Child Protection
22
Sarah Hulme; 2007 Child Protection An introduction to child protection legislation
-
Upload
harriet-wheeler -
Category
Documents
-
view
69 -
download
2
description
Child Protection. An introduction to child protection legislation. The Children Act 1989. The current child protection system is based around the Children Act 1989 , which was introduced in an effort to reform and clarify the existing plethora of laws affecting children. The Children Act 1989. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Transcript of Child Protection
Sarah Hulme; 2007
Child Protection
An introduction to child protection legislation
Sarah Hulme; 2007
The Children Act 1989
The current child protection system is based around the Children Act 1989, which was introduced in an effort to reform and clarify the existing plethora of laws affecting children.
Sarah Hulme; 2007
The Children Act 1989
The paramountcy principle means that a child's welfare is paramount when making any decisions about a child's upbringing.
The court must also take into consideration the wishes and feelings of the child and shouldn’t make an Order unless it’s better for the child than making no Order at all.
Every effort should be made to preserve the child's home and family links.
Sarah Hulme; 2007
The Children Act 1989
The Children Act 1989 sets out in detail what local authorities and the courts should do to protect the welfare of children:- "duty to investigate … if they have reasonable cause to suspect that a child who lives, or is found, in their area is suffering, or is likely to suffer, significant harm" (section 47).
Local authorities were also charged with a duty to provide "services for children in need, their families and others" (section 17).
Sarah Hulme; 2007
The Act introduced the concept of parental responsibility which sets out the rights, duties, powers and responsibilities of the parent or carer of a child.
The Children Act 1989
Sarah Hulme; 2007
The Children Act 1989
It is section 31 of the Children Act 1989 that gives the NSPCC "authorised person status" which means the NSPCC has the power to apply directly for a court order if it believes a child is suffering or likely to suffer significant harm.
Sarah Hulme; 2007
The Children Act 1989
The Children Act 1989 defines "harm" as ill-treatment (including sexual abuse and non-physical forms of ill-treatment) or the impairment of health (physical or mental) or development (physical, intellectual, emotional, social or behavioural). Unfortunately the term "Significant" is not defined in the Act
Sarah Hulme; 2007
During the months leading to her death, Victoria was known to 12 different services, which included 4 social services departments, 2 hospitals and 2 child protection teams. None of these agencies took steps to protect Victoria from the torture that led to her tragic death, and they failed to work together to identify the full extent of her abuse.
After her death it was decided that there should be an enquiry. Lord Laming lead the inquiry into Victoria’s death and his report drew several conclusions.
In February 2000 Victoria Climbié died as the result of severe physical abuse and neglect that had spanned several months. She was living with her father’s aunt who had brought her to the UK from the Ivory Coast, because her parents had wanted a better life for her.
Victoria after being scalded
Victoria Climbie
Sarah Hulme; 2007
The Government's response to the 2002 Victoria Climbie Inquiry Report
was the Every Child Matters programme, which in turn led to the Children Act 2004.
Children Act 2004
Sarah Hulme; 2007
The Children Act 2004 does not replace or even amend much of the Children Act 1989. Instead it sets out the process for integrating services to children so that every child can achieve the five outcomes laid out in the Every child matters green paper:
Children Act 2004
•be healthy •stay safe •enjoy and achieve •make a positive contribution •achieve economic well-being
Sarah Hulme; 2007
Children Act 2004
It places a duty on local authorities and their partners (including the police, health service providers and the youth justice system) to co-operate to promote the wellbeing of children and young people and to make arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.
the Children Act 2004 places a duty on local authorities to appoint a director of children's services and an elected lead member for children's services who will be ultimately accountable for the delivery of services.
Sarah Hulme; 2007
It updates the legislation on physical punishment by making it an offence to hit a child if it causes mental harm or leaves a mark on the skin (section 58), repealing the section of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933 which provided parents with the defence of "reasonable chastisement".
Children Act 2004
Sarah Hulme; 2007
Childcare Act 2006A pioneering piece of legislation, it’s the first act that is just
about early years and childcare.
The act will help change childcare and early years services in England pushing forward some of the key commitments from the Ten Year Childcare Strategy, published in December 2004.
Local authorities must:•Improve the five Every Child Matters outcomes for all pre-school children and reduce inequalities in these outcomes •secure sufficient childcare for working parents •provide a better parental information service
The act also simplifies early years regulation and inspection arrangements, providing for a new integrated education and care quality framework for pre-school children and also for the new Ofsted Childcare Register.
Sarah Hulme; 2007
Victoria Climbie
One of the recommendations of Lord Laming's report from the Victoria Climbie Inquiry was for a simple guide for anyone working with children to the processes and systems contained in the Working together and Framework for assessment documents. What to do if you're worried a child is being abused was published in 2003.
Sarah Hulme; 2007
Working together to safeguard children
Two key guidance documents were published to help professionals identify children at risk and work together to protect them:
Working together to safeguard children: a guide to inter-agency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children (1999) provides definitions of child abuse and neglect and guidance on when children's names should be added to the child protection register. It also includes guidance for agencies and professionals at local level on more detailed ways of working together and includes information about roles and responsibilities, area child protection committees (ACPCs) and Serious Case Reviews (conducted after the death or serious injury of a child).
This has since been replaced by Working together to safeguard children: a guide to inter-agency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children (2006) .
Sarah Hulme; 2007
Framework for the assessment of children in need and their families
The Framework for the assessment of children in need and their families (2000) was published to help professionals with their assessments by providing a systematic way of identifying children in need and ascertaining the best way of helping those children and their families.
Sarah Hulme; 2007
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989)
This is an agreement that countries sign up to, or ‘ratify’. The United Kingdom has ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The Convention sets out basic rights that children have including the right to be safe and to have an education.
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is based on The Human Rights Act, in the belief that children have the same rights as any other human being, but that children have specific needs that need to be safeguarded.
Sarah Hulme; 2007
Human Rights Act (1998)
Research what this Act is, and what it says about child protection
Sarah Hulme; 2007
SENDA 2001
Senda = Special Educational Needs and Disability Act
Research what this Act says about settings, child protection and children with special educational needs and disabilities.
Sarah Hulme; 2007
DataProtection Act (1998)
This Act applies to all of us, in different situations.
For example, your information that is kept at your GP’s has to be kept safe, and cannot be passed to anyone else, except for medical purposes.
Children’s records must be kept safe and confidential. Child protection records must be kept separately from their other records and only certain people must be allowed access to these.
Sarah Hulme; 2007
Child Protection PolicyEach setting, including childminders must have a policy which sets out how they intend to deal with matters of child protection.
They explain the procedures for staff to follow and state who the named child protection officer is.
They also should explain how they will deal with bullying, although many schools have a separate policy for this.
Child Protection Polices should state how the setting will teach the children how they should keep safe e.g. having ‘stranger danger’ assemblies etc.
Sarah Hulme; 2007
Child Protection PolicyWrite your own Child Protection Policy…either for a school or a day nursery.
Use your placement policies for information, books and the internet…a lot of nurseries and schools have their policies online, and local councils have guidelines and policies online too.
