The first response that will be justified is listening carefully and attentively to a child while they disclose information to an individual. This response allows the child to feel listened to and lets them know that they are being taken serious in whatever they are disclosing. During the time of discloser the witness of it should take down a record to make sure that nothing is missed out and also stops the child having to repeat themselves.
This response links to the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act (2006) legeslation.co.uk (2012) this legislation helps in emphasising the importance of the care given to children once they disclose information. Listening carefully is important as the child needs to be felt heard and this also creates acceptance for the child. This legislation states that monitoring a child when they have been suspected of abuse or maltreatment is very important. As monitoring regards take notes and records down of any signs of abuse or maltreatment. For example bruising or a conversation that shows the child is distressed.
The safeguarding vulnerable groups act (2006) also states the importance of to provide listening services for the children to ensure they have someone to turn to with their concerns. This legislation also has the safeguarding policy which has different guidelines for different health and social care settings. However they all state the same importance of listening to a child as it is the first key to being able to respond to abuse or maltreatment of children.
The Safeguarding Policy of a school setting states that children should be provided with the chance to talk within a group, use one to one communication as this may help them in expressing their feelings. This could also include them disclosing information about themselves being abuse. Also the policy included that all children and young people should be involved in class discussions and asked for their feedback. Listening carefully and taking children seriously if they make a disclosure of abuse is another point of the policy within a school.
The response of listening carefully and attentively has shown that there is much need for this response in an act of disclosure as the legislation of safeguarding vulnerable group act states the importance of two way communication meaning talking and listening. Also all health and social care settings have polices on listening to children as they are classed as one of the vulnerable groups within society.
The next response to child abuse or maltreatment understands the boundaries of confidentiality. While there are many strict regulations on confidentiality within health and social care when the situation includes information about a child being abused or maltreated they do not apply to such an extent. There are also legal responsibilities for individuals to comply when they have certain information to pass on to a person with higher authority. For example in a hospital if a child tells a nurse about being abused the nurse needs to tell her supervisor and cannot deal with the situation herself as it could put the child in further risk and also put herself in risk as well.
Referring this response to legislation is the Data Protection Act (1998) this act prohibits any form of data getting out to people that does not need to see it. This legislation protects all details from bank statements to the place a person was born. When a child is abused or maltreated there does need to be a breakdown of this legislation. In Section 28 National securities. “Any processing for the purpose of safeguarding national security is excused from all the data protection principles.” The data protection principles cover personal data being obtained, personal data also being kept up to date and many more regulations to how personal data of an individual should be protected.
Abuse and maltreatment of a child is included in this exempt and there for when a child discloses information such as abuse or maltreatment the data protection act is exempt to a certain extent. For example the information told to the individual should be kept within a group of people who need to know for further procedures of the child safety to take place. This can be very difficult to explain to a child who has understanding s of their rights and wants the information to be kept confidential. However there are procedures put in place to make it easier for the child to accept that certain people will have to know about the abuse or maltreatment for him or her to get help.
A policy closely linked to this legislation is the confidentiality policy. This is a further break down of the legislation. In a health and social care setting confidentiality policies are put in place to provide a breakdown of the data protection act. This policy helps in keeping Information protected against Illegal access. However in all health and social care setting there is the exempt of this policy when an individual such as a child is at a risk of being harmed. For example a child being abused or maltreated. Every child needs to be protected and that in many cases can only be done through breaking the confidentiality policy and not keeping data confidential.
The next response that will be looked is following the correct procedures of the setting promptly. In different health and social care settings there are different safeguarding measures in place to protect children in situations of abuse and maltreatment. The correct procedures need to be followed to make due nothing is missed out and the staff of the setting do not be in fault of any actions during the response to child abuse or maltreatment. All the procedures that are put in place do refer to the Human’s Right Act (1998) Cambridgeshire.gov.uk (2000).
Procedures being followed correctly within a setting should be easy to access and easy to read. Also all professional workers need to make sure they read the documents over before being employed and signed that they understand what to do in any incident. (Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care online: 2011)
The Human Right Act covers a lot of children services regarding child abuse and maltreatment. The Act makes it unlawful for public authorities to act in a manner which is incompatible with the rights and freedoms contained in the Act. It also requires the Government and the courts to ensure that court rulings and new Bills are compatible with the Act wherever possible. These rights include the right to life the right from torture and the right to fair trial. These are all part of the response to abuse as all the procedures that are created in settings need cover all those rights and make sure that staffs are aware of how to deal with any situations of abuse and maltreatment.
This also links in with the Human Right Act (1998) as the child’s dignity and value. This shows that when a child is abuse or maltreated the human’s right act helps in making sure that the basic rights of all humans is provided for the child. The disadvantage that can be seen in the human’s right act being part of a response to child abuse and maltreatment is sometimes due to being a child the Human Right Act can be misunderstood and acted as though it was not made for children. However the same right apply to child and adults in the human right act.
The every child matters policy is a very important part in safeguarding and supporting individuals who have been in an abusive or exposure situation. This policy makes sure of the child’s well-being; the every child matters policy has lately combined with a new legislation called the Children Act (2004). After the horrific case of Victoria Climbie more information can be found on (BBC NEWS: 2003 online) the Children’s Act (2004) was formed.
This policy relates to the individuals following procedures of the setting as it created the multi-agency teams. This is due to failing many children and this was due to health and social care settings not following procedures in the correct way which did in fact lead the children to their death. For example Vitoria Climbie. The every matter policy helps in professionals understanding the importance in safeguarding children and also promotes rules and procedures to be followed in the correct way.
Overall following the correct procedures of the setting promptly is a response that can clearly refer to the humans right act 1998 ant the every child matter policy (2003). Human’s right act is the fundamental law that supports stops and helps children who are being abused. But it is also a standard that all documents such as policies and procedures within a school need to be able to level up to make sure they protect the children to the best of their ability.
The last response to suspecting child abuse or maltreatment is to report your suspicions to the appropriate agency. There are many reasons why a carer could suspect abuse and should report it even if it ends up not being abuse. If a person has doubts or concerns about a child being abused they should confirm child protection agencies. When an individual suspects a certain form of abuse or maltreatment occurring to a child they need to make sure that they follow all the procedures and keep the information they have confidential and not tell anyone but only the individuals such as the carers in child protection only know.
Legislations that this response most link’s to the Child Protection Act (2004). This act states that all children should be provided with the right care to give them physical and mental health and emotional well-being. This legislation also links to ensure that children are made aware of his function and how they may communicate with them. For example children should be made aware of the services they can tell that they are being abused to. Also in (section 2) there is a clear statement that all children should be protected from harm and neglect. The response of reporting abuse is very important and is emphasized through the child protection act as it shows that it is a legal requirement that all children should be safe from harm.
Protecting a child from abuse and maltreatment is the due of care workers and any other person who may suspect that the child is not in a good state physically or mentally. The policy related to this response is safeguarding children policy. This policy has a range of ways to respond to child abuse and maltreatment but many focuses on how the staff of health and social care settings should be trained in making sure they know when there is a form of abuse taking place. For example having training for individuals about the indicators of physical, sexual, emotional abuse also there should be training for the risks of maltreatment. There are legal obligations for health and social care services to be able to provide training. Child welfare is a big agency that provides training on abuse and child protection (child welfare: online: 2000). Training also teaches staff and carers to understand how to report acts of abuse or maltreatment seen or believed to have happened.
Overall in this criterion there have been four different responses justified and how the legislations and policies are closely related to the responses to child abuse and maltreatment. The importance of responding to abuse in the right way is unfathomable. There are so many cases of child abuse and maltreatment according to the World Health Organisation (2006: online) estimated that child maltreatment is responsible for 0.6 % of all child deaths worldwide and 12.7% of all deaths related to injury. This shows that responding to abuse needs to be quick and sufficient so that the child does not feel like they are being blamed for the incident or the carer workers do not cause any further harm to the child or even themselves responding to child abuse and maltreatment is fundamental in health and social care.
Bibliography
Edexcel (2011) unit 10 (online) available at:
Stretch.B and Whitehouse.M (2010) Edexcel health and social care level 3 book 2 Essex person education limited.
Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care (2011) Developing Policies and Procedures (online) available at:
Legislation.gov.uk (2012) Children’s Act 2004 (online) available at:
Boostforkids (2012) STEPS IN REPORTING SUSPICIONS OF CHILD ABUSE (online) available at:
NSPCC (2011) The child protection system in the UK (ONLINE) AVILABE AT:
NSPCC (2010) The child protection system in the UK (ONLINE) AVILABE AT:
AMERICAN HUMAN ASSOSIATION (2011) Reporting Child Abuse and Neglect (online) available at:
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