Special Safeguards

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-

The Children Act 1989 – Places a duty on all child care practitioners within a setting to not only identify but also to meet the needs of every individual child as well as keeping them safe. The Act introduced the idea of child led planning, placing the child at the center of any planning made regarding their own learning and development. The act also specifies the responsibility of the parent in keeping their own child safe and free from harm.

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.

It is important to safeguard children and young people because no one deserves to be abused whether it be emotional, physical, sexual abuse and no young person deserves to be neglected and we have a duty to protect them from harm.

Practitioners have to put the needs of children first because this will help keep children safe and encourages children to be independent. It’s important to show

All organisations and people that work with, or come into contact with children should have safeguarding policies and procedures to ensure that every child, regardless of their age, gender, religion or ethnicity, can be protected from harm. This includes hospitals, schools, private sector providers, sports clubs, faith groups and voluntary/community organisations.

Ensuring that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care and

It is very important that anyone working with children should be able to recognise if a child is at risk of harm of in need because of their vulnerability. The earlier this is recognised, the better outcome for the child involved.

Safeguarding children and young people is important as it extends beyond child protection and it includes more wide-ranging concepts. Safeguarding children and young people means we are protecting them from all sorts of harm such as accidents, deliberate abuse, neglect and even factors such as bullying, prejudiced attitudes and failure on allowing children to participate in different activities etc. The wider concepts of safeguarding means that we are protecting children from maltreatment, we are preventing impairment of children 's health or development, we are ensuring that children are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care and also taking action in order to enable all children and young people to have the best outcomes. Child protection is also an important part of safeguarding and promoting welfare. 'Staying safe action plan 2008 ' highlighted a number of areas that were of concern:

Ensuring that children are growing up in safe circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care.

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.’

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.

Thesis: Bonnie Rochman argues that for the well-being of children the state should take them into their care, but Mike Adams states that for the well-being of children the government itself must make changes; it is clear that both the people and the government must change to help the children of today produce a healthy and happy environment.

During the early years of a child’s life they are developing their sense of identity, self- worth, self esteem and they are learning how others can see and treat them.

Children like mirror, which reflect the future image of a nation. Children are not only the future of any nation but also strength in reserve. If they are healthy and active, educated and informed, disciplined and trained, the future of a nation is well insured, and if they are wanting in the above aspects the future of a nation is doomed to disaster. So it is prime responsibility of the government and society to provide the safe and secure environment to our future upbringing. The research question is whether all the nations and international organization are self sufficient to maintain the law and order and successful giving children a better and safer future.