Safeguarding Children

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.

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.

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

| Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 restricts contact between children and vulnerable adults and those who might do them harm.

Explain how the procedures of the work setting protect both children and young people and practitioners.

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.

Ensuring children and young people’s safety and welfare in the work setting is an essential part of safeguarding. While children are at school, practitioners act in ‘loco parentis’ while their parents are away. 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 and ensure their safety – the welfare of the child is paramount (Children Act 1989). The Children Act 2004 came in with the Every Child Matters (ECM) guidelines and greatly impacted the way schools look at the care and welfare of pupils. Children and young people should be helped to learn and thrive and be given the opportunity to

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

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

|As adults in positions of responsibility it is important to be aware of the importance of protecting children and young people from harm. While |

The main current legislation guidelines policies and procedures within own UK home nation for safeguarding children and young people.

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

Unit 333.3.2. Explain policies and procedures that are in place to protect children, young people and adults who work with them.

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

This convention is used as guidance and is not a part of U.K law. There is no one set legislation that covers safeguarding children and young people in the UK. There are different laws and guidelines