Safeguarding the Welfare of Children

The local authority has a welfare of duty to protect children in their area and work

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.

In order to not only promote the welfare of children within a setting but also to protect them from harm and abuse there are a number of pieces of legislation and statutory guidance that must be adhered to. Both laws and statutory guidance are mandatory and so legally enforceable and must act as a foundation of which policies and procedures within any setting can be based upon.

It is everybody’s responsibility to safeguard children – This means every single staff member within a setting; irrelevant of what role they may have there. This also includes non-staff members, such as volunteers, student’s third-party companies (visitors, service providers etc). Each setting should therefore adopt their own safeguarding policy, of which has to be kept up to date and followed at all times.

Children’s Act 1989: Identifies the responsibilities of parents and professionals who must work to ensure the safety and welfare of the child/young person. Two important sections included in the act are:

1.3 Analyse how national and local guidelines, policies and procedures for safeguarding affect day-to-day work with children and young people

Physical abuse is any non-accidental physical injury to a child. Physical abuse is an injury that results from physical aggression.

Safeguarding is for everyone and every organisation responsibility to protect children from any harm and promote their welfare (Children Act, 2004). However, the Department of Children, School

National and local guidelines, policies, and procedures determine the nature of relationship and interaction with children and young people. The policies decide on the rights and privileges of children and young people in the society thus outlining how this group should relate to the entire community. National and local guidelines, policies, and procedures for safeguarding determine practice, planning, and organization of all activities in relation to children and young people. The policies ensure that the procedures for protection of children and young people are clear to all in the daily interactions. The policies enlighten the entire society on how to spot child abuse, violence, and exploitation. The policies also have the essence of creating positive and safe environment for the development of children and young people. Policies also

The first policy is security of records/confidentiality this helps keep children and young people safe as if a child had been taken out of their home for their safety and moved out of the area to a new foster family or children’s home then this information should be hidden from their family so there is no way that they would be able to snatch the child

Physical: Physical abuse is deliberate physical force that may result in bodily injury, pain, or impairment. Both old and young people can be physically abused.

Local authorities have a responsibility to safeguard and promote welfare of all children in their area.

Risks of accessing inappropriate information. There is a high risk of children accidentally accessing inappropriate or even pornographic materials, when searching for information online. Children and young people must be supervised when using computers in school to minimise the risks even though the computers may have firewalls already in place. Its essential children are aware of the risks and of ways to protect themselves. They should also know how to report things they may come across.

What is Child Abuse? Child abuse is the deliberate and willful injury of a child by an adult or guardian; hitting, beating, slamming against an object, or maybe even killing (According to the writer of The Free Dictionary.com). It involves active, hostile, aggressive treatment. The key word in the definition of child abuse is deliberate. Why would anyone physically harm a child? The physical destruction of a child is the extreme reaction of parents to the stress of having children. Moreover, not only is this against the law and wrong, but it has a long-term negative effect on a childś life. Did you know every ten seconds someone is getting abused? Child abuse has been happening all over

Child abuse is defined as any sexual, physical or psychological mistreatment of a child, child abuse as any act or series of acts of omission or commission instituted by a parent or caregiver that directly results in harm or a threat of harm to the child in question, (Wikipedia, 2015) Child abuse can occur in a child 's home, or in the organizations, schools or communities the child interacts with, (Herrenkohl, 2005). There different way in which child can be abused these include; Child neglect, physical maltreatment, shaken baby syndrome, sexual abuse and emotional abuse.