Essay on Child Safeguarding

The topic of child abuse is one of the hardest topics to write about. It is imperative to have a profound understanding of this topic and its consequences specially when working in the field of human services. Professionally and personally, I have encountered situations where child abuse is present. This reality has touched my life in many ways and these experiences continue shaping me as a human being and as social service provider. I will try to cover in this paper the subject of child abuse, its definitions, and the scope of the problem and the proper prevention of it.

Throughout this work I will relate to a case study. I will provide a definition of abuse using both sociological and psychological perspectives to contribute to our understanding of the causes of abuse. I will define the types, indicators, signs and symptoms of abuse and its impact on families and individuals, identifying factors relevant to the case study, recognising and explaining current legislation making reference to Government reports/inquiries and research into failures to protect from harm and abuse. I will consider the policies and procedures that my work place use and I will identify some statutory and voluntary agencies and their roles in supporting those affected by abuse, relating specifically to the abuse of children.

As a practitioner we need to have knowledge of different signs and indications for when a child is abused and harmed. Abuse, harm of Children and Young People can be in different forms. It’s critical that we have the most up to date training in safeguarding as the signs and symptoms, indicators and behaviours of abuse in children and young people. The signs may include both physical and behavioural changes. Can often affect their health and their development. There are four types of abuse:

The department of education published the statutory guideline ‘working together to safeguard children. A guide to inter-agency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in March 2013.’ This replaces several previous documents including initial and core assessments by the common framework assessment (CAF). (www.workingtogetheronline.co.uk)

In terms of area of social policy, child protection and safeguarding plays a critical role in justifying its importance to children and families under the New Labour government 1997 – 2010. For instance Kirton (2009) mentions how a social construction approach may be useful when considering about child abuse. The advantage of adopting this approach is that it identifies how children develop at different rates also it considers how children’s view and participation may be important in relation to any discussion about harm. Moreover the statutory guidance DFE (2015) mentions about the various types of child abuse which could take place. These are physical abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, sexual abuse and exploitation. From your views and opinion

In many homes, children are victims of more than one they of abuse. The abusers can be parents, family members, guardians, caregivers and even strangers. “The world of health considers ‘child abuse” as a blanket term for four types of child mistreatment”. (“Child”) Physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect are all examples of child abuse.

Abuse is an issue that has been and is still currently prevalent in our society today. Abuse is defined as, “the use of force in order to try to dominate a child, to compel him/her to do dangerous things that he/she does not want to do, expose him/her to hazardous situations perceive by him/her as dangerous” (Rus & Galabeaza, 2013). Child abuse in particular, is a common issue that occurs in families of all backgrounds. There are several types of abuse, which include: physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. When it comes to impact abuse can have on children, it was stated that, “abused children suffer from anxiety and depression more frequently than other children and often show a very low level of self-esteem (Rus & Galabeaza, 2013).

The consequences of maltreatment can be devastating. The consequences of abuse and the failure to take care of their child or children affect the victims themselves and the society in which they live in. it is important, crucial even, to further investigate child abuse because it could tell us a lot about the thoughts in our society and the value of children to people. We should put stock into what children must say because it is always difficult in legal situations when children are involved because we think so little of what they should say. Therefore, being exposed to child abuse can lead into delinquency. The affects of child abuse are plentiful, particularly in relation to their physical, psychological and emotional needs and development. In addition to the damage caused to these aspects, this also can turn abused children to lives of delinquency. Physical consequences range from minor damage to severe brain damage and even death. Psychological consequences range from chronic low self-esteem to severe dissociative states. Behaviourally, the consequences of abuse range from poor peer relations all the way to extreme violent behaviours.

Child abuse is when a parent or caregiver, whether through action or failing to act, causes injury, death, emotional harm or risk of serious harm to a child. There are many forms of child maltreatment, including neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse, exploitation and emotional abuse. Child Abuse is a social problem because it happens anywhere and everywhere. “Every year more than 3 million reports of child abuse are made in the United States”(Home). Child abuse is so common. The newspapers and TV news are so full of reports about child abuse that you cannot help but wonder how safe a child really is in their daily lives at home. Although it is a mistake to become overprotective and make a child fearful, it is important to recognize the

The legal definition of child abuse is deliberately broad to cover any situation where there is ‘reasonable cause to suspect a child is suffering, or likely to be, significant harm’ (Children Act 1989:C41:PV:S47). To bring clarity, Working Together (2015) identifies four main areas of child maltreatment, including abuse in terms of physical, emotional and sexual, as well as neglect. The policy also gives a brief overview of typical scenarios appearing within each category. For instance, physical abuse entails acts like poisoning and hitting, failure to protect a child from harm constitutes as neglect, whilst making a child feel inadequate or humiliated is classified as emotional abuse. It can be stated that the three categories and examples highlighted particularly appertain to the case study.

Many problems of child abuse are demonstrated in various manners, all which are horrendous, but some worse than others. Detecting that a child is living in an unsafe environment or being harmed in any way is very difficult. This is why there are so many children being hurt today. Abuse can take place in a child 's home, in organizations, schools or communities that children interact with. Abuse to a child in any way can in fact affect the children in their futures. For example, “An infant

Child abuse has been an ongoing problem throughout the years that can affect a child from infancy all throughout adulthood. There are three kinds of child abuse. The first one is emotional abuse, it involves the psychological and social aspects of child abuse. It is usually seen when a parent cares more about their personal needs and goals rather than their children. The type of parenting style is characterized as overt aggression towards children or intimidation and manipulation. The parents usually yell, bully and humiliate their child. Characteristics of emotionally abusive parents are: Calling names and comparing their child to others, parents are unrewarding and difficult to enjoy, associating their own negative behaviors with the child’s difficult behavior, no affection to their child like kisses or hugs. Another type of is called physical abuse. There is an equal probability for both females and males to get physically abused. There is a peak between ages 4-8 and a lot more deaths within toddlers and infants. Most cases of physical abuse may be confused for discipline when in reality it is actually physical abuse inappropriate for the children’s age or any age in general. There is a line between disciplining and making a child fearful towards an adult. Signs of a child in a physical abusive home includes children finding it hard getting along with their peers even other adults, depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, and low academic achievements. Sexual abuse is the

Currently in the UK around 50,500 children are experiencing some form of abuse (NSPCC, 2013a). It is shown that around 11.5%, or one out of nine young adults, during their childhood, experienced harsh physical abuse from an adult (NSPCC, 2013b). Radford and colleagues interviewed children below the ages of 11 and up to the ages of 24, but one of the group of children this study is interested in is 11 years and younger, of which he interview 2,160 parents of children aged 11 years and below (NSPCC, 2013b). He found that 1.3% or 1 in 80 of these children had experienced physical abuse

By definition, child abuse is the deliberate physical maltreatment or sexual molestation of a child by a caretaker. Hitting, beating, slamming against a wall, burning, and in severe cases, even killing. Why would anyone want to purposely hit an innocent child? While this is a question that many people wonder child abuse is actually more common than most people think. Every year more than 3.6 million referrals are made to child protection agencies with reports of child abuse. I argue throughout this paper that child abuse is a major social problem that obviously needs to be prevented. This paper begins by defining the different types of child abuse to inform the reader. Secondly the paper will state some common signs and symptoms of

Child abuse is an all too common social problem in our society. Historically, child abuse has always been present, however, most commonly ignored due to parents being able to do what they please with their children who were viewed as one’s property. Today, this is no longer the case due to various laws and consequences towards the abuse of a child. As an illustration, child abuse is commonly presented in four categories: neglect, physical, sexual, and psychological abuse.