This essay will discuss the safety of children, and the responsibilities of those involved in keeping them safe. The discussion will also include the different perspectives on the meaning of ‘safe’ and the safeguarding of children. It will address the relative responsibilities of families, practitioners, government and children themselves. Furthermore, it will also discuss the relevant law and policy, taking into consideration the diversity of children. ‘Staying safe’ is a complex notion with varying denotations. It is a broad concept that must look at individual children and their experiences and denotes extensive responsibility for all those involved in caring for children, specifically to provide children with the skills to keep themselves …show more content…
Page 1) and in response to her review into child protection, it was evident that local authorities and practitioners had a commitment to learn and a will to improve their practice with children. It is fundamental to this process of change that the voice of the child is heard throughout, and that they are provided with the opportunity to share their views and experiences. This will in turn assist to shape a future system that is more child-centred. Children and young people are best protected when professionals have a clear understanding of what is expected of them by both policy and procedure and the core legislation. In addition, when procedural safeguards are in place to support and protect the decisions and actions of the practitioners. Safeguarding children continues to be a challenging practice area and as highlighted in the Munro Review, information sharing and working together are crucial to enable this. The introduction of the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) and the support it offers to partnership working through co-location of agencies has given evidence of reduced barriers and increased information …show more content…
Laissez faire and patriarchy, which supports minimal state intervention and the preservation of family life, state paternalism and child protection, supporting extensive local authority intervention with a role of removing children from an inadequate home life, parental rights placing a focus on early intervention with preventative and supportive measures, and children’s rights which considers children as having full rights with emphasis on their wishes and feelings (Fox Harding, 1997). This in itself is open to various debates. Children’s rights are underpinned by existing frameworks such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). Article 54 highlights the child’s right to protection and participation, and local authorities and practitioners are obliged to ensure compliance with this. The dominant hypothesis within society is that the upbringing of children is significantly a matter for parents. However, it may be argued that the state has greater power in this role, for they dictate the legal responsibility of parents (CA 1989, s2) as well as having a duty (s47) and power (s44) to intervene when there are concerns over the welfare of a child. Debatably, there will always be a challenge between providing a laissez faire approach of preventative early intervention, and state paternalism of protecting a child from significant harm by removal from
Wilson, K. and Adrian J. L. (2007) The Child Protection Handbook: The Practitioner's Guide to Safeguarding Children. Edinburgh: Bailliere Tindall
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
...children, young people and their families can be both complex and difficult. Social work practice is one of the most challenging as it involves work with a diverse range of both professionals and service users. However, there is more that one single reason for this. As all professionals, agencies and parents continue to work together in various different cases, a variety of skills are required including: communication, preparation, intervention skills, assessment of significant harm, research of current legislation and decision making skills, all of which contribute to the complexities and difficulties of social work. It could be argued that these difficulties are highlighted most in many public cases of child abuse; moreover these cases can be seen to be changing social work practice, affecting the difficulties and complexities of working within this profession.
Despite the advances that have been made in recent years to promote better interagency working, the child protection system is still under enormous pressure. Since 2008; referrals, assessments, investigations, and the number of children with protection plans have...
The use of the Children Act 2004 in day-to-day work with children and young people allows multi-disciplinary teams to shared information, which is used to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people known to one or more agencies. The interests of the child are paramount. In the setting, a specifically trained member of staff will be appointed to supervise safeguarding and child protection.
Ifezue G. Rajabali M., ‘Protecting the interests of the child’ [2013] Cambridge Journal of International and Comparative Law 1: 77–85
The main points of the children’s act 1989 are parental responsibility and the welfare of the child. Children are best cared for within their own families. The act states that the mental and physical wellbeing of the child is important. Professionals and parents/carers must work together to ensure the safety of the child. Local authorities have a duty to look into situations where they suspect a child or young person to be suffering from significant harm. Duties get allocated to local authorities, and other agencies to ensure that all children are safeguarded. The children’s act 2004 reinforces that all organisations that work with children and young people must help to safeguard
Working Together to Safeguard Children 2015 “The legislative requirements and expectations on individual services to safeguard
Children’s Social Care work with parents and other agencies to assess the stages of child protection procedures, record information and make decisions on taking further action. The police work closely with this agency to act on decisions made such as removing a child or the person responsible for the abuse while gathering evidence and carrying out investigations regarding the matter. Health professionals have a duty to report suspected non-accidental injuries to Children’s Social Care and examine children to give evidence of abuse. The Children Act 2004 requires every local area to have a Local Safeguarding Children Board to oversee the work of agencies involved in child protection, place policies and procedures for people who work with children and conduct serious case reviews when children die as a result of abuse. The NSPCC is the only charitable organisation that has the statutory power to take action when children are at risk of abuse. They provide services to support families and children and two helplines for children in danger and adults who are concerned for a child’s safety. They also raise awareness of abuse, share their expertise with other professionals and work to influence the law and social policy protect children more efficiently. There are also acts in place to protect children such as the Children Act 1989, the United Nations Convention On The Rights Of The Child 1989, the Education Act 2002 and the Children Act 2004. Legal framework from such acts are provided for Every Child Matters which requires early years practitioners to demonstrate that they provide activities that help children protect themselves. This may be through books and group talks known as “Stranger
The aim of this assignment is to analyse the development of British social policy, in relation to the development of children services. The author will explore the social policy responses to child protection from 1842 to 2011. This topic of social policy was chosen by the author because it is his area of social work he would like to practice in the future. In the beginning of the assignment the word will describe what social policy and child protection means in her/his own words linking it to other definitions. The essay author will analyse how child protection has develop looking at past legislation and how children’s deaths have influenced the way children services work today. Using different research the essay author will evaluate the benefits and challenges offered by inter-agency, inter-professional partnership working with children and families. In the conclusion, the authors will a brief description of what he/she have written.
In a child protection work, formal knowledge is not only an understanding of the law, official regulations, and ways of practice, but also a theoretical view of 'child development, family dynamics and methods of intervention' (Munro, 20...
An outline of current legislation, guidelines, policies and procedures within own UK Home Nation (England), affecting the safeguarding of children and young people.
It is a holistic approach to caring for children which combines education and care, emphasising that bringing up children is the shared responsibility of parents and society. It is a practical and theoretical framework.
The update of 2006 report included statements from Lord Laming’s report. The protection of Children in England: A Progress Report on March 2009. It was revised to follow progress in legislation, scheme and tradition related to the safety of children. Harbouring children from misfortune and raise their well-being under this act bank on a mutual trust and useful functioning ties between different organisations.
Munro (2003) states child abuse is treating a child in a way that is harmful or morally wrong however, goes on to explain it is hard to find a universal agreement of the definition of child abuse. NSPCC (2010) further explains child abuse as maltreatment of a child. This can be done directly by inflicting harm or indirectly by failing to prevent harm from happening. Abuse can be perpetrated by an adult or another child. Working Together to Safeguard Children (2013) states that it’s the responsibility of everyone who works with children to make sure that a child is safeguarded and their welfare promoted. The Purpose of this essay is firstly to discuss risk factors posed to Simone and Sasha through the scenario provided and highlight ways a professional should assess whether a child is suffering from an abusive or neglectful situation. Secondly the appropriate action that needs to be taken, and the support that needs to be given, and what services will be involved with the family in order to prevent a family brake down while safeguarding and protecting the children’s welfare, will also be discussed. Lastly this essay will draw on current legislation, guidance and procedures that promote multi– agency working in order to effectively safeguard and promote children’s welfare.