Understand How to Safeguard the Well Being of Children and Young People

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

The main current legislation, guidelines, policies and procedures within own UK Home Nation for safeguarding children and young people.

Childrenâ€TMs act (2004)- This act was introduced to ensure that parents and people who work with children were responsible for their welfare and safety, the act has been revised to incorporate the framework for every child matters and to focus on working together

Section 47 states that Local Authorities have a 'duty to investigate' if there are any allegations of a child suffering or if there would be a reasonable cause to suspect any child suffering or if a professional thought it was likely a child was going to come to any harm. Section 17 states services to 'safeguard and promote the welfare of the child' particularly if the child is known to be in need of care.

In recent times safeguarding of children has once again come under spotlight with cases such as Madline McKan and the horrific murders of Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells. Prior to this the Children’s act of 1984 and updated 2004 version highlighted that all professionals have an obligation to report suspected abuse. There was a public inquiry in 2000 to address the failure of the law which was not upholding the protection of vulnerable children. There was changes to the legislation and the government set up The Every Child Maters (ECM) initiative. This works in line with current legislation Working Together to Safeguard Children 2006 Act. This Act authorised guidance on 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. All organisations must have the succeeding policies and procedures:

The Police are central to cases involving abuse or neglect in children. Criminal proceedings may be needed which the Police are responsible for. It is also common for cases of child abuse or neglect to be identified where the Police have been called out to attend a domestic disturbance. Police officers may work in partnership with social services to identify whether it is necessary to remove the child from their family home as a safeguarding measure.

Professionals working in health and social services, educational establishments, and those working for the police and the probation services are bound by statutory law such as Working Together to Safeguard Children 2013 (replacing previous 2010 Act). The statutory includes all nature and impact of child abuse and neglect, procedures to best protect a child, the different roles, processes and responsibilities of all agencies and practitioners involved. It also provided the appropriate action to be taken to safeguard and to promote wellbeing and welfare of children at risk of a possibility significant harm. The 2013 Act sets out important principles to be followed when working with children and their families. Among the other aspect of the act

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

1. The Children Act 1989 - 2004 is the most relevant legislation for safeguarding children and young people’s welfare. It was first made to give boundaries and support for local authorities for the welfare of children. The act then also made changes to the law that are regulated for children and their safety if they are in foster homes, adoption agencies, babysitting services and also handling childcare crimes and crimes against children. The children act’s main purpose is to ensure that the UK is a safer for children and young people and improve their wellbeing. It provides support and help to children of all ages, and backgrounds, and if they have a

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

We have different legislations in place regarding safeguarding children for example Protection of Children Act 1999 which explains the fact that all the settings should

When dealing with suspected physical, sexual, emotional abuse or neglect it is important for every staff member, including support staff, to be aware of how to manage the initial contact with the child, if there is any, and then the appropriate reporting procedure.

Current legislation, guidelines, policies and procedures within the UK affecting the safeguarding of children and young people

Protecting children is a significant matter and the Department for Child Protection plays an important role in safeguarding these children. If an individual reports child harm of any extent, the Department has a legal obligation to investigate this and act in order to protect children from harm. Although, this usually requires working alongside other organisations. The community and families. Prevalence of maltreatment is difficult to determine as individuals usually do not disclose abuse and so the extent is difficult to assess accurately, field professions like Child Safety Officers have no assessment tools that guarantee certainty of abuse.

What used to be referred to as ‘Child Protection’ is now widely being replaced with ‘Safeguarding’. Safeguarding is a more detailed definition of the range of ways adults/professionals who work with the child need to act when dealing with a child protection issues. These are put into place so as to prevent risk of harm to the welfare of a child/young person rater than to react to them. The actual term ‘Child protection’ tends to be more commonly used for the policies and procedures which should be followed if harm or abuse is suspected.