The main current legislation, guidelines, policies and procedures within own UK Home Nation for safeguarding children and young people. Some of the current legislations include the “United Nations Convention in the Rights of the child 1985′ which is the act that gives the right to protection from abuse, the right to express their views and have their views listened to and the right to care and services for disabled children and children living away from home.
Another legislation includes “The Children Act 2004”, this is not meant to replace or alter the “Children Act of 1985′ it simply sets out the process for providing services to children so that every child can achieve the five outcomes laid down in the “Every Child Matters” paper, this includes; being healthy, staying ape, enjoying and achieving, making a positive contribution and achieving economic wellbeing.
It requires local authorities to take lead through multi agency children trusts to help to develop a children and young people’s plan and to set up a shared database of children containing information which is relevant to their welfare, this means that all organizations from hospitals to the police will be able to share information and work together to protect children and young people from harm and to help them achieve in life.
The next legislation is the “Every Child Matters” this includes change for hillier, which is a new approach to the wellbeing of children and young people from birth to age 19. The governments aim is for every child whatever their background or their circumstances that they have the support they may need. “Every Child Matters” includes; being healthy, staying safe, enjoying and achieving, making a positive contribution and achieving economic wellbeing.
The change for children programmer has been put in place to create a national framework which will support all services and encourage them to join up to achieve the five every child outcomes, it will ensure that help for parents will come routine and help at particular times in a child or young person’s life, as parents and careers are the most important influence in a child’s life. Social services play a big role in improving the outcomes for the most vulnerable children and they will work at achieving change through the closing gap between the outcomes and the children and young people.
Finally the government work in partnership with local areas and work to make sure parents and families can access the support they need, when they need it so that all children and young people can benefit from positive parenting right from birth. Section 2 – An explanation of child protection within the wider concept of safeguarding children and young people. Child protection plays an important role when it comes to the concept of safeguarding children and young people.
Child protection is one of the wider concepts within safeguarding children and young people; it includes protecting children from neglect and abuse and promoting health and safety to protect all children and young people. Children and young people are able to achieve their full potential if they are kept ape. It includes health and safety which prevents children from having accidents and how to cope in new environments.
It is a duty as a practitioner to promote the welfare of children and young people by making sure that they are in a safe and loving environments, this is achieved by making sure toys/furniture are safe and clean and hazard free. Childcare providers should be alert to issues for concern in a child’s life at home or elsewhere. All providers must have policies and procedures to protect and safeguard, these should be in line with the reoccurred set by relevant “Local Safeguarding Children Board (ELLS)”.
The policies and procedures must include information on what action is needed to be taken against staff members and to cover the use of mobile phones and camera’s in the setting. All providers must ensure that all staff understand the safeguarding policies and procedures within the settings, this means that all staff will be able to recognize possible signs of abuse and neglect and the earliest opportunities and to respond with the correct procedures.
The signs that a child may be being abused r neglected include; significant changes in children’s behavior, deterioration in children’s general wellbeing, unexplained bruising, marks or signs of possible abuse or neglect, children’s comments which give cause for concern, any reasons to suspect neglect or abuse outside the setting and inappropriate behavior displayed by other members of staff or any other person working with children, for example; inappropriate sexual comments, excessive one to one attention beyond the requirements of their usual role and responsibilities or inappropriate sharing of images.
If practitioners or providers suspect any abuse or neglect occurring in the setting or at the home then the registered provider must notify POSTED within 14 days of the allegations being made, if they fail to do so then this provider will then be committing an offence. Section 3 – A clear analysis of how national and local guidelines, policies and procedures affect the day-to-day work, both with children and young people and within the new worker’s role. Each setting has their own policies and procedures, all practitioners will refer back to their settings policies and procedures in their day to day role.
Every setting will have a procedure in place which guides practitioners on what to do if they believe a child is being abused. If you suspect a child is being abused you would firstly need to report your concerns to your manager, you would need to explain why you believe the child is at risk. The manager will then get in touch with social services to express their concerns for the child’s welfare and then follow that up in writing within 48 hours. Next Social Services will work with the manager to decide on a plan of action for the child and then an initial assessment would need to be completed.
If social services decide that the matter does not need urgent action they would then work alongside the appropriate agencies to decide the next steps for the case. If social services decide that urgent action is needed they would firstly have an immediate discussion with the police and other agencies, they would then seek legal advice and record the outcome. They would then decide if they need to take immediate action to safeguard the child or if they need to give information to the parents to help them.
Finally if needed any appropriate action would be taken and a strategy old be discussed to work out what would need to be done to help the child. It is a practitioner’s duty to be aware of the settings safeguarding policies to promote the welfare of children; they must know the appropriate action needed if any abuse/neglect is suspected. All staff members who are paid for their work must undertake an enhanced DB’S check (Disclosure and Barring service) previously known as a CRY, to ensure that all staff members are suitable to work within the setting. This is to ensure that nobody who is unsuitable can gain access to children.
All new staff members would have to undergo a DB’S check. Anyone unable to provide a DB’S would be unsuitable for work within a childcare setting. All settings have procedures that must be followed on a day to day basis. Firstly the practitioner will wash their hands and put on an apron and gloves, next all nappy changes must be recorded on nappy change record form, the practitioner will write down the child’s name, the time of the nappy change, whether the nappy change was wet or soiled and if any cream was used and then the practitioners signature would be needed so if needed we would know who changed that child’s nappy and when.
All wet/soiled nappies must be disposed correctly in nappy bags and in to a Scanning nappy bin out of reach from the children. If a child has an accident at nursery they would be looked after by a first eider who would take the appropriate action to treat the child’s injury. Once the child has been treated the first eider must complete an accident form, this involves writing how the accident occurred, what the treatment was, what the injury was and where on the child’s body and who witnessed the accident/treatment.
Once the form is complete it must then be taken to a member of the management am who will then sign to say they are aware of the accident. When the child is collected from the setting the parent’s of the child would be informed of the child’s accident, they would then be asked to print their name and to sign to show they are aware of the child’s accident. If a child is in need of medicine whilst at nursery the parent would need to sign a medicine form. A medicine form consists of the parent writing what medicine is needed, what dose and what time.
After completion it would be made aware to management that a child in the setting is in need of medication on that day. Only management are to administer medication to a child, which would need to be witnessed by a practitioner to ensure the correct dose has been given. Normal practitioners are not allowed to administer medication to children. There should always be at least 2 members of staff in each room at a time to ensure that nobody is ever left alone with a child/Rene.
Also children should never be left on their own in a room, this is to ensure that the child is being watched and cared for and not being left to their own devices. Section 4 – An explanation of when and why the inquiries and serious case views processes are required, issues of how to share findings and implications for the workers practice. Legislations, policies and procedures are required to help protect children from abuse and from accidents. If a child has died due to abuse or neglect, then a serious case review is opened by the Local Safeguarding Board and local authorities also become involved, this also includes police.
Serious case reviews enable authorities to determine what needs to be done to prevent a similar thing from happening again. They will do this by obtaining all information needed to understand what has happened. Serious case reviews are discussed between all agencies to decide on an outcome which then goes on to be made in to a report, after the report is published, laws and legislations may be changed in order to prevent incidents from repeating themselves.
If a serious case review is opened it may mean that policies and procedures within the childcare setting may have to be changed, this means then that all practitioners will become aware of risks and what can be done to prevent incidents. Section 5 -An explanation of the processes used by own work setting or service hat must comply with legislation that covers date protection, information handling and sharing.
A legislation that covers data protection, information handling and sharing include “The Data Protection Act of 1 998”, this legislation was put in place so that employers were responsible for protecting data, handling and sharing personal information. All settings will have a policy in place which states that all children’s information will be in full confidentiality at all times and to be locked in a filing cabinet in the manager’s office, only management have access to this filing beanie, ensuring full protection.
