Describe the main reasons why children and young people may need to be looked after away from their families? Describe health and social care service provision for looked-after children and young people

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Fatima Abas

UNIT 10: CARING FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE

P1) Describe the main reasons why children and young people may need to be looked after away from their families?

In order to answer this criterion I am going to describe the main reasons why children and young people may need to be looked after and kept away from their families.   We use the term ‘looked after’ when we arrange for children to live away from their families, either as part of a voluntary arrangement under the 1989 Children Act, or as the result of a care order under the 1989 Children Act. Often this can be a short term break and other times it can a long term break depending on the circumstances of the family and the child’s personal needs.

Children’s Act 1989

The Children Act 1989 is designed to facilitate to keep children safe and well and, if necessary, help a child to live with their family by providing services which fits correctly to the child's needs.

The Children Act 1989 covers the following:

  • Improvements to the law relating to children;
  • Makes provision for local authority services for children in need and others;
  • Amends the law with respect to children's homes, community home, voluntary homes and voluntary organisations;
  • Makes provision with respect to fostering, child minding and day care for young children and adoption, and for connected purposes.

Often a child or a young person can be sent away or needs to leave home because of issues related to their family or to themselves. There can be many reasons, for example, the family may be unable to care for the child because of an accident or the child’s difficult behaviour patterns that causes the family stress and unable to cope with this issue. The child may also have a risk of living at home because they might be abused or exploited and need to be cared for away from home from the family for reasons of health and safety.

Two family related reasons why a child may be sent away:

  1. Bereavement and upheaval

Looked-after children are often very vulnerable as they have faced a great deal of upheaval and disruption in their lives. They might have been affected by damaged experiences such as abuse and neglect. There may have been traumatic experiences within the family such as bereavement and may have learned to internalise their chaotic emotions. As a result, sometimes individuals have a difficult time with their education and often fall behind in class.

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  1. Parental illness or family breakdown

Children and young people may be looked after because of parents who sometimes may be unwell or unable to cope and the child may return to the family at home sometime in the future if the situation improves. In the mean time they spend time with foster parents or in a children’s home or a residential school. Family breakdowns happen for a wide range of reasons; this can include bereavement, parental illness, incapacity, mental health problems or even substance abuse. Some children who may have been abused need to be removed from that kind ...

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Star rating of 3 This assignment has been written for unit 10, the optional