Document Analysis: Duty of Care Policy for Students (Western Australia)

Any individual who comes into contact with children in their daily line of work “has a duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children”.

A guideline to all staff on how pupil’s behaviour should be managed. It is important that this policy is constantly being applied to ensure full safety of the pupils; this is why all staff must be familiar with this policy.

1.1 Identify the current legislation and codes of practise relevant to the promotion of equality and valuing of diversity.

The schools policy for behaviour will give information on how you should manage more difficult behaviour as a teacher or TA. It is also important that pupils understand the behaviour policy of the school so that they have a clear idea of how bad behaviour will be dealt with if they choose to go against school rule or behave in an inappropriate manner.

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

This means keeping children safe from accidents (i.e. road safety), crime and bullying and actively promoting their well-being in a healthy, safe and supportive environment. It also encompasses issues such as pupil health and safety and bullying, about which there are specific statutory requirements, and a range of other issues, for example, arrangements for meeting the medical needs of children with medical conditions, providing first aid, school security, drugs and substance misuse.

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

Schools are required to have policies and procedures as they safe guard the staff and pupils and

|As adults in positions of responsibility it is important to be aware of the importance of protecting children and young people from harm. While |

Unit 516 Understand Safeguarding of children and young people (for those working in the adult sector) P5

Unit 4222-304 Principles for implementing duty of care in health, social care or children’s and young people’s settings.

Principles for implementing duty of care in health, social care or children’s and young people’s settings

Working together to safeguard children 2006 was a revised document which provided an update on safeguarding and the national framework to help services for children and agencies to work individually and also together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. It was also further revised in 2010 and also applies to those working in education, health and social services as well as the police and the probation service. It is relevant to those working with children and their families in the statutory, independent and voluntary sectors. It is not necessary for all practitioners to read every part of Working Together to Safeguard Children in order to understand the principles and to perform their roles effectively. However, those who work regularly with children and young people and who may be asked to contribute to assessments of children and young people in need and should know the relevant sections of this document. The vetting and barring scheme was introduced in October 2009 with the aim of preventing unsuitable people from working with children and young people. It assured anybody working or volunteering with children would have to register with the independent safeguarding authority (ISA). The ISA will make the decision whether someone is suitable or not to work with children and young people, they base their decisions on information sources like a criminal record bureau checks which gives full record of the individual’s criminal record,

An important factor for all teachers to know about when pursuing a career in education is whether they will be protected in dire situations in which legal action is taken. NEA stands up for teachers and “provides all eligible association members with professional liability insurance through the NEA Educators Employment Liability (EEL) Program” (National Education Association, Educators Employment Liability Program, 2015). Schools cannot always afford to offer teachers insurance to protect them or cover all of the costs that potential damages or lawsuits that may come up over time. The insurance covers many different areas such as: student injuries and malpractice lawsuits. This program offers protection in all areas, at all times, and in all places as long as it pertains to an educational employment activity. This is one of the biggest reasons that joining this professional organization is so important (National Education Association, Educators Employment Liability Program,