Child abuse and neglect constitute an array of multi-prong factors that put children at risk of long term deficits such as incarcerations, economic dependency, school failure and even death. Young people, children and babies experience detrimental upshots in their cognitive, physical, emotional, behavioural and social development (Moore, 2006). The prevalence of child abuse and neglect in Australia was estimated at 29% of all risks substantiations in the year 2009 (Statistics, 2014). The children at risk discourse in Australia, just like other countries were brought into the lime light by Kempe (1962) when he published American Medical Association. In the light of this publication, there have been professional concerns and legislative reforms that have followed (Kempe, 1962). One of the major yardsticks that have been put in place to address child abuse and neglect is the United Nations Declaration of rights of children that segregate children as a special group that ascribe to certain rights that are separate from those of adults (Australian Government Department of Social Studies, 2014) The government has put in place substantial policies to ensure that children are not subjected to any form of abuse and neglect. Some of the policies that the government of Australia have put in place to address the issues of child neglect and abuse include the Children Youth and Families 2005 Act that allows the professionals and other interested party to report and refer to appropriate agency, and the child protection report that is under section 184 (Victorian Current Acts, 2014). In addition to the policies, the government has created several avenues to support families that have high risk in of exposing children to neglect and abuse ... ... middle of paper ... ...iefings/emotionalabuse_wda48215.html Salus, & DePanfilis. (2003). A Coordinated Response to Child Abuse and Neglect: A Basic Manual. Retrieved May 16, 2014, from http://www.pantucek.com/cps/basic.pdf Sanderson, C. (2006). Counselling Adult Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Statistics, C. A. (2014). National Child Abuse Statistics | Childhelp. Retrieved May 16, 2014, from http://www.childhelp.org/pages/statistics TeensHealth. (2014). Abuse. Retrieved May 16, 2014, from http://kidshealth.org/teen/your_mind/families/family_abuse.html Victorian Current Acts. (2014). CHILDREN, YOUTH AND FAMILIES ACT 2005. Retrieved May 16, 2014, from http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/vic/consol_act/cyafa2005252/ Victorian Gvernment. (2006). Vulnerable babies, children and young people at risk of harm. Victoria: Victorian Government.
When children are hurt physically, emotionally, or sexually it is known to be child abuse. Children are known to be neglected when they are not getting the proper attention needed for children. When children are neglected or abused in any way it is the responsibility of others to report such acts to the authorities as to what they have witnessed first-hand or signs of abuse or neglect seen after the fact, these people who reports such acts are known as third parties. The proper authorities to report child abuse or neglect is called Child Protected Services also known as Child Welfare. After the abuse or neglect is reported the proper authorities will then investigate to see if the abuse or neglect is legit or fraudulent (Sedlak, 2001).
Since 2008 referrals, assessments, investigations, and the number of children with protection plans have significantly increased. Help available for children and families is being reduced, and as a result of budget cuts, children's centres and Sure Start programmes are closing (June 2013).... ... middle of paper ... ...
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
Parton, N., Thorpe, D. and Wattam, C. (1997) Child Protection Risk and Moral Order, London: Macmillan
Child abuse and neglect is a very serious issue that can not be taken lightly. We need to provide continuing public education and professional training. Few people fail to report because they want children to suffer abuse and neglect. Likewise, few people make deliberately false reports. Most involve an honest desire to protect children coupled with confusion about what conditions are reportable. Educational efforts should emphasize the conditions that do not justify a report, as well as those that do.
Throughout this essay, the health, safety and welfare policy and practise that came about after the Victoria Climbie case will be reviewed and evaluated. After arriving in England in November 1991 from the Ivory Coast, eight-year old Victoria Climbie suffered abuse from her great-aunt, Marie-Therese Kouao, and her great-aunts partner. The anguish and eventual murder of Victoria in 2000 from hypothermia, caused by malnourishment and damp conditions, provoked ‘the most extensive investigation into the child protection system in British history’ as described by Batty (Macleod-Brudenell, 2004). The high media profiled incident exposed a clear lack of precision and communication between all professionals and agencies involved. This is shown by the fact that the mistreatment Victoria was suffering had gone unnoticed by the social services, police and NHS staff, who failed to make each other aware of the clear danger signs. Within the Lord Laming Inquiry into Victoria Climbie’s death (2003), it can be seen that some features recur time after time in child abuse cases; inadequate resources to meet demands, inexperience and lack of skill of individual social workers. In addition, it can also be seen that crucial procedures were evidently not being followed. The procedure that was established after this case included the recommendations made by Lord Laming such as the Green Paper of Every Child Matters (DfES, 2003) and the Children Act (DfES, 2004). These ensure that all children have the fundamental right to be protected from harm and abuse. In addition to this, it also certifies all adults who come into contact with children and families have a duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.
Child abuse and neglect are “social” issues that were addressed by the author. While children are in foster care, they may become victims of maltreatment: child neglect, child emotional, physical and sexual abuse. The terms neglect refers to when parents fail to provide a child’s basic needs and provide satisfactory level of care (Downs, Moore and McFadden, 2009). An example of a child being neglected is when parents or c...
NSPCC (2013). Child abuse and neglect in the UK today. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.nspcc.org.uk/Inform/research/findings/howsafe/how-safe-2014-report_wdf101938.pdf. [Accessed 18 May 14].
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.
To promote safeguarding, the Children’s Act (2004) set out five outcomes for the children and the young people, i.e. to staying healthy, safe, enjoy and achieve, make a positive contribution and achieve economic well-being. This Act made it statuary for the local authorities to establish the LSCB with an aim to protect the vulnerable children from all kinds of abuse and harm, such as, forced marriage, child trafficking, physical abuse, witchcraft, sexual exploitation, female genital mutation, fabricating illness and the well-fare of an unborn child.
The primarily motive is to reduce the cost of having children under constant state care. Despite this initiative, however, this policy changes faced new challenges. First, in order to ascertain the criteria in which families can be qualified to such change in services, assessment instruments should have been able to identify those factors. Apparently, such a tool is still to be developed (Dumbrill, 2006). Second, the differential response in child protection signifies its strength and its weakness. As support is mainly provided to families who had been exposed to child welfare services, it is merely restorative and residual (Zapf, 2004: 413, as cited in Maiter, S. & Stalker, 2011). It fails to prevent potential child abuse by also depriving services to new immigrants who are facing or may face risks that may result in child maltreatment. Ontario’s approach covers only to post-investigation services and does not apply to cases at investigation stages (Ministry of Children and Youth Services, 2007 as cited in Trocmé et al., 2013). Third, inter-agency collaboration creates a challenge for Children’s Aid Societies and community agencies as both faces conflicting procedural policies on information sharing. This conflict in policies prevents a holistic understanding of common clients. An overarching system was proposed to regulate the inter-agency collaboration between helping agencies. However, it is still in development as some children fall through the cracks (Dumbrill, 2006). Lastly, it was discerned that the focus of this transformation is more to strengthen the agencies instead of the stakeholders themselves. These welfare organizations denied parents
Funding is awarded to support ongoing research programs to identify, prevent and treat child abuse and neglect and to collect and distribute data. Projects that are currently funded are Child Welfare Information Gateway website, the National Resource Center for Child Protective Services, National Quality Improvement Center on Differential Response, annual publication of Child Maltreatment and the initiative on Supporting Evidence-Based Home Visitation to Prevent Child Maltreatment.
Examples include public awareness campaigns, home visitation programs for new mothers, conversion programs for families at risk, and parent support groups (Australian Childhood Foundation, 2004). When applied to the sector, child protection and care of children, and provide a model for public health and the theoretical framework which extends service continuity of services early intervention aimed at everyone, intervention services secondary targeting needy families, intervention services that target families of higher where abuse or neglect has occurred already as shown in figure (). It referred to target prevention programs in different groups with varying degrees of risk for child abuse as a "complex approach" to prevention.... ... middle of paper ...