Children Act Care

1.1 Policies and procedures for safeguarding the welfare of children and young people are –

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 – which ensure that children are safe and looked after, children have the right to be protected from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect, negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation including sexual abuse by those looking after them.

Children Act 1989 – Parents and professionals must work to ensure the safety of the child. Local Authority has ‘a duty to investigate when there is a reasonable cause to suspect that a child suspect that a child is suffering or likely to suffer significant harm.

The Education Act 2002 – This sets out the responsibilities of Local Education Authorities (LEAs), Governing bodies, head teachers and all those working in schools to ensure that children are safe and free from harm.

Children Act 2004 – This provides the legal framework for Every Child Matters. It includes the requirement for: Services to work more closely, forming an integrated service.

Working Together to Safeguard Children 2006 – This sets out the duties of organisations and how they must work together to safeguard children and young people.

1.2 Child protection is part of the wider work to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people. It refers to the activity that is undertaken to protect specific children who are suffering from any form of abuse or neglect. It also involves protecting children and young people from maltreatment and preventing impairment of a child’s health and development by ensuring children are raised in positive circumstances by providing safe and caring environments. Parents or carers who fail to protect or care for their children could then be taken to court and the child be then removed from the home and placed into care. Wider forms of safeguarding also include; risk assessments such as providing a safe environment inside and outside a school setting. Adhering to school policies, procedures and legislation i.e. health and safety, fire drills and missing children. Keeping up to date with training in safeguarding issues. Encouraging learning and development of children and young people. Assessing observations to identify additional support needs a child or young person will need (ECAF) which is a common assessment framework, this system enables multi agencies to access and add information about children.

1.3 As well as every school having a safeguarding policy of their own, every Borough should also have their own policies and procedures for safeguarding children. I am aware that St. Helens has its own safeguarding board and an appointed LADO (Local Authority Designated officer) In St Helens the Safeguarding and Review Managers will manage the work of the LADO with overall responsibility being vested in the Safeguarding Children Manager. The Unit managers will:

• Be involved in the management and oversight of individual cases
• Provide advice and guidance to employers and voluntary organisations • Liaise with the police and other agencies
• Monitor the progress of cases to ensure that they are dealt with as quickly as Possible consistent with a thorough and fair process.
The SHSCB is responsible for ensuring that all agencies and departments that work with children and young people in the Borough , work in unity to support the welfare and safety of children in that area.. To ensure that work is carried out in an effective manner they coordinate the work of local agencies to provide a more optimistic outcome in regards to children’s safeguarding.st Helens works in line with the Every Child Matters programme which states that each child has a right to; Be healthy

Stay safe
Enjoy and achieve
Make a positive contribution
Achieve economic well being
The shscb also works hand in hand with local agencies to produce policies and procedures for safeguarding and promoting the welfare and safety of children in St. Helens region. Raise awareness of safeguarding issues in the community by conducting training for a designated safeguarding officer in all local schools. Monitor the success of the work that is done by the local agencies to guarantee that all practitioners and managers within a specific borough have a clear understanding of safeguarding procedures, policies and requirements. To identify multi agency success where there are concerns with regards to safeguarding issues. To assist with the recognition of training needs and requirements across the children’s workforce. In order to protect and keep children and young people safe from harm and abuse, each area in St. Helens has its own safeguarding management team which is responsible for promoting good practice and developing links in all areas regarding the safety and wellbeing of children and young people. I am also aware of my own school safeguarding policy that was developed in agreement with the values that were established by the Children Act 1989 and 2004.

These are the policies and procedures we need to follow whilst working with children within our school setting; within childcare practice we must be aware that we have a clear and defined role in relation to child protection. Professionals working with children/young people i.e. teaching assistants, volunteers, outside agencies are CRB checked (criminal records bureau). Adults working with children should also be fully trained in safeguarding children by a nominated safeguarding adviser and have the opportunity to receive training in order to develop their understanding of the signs and indicators of abuse or neglect, this training is offered every 3 years. In order for child protection to work effectively we must ensure we have good inter relationships with other agencies and good cooperation from professionals that are competent in responding to child protection situations.

A procedure for recording concerns and incidents if a child discloses information that concerns his/her welfare; we must make a record of exactly what the child has said in their words and report it to a safeguarding officer, ensuring that these records are kept confidentially and separated from pupils records. Guidance on confidentiality and sharing; the head teacher or safeguarding officer will only disclose personal information concerning a child to other members of staff on a need to know basis, however all staff must be aware that they have a responsibility to share information with other agencies. If a child or young person does disclose information to a member of staff and ask that that information remains ‘a secret’, it is vital that the member of staff tells the child/young person sensitively that they have a duty to transfer information to the appropriate agencies in order for other children to be safeguarded.

Children and young people attend school expecting to be nurtured and taught by people who are both paid and unpaid, these adults will provide children and young adults with opportunities to learn and gain knowledge of a range of subjects. All adults have a special responsibility to the children we work with; a code of conduct provides us with a clear guideline on the types of practice that will meet these responsibilities. Good conduct not only prevents incidents and allegations that we find ourselves being an element of, but will also help to highlight any conduct (by other people) that is unsafe and unprofessional.

Reference http://sthelenslscb.org.uk

1.4 A serious case review will always be undertaken when a child dies, and when abuse or neglect is the suspected cause of a child’s death. The local safeguarding children board (LSCB) will also consider whether a serious case review should be conducted where a child has been seriously injured through abuse or neglect or been subjected to a serious sexual assault. and they are done to see what areas can be improved, wether further training may be required and to see if anything could have been done to prevent the outcome. An investigation may find one or several professionals may have been alerted or involved in the case and not acted appropriately or efficiently, this needs to be dealt with. Also the findings may call for a change in policies, procedures and even the law. The findings will then be shared with other professionals involved in the case and may even be issued to local safeguarding boards to be used as training aid to help schools/practices learn and spot signs that may normally go unnoticed due to lack of understanding.