Explain The Importance Of Involvement In Decisions For Children And Young People

Every Child Matters Framework which is currently in the process to be changed is part of the Children Act 2004; it is a piece of legislation which has and influences planning and provisions of learning opportunities. The Every Child Matters ensures that settings provide quality of children’s and young people’s play and learning.This supports children from birth to 19 years. When practitioners plan, they should relate their work to the five outcomes for children; be healthy, stay safe, enjoy and achieve though learning, make a positive contribution to society and achieve economic

There are many social, economical and cultural factors that impact on the lives of children and young people. In my role as a Young Carer’s Support Worker, I work with a number of families living with the consequences of these factors. Every Child Matters (ECM) aims to improve the outcomes and life chances of every child and young person, therefore, it is important we understand and do all we can to help them achieve the 5 outcomes of the ECM, stay safe, be healthy, enjoy and achieve, make a positive contribution, and, achieve economic well-being.

When working with young people it is always important to be able to work with other agencies from different professionals so that we can meet the young people`s needs. The wishes and feelings of children must be identified, taken account of and respected, I always make sure young people are included in decision making and their opinion in things that relates to them for instance during the young people`s meeting one young person prefers to do the writing and I give her the chance to do so and when attending her first scan she only wanted her boyfriend her and his family to be there and we had to respect that and allow her to come and tell us about it on her return.

When looking at children and young people’s development it is important to recognise and respond to concerns to ensure that the child or young person receives the help and assistance needed.

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-

Following these proposals from Lord Laming, there have been developments in legislation and policy, which involve children’s welfare, one of which was the Green Paper of Every Child Matters (ECM) (DfES, 2003), a pre legislative document from the government of the day. This built upon existing plans to strengthen preventative services using the four key themes of: support, early intervention, problems addressed in the Victoria Climbie case and ensuring adults working with children are trained. The ECM Green Paper was the basis of a consultation between professionals, parents, cares and children about how the services for young people were working. Following from this, the government developed and parliament passed the Children Act

It has been debated that children and families have received poor service because of the failure of professionals in understanding each other’s roles or working together in a multi-disciplinary

The children act 1989 has influenced some settings by bringing together several sets of guidance and provided the foundation for many of the standards practitioners sustain and maintain when working with children. The act requires that settings work together in the best interests of the child and form partnerships with parents or carers. It requires settings to have appropriate adult to child ratios and policies and procedures on child protection. This act has had an influence in all areas of practice from planning a curriculum and record keeping. The every child matters framework has

M1- Discuss how policies and procedures help children, young people and their families whilst the child is being looked after.

Understand how to plan and provide environments and services that support children and young people’s health and safety

• Provision needs to be inclusive & reflect/meet the needs of all children irrespective of their background or ability.

The research question will be ‘how to Involve LAC children in assessment and decision-making?’ This small-scale research question will focus on how LAC children would like to be involved in decisions pertaining to them and their current views of professionals.

1.1 Explain why working in partnership with others is important for children and young people

Planning and preparation for a children going into local authority care will be different for each child depending on age or situation or different needs, for example, a child the age of 7 may not understand the situation fully due to their maturity therefore, even though the UNCRC mentions that the child’s thoughts and opinions should be taken into consideration however this may be difficult due to the child’s age and how greatly they understand the situation therefore more planning and preparation may need to be done in order to make decisions for the child. A child the age of 14 may understand the situation better and the reasons why they may have been taken into care therefore it will be easier for them to make their own decisions regarding

Having a clear idea of what is happening can make the situation less daunting for them as there is less confusion as to how they will proceed and the options that are available to them. The situation that leads up to a child having to become looked after can often be chaotic. Telling the child of the options and advising them of what is best can bring some sense of stability in to the situation. Counseling also provides a safe environment in which any issues or worries can be discussed and shared. This can then put the local authority in a better position to know what is going on and how best to help and move forward with the