5.2 Summarise the Policies and Procedures Schools May Have Relating to: • Staff • Pupil Welfare • Teaching and Learning • Equality, Diversity and Inclusion • Parental Engagement.

1.1 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.

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.

Children Act 1989 – Determines the duty of early year’s practitioners to identify and meet the separate and distinctive needs of children and to keep them safe. It initiated the belief that the child ought to be at the centre of planning and that a child’s well-being and safety are vital when judgements are made concerning them. This act also recognises the accountabilities of parents in keeping their offspring safe. In this act there are two particular segments that relate to the duty of local authority with concern to child protection, these are-

Peter Conelly also known as ‘Baby P’ was born in London, on the 1st March 2006, he sadly died on the 3rd August 2007 age 17 months. He died after receiving/suffering more than 50 injuries over a period of 8 months. During this time he was repeatedly seen by Haringey’s Children’s Services and its NHS professionals –

Staff were not aware of who they could talk to, this critic’s poor management and lack of training. Staff have a duty of care according to section 11 of Children Act 2004 and yet they could not protect Daniels safety and wellbeing and failed to take any action to save his

The death of Victoria Climbie was largely responsible for the introduction of ‘Every Child Matters’, Children’s Act 2004, the creation of Contact Point project, and the creation of a Childrens Commissioner for England.

Neglect and abuse towards children still occurs in society today as it did in pre-industrial times. Adult control over children can take the extreme form of physical neglect, or physical, sexual, or emotional abuse. Some may say due to figures from charities such as Child Line rising there is a ‘dark side’ to family life, where children are victims. This shows in some cases the status of children hasn’t changed over time.

Therefore in this scenario, the LA have the duty to investigate the number of concerns which have come up about Ewan and Callum. The red flags in this scenario are that Ewan, who is 9, and Callum, who is 13, have both suffered physically with bruises and a black eye. Both of their school attendances are poor and they have been acting aggressively during school. Ewan was also looking underweight and does not socialise with his friends. More concerns are that it is difficult getting into contact with their mother, Julie. The family house is not a healthy or happy environment as it is very untidy and dirty, Julie’s boyfriend also threatened the social worker Boris. Boris also stated that Julie was agitated which may indicate mental health problems or that she is a drug abuser. All this information is extremely alarming, therefore the LA have the duty of investigating this and protecting the children from harm.

There was also the case of Victoria Climbié (2000), who was killed by her caregivers when she was eight years old, her death led to some of these key changes. There were many opportunities, at least 12, (Telegraph, 2002) missed by professionals during her short life and if these had been picked up and investigated thoroughly could have prevented her death. After her death there was an inquiry led by Lord Lamming, (2003) ‘to make recommendations as to how such an event may, as far as possible, be avoided in the future.’ After his report was produced, a paper, ‘Every child matter’ was published by the government and the Children Act 2004 was also passed. One of the key aspects of this act was to make sure that any agencies involved with cases

After the Victoria Climbe’s death “Every Child Matters” was introduced and accordingly passed the Children’s Act. This meant that social and health care professional needed to ensure that information was always collected and report and taken into further investigation. Peter Connolly also known as Baby P, only 17 months suffered from over 50 injuries and died in August 2007. During the time that he was alive, he was visited by the Haringey Children's services and NHS health professionals repeatedly. This case along with Victoria Climbie’s case was one of the highest profile case of death.

Where the child is at risk of serious harm – this may be by abuse or neglectful behaviour of a carer

When a child dies, the Local Safeguarding Children Board must look into this matter. They must assess the cause of death. The board will also contemplate whether they should carry out a serious case review. This would be done for a number of reasons, if a child sustains a potentially serious injury or permanent damage due to abuse or neglect, or if the child has been seriously harmed through sexual abuse or a violent attack by another child or adult or in any case that raise concerns about the way in which local professionals and services cooperate in safeguarding

As a practitioner we need to have knowledge of different signs and indications for when a child is abused and harmed. Abuse, harm of Children and Young People can be in different forms. It’s critical that we have the most up to date training in safeguarding as the signs and symptoms, indicators and behaviours of abuse in children and young people. The signs may include both physical and behavioural changes. Can often affect their health and their development. There are four types of abuse:

It is important to look for signs of abuse and neglect as families are often hostile and un-cooperative when they are faced with multi-agency approach or even an assessment process from an organisation. “There is a relationship between the health and well-being of children and young people and the environment in which they grew up” (McCain and Mustard, 1999). In relation to the Children Act 1989, professionals are encouraged to work with families who are in difficult situations in order to provide the best for the child/children involved. It can be hard to get through to families as their hostility can increase the risk to their children, this was worsened after the report of the Victoria Climbié case was released. A lot of families lost faith in social services. It is important to take notice