Development protection and welfare of children

Understand legislation relating to the safeguarding, protection and welfare of children. Explain child protection in relation to safeguarding. Child protection is part of the safeguarding process which means to protect the children from harm and promote their welfare. Its focus is to save children who are likely to suffer harm or abuse. This includes child protection procedures which tells us in detail how to respond to concerns about a child.

Safeguarding is the action that is required to be taken to promote the welfare of children by providing safe and secure environment,  to protect them  from all kinds of emotional, sexual, physical abuse and neglect and it also means to ensure that the environment is welcoming, healthy, loving, caring and stimulating and meets all the developmental needs of each child in the setting without any discrimination.

It is also promoting whistleblowing so that if the staff suspect anything inappropriate they are capable of raising  their concerns and stopping it.

CRITERIA: 1. 1 Summarise current legislation and guidelines for the safeguarding, protection and welfare of the children. Childcare Act 2006: This law tells the authorities that for all the pre-school children they are required to improve five Every Child Matters outcomes . It shows us that without any discrimination every child has a right to enjoy a healthy life in safe and secure environment.

It also tells us how can we play our role towards development of children so they can have the best possible outcomes to become a  successful person. It gives relief to the  parents when they go to work  to leave their child in a  secure  environment to be cared for. It also provides free education and care opportunity to pre-schoolers depending on the desire of their parents. If the parents need any kind of parental information  this law ensures that they can access it. Statutory framework for the early years foundation stage

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) provides guidelines to  practitioners on how to care for all the children in the setting and how to provide a safe, loving,caring and stimulating environment to improve the quality of children’s learning and development from birth to five years. It covers the welfare and development of children. For the welfare of children different security checks are required like ensuring that every member of staff has got their DBS, they are proper qualified and have been  trained for their designated role  and they are eligible enough to take a great care of children by providing a safe and secure  environment.

It  ensures that the equipment used are appropriate for the age and developmental stage of each child like appropriate toys and scissors. It also emphasises to make policies and procedures and follow them. Children Act 2004: The Children Act 2004 provides information and the guidelines for the  social services like education departments, health services,police etc and other agencies including BSCB,Right Service Right Time on what actions are they required to take by law on issues related to children for their protection and wellbeing.

It also tells different authorities that they have a duty towards children to promote their safeguarding and welfare by working together to ensure the provision of such environment where children feel happy, safe and secure and enjoy a good healthy life which will contribute towards their success later on in life because healthy and active children learn better. It also tells us to raise our concerns if we suspect any inappropriate behaviour with the child. Data Protection Act 1998

This Act shows that we should always deal with the personal data in accordance to its legal requirement, its sets the boundaries for the use of personal data. We should only be accessible to personal data if we are legally required and authorized to have it for a particular reason. We should handle the data with great care and keep it secure and use it only for the purpose it was obtained. Personal data should always be enough and related to the purpose and should not be obtained more than it is required.

It is our duty to make sure that we do not keep the data when we do not need it and it should always be correct and updated. Personal data should always be used according to the guidelines of this Act.

CRITERIA:1. 2 Identify policies and procedures relating to the safeguarding, protection and welfare of children. Safeguarding or child protection policy All organisations that work or come into contact with children need to have safeguarding policies and procedures in place. A child protection policy provides guidelines for organisations and their staff to create safe environments for children.

It is a tool that protects both children and staff by clearly defining what action is required in order to keep children safe. The aim is to provide an environment in which children and young people will feel safe, secure and cared for, the purpose of this policy is to provide the staff and parents with guidelines and support on the subject of child abuse and how they can act to assist in the protection of children and young people in the setting. For example: If a child is at risk of harm or abuse what actions do we need to take or how can we provide a safe and secure environment to children.

Procedure: Organisations need to establish, implement and follow good safeguarding policies and procedures. Every single person in the setting should be clear of their roles and responsibilities. All staff have an equal responsibility to act on any suspicion or disclosure that may suggest a child is at risk of harm or abuse. If a child discloses an abuse we need to stay calm, we should constantly reassure the child and tell him that he is not to be blamed and appreciate the child for being so brave to disclose.

We should record the facts and discussion in the child’s own words and support immediately by telling our line manager or DSP and  give a copy of the disclosure to our manager. We should   maintain confidentiality and keep the records and make sure we talk to the right people. We need to ensure that actions have been taken on our concerns. Missing Child Policy: The purpose of this policy is to ensure that if a child does not arrive at nursery or goes missing during the course of a session, appropriate action is taken to locate the child and the relevant people are notified.

For example: A child cannot be found in the nursery. Procedure: On discovering that a child has gone missing, we need to immediately inform DSP and make a search of the surrounding area, we need to alert other members of the staff of the situation. So that they can help to look for the missing child. We should carefully check all the places the classrooms, washrooms, cupboards and outside in the playground where there is a possibility of the child to hide. All the other children should be reassured because situations like this become upsetting for them.

If the search is unsuccessful, the DSP should ring the police, and keep searching the area. We also need to inform the parents of the situation what has happened, and try to calm them down and describe the actions that have been taken to search for the child. After the event we have to record the incident in the incident log book and keep the records safe and review what were the reasons for this incident to happen so that actions could be taken to avoid such incidents in future. Confidentiality Policy:

Nurseries are committed to keep information about children, parents, and carers as confidential as possible. For example: Whatever information nurseries have about the parents and children should be kept secure and treated with respect and confidence. Procedure:All children have a right to the same level of confidentiality, nurseries must keep sensitive information confidential. Whatever information nurseries have about the children and parents, they should treat it with respect and confidence.

Confidential information and records about children should be kept in a secure place and should only be accessible and available to those who have a right or professional need to see them. Nurseries should keep confidential information, such as contacts, parent’s personal information, child records files etc, locked in a safe place. Nurseries should ensure that only authorized people have access to digital devises like computers or laptops and they must use safe passwords or pin numbers for the protection.

All the private information about children should only be shared with authorized people on need to know basis. All the information that parents share to the nursery staff should be treated with confidentiality and not shared to the people who do not need to know it. When nursery staff is concerned about the safety or welfare of the children they can disclose confidential information to the appropriate services like BSCB or LADO to protect the child. It is the responsibility of the staff to share the information on need to know basis and provide a safe and secure environment to children.