Safeguarding involves everything a setting does, including their procedures and policies etc, to ensure children are kept safe and healthy, and that the risk of them coming to harm or being involved in an accident, is minimised. Child protection however, is just one aspect of safeguarding and focusses on how children are protected from abuse and neglect. Safeguarding is defined in ‘Working together to safeguard children 2013’ as: • Protecting children from maltreatment • Preventing impairment of children’s health and development • Ensuring that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care and • Taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes. The main policies involved in safeguarding …show more content…
It is everybody’s responsibility to safeguard children – This means every single staff member within a setting; irrelevant of what role they may have there. This also includes non-staff members, such as volunteers, student’s third-party companies (visitors, service providers etc). Each setting should therefore adopt their own safeguarding policy, of which has to be kept up to date and followed at all times. If any professional becomes concerned that a child might be at risk of abuse, be it physical, sexual, emotional or neglect, it is their legal duty to pass on such concerns to the appropriate professionals who can assess if and what action should be taken. In cases where it will not put the child at greater risk or danger, the parents / carers of the child will be informed that such action has been taken. Settings also have a legal duty to contact Ofsted if an allegation of abuse is made against any of the staff members; regardless of their position, hours worked or whether they are in paid or unpaid roles. The main policies / procedures which specifically cover the topic of child protection include: Sex Offenders Act
Safeguarding means protecting and promoting the child’s welfare and putting measure in place to prevent abuse. Child protection is protecting a child where there is reason to believe that the child has suffered or are likely to suffer as a result of abuse.
Safeguarding is everybody’s responsibility, and includes measures to prevent or minimise the potential for abuse occurring. Protection is considered a statutory responsibility in response to individual cases where risk of harm has been identified
Safeguarding Policy Policy Statement HIT Training Ltd is strongly committed to practices that protect children, young people and vulnerable adults from abuse, neglect or significant harm. Staffs recognise and accept their responsibility to develop the awareness of the risks and issues involved in safeguarding. The company also recognises that it has a responsibility to protect staff from unfounded allegations of abuse. The company is committed to working with existing local safeguarding or adult safeguarding Boards and other health and social care partnerships to ensure the safeguarding of its learners. The company will ensure it has one nominated person the Operations Director
Explain what is meant by child protection in the wider concept of safeguarding children and young people. 1.2
To be able to understand what ‘safeguarding’ means you must first understand what ‘child protection’ is.
The responsibility of every practitioner is to safeguard the children under his/her care. Within the definition of safeguarding is also child protection. Protecting the child is very serious responsibility and it means that we must ensure that the child is not a victim of abuse. We can distinguish different kinds of abuse: physical, emotional, sexual abuse or neglect. To notice abused child the practitioner must know possible signs and symptoms visible to eyes or particular patterns of behavior that can be results of abuse.
The DfES (2005) have emphasised in their current legislation that ‘safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the child’ which by definition is the process of protecting children from abuse or neglect, preventing impairment of their health and development.’ (DfES 2005a, p11). Working together to safeguard children (HM Government 2005a p 19) state child protection as “the activity which is undertaken to protect specific children who are suffering or at risk of suffering significant harm’’.The DfES (2005) have emphasised in their current legislation that ‘safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the child’ which by definition is the process of protecting children from abuse or neglect, preventing impairment of their health and development.’
The safeguarding and welfare requirement contains cases of adults’ behaviour which covers the cyphers of abuse and neglect. It is essential that if staff becomes conscious of any such signs, they should respond suitably in order to protect children. Regular staff meeting should be help and staff trainings should also cover recognising adult behaviour. All childcare settings must implement a safeguarding policy and other procedures, which should be in agreement with the regulation of the Local
Safeguarding is much more than just protecting children from direct abuse. The staying safe action plan recognises a number of important aspects in the wider
Effective safeguarding systems are child and young person centred. Failings in safeguarding systems are too often the result of losing sight of the needs and views of the child, or placing the interests of adults ahead of the needs of the child.
These national legislation and local guidelines have a huge effect on the development of local policies and procedures which then have a knock on effect on the day-to-day work of any adult working with children and young people. The safeguarding procedures within my setting will outline the specific actions I will need to take in order to maintain the safety of the children and promote their welfare. That said, all settings have to cover off certain common themes for their policies and procedures:
Safeguarding children and young people refers to everything that we do to keep the children and young people healthy, safe and free from harm, always thinking about their welfare. The Every Child Matters policy and the five principles can help us to keep this in mind. These are:
Safeguarding is protecting children from abuse or malnutrition, preventing harm to the child 's health or development, making sure children grow up with the provision of safe and effective care and taking the correct action to ensure children have the best possible outcomes. Children must be protected from harm, whether this harm is accidental, deliberate abuse, neglect or things like bullying, prejudice attitudes or exclusion of a student from taking part in activities that peers can.
Every adult that works with children/young people must ensure they fulfil their duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of those children/young people. As a teaching assistant, we need to be mindful of any signs of potential abuse, neglect or bullying. We have a duty to ensure children and young people are protected while in our care and if we have any concerns outside school that these are investigated thoroughly. This also includes but is not limited to, ensuring the children are aware of acceptable and unacceptable behaviour both in school and off site, including internet use
Child protection – activities carried out to ensure that children are safe in cases where there is suspected abuse or neglect or are at risk of abuse or neglect.