Current NI legislation, guidance for safeguarding children (CYP3.3 AC1.1)

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

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.

Children Act 1989 – Determines the duty of early year’s practitioners to identify and meet the separate and distinctive needs of children and to keep them safe. It initiated the belief that the child ought to be at the centre of planning and that a child’s well-being and safety are vital when judgements are made concerning them. This act also recognises the accountabilities of parents in keeping their offspring safe. In this act there are two particular segments that relate to the duty of local authority with concern to child protection, these are-

1.1 outline current legislation, guidelines, policies and procedures within own UK home nation affecting the safeguarding of children and young people.

| Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 restricts contact between children and vulnerable adults and those who might do them harm.

It is everybody’s responsibility to safeguard children – This means every single staff member within a setting; irrelevant of what role they may have there. This also includes non-staff members, such as volunteers, student’s third-party companies (visitors, service providers etc). Each setting should therefore adopt their own safeguarding policy, of which has to be kept up to date and followed at all times.

Ensuring children and young people’s safety and welfare in the work setting is an essential part of safeguarding. While children are at school, practitioners act in ‘loco parentis’ while their parents are away. As part of their legal and professional obligations, practitioners hold positions of trust and a duty of care to the children in their school, and therefore should always act in their best interests and ensure their safety – the welfare of the child is paramount (Children Act 1989). The Children Act 2004 came in with the Every Child Matters (ECM) guidelines and greatly impacted the way schools look at the care and welfare of pupils. Children and young people should be helped to learn and thrive and be given the opportunity to

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

The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) was first established under the police act in 1997 and was launched in March 2002 due to public concern about children, young people and vulnerable adults. This was then merged in 2012 with the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) to form the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). The Disclosure and Barring Service is a check which must be taken before any practitioner is employed to work with children, young people or vulnerable adults. It ensures that the practitioner is clear of any criminal offences such as abuse.

This act is designed to stop any contact between children and vulnerable adults who may have been harmed. The individuals who have harmed them will be put on to a barred list and will be banned from going into contact with the people they have harmed. This is where DBS checks come into place. This when somebody who is

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

The Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 was the Government’s response to the Bichard Inquiry report which examined vetting procedures after the murders of ten-year-olds Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells in 2002. It establishes a new centralised vetting and barring scheme for people working with children.

* To decide if the child is in need ( Section 17(1) of the Children Act 1989 states that it shall be the

The importance of interagency working in the safeguarding and protection of children in the UK

The Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) was created following the government's adoption of the recommendations set out in the Bichard Report. The report stemmed from the inquiry in to the tragic deaths of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in Soham in 2002. The ISA's to help prevent unsuitable people from working children and vulnerable adults. They will do this through a system of registration on which aims to ensure that every person who wants to work or volunteer with children or vulnerable adults is cleared to do so before undertaking the role. They will also be responsible for barring people from working children.