Child Abuse: Political Agenda Setting For Social Problems

1.1- Outline the current legislation, guidelines, policies and procedures within own UK Home Nation affecting the safeguarding of children and young people-

1. Outline current legislation, guidelines, policies and procedures within own UK Home Nation affecting the safeguarding of children and young people.

The current legislation, guidelines and policies and procedures state that children have the rights to protection from abuse also they have the right to express their view and to be listened to as well as the right to care and services for disabled children or children living away, although different British governments have said that it regards its self-bound by the convention and refers to it in child protection guidance. It has not become part of the uk law but there is no single piece of legislation

There are many policies and procedures within the UK that outline the current legislation and guidelines to help with safeguarding children and young people.

There is no one piece of legislation that underpins the safeguarding of children and young people in the United Kingdom but there are countless that are constantly being reviewed, changed or updated. From these many legislations, child care settings develop policies, according to the Oxford online dictionary a policy is ‘A course or principle of action adopted or proposed by an organisation or individual’.

The following is an outline of current legislation, guidelines, policies and procedures within own UK Home Nation for safeguarding children

The main current legislation guidelines policies and procedures within own UK home nation for safeguarding children and young people.

Current legislation is the result of The children Act 1989 which was brought in to ensure that all people who work with children worked together and was clear about their responsibility’s and knew how to act if allegations of child abuse were made.Following the death of Victoria Climbie in the year 2000 an independent inquiry highlighted many problems with how reports of neglect and child abuse were dealt with and found that vulnerable people in society were not being safeguarded.The Laming report led to the governments Every Child Matters paper and The Children Act 2004. In the last year this has now been renamed Every

Costin, Lela. (1996). The Politics of Child Abuse in America. Oxford, New York: Published by Oxford University Press. Retrieved from Kaplan University’s library at: http://books.google.com/books?id=B70rt3SyhtkC&pg=PA40&dq=Effects+of+child+abuse+in+America&hl=en&sa=X&ei=bpJ1UrbkOvLdsATO54DwAw&ved=0CD4Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Effects%20of%20child%20abuse%20in%20America&f=false.

Children Act 2006 – Is an Act that defines the new duties imposed on the Local Authorities in respect to improving the Every Child Matters outcomes for pre-school children. The Act also defines new rules in relation to childcare for working parents as well as parental information services. It is aimed at improving the well-being of young children. It emphasises the importance of safeguarding children and young people within an educational setting. If a child discloses neglect or abuse; an establishment should have instructions to help the child. This could be referral to an outside organisation or internally.

Child abuse is epidemic in many countries as well as the United States. It is estimated that every thirteen seconds a child is abused in some manner: physically, sexually, emotionally or by neglect (Friedman). Each year, there are over 3 million reports of child abuse in the United States involving more than 6 million children. Child abuse can be reduced with proper education of the parents and with greater public awareness.

The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act of 1974 was originally created to protect a target population of children, under the age of 18, from child abuse and neglect; however, over the years this act has been amended and improved to protect a wider population, with many specific subpopulations, over the past 42 years. In the original text of the act, two specific populations are addressed with different goals: reducing the rate of child abuse in children under the age of eighteen, and improving the treatment of children who had been maltreated or neglected (National Low Income Housing Coalition, 2014). It is easy to see that this act and policies within it are aimed at protecting children specifically, yet looking only at the children,

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

Here are the main current legislations, guidelines, policies and procedure. They are put in place for protecting and safeguarding children again abuse.

By the year 1967, all U.S. states had child abuse reporting laws. “Child abuse reporting laws and enhanced awareness of child abuse produced an increase in intervention” (Myers, 2013). As reporting laws came into affect, more and more cases of child abuse and neglect were shown. By the mid 1970s, over 60,000 child abuse cases were reported and the extremely high rate of children in foster care alarmed government officials. In 1980, the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act (AACWA) was passed. This act required every state to make reasonable efforts in keeping children with their families, and when removing the child was not avoidable, the child was required to have a plan to be placed back in the home or have their parents’ rights revoked. For the children whom returning home was not an option, Congress offered financial incentives for adoption. This effort to preserve the families was a main objective of AACWA. An influential investigation pertaining to this was done by Henry S. Mass and Richard E. Engler, as explained by Sribnick (2011). They concluded that many children were living a majority of their childhood years in foster care and institutions. Their findings showed that if a child stayed in foster care for more than a year and a half, it was not likely that he or she would ever be reunited with his or her family or be adopted. In response to this, the Child Welfare League of America lobbied for child welfare workers to consider