Duty Of Care For Children

The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is there for the rights of children should allow children priority

The rights of all children & young people are stated in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child

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”.

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.

But children are a special case they cannot always stand up for themselves. They therefore need a special set of rights which take in to consideration their vulnerability and which ensures the adults that surround them take responsibly for their welfare, protection and development.

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.

The United Nations Convention on the rights of a child (1989) is a treaty that sets out the rights and freedoms of all children in a set of 54 articles.

The convention on the rights of the child 1989- The Convention's objective is to protect children from discrimination, neglect and abuse. It is the principal children's treaty, covering a full range of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. It grants rights for children in peacetime as well as during armed conflict, and provides for the implementation of those rights. It can promote anti-discriminatory practice by giving children protection and rights. It can also make sure that children will be given somewhere safe to be; not near any war zones and hazardous areas which could cause ill- health.

- The United Nations Convention on the rights of children (UNCRC) states that all children have voices and have the right to be heard, whether this is regarding activities they are doing or what is happening in their lives both in school and at home, the should be allowed to express their feelings and opinions. It also states that children have the right to be protected from all forms of physical, mental and sexual abuse as well as neglect.

The United Nations convention on the rights of the child is to promote all aspects for the care, development and education of children, non discrimination on the grounds of gender, religion, disability, language, ethnic/social origin, civil and political rights, economic, social, cultural and protective rights.

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

This convention is used as guidance and is not a part of U.K law. There is no one set legislation that covers safeguarding children and young people in the UK. There are different laws and guidelines

It is important to adopt a human rights approach to care and education in practice as children are looked upon as vunerable in society as they cannot express or defend themselves, therefore they need us to do that for them. Every child is equal no matter what gender, ethnicity, religion, language or ability. Because of this, every child should have their rights valued and respected in a care and education practice. Not only is it upto the carer in education practice to make sure that a human rights approach is adopted, but it is upto everyone. Many people say that being in school/nursery is the best years of their lives therefore it is upto us to make sure that in a care or education practice that a human rights approach is taken to ensure that this is the same for all children. It is important to adopt a human rights approach so that all children are developing and learning to their full potential. Also, when at school/nursery, the way others act towards you could impact on how you act towards others. Therefore, by making sure the children are meeting their rights will then hopefully make sure that they will make sure others do.

There has been an ongoing debate with policy makers, that children are not all about ’needs’ that must be met nonetheless they have their own rights as individuals, concerns, priorities and aspirations. The rights discourse of a child includes the universal theory of three P’s which are, Provision of suitable support and services for healthy development, Protection from mistreatment and abuse and the Participation in the choices made about their upbringing and care (Stainton Rogers, 2009). Furthermore (Smith, 2013) states the right of every child consists of a standard living condition which benefits physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development in a holistic manner.

Twenty-five years ago, a promise was made to people seventeen years and older as a guarantee under a set of rights. This is known as the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The writing called on governments around the world to maintain the responsibility of protecting children from violence, abuse, and neglect. And lastly, to make certain that children are given a standard of care as to grant them the ability to thrive into adulthood.