Safeguarding the Welfare of Children and Young People

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.

Section 17 of the act places an obligation to ensure services are in place within local authority areas to safeguard and promote the welfare of children within such areas who are 'in need'.

Explain how current and relevant legislation and policy affects work with children and young people.

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

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.

1.1. Identify current legislation, guidelines, policies and procedures for safeguarding the welfare of children and young people.

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

1.3 Analyse how national and local guidelines, policies and procedures for safeguarding affect day-to-day work with children and young people

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.

Analyze how national and local guidelines, policies, and procedures for safeguarding affect day-to-day work with children and young people.

In 2003 it was clear services for children still weren’t working or communicating together this was flagged up because of the tragic death of Victoria Climbie

1 Understand the Policies, Procedures and Practices for safe working with children and young adults

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