unit 516 safeguarding children and young people

It emphasises the important principles to be followed when working with children and young people: settings must provide a safe and secure environment, if any children are identified as suffering from abuse or likely to suffer the appropriate action must be taken.

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.

There are many policies and procedures within the UK that outline the current legislation and guidelines to help with safeguarding children and young people.

Children and young people should feel happy, safe, respected and included in the school or early years setting environment and all staff should be proactive in promoting positive behavior in the classroom, playground and the wider community. Policies and practice which make sure the safety and wellbeing of children should already be in place and it is this legislation develop through many years and experiences, and mistakes, that underpin the working practices that are used today.

Safeguarding is an important part of integrated working. When professionals work together in an integrated way, they put the child at the centre of all activities to help identify their holistic needs earlier to improve their life outcomes. It is important to see safeguarding as

1.1. Identify current legislation, guidelines, policies and procedures for safeguarding the welfare of children and young people.

The Staying Safe action plan recognises a number of important aspects in the wider view of safeguarding including:

Safeguarding is a fundamental part of our every day activities with children and young people in the most basic of things from

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

To be able to safeguard children effectively we need to be aware of the following policies:

1. Outline current legislation, guidelines, policies and procedures within own UK Home Nation affecting the safeguarding of children and young people.

1 Understand the Policies, Procedures and Practices for safe working with children and young adults

The idea behind the Act is to promote (co-ordination between multiple official entities to improve the overall well-being of children. The 2004 Act also specifically provided for including and affecting disabled children. The Act places a duty on local authorities and their partners (including the police, health service providers and the youth justice system) to co-operate in promoting the wellbeing of children and young people and to make arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.

How national and local guidelines, policies and procedures for safeguarding affect day to day work with children and young people

(The children Act, 1989) has three main principles; The welfare of the child is paramount, this means that despite what the Act may also say about keeping families together and other aspects, it is vital that the child is put as the primary priority and that their welfare is of high importance, delay is likely to prejudice the welfare of the child and the court shall not make an order unless to do so would be better for the child than making no order. (The children Act, 2004) was put in place as a stronger version of the 1989 Act. Several aspects were added to this Act to further ensure that the welfare of the child was prioritised. This act introduced principles such as; wherever possible, children should be brought up and cared for within their own families, parents with children in need should be helped to bring up their children themselves. They also state further principles in mind for the care and support of children, which include; to allow children to be healthy, allowing children to remain safe in their environments, helping children to enjoy life, assist children in their quest to succeed and help to achieve economic stability for our children’s