When we look at safeguarding in children and young people we need to look at one aspect vey closely which is child protection. When it comes the child protection there are strict rules in place to ensure the safety of a child and all staff and volunteers need to be aware of what their responsibilities are.
All staff and volunteers in the school must have had a disclosure and barring service check (DBS) to allow them to work in the school and this helps the school to see if there have been any criminal convictions in the past which can stop you from working with children.
All staff, volunteers and visitors should be wearing ID tags as this helps to identify who is on the school site without permission and if there is a case when someone shouldn’t
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.
Children and young people are vulnerable in nature. As their journey of life is in initial stages of development. They lack experience to understand and handle certain situations. Their lives can be severely affected by the risk, danger and fear from unknown or from people who are considered closest. If they are not taken care during their childhood, they may suffer from difficult young age and adulthood.
It is important to safeguard children and young people because no one deserves to be abused whether it be emotional, physical, sexual abuse and no young person deserves to be neglected and we have a duty to protect them from harm.
1.1 outline current legislation, guidelines, policies and procedures within own UK home nation affecting the safeguarding of children and young people.
All adults wanting to work with children whether it is paid or voluntary must be checked, commonly known has having a criminal record check which is only done by criminals record bureau.
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.
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
Any individual who comes into contact with children in their daily work has a duty to ensure the safety and well-being of children. Safeguarding means protecting and promoting the childs welfare and putting measures in place to prevent abuse. Child protection is protecting a child when there is reason to believe that the child has suffered or is likely to suffer from abuse or neglect. In order to ensure this happens within a school setting, there are many laws that protect the welfare and safeguarding of children:-
Today we use the term safeguarding instead of child protection because it covers a much broader range. These changes were influenced by the first Joint Chief Inspectors’ safeguarding report 2002 and formalised in the Every Child Matters legislation outlined in the Children Act 2004. By safeguarding a child or young person we ensure they get the very best of the opportunities available to them for them to achieve the best of their potential while keeping them safe from bullying, crime, accidents, neglect and abuse.
It is a criminal offence for an employer to not complete the CRB process on an employee. It is also a criminal offence to employ an individual they know is inappropriate to work with children, young people or vulnerable people. This act is updated in the ‘Protection of Children’s Act 1999’ and the ‘Criminal Justice and Court Service Act 2000’. The latter contains the list of convictions which bars individuals from working with children, young people and vulnerable people.
Child Protection aims at prevention and reactions in relation to exploitation, violence, and abuse against children. Children obtain protection against activities such as sexual exploitation, labor, trafficking, and harmful traditional practices. Most children are vulnerable to these abuses hence require much protection for full growth and development.
To be able to safeguard children effectively we need to be aware of the following policies:
Decision made by an agency with Statutory Child Protection Powers (Police, LA or NSPCC) that emergency action may be necessary to safeguard child
9. Describe the role and responsibilities of the different organisations that may be involved when a child or young person has been abused or harmed.
Working together to safeguard children 2006 sets out how organisations and individuals should work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people in accordance with the Children’s Act 1989 and the Children’s Act 2004. It is important that all practitioners within settings and environments looking and caring after children and young people must know their responsibilities and duties in order to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people, following their legislations, policies and procedures.