Child Abuse Prevention And Treatment Act (CANRA)

Current legislation, guidelines, policies and procedures within Northern Ireland affecting the safeguarding of children and young people.

According to our textbook, Public Law 93-247 which is the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA), came into effect on January 31, 1974. This law is regards to childhood maltreatment. The law implemented the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect. Central agencies needed to be created in each individual state. The central agencies had to have legal authority to investigate and be able to prosecute cases that involved abuse and neglect. The States also had to develop their own definitions, policies, procedures, and laws dealing with child abuse and neglect. With the amendment of 2003, states needed to include foster care, adoption, abandoned infants and family violence protection into their services.

The Department for Education is in charge of youngster’s assurance in England. It sets out legislation's, policies and statutory way on how the child protection framework needs to work. The Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCBs) co-ordinate, and guarantee the adequacy of, work to ensure and promote the welfare/safety of children.

When a child is suspected of being abused, neglected or placed at imminent risk of serious harm by a member of the staff of a private or public school or an institution that cares for the child, the person in charge of the school or facility must notify the child’s parent or other person responsible for the child’s care that a report has been made. The state’s department of child abuse responsibility is to notify the head of a facility, school or establishment that a report has been made.

D2 - Justify responses where child maltreatment or abuse is suspected or confirmed, making reference to current legislation and policies.

The legislations that affects safeguarding children with in the UK is, Every Child Matters Education Act 2002 this act was and is to achieve health and economic wellbeing, stay safe and make a positive contribution for better outcomes for all children and young people, as well as narrowing the gap. There are also guidelines that must be followed within the Disability Discrimination Act (1995) and the Special Educational Needs (SEN) code of practice. Within Schools and children’s car homes there will be a Child Protection Policy and a Health and Safety Policy, which will clearly state what procedures the staff must follow to keep children and young people safe. Child protection is your responsibility and it is important to follow your settings

It is mandatory to report different types of maltreatment to children which includes child abuse in both physical and sexual, emotional and psychological neglect to children as well as exposing them to any form of family violence (Atkins, K., Lacey, S., Britton, B., 2011).

Practitioners and professionals working with children on a daily basis are in a good position to notice changes in a child's or young person’s behaviour which may be a possible sign of abuse. Children or young people may also confide in practitioners or allege that abuse has taken place.

Every Child Matters 2003 and Children Act 2004 updated in 2010 to Help Children Achieve More

“ The Federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) … defines child abuse and neglect as, at minimum: "Any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation"; or
 "An act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm."” (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services and Administration for Children & Families, "Definitions of Child Abuse

abuse or suspected abuse of vulnerable individuals is mandated to be reported in most states

In the state of New York the Child Protective System identifies certain professional a vital purpose in reporting child abuse, a code of ethic is used here B.2.a., Probable Harm and Legal requirements under the ACA code of ethics (Counseling, 2015). It is mandated to certain professionals to report

Child maltreatment: “Federal law defines child abuse and neglect as any recent act, or failure to act, on the part of a parent or caretaker that results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation, or an act or failure to act that presents an imminent risk of serious harm to a child” (“Child Abuse and Maltreatment,”

Westat found that professionals failed to report many of the children they saw who had signs of child abuse and neglect. It found that in 1986, 56 percent of apparently abused or neglected children, or about 500,000 children, were not reported to the authorities. This figure, however, seems more alarming than it is: Basically, the more serious the case, the more likely the report. For example, the surveyed professionals reported over 85 percent of the fatal or serious physical abuse cases they saw, 72 percent of the sexual abuse cases, and 60 percent of the moderate physical abuse cases. They only reported 15 percent of the educational neglect cases they saw, 24 percent of the emotional neglect cases, and 25 percent of the moderate physical neglect cases.

Violence breeds violence. The number of reported child abuse cases in the United States hit its peak in 2003 and has since gone down. The numbers are getting lower and the policies set in place to shelter kids have gotten better. However, prior to the past two decades there have been only vague policies to protect children in the United States. Since 1990 much has been done to reform policies to safeguard kids. In this paper I will discuss the history of child abuse policies, the progress that has been made to child abuse policies, and how the policies meet the criteria of the family impact checklist.