Under The Child Care Act 1991: A Case Study

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-

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.

1.1 Legislation is a set of laws that have been created by the government to make sure all childcare settings are run correctly. To promote positive behaviour, legislation’s such as the Children Act 1989, Human Rights Act 1998, Every Child Matters 2004, Equality Act 2010 and the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 are followed by the setting. These Act’s include rules and regulations that a setting is required to follow in order to promote positive behaviour.

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.

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

The ‘Children’s Act 2004’ was continuously updated and developed into the ‘Children’s Act 2006’. This act states that all settings have to follow the Early Years Framework Stages (which were renewed in 2012). The Early Years Framework Stages (EYFS) is aimed to fulfil the five aims of ‘every child matters’ and the previous children’s act of 2004. The intentions are to achieve these aims by setting standards, promote equal opportunities and through a framework of partnerships, improve quality and consistency and lay secure foundation for all learning and development, present and future. By improving the quality the service and experiences are improved for all children and families. Safeguarding children is a vital part of improving all childcare services/settings.

This is a report which has been created to introduce new childcare practitioners to safeguarding within a childcare setting. This will help new practitioners to understand current legislations within the United Kingdom.

The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) was first established under the police act in 1997 and was launched in March 2002 due to public concern about children, young people and vulnerable adults. This was then merged in 2012 with the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) to form the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). The Disclosure and Barring Service is a check which must be taken before any practitioner is employed to work with children, young people or vulnerable adults. It ensures that the practitioner is clear of any criminal offences such as abuse.

This Act, which regulates the childcare in England, formalise the important strategic role of local authorities play through a set of duties. These duties require

Risk assessments should be carried out regularly to make sure that there are no safe guard threats towards the children in the setting. Childcare settings need risk assessing for example is there entrances and exits to the building that an unauthorised person could use? Could a child leave the setting without anyone noticing? Could a child get seriously hurt due to a broken piece of equipment?

All people working with children are governed by legislation that is in place to protect your children and the child care provider. In this document I have listed four important legislations that are of particular importance to home based child care providers and noted how I aim to incorporate them into my practice. Child care practitioners also have a regulatory body; in England it is Ofsted. This document gives you a brief description of their supervisory role in child care settings. However, the list of legislation is not comprehensive and nor is the short description of Ofsted’s Role, if you would like more information or would like to discuss

An Act to reform the law relating to children; to provide for local authority services for children in need and others; to amend the law with respect to children’s homes, community homes, voluntary homes and voluntary organisations; to make provision with respect to fostering, child minding and day care for young children and adoption; and for connected purposes.”

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

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.