Outline Current Legislation, Guidelines, Policies and Procedure Within Own Uk Home Nation Affecting the Safeguarding of Children and Young People

The Children Act 2004 provides the legal framework for Every Child Matters (2003) which includes

In addition adults which working with children have an big impact on keeping children and young people safe within the setting, policies and procedures are very important an all staff that are working with children should have been informed and learned this is important because the workers must know what they have to do, what’s expected when they are working with children. Furthermore the policies in the setting will state what is expected as well as approved of the workers; they explain what the organisation does and how it should be carried out so that the child or young adult can be safe from abuse.

1. The Children Act 1989 - 2004 is the most relevant legislation for safeguarding children and young people’s welfare. It was first made to give boundaries and support for local authorities for the welfare of children. The act then also made changes to the law that are regulated for children and their safety if they are in foster homes, adoption agencies, babysitting services and also handling childcare crimes and crimes against children. The children act’s main purpose is to ensure that the UK is a safer for children and young people and improve their wellbeing. It provides support and help to children of all ages, and backgrounds, and if they have a

025.3 Ensuring children and young people’s safety and protection in the setting is an essential part of safeguarding and promoting their welfare. Every adult working in the setting must be a suitable person to work with young children, and must have

Children and young people are to be protected from any physical harm including sexual and emotional maltreatment neglect and exploitation. Safeguarding is designed to have the child's bests interests in mind and is there to prevent any of these types of harm if the child's needs are not being

The children act 1989-The main concepts of this act are parental responsibility, the welfare of the child and partnership and cooperation from all associated services. In summary the act states that the mental and physical well-being of the child is above all else and appropriate steps need to be taken to ensure this.

The Children Act of 1989 introduced comprehensive and wide reaching changes to the legislation in England and Wales, which directly affected the wellbeing and welfare of children and young people. It remains an important piece of legislation as it’s main focus is safeguarding children and the roles and responsibilities of the local authorities.

The assignment that follows will discuss how our authorities have placed government guidelines and legislation’s into place to protect children and young people from harm, abuse or neglect. Firstly, it will discuss why it is so important for professionals to work together among different children services, such as the health sector, education sector and social care sector. It will then discuss why multi-agencies work and integrated work between agencies is so important. Secondly, it will discuss two different case studies and discuss about what may have gone wrong in the past and what legislation has been implemented to prevent further children and young people who have been at risk from abuse. It may be difficult to accept, but every child, young person or vulnerable adult can be hurt, put at risk of harm or abuse, regardless of their age, gender, religion, or ethnicity. The government, authorities, people working alongside children/ young people are the people who should work together to help achieve better outcomes for these children and young people.

Working Together to Safeguard Children (2006) - outlines the legal requirements for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and the roles and responsibilities of professionals, organisations and individuals in regards to working together to keep children safe from harm

All staff must be fully trained in safeguarding children and have the opportunity to receive further training to develop their knowledge. Staff need to be aware of the procedure for recording concerns and incidents if a child discloses information. We need to make a record of exactly what the child said in their own words and pass all the information over to the safeguarding officer, who will ensure the management is informed and all details recorded are kept confidential and stored in secure place. We ensure confidentiality is of paramount and that only information is disclosed about a child we are concerned about to another member of staff is on a need to know basis. We will inform the appropriate outside agencies of our concerns and what information we have recorded from the child. We all ensure that we handle the situation with the child as sensitively as possible but we never promise them that we will not tell anyone else.

When we look at safeguarding in children and young people we need to look at one aspect vey closely which is child protection. When it comes the child protection there are strict rules in place to ensure the safety of a child and all staff and volunteers need to be aware of what their responsibilities are.

The course has taught me that it is of paramount important to ensure I safeguard children and young people. I have learnt that it involves so much more than just protecting children from abuse – it also includes promoting their interests, keeping them safe and protecting their rights. In line with the settings child protection policies and procedures, schools, and thus I as a teaching assistant, have an important role in the detection and prevention of child abuse and neglect. This would also include helping them to protect themselves from abuse and dealing with bullying.

It is imperative that everyone who works with children and young people, must be aware of the safeguarding procedures. They must know how to respond to any concerns about the children’s welfare and safety. Adults

Children are best protected when professionals know what is required of them and how each organisations and professionals within those organisations work together. All adults and professionals that work with have a responsibility for keeping them safe. This involves identifying concerns, sharing information and taking prompt action. In order to do this in an effective way; professionals need to work in partnership with each other. Individual children, especially some of the most vulnerable children and those at greatest risk of harm and social exclusion, will need to coordinate help from health, education, early years, children’s social care, and the voluntary sector and other agencies, including youth justice services.

Working with children and families where child protection is a concern raises issues in terms of values, rights and conflicting interests. Legislation concerned with the welfare and rights of children enshrine a number of vital themes which have informed the development of the child protection standards (DHSSPSNI, 2008).