How Child Protection Legislation Has Changed Social Policy And The Ideological Pressures

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

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.

The definition of child protection is the process of protecting individual children identified as either suffering, or likely to suffer, significant harm because of abuse or neglect. The term child protection is increasingly being replaced by ‘safeguarding’. Safeguarding has been described as; ‘a broader definition of the range of ways in which adults and professionals working with children need to act when dealing with child protection issues’(Ref: www.education.gov.uk/) Safeguarding refers to the prevention of harm to children and child protection is used more when dealing with policies and procedures following an event of suspected harm.

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.

More than ever, Child protection is a topical issue. That’s why many years ago the British government, aware of the fragility and vulnerability of children to adults, has implemented a number of laws relating to children and young people in the UK. These laws are made to define the inherent right of children, and also to define the implication of their rights for all those responsible of or using any childhood services; but more specifically what we will see through the legislation concerning the rights of children, is how they may impact the work of childcarers, how they can

Policies and procedures for safeguarding and child protection in England and Wales are the result of the Children Act 1989 and the Children Act 2004 carried more changes that affected the way the child protection system is structured and organized works here in the United Kingdom and so affecting the safeguarding of children and young people.

This article documents the history of child abuse in the U.S. that dates back to colonial times. Children were considered property and animals were better protected than children. This was evident with Mary Ellen’s case in 1873. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals fought for this child and the New York state court ordered the child to be removed from her abusive home and place

In recent times safeguarding of children has once again come under spotlight with cases such as Madline McKan and the horrific murders of Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells. Prior to this the Children’s act of 1984 and updated 2004 version highlighted that all professionals have an obligation to report suspected abuse. There was a public inquiry in 2000 to address the failure of the law which was not upholding the protection of vulnerable children. There was changes to the legislation and the government set up The Every Child Maters (ECM) initiative. This works in line with current legislation Working Together to Safeguard Children 2006 Act. This Act authorised guidance on how organisations and individuals should work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people in accordance with the Children Act 1989 and the Children Act 2004. All organisations must have the succeeding policies and procedures:

This essay will attempt to critically examine the importance of interagency working in the safeguarding and protection of children and young people in the UK. It will consider both the challenges and how these have or might be overcome. It will look at key government legislation in respect to child welfare and pay particular note to high profile cased where interagency working has appeared to be less that effective in maintaining safeguards for vulnerable children, in particular. Consideration will be given to models of working that support interagency collaboration and of how some of these models may have been implemented in current

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.

There has been certain legislation in the United Kingdom along with home policies and procedures that affect the safeguarding of children and young people. Policies and procedures for safeguarding and child protection in England and Wales are the result of the Children Act 1989 and the Children Act 2004 brought more changes that affected the way the child protection system works here in the United Kingdom and so affecting the safeguarding of children and young people. Through the protection policies and procedures for safeguarding children and young people, settings which work with children and young people have an important role in the

      In today’s world, children are seen as individuals who have certain rights as human beings, and who are worthy of external (or non family) protection.  This has not always been the case.  For the better part of the 19th century, there were no rules or regulations in effect that prevented the mistreatment of children, since they were thought to be completely under the control of their immediate family (University of Delaware).   It was not until 1874 that the first organization concerned with the protection of children was established in New York.  The group called themselves the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (SPCC), after the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), which was an organization in England that had

We as social care workers need to safe guard vulnerable people. When it comes to safe guarding there are laws that protect individual people under the Children’s Act 1989 it states It shall be the general duty of every local authority in addition to the other duties imposed on them by this Part to safeguard and promote the welfare of children within their area who are in need; and, so far as is consistent with that duty, to promote the upbringing of such children by their families - by providing a range and level of services appropriate to those children's needs.( www.legislation.gov.uk).

The Children’s Act 2004 – provides the legal basis for how social service and other agencies deal with issues relating to children. It arose from the Green Paper “Every Child Matters” and identifies the following outcomes for all children:

“Parliaments and their members can and should be among the foremost champions of child protection. They can legislate, oversee government activity, allocate financial resources and, as leaders within their nations and communities, raise awareness of issues and provide advocacy.”