Social services roles and responsibilities are: To provide support for vulnerable children and families.
NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children) roles and responsibilities are:
- Provides support for children and families in situations such as domestic violence, abuse.
- Work with different organisations e.g. social services, police, family protection, education and health services.
- Provide support via telephone line to home-based childcare workers on whether to refer a situation to social services.
A Health Visitor’ s roles and responsibilities are:
- A health visitor have crucial skills in protecting children from harm and abuse, they are one of the first to recognise children who are likely to be abused or neglected. A health visitor plays a big part in all stages of a child protection process including case reviews.
- Support the health of babies and children under the age of five.
- They have contact with many multi agencies and they support the work of the Local Safeguarding Children’s Board (LSCB).
- They are trained to a high level to recognise any risks that the child might be in.
- The health visitor will visit parents home so they will gather information such as signs and symptoms this will enable a health visitor to start the process of the signs and concerns of abuse or neglect. The health visitor will need to have access to ongoing contact with the family if abuse or neglect is suspected.
- Health visitors should use their own judgement on when to share information with other agencies.
- They support and guide parents of young children.
- Provide developmental checks on under fives.
General Practitioners (GP’s) roles and responsibilities are:
- The role of a GP is to maintain their skills in recognising if a child is being abused or neglected.
- They need to follow all correct procedures if abuse or neglect is suspected.
- All GP’s Should have regular training and update their training when necessary.
Probation officer roles and responsibilities are:
- The main role of a Probation officer is to supervise offenders to help support them not to re-offend and to protect others from harm.
- They supervise a large amount of offenders that have been identified as presenting potential risk of harm to children and also to protect familys of their own, who might be exposed to criminal or anti social behaviour.
- They also liase with Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) such as safeguarding children, procedures covering offenders, domestic abuse, child protection procedures.
Police roles and responsibilities are:
- The main role of the Police is to prevent crime and disorder and protect all individuals.
- The police have legislation to adhere to to protect the children. Children have the right to be fully protected (Children’s Act 2004 to safeguard and promote the welfare of children).
- All investigations can be sensitive so the police investigate and work with other organisations such as children’s social care to gather information needed.
- The police investigate child abuse cases (they have specialist training for this, Child Abuse Investigation Units (CAIUs)
- They can access information through IMPACT Nominal Index (INI) which enables them to get accurate information very quickly. (including child protection, domestic violence, crime,
- The Police need to gather information and work with other agencies in case of criminal proceedings against suspected child abusers. All information will be passed on to the CPS (Criminal Prosecution Services).
- The Police also have powers to enter premises to ensure that children are immediately protected against significant harm.
School roles and responsibilities are:
- The role of the staff is to create and maintain a safe learning environment.
- To identify any concerns and to act upon this information.
- Staff to attend child protection and first aid courses . In cases of special schools staff should have appropriate training on medical issues on safeguarding all children.
- To protect children from harm and abuse. (including bullying/cyberbulling)
- To help meet the health needs of children with medical conditions and provide accurate information on the child’s educational needs.
- The school designate a person that have had specific training to deal with child protection issues
- They will be in contact with multi agencies to support the child and attend case conferences.
- Under the childrens Act 1989 the school have a key role to play referring children and providing information to the police for future criminal proceedings that might take place under child protection issues.
- The school should manage risks appropriately such as internet etc.
- Provide policies and procedures to protect children etc child protection, physical contact, safeguarding, risk assessments, outings, injuries, illnesses and emergencies. All policies And Procedures should be followed at all times.
Psychology service roles and responsibilities are: Provide support for children who have experienced abuse or harm.
School nurses roles and responsibilities are:
- School nurses have regular contact with children from the ages of 5-19.
- They are lead professionals for CAF (Common Assessment Framework).
- School nurses provide a role in delivering the Healthy Child Programme. They access children and implement their needs such as individual or group needs.
- School nurses work with parents or carers in the care and treatment of vulnerable children. They can provide support to the families to help them achieve better parental skills.
