Outline Current Legislation Affecting the Safeguarding of Children and Young People

The death of Victoria Climbie in February 2000 prompted a large and thorough review of UK child protection services, led by Lord Laming. This highlighted the importance of multi-agency working and information sharing in order to protect children and prevent them from coming to harm. As a result, a number of reforms came about as recommended in various publications and updated legislation. Organisations, both paid and unpaid, are joining together to work more cooperatively towards a preventative and early intervention agenda.

There are many procedures, policies, legislations and statutory guidance to support the safety and welfare of children and young people. They have been developed over many years to recognise the rights of children and young people, protect vulnerable children and young people and after independent inquiries of fatal abuse cases, to recognise the failures of multi agencies and support services.

1.1 Outline current legislation, guidelines, policies and procedures within own UK home Nation affecting the safeguarding of children and young people

The Every Child Matters framework (2003) was introduced as a direct result of a review of services offered to Children and Young People and identifies some of the ways in which practitioners can aid the Children and Young People in their care to make positive and personal choices and experiences that will have a positive impact on their lives. Positive outcomes for Children and Young People include:

The safe guarding of children has only been developed in the last 50 years. However it is a vital part of working with children. The legislations, guidelines and policies for safeguarding are updated all the time for the best interest of the children. The current legislations are as follows;

516 1.1) The policies, procedures and practices for safe working with children and young people all stem from the murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman by Ian Huntley. From this horrific act of evil the Safeguarding Vulnerable Group Act 2006 was born (see evidence ‘6’ – 520 1.3). Another public enquiry was set up to address the failure of the law after the death of Victoria Climbié. Within this enquiry, Lord Laming called for changes to be made in child protection policies. From this there was a new incentive born called ‘Every Child Matters’ in 2003. This became one of the most far reaching policy incentives to be released in the last 10 years. It covers children and young adults up to the age of 19 or 24 for those with

The convention changed the way children are viewed and treated. These rights describe what a child needs to survive, grow, and live up to their potential in the world. They apply equally to every child, no matter who they are or where they come from. The convention had 54 articles that cover all aspects of a child’s life. Article 19 provides for the rights of children to be kept safe from harm and to be protected from all forms of abuse by people looking after them. The countries who signed are must implement legislation that supports each of the articles

NHS team, GPs, nurses and school visitors – Health professionals may be involved in order to examine children to determine whether any injuries which may have been sustained are accidental. They will also always be alert during the course of their practice to any injuries which they may suspect are signs of child abuse such as marks of physical or sexual abuse. They have the opportunity to recognise these problems before the child would disclose it, and report their findings other agencies as appropriate in order to prevent further harm to the child. GP’s need to maintain their skills in recognising if a child is being abused or neglected. They need to follow all correct procedures if abuse or neglect is suspected. All GP’s should have regular training and update their training when necessary. As the largest medical royal college in the UK, representing nearly 50,000 family doctors, the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) is working in partnership with the NSPCC to update this essential toolkit to support GPs and their practices in managing this important duty. This toolkit is readily available as an online download and is called: The RCGP/NSPCC Safeguarding Children Toolkit for General Practice. All providers of NHS funded health services should identify a named doctor and a named nurse (and a named midwife if the organisation provides maternity services) for safeguarding. GP practices should have a lead and

Working together to safeguard children (2010)- Highlights the nature and impact of child abuse and neglect, the roles and responsibilities of different agencies and the local safeguarding children board (L.S.C.B) the procedures that need to be followed in the vent of concerns about a child and action to

Following the death of Victoria Climbie in February (2000) Peter Connelly in August 2007 Reder (1993) Brandon (1999) Dale (2002) have consistently referred to poor communication between agencies as a key component in the failure to protect vulnerable children. Serious case reviews are carried out when abuse and neglect are known or suspected factors when a child dies or is seriously injured or harmed and there are lessons to be learnt about inter-agency working to protect children The constant themes identified by past inquiries that resulted in failures to intervene early enough should establish what improvements can be made to the way in which professionals and agencies work together to safeguard children and identify how these will be acted upon (HM Government

The ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children’ document (2006 revised 2010) looks at how organisations and individuals should work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people in accordance with the Children Act (1989) and the Children Act (2004). It is

As part of their legal and professional obligations, practitioners hold positions of trust and a duty of care to the children in their school, and therefore should always act in their best interests to ensure their safety and welfare. Young children are very vulnerable and depend on parents and other carers to fulfil their basic needs, such as nutrition, warmth, shelter, love and attention. Practitioners need to actively promote the wellbeing of every child. This includes providing opportunities for children and young people to develop and learn, to play, to communicate and socialise with each other in the

All children have the right to feel safe and be free from harm and abuse. With this in mind there are guidelines and legislation which have been put in place which relate to the safeguarding of children and young people. The Children Act of 1989 and the United Nations Convention on the rights of the child also of 1989 were significant pieces of legislation and guidelines which were introduced nearly 30 years ago. However, it is only over the last 10-15 years where there has been a significant increase in legislation and guidelines which have been introduced to recognise the rights of children as individuals, protect vulnerable children and ensure that multi-agency teams work together. Tragically a lot of these have been introduced since there were a number of high profile cases of serious child neglect leading to the tragic and horrific deaths of children.

Working with organisations Importance with working with organisations is to safeguard to make sure each child is protected and can be safe from adults and children who way course a risk to them. The safety of children is paramount and first consideration. A wide selection of companies and projects work together to safeguard. You must

The assignment that follows will discuss how our authorities have placed government guidelines and legislation’s into place to protect children and young people from harm, abuse or neglect. Firstly, it will discuss why it is so important for professionals to work together among different children services, such as the health sector, education sector and social care sector. It will then discuss why multi-agencies work and integrated work between agencies is so important. Secondly, it will discuss two different case studies and discuss about what may have gone wrong in the past and what legislation has been implemented to prevent further children and young people who have been at risk from abuse. It may be difficult to accept, but every child, young person or vulnerable adult can be hurt, put at risk of harm or abuse, regardless of their age, gender, religion, or ethnicity. The government, authorities, people working alongside children/ young people are the people who should work together to help achieve better outcomes for these children and young people.