Hi, I have just completed this assignment, so I thought I would message you and offer some help, This is what I have written for my assignment and it has been signed off, so enjoy! I would appreciate it if you didn't just copy and paste though!! :)
Section 1: The main current legislation, guidelines, policies & procedures within your own UK Home Nation (England, Wales etc) for safeguarding children and young people.
In England and Wales, policies and procedures for Safeguarding and Child Protection are the result of the Children Act 1989. The Children Act 2004 also introduced further changes to the structure and organisation of the way Child Protection is, after the serious case review which involved Victoria Climbič.
Children Act 1989
The aim of this act is to simplify the laws that are already in place, which protect children and young people in the UK. It was seen as a “serious shake up” of children’s rights and protection, and also made it clear what the duties are for all who work with children and young people and how they should work as a team in the event of a child abuse allegation.
Children Act 2004
After the tragic death of Victoria Climbič in 2000, it was realised that the services that were set out to identify, protect and safeguard vulnerable children were still not working. In 2003, the Laming Report criticised the approach to protecting children in our society. This resulted in a green paper, known as Every Child Matters, which then led to the Children Act 2004 in England, and other similar bills in all four UK countries.
There are four main features of the Children Act 2004, they are:-
Lead counsellors for children’s services with political responsibility for local child welfare.
A new Common Assessment Framework to help agencies to identify welfare needs.
Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) works to safeguard children in the United Kingdom. This is because when children are safe and secure, healthy, when their individual needs are being met and when they have positive relationships with the adults that are caring for them, they will learn best. The EYFS welfare and safeguarding requirements are intended to ensure that care providers of children and young people are being cared for in safe, stimulating and a welcoming environment, where they can build their confidence and enjoy learning in the setting. According to the EYFS statutory framework: “The safeguarding and welfare requirements are given legal force by Regulations made under Section 39(1)(b) of the Childcare Act 2006”, this means that every registered care setting for children and young people must use it by law. The EYFS statutory framework also states that safeguarding policies and procedures should include an explanation of what action should be taken in the event of allegations being made against staff members, which should also cover the use of cameras and mobile phones in the setting.
Revised arrangements of information sharing
Integration of children’s services and the introduction of children’s directors who take responsibility for local authority education and children’s social services.
The establishment of Local Safeguarding Children’s Boards (LSCBs) who have statutory powers to ensure that social services, the NHS, education services, the police and other services work in partnership to protect vulnerable children.
Working Together to Safeguard Children 2006
The revised version of this document provides updates on safeguarding and also a national framework to help agencies work individually (as well as together) to promote and safeguard the welfare of children. It also reflects the changes to safeguarding practices in recent times, especially in the light of the Laming and Bichard Inquiries.
The Vetting and Barring Scheme
This scheme was introduced in October 2009 and its aim was to prevent unsuitable people from working with children and vulnerable adults. From July 2010 and phased in over a five year span, anyone who is working with children or vulnerable adults will need to register with the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA). The ISA will use a range of information from different sources, such as Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) to prevent any unsuitable adults from working with children and vulnerable adults. The CRB processes applications for ISA registration, and will continuously monitor individuals against any new information, while they will continue to provide employers with the access to an individual’s criminal record, as well as any other information that may be needed to help them to make informed recruitment decisions.
In early years settings and schools, each setting will have their own set of policies and procedures in regards to safeguarding children in their care. These must cover the children’s safety, security and well-being. These policies will set out a number of responsibilities for staff to follow, and may be separate or incorporated into one Health and Safety policy, depending on the setting/company.
These policies must include the following issues:-
● Safeguarding and protection, and procedures for reporting
● E-Safety
● Bullying (including cyber bullying)
All practitioners within the setting will have a responsibility to safeguard the welfare of all children in their care. There should also be a named member of staff who holds specific responsibility for safeguarding children and also for E-Safety.
Section 2: An explanation of child protection within the wider concept of safeguarding children and young people.
Child protection is part of the wider work to help to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people, in regards to the activity that is used to protect children who are being abused or neglected. It involved protecting children from being mistreated and prevent impairment of a child’s development and health to ensure that they are raised in a positive way, in safe and caring environments. Parents and carers who fail to protect or care for their child/children could be taken to court, and could also have the child removed from the home and put in care of foster parents. This is a rare occurrence however, as it all depends on the seriousness of the case, only when the risk of harm in continuous would services be prompted to remove a child, as they will mostly work with the family to protect children.
Wider forms of safeguarding children include the following:-
Risk Assessments (providing safe environments inside and outside the setting)
Procedures and Legislation (health and safety, fire drills, registers, etc)
Keeping training up-to-date in safeguarding issues
Assessment of observations to help to identify any additional support that is needed
The Statutory Guidance for the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) shows that child protection is part of the welfare and safeguarding requirements. It is supported by the positive outcomes of Every Child Matters and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) that places a duty of care onto childcare practitioners and their managers to safeguard children and young people and promote their welfare.
This is clear in raising a CAF on a child due to observations in a setting, then working in partnership with a multi-agency team which will acknowledge whether or not a child and families’ health and wellbeing are being affected, and if so they may not be emotionally or physically healthy enough to learn.
Section 3: A clear analysis of how national and local guidelines, policies and procedures for safeguarding affect the day to day work, both with children and young people and within the new worker's role.
There are many different guidelines, policies and procedures for safeguarding children and young people that will affect the daily work of practitioners working with them. These relate to:-
• Childcare Practice – Any setting that provides care for children and young people must have policies and procedures which cover every part of safeguarding.
These should include policies and procedures for the following:-
Child protection
Health and Safety
Outings
Visitors to the setting
Contact with children and performing personal care
• Child Protection – In my setting, we have policies and procedures for safeguarding, which say that employees, students and volunteers should be thoroughly checked for suitability, eligibility and CRB checked before they are allowed to begin working with us. Child Protection is also part of the safeguarding and welfare requirements of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Statutory Guidance.
• Risk Assessment – Risk assessments are a vital part of safeguarding children. In my setting, before we are able to allow the children into nursery, we must ensure that both the room and the garden have been risk assessed. Garden checks are also carried out any time before we take the children into the garden to play, to make sure that the area is healthy and safe for them to play in.
• Supporting children and young people and others who may be expressing concerns – If a child, parent, or other practitioner were to express a concern in my setting, I would firstly show them that I was taking them seriously, tell them that I am there to listen to anything they have to say, and have empathy. If it were a child that had a concern, I would tell them I will help them as best I can, but should never make promises about keeping it to myself. I would also make sure not to jump to conclusions, or ask questions, and I would seek advice and support from my manager, as well as the designated Child Protection Officer.
Section 4: An explanation of when and why the inquiries and serious case review processes are required, issues of how to share findings and implications for the worker's practice.
A Serious Case Review (SCR) should be considered when a child sustains a potentially life-threatening injury or serious permanent physical and/or mental health impairment and development because of abuse and/or neglect, the child has been seriously harmed because of sexual abuse, the child has been seriously harmed following a violent assault by another child or an adult, and also if a parent has been murdered and a ‘domestic homicide review is being made under the Domestic Violence Act 2004.
Since April 2007, local authorities are authorities are required to notify Ofsted about any incidents which involve children that are serious enough that they may lead to a SCR. This includes when a child has died or suffered harm as a result of abuse or neglect, or that have attracted national media attention.
SCRs are not investigations into how a child has died or who is responsible; these are of coroners and criminal courts to deal with. The purpose of a SCR is to clearly identify what those lessons are, both within and between agencies, improve intra- and inter- agency working and to better promote and safeguard the welfare of children, and to establish whether there are lessons to be learnt from the case about the way local professionals and organisations work together to help promote and safeguard the welfare of children.
When we use the most updated information and guidance, it will ensure that childcare settings are able to meet the requirements of the Safeguarding and Welfare of the EYFS framework. This enables them to create a high quality setting that are welcoming, safe and stimulating, where children can enjoy learning and gain confidence. It also allows early years settings to take necessary steps to keep the children safe and healthy at all times.
Section 5: An explanation of the processes used by own work setting or service that must comply with legislation that covers data protection, information handling and sharing.
In early years settings, practitioners are made aware of our confidentiality policy that complies with the Data Protection Act 1998. The policy will ensure that we are all working in the setting with confidence. In my setting, we respect the laws of confidentiality in many ways, such as:-
• Information about children will be kept filed away, and only shared with parents of each specific child or other practitioners if they have a professional need to do so
• Parents cannot have access to any other child’s records, personal information, Learning Story, etc
All personal information about the children, including any social services records is kept safely filed as they too are classed as confidential and is only accessible to staff as they are locked in a filing cabinet in the office. Practitioners are not permitted to discuss an individual child with any other than that child’s parent or carer, and information that is given to practitioners by parents should not be passed onto third parties other than other staff who look after the children (if they need to know). This is stated under the Safeguarding and welfare requirements of the EYFS Statutory Guidance.
If there is a child protection matter concerning a parent, the Data Protection Act will allow an allegation without consent, so they can apprehend or prosecute the offender, in order to prevent or detect a crime.
The Early Years Foundation Stage Statutory Framework states that “The Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) gives parents and carers the right to access information about their child that a provider holds. However, the DPA also sets out specific exemptions under which certain personal information may, under specific circumstances, be withheld from release. For example, a relevant professional will need to give careful consideration as to whether the disclosure of certain information about a child could cause harm either to the child or any other individual. It is therefore essential that all providers/staff in early years settings have an understanding of how data protection laws operate. Further guidance can be found on the website of the Information Commissioner’s Office at:
http://www.ico.gov.uk/for_organisati...on.aspx”.
Obviously if you live in Wales, Scotland or Ireland you will have to change the eyfs bits, hope it helps tho!
