The development of Every Child Matters in 2003 had the very best of intentions in strengthening the protection of children in the United Kingdom. In spite of the policy being successful in that area, the possibility of the aims expanding to various problems is high and this may result in children’s lives being at jeopardy.
In relation to the 5 aims of Every Child Matters, it is well known that their intents were good, however, the methodology has its hitches. The first remark on the aims of Every Child Matters is that it is too out of reach as the objectives are practically unachievable for any of the services that have a relation to child protection. From this, it can be identified that the policy-makers have overlooked that social services and parents can only do so much. Taking the position of being Head Teacher, for instance, having a fulltime job to make sure that the educational average is continually progressing while also having to uphold a nonviolent surrounding within the school compound and attempting to certify the gratification of the students is already a challenging task one could uptake.
This leads to the second problem of the tactic, which is impracticable. Using the same example, it is need to be reminded that teachers are not psychologists or other social services as they are only trained to do “schooling” tasks. Ever since the application of Every Child Matters it had a massive influence on everyone who was employed under education particularly schools, as they had to make sure that students were all looked after (TES, n.d.). This is also equivalently true for other occupations such as policemen, social workers, medics et cetera. For example, the importance of integrated frontline services from the growth o...
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...ould know more about the struggles as they are the ones who are going through these challenges and stated that more say should be given to them in how children’s services are designed to give the government a little bit more understanding on their view (Carvel, 2008).
To conclude, although Lord Laming is still certain that Every Child Matters did make a difference to most children’s lives in the UK and stated that there is assurance that the history of Victoria Climbie or Baby Peter will not repeat itself. Repeating what is said earlier, the aims of Every Child Matters are essential however the approach is treacherous. I still believe that capitalizing on the progress of frontline services is key to improving this application. The concern here is that Every Child Matters will again disappoint to save another child’s life due to failure in realising the limitations.
However, Ferguson stresses that social workers and other practitioners often fail to do so as they prioritise what is going on within their organisation than taking time to know the child and their needs. Calder (2012) also supports Ferguson by stating that the “outputs outweigh outcomes”; this means that agendas that are provided by organisations now dictate the outcome of the assessment and not the child’s
...l now be given the power to interfere in cases where parents have failed in their duties towards the child. This is extremely important as it allows the State to intervene in cases where there has been a failure, which was difficult to do in the past. This new role of protecting children's rights is favourable as it will, hopefully, prevent any failure by the State to children in unacceptable circumstances/situation.
In this essay, the researcher will explore what a ‘looked after child’ is and the current system for LAC in the UK. This includes legislation, Policy and, statistics on LAC in the UK. As well as, this essay will include why children looked after by the local authority, why do they end up with the local authority, the impact of child abuse and neglect on children, young people and their families, and lastly other issues/perceptions surrounded around children and young people who are ‘looked after’.
The tragic story of Veronica Climbie is an unfortunate example that highlights the impact that not only unprofessional practice but what miscommunication amongst disciplines can have on the life of a client, in this case, a young and innocent little girl. The Veronica Climbie Inquiry (lord lamming, 2003) was established after the tragic and preventable death of a young abuse victim in the UK caused an understandable amount of outrage and consequent reassessment of the functioning and protocol of many multi-disciplinary domains related to her untimely death. In the report, Lamming makes numerous recommendations to improve the child protection sector and prevent unnecessary deaths like Veronicas from happening again, one of these such recommendations is the need to enhance communication between the many disciplines involved with the complex issue of child abuse and protection, and the need for agencies to take accountability of their workers, their decisions and their actions within this context. It is unfortunate that the death of an innocent child had to be the catalyst for positive change and development within multi-disciplinary practice, nonetheless , we can see that a push in policy to create a greater structure for accountability and communication in complex social issues that require interprofessional collaboration can help us overcome these negligent and potentially detrimental barriers of
Child welfare system was originated with the goals that social workers would try and alleviate poverty and its impact; however as the years have passed, the child welfare system turned into a child protection system directed toward investigating abuse and neglect, and removing children from families and placing them in foster care, and is no longer prepared to assist in resolving the problems of child poverty (Lindsey, 2004). Child welfare system has been developed around the residual approach which demands that aid should be given only after the family is in crisis or other support groups have failed to meet a child’s minimal needs. However, over the years, there have been different focuses for the child welfare system, whether it involved
C. Cobley & N. Lowe, ‘The stautory “threshold” under section 31 of the Children Act 1989 – time to take stock’ (2011) Law Quarterly Review 396
The current framework is the EYFS which support children’s mathematical and literacy development. One of the EYFS principle in the Development Matters is the “unique child” concept which means that “every child is a competent learner from birth who can be resilient, capable and self-assured.”- Development Matters (www.foundationyears.org.uk) This means that every child are different but have many different skills and learning styles. The government initiative of a unique child is over the death and case study of Victoria Climbié which had an impact on the practice of Early Years practitioners. The aim of this initiative is that practitioners have to make sure that children are being supported to overcome hardship or to support those who are being neglected, “reduce their level of
Some of the national and local guidelines, policies and procedures for safeguarding that affect the day-to-day work with children and young people
Give a brief outline of current legislation, guidelines, policies, and procedures within own UK Home Nation affecting safeguarding of children and young people.
Department of Children and Youth Affairs. (1999). Children First-National Guidelines for the Protection and Welfare of Children. Available:http://www.dcya.gov.ie/documents/publications/Children_First_A4.pdf. Last accessed 23/01/14.
Wells, Karen C.. "Policy and practice." Childhood in a global perspective. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2009. 28-31. Print.
During the court case the judge said that lead social worker Gunn Wahlstrom was “naïve beyond belief”. This report brought over 68 recommendations to make sure cases like this did not happen again. The recommendations included putting the child first and the parent’s second. “Jasmines’ fate illustrates all too clearly the disastrous consequences of the misguides attitude of the social workers having treated Morris Beckford and Beverley Lorrington as the clients first and foremost” (London Borough of Brent, 1985,p295). The social workers in Jasmine’s c...
Working Together to Safeguard Children, March 2015: A guide to inter-agency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.
For the purpose of this paper the social worker interviewed is Ronnita Waters, MSW, RCSWi; she is currently an operations manager at the Center for Family and Child Enrichment (CFCE). The issue or area where her advocacy skills are practiced is within child welfare. Mrs. Waters mentions to the interviewee “I always wanted to work with children, then eventually for children.” when asked what developed her interest in this area of social work. Furthermore, before she became an operations manager, the social worker was an adoptions supervisor, overseeing adoption case managers and ensuring the proper implementation of policies such as the sibling placement policy and adoption policy. In addition, before achieving the role of supervisor, she was
LSCB, (2013), SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN, YOUNG PEOPLE AND VULNERABLE ADULTS POLICY, (www.safechildren-cios.co.uk), [Assessed 1 November 2013].