Child Maltreatment Or Abuse Is Suspected Or Confirmed, Making Reference, Current Legislation And Policies

The main current legislation guidelines policies and procedures within own UK home nation for safeguarding children and young people.

The main legislation in our county that supports the rights of children is Children Act 1989. According to Penny Tassoni, ‘this act is a result of the UK government adopting the United Nations Convention on the rights of the child, new legislation was required. The 1989 Children Act also made it clear that children’s and young people’s views had to be taken into consideration when decisions about their future were being made.’ The key elements to this legislation are:

Children Act 2006 – Is an Act that defines the new duties imposed on the Local Authorities in respect to improving the Every Child Matters outcomes for pre-school children. The Act also defines new rules in relation to childcare for working parents as well as parental information services. It is aimed at improving the well-being of young children. It emphasises the importance of safeguarding children and young people within an educational setting. If a child discloses neglect or abuse; an establishment should have instructions to help the child. This could be referral to an outside organisation or internally.

1.1 outline current legislation, guidelines, policies and procedures within own UK home nation affecting the safeguarding of children and young people.

The children act 1989- the children act is a legislation that ensures the welfare of children. This would promote anti-discriminatory practice by protecting children and treating them all equally. This could be by stopping abuse and giving children a safe and secure

To be able to safeguard children effectively we need to be aware of the following policies:

This Children and Young Persons Act (2008) increases quality of care for children and young people up to the age of 18years old, ensuring every child’s voice is heard.

D2- Justify responses where child maltreatment or abuse is suspected or confirmed, referring to current legislation and policies

1 Understand the Policies, Procedures and Practices for safe working with children and young adults

The children act 1989 has influenced some settings by bringing together several sets of guidance and provided the foundation for many of the standards practitioners sustain and maintain when working with children. The act requires that settings work together in the best interests of the child and form partnerships with parents or carers. It requires settings to have appropriate adult to child ratios and policies and procedures on child protection. This act has had an influence in all areas of practice from planning a curriculum and record keeping. The every child matters framework has

1. Outline current legislation, guidelines, policies and procedures within own UK Home Nation affecting the safeguarding of children and young people.

1.1 Outline current legislation, guidelines, policies and procedure within own UK Home Nation affecting the safeguarding of children and young people.

It is everybody’s responsibility to safeguard children – This means every single staff member within a setting; irrelevant of what role they may have there. This also includes non-staff members, such as volunteers, student’s third-party companies (visitors, service providers etc). Each setting should therefore adopt their own safeguarding policy, of which has to be kept up to date and followed at all times.

Identify the current legislation, guidelines, policies and procedures for safeguarding the welfare of children and young people.

There is no one piece of legislation that underpins the safeguarding of children and young people in the United Kingdom but there are countless that are constantly being reviewed, changed or updated. From these many legislations, child care settings develop policies, according to the Oxford online dictionary a policy is ‘A course or principle of action adopted or proposed by an organisation or individual’.