Data Protection Act 1998: (For children in schools and nurseries)
This act protects personal information about an individual from being leaked out to others.
Case study:
Hannah is 11 years old and is in primary school, she has one problem that bothers her as she cannot read and write. Hannah is dyslexic as she cannot look at the board at a far distance when being asked a question. Hannah does not want anyone to know about this but the only people that know about it are her teachers and a couple of staff as they are allowed to look at her personal information. Hannah’s teacher Miss Fox was gossiping about Hannah to another staff member and one of her class pupils over heard the conversations that Miss Fox was having and told her whole class about Hannah. Hannah now gets bullied and called horrible names like ‘dumbo’ because she cannot read and write.
This case study shows how Miss Fox failed to protect Hannah’s data and this has lead to terrible circumstances and this shows how if data is not protected adequately, for data protection to occur the school and any health organisation that wants to hold personal information must gain approval off the local authority and personal detail must not be held for longer that intended to Hannah’s case it was a situation of confidentiality and data protection.
Human Rights Act 1998:
The Human Rights Act first came into force in England and Wales in October 2000. It is an important piece of legislation that aims to precept the rights of all individuals. The Human Rights Act 1998 gives further legal effect in the UK to the fundamental rights and freedoms contained in the European Convention on Human Rights. It included the European Convention on Human Rights into the national legislative frame work. It enables providing equal standards of care and support to children/young children and adults to seek protection on their rights. These rights not only impact matters of life and death, they also affect the rights that are made in everyday life; what you can say and do your beliefs, your right to a fair trial and other similar basic entitlements. However, certain rights – such as the right not to be tortured – can never be limited by a court or anybody else. Each and every individuals has an responsibility to respect other people rights,
Human Rights are:
- The right to life
- Freedom from torture and degrading treatment
- Freedom from slavery and forced labour
- The right to liberty
- The right to a fair trial
- The right to respect for private and family life
- Freedom of thoughts, conscience and religion, and freedom to express your beliefs
- Freedom of expression
- Freedom of assembly association
- The right to marry and start a family
- The right not to be discriminated against in respect of these rights and freedoms
- The right of peaceful enjoyment of your property
- The right to an education
- The right to participate in free elections
- The right not to be subjected to the death penalty
Case study:
Thomas is an Afro Caribbean 13 years old boy who has come to the UK with his mother. His mother has high expectations and wants him to do really well in school; she regularly beats him if he does not do his homework. She rarely lets him out to play with his friends and he does not have a social life. The past couple of weeks of beating have become worse and he understands that he comes from a poor background and he knows that his mother only beats him because she wants him to work hard because otherwise all of that money and costs of travelling would have been nothing. Thomas does not know what to do and cannot move as his lower body is very sore and painful from last night’s beating. He decides that he needs to talk to someone about this because he cannot keep it in any longer and call the ‘child help line’. The child help line was very reassuring and told him that everything was going to be fine.
The human rights act will allow Thomas to make his own choices and decisions because he should not be physically beaten as it is against the law to hurt a child physically. The child help line will take Thomas away from his mother and inform the social services and the social services will put him in a children’s care home until he is found a suitable foster family to live with.
Every Child Matters, 2003:
This act was introduced in 2003 as one of the most important policy in relations to children and children’s services. Every Child Matters covers children and young adults up to the age of birth till 19 for those with disabilities. Its main aim are for every child in need, whatever their background or circumstances to have the support they need.
- Be healthy – enjoying good physical and emotional health and living a healthy lifestyle
- Stay safe – being protected from harm and abuse
- Enjoy and achieve – getting the most out of life and developing skills for adulthood
- Make a positive contribution – being involved with community and society and not engaging in anti-social or offending behaviour
- Achieve economic wellbeing – not being prevented by economic disadvantage from achieving their full potential in life.
There are agencies around the country which fall into this act to make sure every child is taken into account of any situations or circumstances. These agencies could include children’s centres, early years, schools, children’s social work services, primary and secondary health services play work and children and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS). Children and young people learn and thrive when they are healthy, safe and engaged and educational achievement is the most effective route out. Every Child’s Matter Act tries to help children who lack these things, they make sure that every child is looked after and given the right provision for them to have a good and healthy lifestyle including succeeding in education. This act recognises the crucial role of parents, carers, and families in improving outcomes for children and young people and the need to provide support for parents, carers and families in order for them to do so. The act also recognises the important role of the local community.
http://www.teachers.tv/everychildmatters/introduction
Case study:
Khloe is 6 years old and has started a new primary school; Khloe is from a African background and lives in a area where there is a majority of white people living there. Khloe’s mother does not work and claims benefits to help both of them survive. Khloe seems to always get in trouble in school even though she does not do anything – she is a quiet girl and all she wants is to make friends. Khloe feels isolated in her class as she is the only child with a darker skin tone and the rest of the class has a lighter skin tone. Khloe is always upset and finds it difficult to make friends because when she talks to the other children they ignore her and judge her for the colour of her skin. Khloe’s mother has noticed a change in her and she called up the solicitor who has tried every hard to support them and used the ‘Every Child Matters’ act to help Khloe and her mother. The organisation and employees who work under this act actually help Khloe’s mother by offering her financial support. They also have helped Khloe settle in school and now all the children in the class play with her.
This act supported Khloe and her mother in a very stressing and hard problem. They did not judge the colour of Khloe’s mother skin tone or Khloe but helped them both as they were struggling to live in the area because Khloe has the right to go to school without being called names. They took both Khloe’s and her mother’s into account and took action and involved the local authorities to support them. They helped Khloe’s mother with extra support financially as she is a single mother raising a child by herself. The act made sure that the employees at the school know and understand the economic and family situation and not to judge people by the colour of their skin. They have told the school to support Khloe and not to label her and help her make friends. The employees who work under this act visit Khloe in school and at home to make sure she is getting the best possible care from her mother and from the school and asking her how she gets on in school.
Children School and Families Act 2010:
This act is put in place to help children with disabilities and special needs, when schools are inspected they look at how far the education provided in normal school meets the needs of the range of pupils at the school. This act also looks at how families support their children with disability and what they need to do to provide for them and if they are receiving the right care. If the family cannot do much or if they are finding it difficult to provide the right provision for the child with a disability or a special needs problem. This act requires for school inspectors to report openly on provision for pupils with special education needs.