Safeguarding And Child Welfare Research Paper

The local authority has a welfare of duty to protect children in their area and work

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-

Current legislation is the result of The children Act 1989 which was brought in to ensure that all people who work with children worked together and was clear about their responsibility’s and knew how to act if allegations of child abuse were made.Following the death of Victoria Climbie in the year 2000 an independent inquiry highlighted many problems with how reports of neglect and child abuse were dealt with and found that vulnerable people in society were not being safeguarded.The Laming report led to the governments Every Child Matters paper and The Children Act 2004. In the last year this has now been renamed Every

Children Act 1989 – Protecting children’s welfare and to provide services according to the specific needs of children.

The integral part of this act is to maintain the child is at the forefront of decisions; the best option in relation to the child’s welfare will be taken into account when deciding the best course of action for the child/young person’s upbringing – creating a partnership between parents and multi-agencies.

Child Act 1989- “the Children Act 1989 aimed to ensure that the welfare of the child was paramount, working in partnership with parents to protect the child from harm” http://www.careandthelaw.org.uk/eng/b_section2 appendix 3

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:

The children act 1989 has influenced some settings by bringing together several sets of guidance and provided the foundation for many of the standards practitioners sustain and maintain when working with children. The act requires that settings work together in the best interests of the child and form partnerships with parents or carers. It requires settings to have appropriate adult to child ratios and policies and procedures on child protection. This act has had an influence in all areas of practice from planning a curriculum and record keeping. The every child matters framework has

Polices and procedures for safeguarding and child protection in England and Wales are the result of the Children Act 1989 and in Northern Ireland of the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995. The Children Act 2004 introduced further changes to the way the child protection system is structured and organised in England and Wales.

Section 17 of the Children Act 1989 places a duty on local authorities to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in need and to promote the upbringing of children by their families, so far as this is consistent with their welfare duty to the child, by providing an appropriate range and level of services. A child in need is one who is disabled, or unlikely either to achieve a reasonable standard of health or whose health or development will suffer unless services are provided.

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

9. Describe the role and responsibilities of the different organisations that may be involved when a child or young person has been abused or harmed.

If there are children that are being accommodated by the Local Authority, then this all comes under the Children Act 1989.

In all legislation there will be guidelines regarding safeguarding children. In place are strict legislative rules in force to prevent any forms of abuse. Victoria Climbié, Daniel Pelka and Baby P. “Over one in 20 children in different areas of the UK have been subjected to various types of abuse.” Reported by Farrell 2013 on sky news. Another case brought to our attention through the media was Victoria Climbié had 128 separate injuries prior to her death in 2000 (See Appendix-2).