Safeguarding of Children and Young People

Explain all current Legislations, guidelines, policies and procedures that are in place for safeguarding children and young people. ./3.3.11 Explain the policies and procedures relevant to your organisation that are in place to protect children, young people and the staff who work with them. We currently have in place at the moment; Safeguarding Procedures and Safeguarding Benchmarking, protection of Children, Vulnerable Adults and Safeguarding Procedures, risk assessments, Missing Learners Policy, Health and Safety Policy For Lone Working, Guidelines for Learners going out unsupported, Anti Bullying Procedures and Access to college premises by people outside the college. These are all in place to ensure that the Children and young people we work with are safe. It is important that all staff follow the policies and procedures in place because we work with vulnerable young people who may not realise when they are putting themselves or others in danger. 3.3.3 Explain the ways in which national and local guidelines, policies and procedures for safeguarding affect day-to-day work with children and young people. / 3.3.6 Explain the importance of safeguarding children and young people.

Child Protection, in my work place we have policies and procedures for safeguarding that state that all employees should have valid CRB checks, to ensure that we are suitability to work with children and young people. It also states that all children or young person, whatever their age, culture, disability, gender, language, racial origin religious beliefs and/or sexual identity have the right to protection from abuse and that all suspicions and allegations of abuse and/or poor practice will be taken seriously and responded to swiftly and appropriately. All staff have a responsibility to report concerns to the child protection officer. Risk assessment are an important factor in safeguarding children and in my day to day work, before I carry out any activity with children and young people I am required through our policies and procedures to carry out a risk assessment, first toensure that everyone is safe, for example, If I was to arrange a trip to the local park I would need to risk asses each individual service user to ensure that they will not be put in any unnecessary danger. The safeguarding policies are in place to ensure the protection of the children and young people in our care.

This affects my day to day work as I must be aware of the child protection procedures at all times, such as how to spot the signs of abuse, how and who to report my concerns to, how to maintain a safe environment, be aware of the health and safety of children and young people and to be able to undertake any training required of me, for example foundations of growth. 3.3.4 Give 2 examples of serious case reviews and explain how the outcomehas influenced policies and procedures. The Case of Baby P – Peter Connelly died in August 2007 at home in north London, after months of abuse. Details of his case reveal the incompetence of social workers, doctors, lawyers and police. The 17-month-old baby had suffered more than 50 injuries, and had been visited over 60 times by the authorities in the 8 months before his death. The report said: “In this case, the practice of the majority, both individually and collectively… was incompetent. Their approach was completely inadequate and did not meet the challenge of the case”.

The report also said that his “horrifying death could and should have been prevented” and if the correct approach had been taken, the situation would have been “stopped in its tracks at the first serious incident”. It criticised Peter’s GP for not raising concerns when he found bruises on the child’s head and chest after apparently falling down stairs. It chastised police for not investigating suspicious injuries and it said the school, attended by Peter’s siblings, had not mentioned the difficulties staff had encountered with the mother. Neither did the social workers and their managers at any time “seriously think” that Peter was being harmed or was at risk of harm. The report sets out how various agencies failed to realise that Stephen Barker, the violent boyfriend of Peter’s mother Tracey Connelly, was living at the family home and might have been abusing Peter. As a result every local authority now have to have in place a multi-agency Children’s Trust Board. The boards are made up of the local authority, health, police, schools and other services they are legally required to agree and deliver a Children and Young People’s Plan. Schools and college must play a key-part in ensuring at-risk youngsters get the protection they need. (www.bbc.co.uk)

The Case of Victoria Climbié – In 2000 in London, England, an 8 year old girl Victoria Climbié was tortured and murdered by her guardians. Victoria died with 128 separate injuries on her body after months of abuse at the hands of her aunt and her boyfriend. Victoria was seen by dozens of social workers, nurses, doctors and police officers before she died but all failed to spot and stop the abuse as she was slowly tortured to death. Her death led to a public inquiry and produced major changes in child protection policies in England. As a result of this report the government published a green paper entitled “Every Child Matters” and consequently passed the Children Act 2004. The changes it put in place included scrapping child protection registers in favour of child protection plans and creating an integrated children’s computer system to ensure information was more routinely and robustly collected. (www.communitycare.co.uk)

3.3.5 Explain the following 2 processes within your work place; Data Protection & Information Handling and Sharing.
Data protection is to protect both staff and clients personal information. Only people that NEED to know your personal information can get access to them, you have the right to choose who gets to see your information and you can access your personal information whenever you want to. Everyone’s personal information is kept safe and secure and has to be kept for 10 years after they leave. 3.3.7 What is the meaning of child or young person centred approach and why is this important?

A child or young person centred approach is about working in a way that meets the needs of the individual, and responds to a variety of different conditions. A person centred approach should not be an addition to the way that we work already, but a way of doing things differently, to achieve better outcomes for the child or young person. It supports the individual to be the best that they can be, ensures that they have a voice and that young person is at the centre of the planning and is included in the decision making process were suitable. 3.3.8 What is your understanding of partnership working in relation to the safeguarding of children and young people?

The importance of partnership working to safeguard the young people in out care is that agencies and other professionals need to work together; it starts with government legislation right through to local policies and procedures. Each professional will have a different role of expertise so vulnerable children or young people will need co-ordinated help from health, education and social services, so it’s important that there is good communication within all the different services available. Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people depends on effective partnership working between agencies and professionals all people involved in the welfare of a child or young person have a duty to safeguard them. Police, health care, GP, hospital, school, college, social worker, family, friends, neighbours and the local community are all responsible for safeguarding our children and young people and it’svital we all work and communicate together. 3.3.10 Why is it important to ensure children and young people are protected from harm within the workplace? Policies and procedures form an important part of the work place.

It is vital to ensure that all staff have a clear understanding of their responsibilities in relation to the safeguarding of children and young people. It is important for children and young people to be protected from harm within school or college to help them thrive in there learning. This only can be achieved when they are healthy and safe. Educational achievement is an effective way for children and young people to develop to their full potential. 3.3.12 Explain how the whistle-blowing policy for your organisation works and how it protects ALL those involved in the process. The whistle blowing procedure according to the policy, is there for when an employee is not satisfied that a risk to their health or others have been dealt with adequately, this includes, a criminal offence, a breach of a legal obligation, danger to health and safety or any individual, damage to the environment or covering up of information deliberately. The Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 protects workers who “blow the whistle” about wrong doings. Also the HSE strongly supports measures which protect whistleblowers from any form of victimisation. 3.3.13 what steps can you take to protect yourself in every day practise and whilst out with the service user?

It important that all staff adhere to the companies polices and procedures, as they are in place for the young people, staff and visitors safety. We carry out risk assessments on any visits we intend to make, ensuring that it is appropriate for the young people that we intend to take, that is it safe and no un-necessary danger’s to the young people or staff. If there any potential dangers then they are risk assessed and a plan put in place to ensure we have done all we can to prevent the danger from becoming apparent. We carry out risk assessments on a daily basis with in the residence’s, doing fire marshal checks, ensuring that all the smoke detectors are working, fire extinguishers are in working order and no exits are blocked. 3.3.15 What is the correct procedure to follow if a child makes a disclosure to you?

Firstly is very important that you make it very clear to the child or young person that you can’t keep any secrets, and explain to them that it’s for their own safety and that they won’t get in to any trouble but that you just want them to be safe from any harm. I would then explain to them who else I will need to report this to, reassuring them that we will not be telling everyone and what could happen next. I would ask them if it was ok if I took some notes, so that I don’t miss out any important information. I would them let them tell me what they wanted to tell me, ensuring that I don’t ask any leading question’s and trying to keep my emotions out of the conversation because we don’t want the child or young people feeling guilty if they feel like that have upset you etc.

Once the conversation had ended, I would write up the conversation on a conversation sheet and fill out a “concern for Learner welfare” document and get in contact with the safeguarding officer, if they are not on duty I would talk to my Shift Leader if the concern is urgent and can’t wait until the next day, for example if a student tells you that they are being abused at home and there parent or carer is coming to pick them in an hour for the weekend, it’s important that action is taken because we release the child or young person in their parents or carers, care. 3.3.16 What rights do children, young people and their carer’s have when a child protection allegation or disclosure has been raised?

The child or young person in question always has the ultimate and overriding right to be protected by the law and by us as we have a duty of care towards them. The child’s rights and interests always come first, to ensure there protection from further harm. The young person’s career’s right will depend on whether or not they are the one being accused, if they aren’t then they have the usual rights that anyone else would have under the law being and that’s the right to be protected by the law, they would also have the right to be there to support their child or young person alongside other services such as police, social services, GP etc. If on the other hand they are the accused the child or young person’s rights will over ride their to ensure that they are protected from them.

Explain what anti-bullying policy is for your workplace and why it is used. The anti-bullying policy is in place to protect both staff and students against bullying, it’s also in place to, to deal with any bullying swiftly and appropriately, stops those effected by bulling and do so whilst working within the framework of understanding Autistic spectrum conditions. The policy explain different types of bullying, how to raise awareness for both staff and students, things we can do as a college to help stop bullying and includes a step by step guide that explains how to report and monitor any bullying. Those who have bullied others in any form may be subject to serious sanction, for example exclusion. 3.3.19 how can we help a young person and their family when bullying has been suspected or alleged?

We can talk about the bullying with the individual; how it has made them feel and what they think should happen? We can offer to be a mediate between the individuals involved, if it seems to be an ongoing problem, this would be managed by the therapy team to ensure safe, confidential and skilled resolution, to bring the bullying to an end. We can offer therapy sessions if the individual is still feeling affected by the bullying after the event. We offer assertiveness training sessions, social skills development and also emotional management sessions to help the individual move on from the event. We offer IT Support if the bulling was Cyber bullying. We encourage parents and carers to be part of the solution, to ensure that there is no hiding place for bullies and to be clear that bullying is not acceptable behaviour. 3.3.20 How can you help a child or young person to build up their self-confidence and esteem? / 3.3.21 Describe why it is important to support children and young people to build up resilience?

It’s important for a child to have good self esteem and self-confidence because this is the foundations for their future, when a child or young person has good esteem and self-confidence it empowers them to try new things, meet new people and form strong relationships with family and friends. There are many factors in assisting a child or young person to build their confidence such as, giving them praise and positive feedback for their achievements, reflectively listening with them so that they know that you are taking an interest in them and that are important, acknowledge their feelings; both positive and negative, when a they miss behave make it clear that it’s the behaviour that you don’t like not the child or young person, take an interest in their interests and hobbies, accept their fears and insecurities; helping them to confront them at appropriate times, Encourage their impendence and focus on the child or young person’s successes not failures or bad behaviour.

3.3.22 why is it important to help children and young people develop methods that enable them to protect themselves and make decisions regarding their safety? It is important to help children and young people to enable themselves to protect themselves from harm because, Children and young people have the right to make their own choices, be protected from harm, and express their feelings and wishes and to be respected and valued as an individual. Children and young people are venerable to abuse and bullying as they are often unaware to the potential dangers and most children and young people are often naturally trusting of adults and it’s unfortunate to say that not all adults can be trusted. 3.3.23 Give 3 examples of when you have supported a child to make informed decisions about their safety and well-being. * I was working with a young person “X” that use to insist on wearing their headphones when walking to the bus for college, even though staff had asked them not to because it was dangerous.

It had been reported to me that “X” had almost been knocked over by a car because “X” didn’t hear the car coming, I explained to “X” about the dangers of this and what could have happened, “X” came to the conclusion that maybe it would be a good idea just to have the one headphone in so that they can listen to their music and be safe at the same time. * I was working with young person “P” who had told me that whilst on their social network some men had added them and that they had accepted them and been talking to them. “P” told me that they had asked for their phone number and address, after confirming with “P” that they hadn’t done this, I explained to “P” the dangers of this and the potential hazards of who these people could really be. “P” then asked for my help to contacts the admin team to delete them and block them so they can’t content them again. * I was working with young person “Z” that thought it was a good idea to go “planking” (which is when they lie flat in random places for example behind vehicles). “Z” had almost been run over on several occasions because they thought it was funny to do this in car parks. We did some research and found some stories of people that had been hurt “planking” and sat down with “Z” and explained the dangers and the potential consequences.

We then came to an agreement with “Z” that he can “plank” but only indoors were it was safe or in the back garden. Once “Z” had seen some of the articles and understood that we weren’t just nagging he agreed to stop “planking” all together. 3.3.24 List the risks and possible consequences of children and young people using the internet and mobile phone? Everybody who works with children and young people needs to be aware of the increasing risks to children and young people from being online and from the use of mobile phones. Internet and mobile safety is becoming a bigger issue as technology increases and advances. All settings working with Children and young people now have policies to protect them, staff and parents. At my Farleigh all our young people are required to sign an IT code of conduct agreement to show they are aware of the rules and accept them. Here is a list of some of the risks of using the internet and mobile phones: -Cyber bullying, Bullying via websites, mobile phones etc.

-Exposure to age inappropriate material,
-Exposure to inaccurate or misleading information.
-Exposure to socially unacceptable material that might incite violence, hate or intolerance.
-Exposure to illegal material.
-Exposure of minors to inappropriate commercial advertising.
-Online gambling.
-Financial scams.
-Personal information getting in the wrong hands, for example, name, date of birth, address, bank details etc.
-Grooming using the internet and/or mobile phones.

Give examples of how to reduce the risk to children and young people for each of the below: Social Networking| • Talk to the children/young people about never talking to strangers or arranging to meet them etc.• Use parental control.• Restrict access to social networking sites. Most social networking sites have age limits so make sure they adhere to them.• Monitor which social network sites that they visit.• Take an interest on what the child or young person is doing on the social networking website, e.g. Conversations, photo’s ect.| Internet Use| • Filter out inappropriate sites and images.• Monitor children’s and young people’s online activity.• Limit the amount of time the child/young person spends online. • Talk to children/young people about not trusting others, not to meet people in person, do not give out personal information (names, numbers, address, e-mail, photos or bank details), log out if uncomfortable about anything.• Inform the children/young people of the risks of the internet.

• Encourage children/young people to talk to you about things that might be happening on-line. | Buying Online| • There is a risk of others hacking into your computer to get your identity this can be minimised by a firewall. A firewall can help by preventing hackers or malicious software from gaining access to your information• There is a risk to young people of fraud whilst buying online. This can be prevented by using a secure payment system, such as PayPal. | Mobile Phone| * A risk of them being attacked if they have expensive phones for example, smart phones. Buy a cheap pay as you go phone for them to use at school or clubs this will minimise the risk and still allow the child/young person to have access to a phone. * Ensuring that they don’t give the mobile number out to people they don’t know. * Encourage the child or young person to talk to you about any concerns they may have with regards to their phone or any messages they may have received.|

3.3.9 What organisations may be involved in child protection case and what are their roles and responsibilities. Organisations| Roles and Responsibilities.
Local Authorities | The welfare and protection of vulnerable adults is the corporate responsibility of each and every local authority working in partnership with other public agencies, the voluntary sector and service users and contracted services.| Social Services.| Social workers help people and their families adjust to problems in their lives such as serious illness, child abuse, substance abuse, mental illness, handicaps, juvenile delinquency, and anti-social behaviour. Often they must help people accept situations that cannot be changed. Frequently they work with the underclass, including the homeless, unemployed, and mentally ill. Most social workers work for the government in offices, hospitals, clinics, prisons, or the courts. Some also work in nursing homes, group homes, schools, or businesses. Their duties often include: * Interviewing and counselling individuals, families, and groups. * Assessing needs and developing response plans. * Referring clients to professional or community services.

* Coordinating responses between civic, religious, governmental, and other organizations.| NSPCC| • Provides support for children and families in situations such as domestic violence, abuse.• Work with different organisations e.g. social services, police, family protection, education and health services.• Provide support via telephone line to home-based childcare workers on whether to refer a situation to social services.| A Health Visitor| • A health visitor have crucial skills in protecting children from harm and abuse, they are one of the first to recognise children who are likely to be abused or neglected. A health visitor plays a big part in all stages of a child protection process including case reviews.• Support the health of babies and children under the age of five.• They have contact with many multi agencies and they support the work of the LocalSafeguarding Children’s Board (LSCB).• They are trained to a high level to recognise any risks that the child might be in.• The health visitor will visit parents’ home so they will gather information such as signs and symptoms this will enable a health visitor to start the process of the signs and concerns of abuse or neglect.

The health visitor will need to have access to on-going contact with the family if abuse or neglect is suspected.• Health visitors should use their own judgement on when to share information with other agencies.• They support and guide parents of young children.• Provide developmental checks on under-fives.| General Practitioners (GP’s)| • The role of a GP is to maintain their skills in recognising if a child is being abused or neglected.• They need to follow all correct procedures if abuse or neglect is suspected.• All GP’s Should have regular training and update their training when necessary.| School nurses| • School nurses have regular contact with children from the ages of 5-19.• They are lead professionals for CAF (Common Assessment Framework).• School nurses provide a role in delivering the Healthy Child Programme. They access children and implement their needs such as individual or group needs.• School nurses work with parents or carers in the care and treatment of vulnerable children. They can provide support to the families to help them achieve better parental skills.| School| • The role of the staff is to create and maintain a safe learning environment.

• To identify any concerns and to act upon this information.• Staff to attend child protection and first aid courses. In cases of special schools staff should have appropriate training on medical issues on safeguarding all children.• To protect children from harm and abuse. (including bullying/cyber bulling)• To help meet the health needs of children with medical conditions and provide accurate information on the child’s educational needs.• The school designate a person that have had specific training to deal with child protection issues• They will be in contact with multi agencies to support the child and attend case conferences.• Under the children’s Act 1989 the school have a key role to play referring children and providing information to the police for future criminal proceedings that might take place under child protection issues.• The school should manage risks appropriately such as internet etc.• Provide policies and procedures to protect children etc child protection, physical contact, safeguarding, risk assessments, outings, injuries, illnesses and emergencies.All policies And Procedures should be followed at all times.| Police|

• The main role of the Police is to prevent crime and disorder and protect all individuals.• The police have legislation to adhere to to protect the children. Children have the right to be fully protected (Children’s Act 2004 to safeguard and promote the welfare of children).• All investigations can be sensitive so the police investigate and work with other organisations such as children’s social care to gather information needed.• The police investigate child abuse cases (they have specialist training for this, Child Abuse Investigation Units (CAIUs)• They can access information through IMPACT Nominal Index (INI) which enables them to get accurate information very quickly. (including child protection, domestic violence, crime,• The Police need to gather information and work with other agencies in case of criminal proceedings against suspected child abusers. All information will be passed on to the CPS(Criminal Prosecution Services).• The Police also have powers to enter premises to ensure that children are immediately protected against significant harm.