to be passed to the safeguarding officer at school. The above guidelines, policies and procedures affect the day to day work carried out within schools and while issues will vary between schools, everyone within these establishments should be aware of safeguarding concerns and ensure that they always act appropriately and within the guidelines set out. All professionals working with children need to be CRB or DBS checked.
This is to enable safe recruitment decisions and prevent unsuitable people working within a school environment. Risk assessments will need to be carried out on any activities or outings that have the potential to cause harm. The school will have procedures for risk assessments that will probably be carried out annually on the school buildings or grounds or individually for school visits and such. Child protection is the duty of all who work with children and everyone needs to be aware of the schools policy for reporting and recording suspected abuse.
Keeping children secure on school premises with signing in procedures, secure fencing and gates, staff security badges and such. If a child is a cause for concern, child protection records will need to be kept and any issues raised will always need to be followed up. As a teaching assistant, our role would be to pass any concerns on to be followed up by the schools safeguarding officer. Photographs that may be shared with others outside school would need parental permission, as would outside school visits and extra-curricular activities.
Health and Safety policies should be followed throughout the school and behaviour issues should be resolved to prevent harm to themselves or others. Anti-bullying policies should be in place and adhered to. The staff to pupil ratio should be sufficient at all times, internet safety should be in place and medical information should be shared in case of an emergency. Therefore, the primary concern of a school should be to keep its pupils safe and secure. Many procedures and policies will be in place to ensure this happens and the LSCB
(Local safeguarding children board) will help ensure the safeguarding and welfare of children. Every child should have a voice that is heard and should have support it required. Confidentiality should be maintained and information should not be shared with anyone other than those who need to be involved. 1. 4 Explain when and why enquiries and serious case reviews are required and how the sharing of the findings informs practice. Serious case reviews take place when a child has died due to abuse or neglect and sometimes when a child has suffered serious injury or harm from violence, neglect or abuse.
Working together to safeguard children guidance states that a serious case review (SCR) should take place when “the case gives rise to concerns about the way in which local professionals and services worked together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. ” The local safeguarding children boards (LSCBs) will consider whether a SCR is required when any professional or agency believe a serious incident has occurred. The purpose of a serious case review is to look for where improvements in practice can be made to limit the risks to other children and young people. Working together explains the purpose of a SCR as :- 1.
To establish whether there are lessons to be learnt from a case about how local professionals and organisations work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. 2. Identify what those lessons may be, what is to be acted upon and what is expected to change. 3. Improve inter-agency working and better safeguard and promote the welfare of children. In 2001, Lord Laming was asked to chair and Independent Statutory Inquiry following the death of Victoria Climbie and to make recommendations as to how such an event may, as far as possible, be avoided in the future.
Victoria Climbie was severely abused by her great aunt and her partner, which eventually resulted in her death. The inquiry found a gross failure in the system that was supposed to protect this little girl. The Laming report therefore recommended that a national agency should be setup to oversee the swift and effective implementation of the recommendations, such as directors of children’s services with no child protection should appoint an experienced social work manager to support them.
The Government should provide child protection training for council leaders and senior management and the Ofsted framework is in place for child protection. 108 recommendations were made by this report including that there should be a much closer working relationship between agencies, a central database and an independent children’s commissioner for England. The Brichard Inquiry was a serious case review that was commissioned to look at the Soham murders.
This found that record systems didn’t work properly, that the local intelligence system was fundamentally flawed so allegations that had been made about Ian Huntly were missed and his employment references were not checked properly. The main recommendation that came from this inquiry was the introduction of CRB checks and the need for them to be checked regularly. The Byron Review was a report ordered in September 2007 to review the risks children faced from exposure to harmful or inappropriate material on the internet and to produce recommendations that would help keep children safe.
It concluded that there needed to be better regulation and better information and education, with the role of Government, law enforcement, schools and children’s services as key. This meant safer internet access was adopted in schools. Therefore, all of these SCRs have been instigated to help keep children safe. Other reviews, such as the Plymouth SCR, was commissioned as a result of a nursery worker been found to be taking inappropriate photographs of children that were then shared on the internet, As a result, mobile phones were banned in Nurseries and kept away from children in schools.
No photographs are to be taken or shared without parental permission. So, legislation is often changed due to SCRs by the Government which is then passed to local authorities, this then influences and creates the policies that are implemented in school and other childcare agencies. SCR’s are conducted to learn from the mistakes made to then introduce changes to keep children safer and protected.. 5 Write a reflective account of how your school complies with the data protection act regarding information handling and sharing.
The data protection act (1998) covers all aspects of how a school handles information. Information gathered by the school, including the context of safeguarding and child protection, is used only for the purpose for which it was collected. Therefore, information wouldn’t be shared or discussed with people who don’t need to know. All staff have to ensure that subjects discussed within school are not shared with others outside the environment for example, if approached by a parent outside of school I would not share any confidential information with them.
The information collected is also kept securely with access only permitted to those who need it. Many records are kept on secure computer sites or, if they are paper records, they are kept locked in the school office where access is restricted. All information has to be accurate and kept up to date. Data collection sheets are sent out regularly to parents to ensure that the information held is accurate and current. This collects informations of a personal natures, provides contact details, medical informations, school lunches and how children get to school.
Other information, including children’s SEN files and educational records are also reviewed regularly and shared only with those who need to know. The Data Protection Act gives rights to individuals in respect of the personal data held about them. This information can be accessed by them (or their parents) except in certain circumstances, for example, information that may cause serious harm or a risk of abuse to the individual or others. Therefore, all schools have a legal responsibility to adhere to the Data Protection Act and its codes of practice.
