Supporting Children

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-

All Early years’ settings have policies and procedures that staff need to work with and follow they need to be up to date and be in line with the current framework of current legislation. Every policy has a procedure to follow and how to respond if you have any concerns about your key child or any other child that attends to the setting. The following procedures must be completed to ensure that the correct method is actioned.

Ensuring children and young people’s safety and welfare in the work setting is an essential part of safeguarding. While children are at school, practitioners act in ‘loco parentis’ while their parents are away. As part of their legal and professional obligations, practitioners hold positions of trust and a duty of care to the children in their school, and therefore should always act in their best interests and ensure their safety – the welfare of the child is paramount (Children Act 1989). The Children Act 2004 came in with the Every Child Matters (ECM) guidelines and greatly impacted the way schools look at the care and welfare of pupils. Children and young people should be helped to learn and thrive and be given the opportunity to

This Act which is born from parent’s needs has a specific impact on childcarer's practice, but not only, as course handout 1a (2012, p2) confirms This Act is ‘for all those who are responsible for planning, running and using early childhood services’.

A significant element of a practitioner’s role in protecting themselves would be to read policies and procedures that are put in place to safeguard them and children or young people in their care. In a care setting a professional can protect themselves by:

In addition adults which working with children have an big impact on keeping children and young people safe within the setting, policies and procedures are very important an all staff that are working with children should have been informed and learned this is important because the workers must know what they have to do, what’s expected when they are working with children. Furthermore the policies in the setting will state what is expected as well as approved of the workers; they explain what the organisation does and how it should be carried out so that the child or young adult can be safe from abuse.

In a childcare setting these are the policies and procedures that I have looked at: Nappy changing policy and procedure, positive behaviour policy and procedure, supervision of children on outings and visits policy and procedure, safeguarding children and child protection policy and procedure, information sharing policy and procedure, whistle blowing policy and procedure.

A children’s protection policy is a document guiding all service provider on the ways and how they can safeguard children from being harm or exploited.

There are legal requirements that must be followed when caring for children for example health and safety as it is important to make sure that the environment is safe, this means carrying out risk assessments to ensure that there are no potential hazards, supervising children at all times and making sure that the equipment and activities are suitable for the age of the child. It is important that settings have recording mechanisms and reporting procedures for dealing with illnesses and accidents. It is essential that all childcare practitioners go through the NI access procedures before they start working with children. (Tassoni et al 2007 Appendix 6)

Legislations and procedures are put into place to protect the welfare of children, schools and childcare settings. Adults who work with children will need to understand about current legislations and familiarise themselves with them. Legislations are reviewed constantly so it is important to keep up to date with reading the relevant publications.

There are numerous external factors that occur during pregnancy that have a huge influence on the effect of fetal growth. During gestational development, a critical period is a time in which a baby’s vital organ systems are formed. This is considered to be a vital developmental stage for a fetus, and a time in which the fetus is most vulnerable to acquiring deformities caused by external factors, known as teratogens (Potter, Perry, Hall, & Stockert, 2017, p. 141). Some common examples of teratogens are alcohol, tobacco, medications, chemicals, viruses, and conditions like high blood pressure and diabetes. Other factors that may influence fetal growth include vitamin intake and mother’s age.

Some of the specific suggestions I would give the pregnant woman is to eat healthy and exercise. The woman now should take her baby into consideration; the diet the mother has a huge role in the development in the fetus. Another big thing the pregnant woman should note is illness during pregnancy effect the fetus in its future, and increase the risks for miscarriages. To insure the maximum growth and brain development pregnant woman should not do any types of drugs or consume alcohol. Pregnant woman who smoke restrict the oxygen being received by the fetus causing heart rate to elevate and lung activity do slow down; the result being low birth weight. The consumption in alcohol causes a disorder in children known as fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and fetal alcohol effects. Some of the effects of FASD and FAE could be but not limited to low intelligence, cognitive disabilities, and deformities. High levels of stress and trauma affect the fetuses, so even high levels of depression and anxiety change the structure of the babies in the

There are many things that affect the development of a fetus throughout pregnancy such as prescription and nonprescription drugs, illegal drugs, tobacco, alcohol, radiation, environmental pollution, infectious diseases, maternal nutrition, and maternal emotional stress. Before taking prescription and nonprescription drugs, a mother should consult a physician because even if she thinks a drug is safe to use it can cause development issues and be really harmful to the baby. Illegal drugs are highly- addictive and can make the baby addicted to the

America’s national debt is estimated at over fourteen trillion dollars (TreasuryDirect.com). The problem with the country’s deficit is not news unheard of. Overcoming the problem has shown its difficulties. Not much seems to alleviate the problem. “As of this year the House of Representatives proposed an estimated thirty two billion dollars in cuts to programs for children” (Sanderson). Although the country is severely in debt and cuts definitely need to be made, it is not right that the children of America have to pay for the consequences. Why make children pay for something they did not contribute to? The government needs to continue supporting and funding programs that help children, such as A Keiki’s Dream, because these programs