The Local Safeguarding Children’s Board (LSCB), the policies and procedures ensure that all children/young people have access to the best start in adulthood by ensuring that all of the five parts of the Every Child Matters Act are implemented. The LSCB promise that any practice which occupies a child/young person stick to the following principles, here are the first 5;
1. Child Centred – which allows the primary focus to be of the child and of the child/young person’s best interests at all times.
2. Rooted in Child Development – care and support adhering to the existing developmental needs or progress of the child/young person.
3. focused on outcomes for Children – creating a care plan involving the child/young person and his/her family as a result of an assessment of their current status.
4. Holistic – an overall understanding of the child/young person’s current lifestyle and background including their culture, social background and education.
5. Ensures and equal of opportunities - an equal opportunity given to the child regardless of their cultural, racial, physical, mental, gender, age, sexual orientation or circumstantial differences.
Correspondingly, within organizations such as The West Herts College, there are procedures and policies in place which follow to sustain the safety and wellbeing of a child/young person. The policies and procedures ensure that the college identifies vulnerable children/young people and certifies their safety, both at home and at college by providing a safe learning environment and taking required actions. The College supports young people/children in a vast range of ways such as; promoting a safe environment, raising awareness of child welfare issues, report procedures and recruiting safe members of staff. The College ensures that these policies and procedures are put into practice and work in combination with the Department of Education and Skills and the Area Child Protection Committee as well as many more. Within West Herts a lot of staff will have completed appropriate training within Child Protection Issues in addition to Senior Members of Staff who will have completed full training. This designated member of staff has range of responsibilities regarding Child Protection. Within regards to a ‘looked-after’ child/young person members of staff make sure that their time at both college and at home keeps them safe from becoming vulnerable to any form of abuse or harm. If for example, a child/young person within the college should reveal to a member of staff that they are being abused or maltreated, the significant policies and procedures permit the information to be kept confidential to a certain point. It is essential that the member of staff informs the correct and appropriate people within regards to the policies and procedures. Then the informed people will then contact Social Services and/or other necessary agencies to begin the processes to protect the child/young person. Following the situation trained staff members within the college would work with the child/young person to supply support and advice during any part of the investigations that occur, or while they are within any form of care setting. The child/young person’s needs would be assessed in conjunction with other agencies such as Child Protection and/or Social Service to ensure that their best interests are being put first during the whole time.
M2:
There are loads of different professional that are responsible for safeguarding children, one of the most important ones are the child’s/young persons’ social workers who work alongside the child/young person and their family who are undergoing problems. The main aim of a social worker’s job is to ensure that the child/young person always comes first and that each decision that is made is made for the best interest of each and every child/young person. It is also to try and prevent abuse happening as much as possible and ensuring that the child/young person undergoes no damage, e.g. ensuring they live in a safe home environment. Similarly the social worker certifies that the child/young person is being treated correctly as well as ensuring that they are entitled to the basic things in life such as: health diet, education and care, this is to ensure that the child/young person can develop into an adult sufficiently.
In order to protect children the social workers carry out many different procedures. One is if the parent or guardian of any child becomes a possible threat to the child in any way e.g. they could have been arrested for violence/drug or alcohol misuse, if the parent suffered from a serious injury/ disease that means they are unable to care for the child or if they are diagnosed with a mental illness or depression. This means that the social services will carry out multiple visits to check if the child/children are being cared for properly and provide any extra help or advice to those who need it. It is also their responsibility to determine if a child is not being looked after properly and therefore be placed into temporary care.
A second professional that is also very important within regards to ‘looked after’ are teachers, they are responsible for educating a child/young person’s as well as providing a safe and secure environment for children, as well as ensuring that no harm will come to the child/young persons anywhere. It is a teachers responsibility to look out for any signs that a child/young person is being mistreated or abused, they need to look out for things such as: the child may seem withdrawn, depressed, or have any physical markings. If they do spot a sign they think may be due to abuse then they need to refer it in a professional way e.g. they would not go up to the parent/career and suddenly start shouting accusations. It is also the teachers responsibility to prevent any abuse happening in the future, confidentiality is a huge part of preventing harm to a child, it comes under the data protection act which ensures that a child/young person’s information should not be shared. However even this information has to be on a need-to-know basis.
Both of these professionals are part of a multi-disciplinary team which works to safeguard the child. They would be involved with hospitals, in case the child has been a subject to physical abuse, they also work with the police to make background check on the child’s parent or careers to check if they have been in trouble at any time and if the child is at risk. The multi-disciplinary team looks at many different professionals who each give their view and reports on the child in question to give a more wide range of knowledge to ensure no evidence is missed. Teachers also need to communicate with the child to make sure they understand what is going on. The referral process carries out a confidential and secure investigation that involves professionals that are able to prevent any ongoing and future abuse.
D1:
There are 3 main services within health and social in regards to looked after children/young person, which are: CRB checks, OFSTED and children, schools and families (CSF).
One regulation that each and every person who works in any health and social care professions, one of which is a criminal bureau check (CRB). A CRB is a check which is done to see if any individual has had and criminal convictions, which allows the employers to then make the decision to employ them depending on the crimes that an individual may have committed. These checks ensure that no previous paedophiles will be able to work with children ever, however these checks aren’t always as great as they make out. For example the Soham murders, CRB failed to ensure that young girls were protected against a caretaker. CRB only show an employer the crimes that person has committed however there is no reason to believe that someone who hadn’t committed any crimes won’t ever do so, like Ian Huntley, he had no convictions yet had no query of murdering two young girls. CRB checks are a great start to employ people however there needs to be other checks as well.
The second regulation is OFSTED; The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is the non-ministerial government department of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools. In England (HMCI). HMCI and Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools (HMI) are appointed by Order in Council and are thus office holders under the Crown. Though the inspectorate has existed since the mid-19th century, the office was reorganised under the Education Act 1992, and is explicitly named in the Education and Inspections Act 2006. The services Ofsted inspect or regulate include: local services, childminding, child day care, children’s centres, children’s social care, state schools, independent schools and teacher training providers, and colleges and learning and skills providers in England. Ofsted thoroughly check institutes that are responsible for a child safety for a certain period of time. As well as inspecting they grade each institute some high and some low, in regards to the low category that particular institute has a certain time to up its safety before Ofsted could potentially close the institute. However Ofsted can also miss things as only a handful of people go to certain institutes and its of that certain person opinion on what grade an institute may get, this then means that a particular institute may portray to have a good and safe environment when really its not.
The third regulation is children, schools and families (CSF) was a department of the UK government, between 2007 and 2010, responsible for issues affecting people in England up to the age of 19, including child protection and education. The DCSF was replaced by the Department for Education after the change of government following the General Election 2010. The regulation has certain aims for a child/young person, here are a few:
•they are healthy
•they are safe
•they enjoy their learning opportunities
•they reach their goals
•they make a positive contribution
In conclusion all the regulations that I have talked about all have their strengths as well as all having their weaknesses. They all help to ensure a child’s/young person’s safety at all times as well as trying to prevent any abuse from occurring. They all try to ensure that all children/young people are getting the correct education the right support and the correct things to allow there transformation into adulthood as smooth as possible.
Resubmission
M2:
When professionals that safeguard vulnerable children need to intervene in circumstance where they themselves or someone else believe that that child is being abused will usually follow the referral process of ‘What To Do If You're Worried a Child Is being Abused’ which is a guidance on what will be expected on a referral process form. This summary document provides best practice guidance for those who work with children in order to safeguard their welfare. It also contains an appendix to help practitioners with the legal issues affecting the sharing of information. This document allows people working with children to completely understand exactly what to do if a child is being abused and what is expected of them.
D1:
Victoria Climbié died in the intensive care unit of St Mary’s Hospital Paddington on 25 February 2000, aged 8 years and 3 months. Her death was caused by multiple injuries arising from months of ill-treatment and abuse by her great-aunt, Marie-Therese Kouao and her great-aunt’s partner, Carl John Manning. The fact that in England around 80 children die every year from abuse or neglect, and that this figure has remained relatively constant over more than 30 years, is shocking. This is why regulations such as CSF, Ofsted and CRB checks have been put into place. Ofsted help to try a put a stop to child abuse by ensuring that staff that are employed to work with children of any ages are of a high quality and that they pass certain tests such as CRB check, initial test as well as constant staff training and reports on how staff are working in general. Ofsted also have the power to shut down places where children are looked after if they don’t meet certain requirements to ensure that all children are treated equally and all have a good start in life.
On 3rd August 2007 at approximately 11.30 am Ms A called the London Ambulance Service (LAS) to her home address. The attending paramedics took the apparently lifeless body of a child (aged 17 months) to the North Middlesex University Hospital (NMUH). The post-mortem examination revealed Baby P had suffered:
• Eight broken ribs and a broken back, with another area of bleeding around the spine at neck level.
• Numerous bruises, cuts and abrasions, including a deep tear to his left ear lobe, which had been pulled away from his head.
• Severe lacerations to the top of his head, including a large gouge which could have been caused by a dog bite.
• Blackened finger- and toenails, with several nails missing; the middle finger of his right hand was without a nail and its tip was also missing, as if it had been sliced off.
• A tear to his fraenulum, the strip of skin between the middle of the upper lip and the gum, which had partially healed.
• One of his front teeth had also been knocked out and was found in his colon. He had swallowed it.
(BBC news 2008)
The CSF now have regulations to help put a stop to child abuse and there regulations state things that must be done if there is even a slight chance you think a child is being abused.
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