The Importance Of Sharing Information On Children

It emphasises the important principles to be followed when working with children and young people: settings must provide a safe and secure environment, if any children are identified as suffering from abuse or likely to suffer the appropriate action must be taken.

This is vital for early identification and intervention and a core element to safeguarding and protecting children who are vulnerable, at risk including those who have a disability or additional support needs in line with the Equality Act (2010)

Practitioners have a legal duty of confidence with regards to person information that they hold about children young people and their families. Any information you receive about young people and their families. In my work setting information should only be shared with professionals, all information child protection records should be kept securely. These are kept behind the manager’s desk on a tall shelf so that children can’t access them. Personal information should only be disclosed to third parties such as social services after obtaining the consent to who the information relates to in some child protection matters but it may not be possible to obtain consent. The data protection act 1998 allow allegation without consent in some circumstances for example to detect and prevent crime, to apprehend prosecute and offender.

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.

Safeguarding is everybody’s responsibility, and includes measures to prevent or minimise the potential for abuse occurring. Protection is considered a statutory responsibility in response to individual cases where risk of harm has been identified

Child protection however, is just one aspect of safeguarding and focusses on how children are protected from abuse and neglect.

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 is for everyone and every organisation responsibility to protect children from any harm and promote their welfare (Children Act, 2004). However, the Department of Children, School

Children and their families have the right to privacy of their home lives. Information on the child and family needs to keep confidential and only shared if permission is given from the parents/carer. Conflict will occur when safeguarding the child from abuse from a family member. This information will then needed to be shared with other agencies this may need to be done without the parents consent in the interest of the child’s welfare. This information will still need to be done on a need to know bases and no gossiping.

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.’

Children love to play and explore. For example while in a park a child will want to climb a ladder to go on a slide. Natural reaction may be to hold or even pick up a child and put them up. Children learn best when trying and experiencing things themselves. There is a risk of a child slipping and falling of the steps but a child also has a right to experience facilities to aid their development. Children need to learn how to predict and avoid dangerous situations.Another potential dilemma may be confidentiality. I must ensure that all personal information is kept confidential and is not shared with anyone else unless permission form is signed. But if there is a case of concern that a child’s welfare may be at risk social services have to be informed.There is also a possibility of conflict with parent’s wishes due to their culture and religion.

Effective information sharing by professionals is central to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. This sharing of information makes an important contribution to the shift to addressing children’s needs at an early stage rather than when serious problems have developed. In order to safeguard and promote children’s welfare, arrangements should ensure that:

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.

1. Confidentiality must be kept at all times. You must have the senior practitioner’s and/or the parents’ permission before making formal observations of children. Do not to leave confidential material lying around they must be secured in a locked cabinet. Line of reporting-only talk to authorized personal about confidential material. This confidentially can only be broken when a child is at real risk.

If a child/pupil discloses information to an adult in school that is of a serious nature, then the child should be made aware that the information given will need to be shared to protect them. If the school believes a child/pupil is at risk of serious harm then the confidential information will need to be shared with external professionals, such as police, social services, and other