Explain Child Protection Within The Wider Field Of Safeguarding

There are many procedures, policies, legislations and statutory guidance to support the safety and welfare of children and young people. They have been developed over many years to recognise the rights of children and young people, protect vulnerable children and young people and after independent inquiries of fatal abuse cases, to recognise the failures of multi agencies and support services.

Lord lemmings report on the death of Victoria Climbie brought into force the children act 2004 which requires all local authorities across England and Wales to set up a local safeguarding children board. This states that each area should promote and safeguard the welfare of children and young people. LSCB replaced the Area Child Protection Committees and stated all agencies should work together to protect children. An assessment is carried out annually to make sure all agencies are working to promote safeguarding and welfare of children. EVERY CHILD MATTERS.

Safeguarding the welfare of children and young people is extremely important. It involves more than just protecting children from abuse – it also includes promoting their interests, keeping them safe and protecting their rights.

Safeguarding involves everything a setting does, including their procedures and policies etc, to ensure children are kept safe and healthy, and that the risk of them coming to harm or being involved in an accident, is minimised.

Children’s Act 1989: Identifies the responsibilities of parents and professionals who must work to ensure the safety and welfare of the child/young person. Two important sections included in the act are:

Safeguarding is for everyone and every organisation responsibility to protect children from any harm and promote their welfare (Children Act, 2004). However, the Department of Children, School

Any individual who comes into contact with children in their daily work has a duty to ensure the safety and well-being of children. Safeguarding means protecting and promoting the childs welfare and putting measures in place to prevent abuse. Child protection is protecting a child when there is reason to believe that the child has suffered or is likely to suffer from abuse or neglect. In order to ensure this happens within a school setting, there are many laws that protect the welfare and safeguarding of children:-

Today we use the term safeguarding instead of child protection because it covers a much broader range. These changes were influenced by the first Joint Chief Inspectors’ safeguarding report 2002 and formalised in the Every Child Matters legislation outlined in the Children Act 2004. By safeguarding a child or young person we ensure they get the very best of the opportunities available to them for them to achieve the best of their potential while keeping them safe from bullying, crime, accidents, neglect and abuse.

Develop and implement policies and procedures to support the safeguarding of children and young people.

Safeguarding comes down to more than that, it is also about ensuring children are protected in all aspects, everything from their living conditions, health to educational needs.

1. The Children Act 1989 - 2004 is the most relevant legislation for safeguarding children and young people’s welfare. It was first made to give boundaries and support for local authorities for the welfare of children. The act then also made changes to the law that are regulated for children and their safety if they are in foster homes, adoption agencies, babysitting services and also handling childcare crimes and crimes against children. The children act’s main purpose is to ensure that the UK is a safer for children and young people and improve their wellbeing. It provides support and help to children of all ages, and backgrounds, and if they have a

The UK Government has defined the term ‘safeguarding children’ as: ‘The process of protecting children from abuse or neglect, preventing impairment of their health and development, and ensuring they are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care that enables children to have optimum life chances and enter adulthood successfully.’

Working together to safeguard children 2006 sets out how organisations and individuals should work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people in accordance with the Children’s Act 1989 and the Children’s Act 2004. It is important that all practitioners within settings and environments looking and caring after children and young people must know their responsibilities and duties in order to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people, following their legislations, policies and procedures.

Safeguarding is the term that has replaced the term Child Protection. It includes promoting children’s safety and welfare as well as protecting children when abuse happens. It has only been developed in the past 50 years, and the need for improved legislation has been highlighted by cases such as Maria Colwell (1973) and Victoria Climbie (2000) as these cases showed weaknesses in procedures.

Consequently parliament passed the Children Act in 1989, with the latest amendment made in 2004. Eileen Munro states that the Act ‘seeks to balance the conflicting needs to protect children from family abuse and to protect families from over intrusion by state agencies’ (2007). Two of the key sections of the Act used by professionals working in child protection are sections 17 and 47. Section 17 defines a child in need and sets out the local authorities’ duty to help children in need, and section 47 sets out the local authorities’ duty to investigate in relation to protecting a child from abuse and neglect. It should be noted that in practice, the decision on whether to classify a referral as a section 17 or section 47 is very challenging. There have been cases such as that of Victoria Climbie where despite the law and procedures in place, systems went badly wrong. With this in mind it