The aim of this brief training session is to raise awareness regarding the safeguarding of children and to remind you of your responsibilities whenever

The aim of this brief training session is to raise awareness regarding the safeguarding of children and to remind you of your responsibilities whenever you have a concern about a child.

By the end of this session you will be aware of:

what is meant by the term safeguarding children;

the various types of intervention and their thresholds;

some signs and symptoms of possible abuse;

what you should do if you have a concern for a child’s welfare or safety.

‘All those who come into contact with children and families in their everyday work, including practitioners who do not have a specific role in relation to child protection, have a duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.’

(Source: What To Do If You’re Worried A Child is Being Abused, 2006)

A young,

single parent

- new to the

area.

Moved here

to escape

domestic

violence.

No local

friends or

family.

Family/ friends live several hundred miles away.

Three children aged 4 months, 3 and 5years.

Having some

financial

difficulty.

Struggling with material provision - children/ home.

Mother’s care of the

children is

very good.She is beginning to feel very low on energy.

Some early

signs of

depression.

Who could become involved in supporting the family and what might they be able to offer?

A six years old

child has a number of small

bruises on his upper arm and

a bruise on his

leg.

The child says his

mother was very

upset today when

the baby was

crying and mum

always cries and

shouts at them.

The child the

child tells a

teacher that these

were caused

when his mother

grabbed his arm

and smacked his

leg. The teacher is aware that the family have housing and financial problems.

Who would become involved in response to this situation (by making child protection enquiries, by providing information to any enquiries/assessment or by offering the family support as part of any plan?)

Who would become involved in response to this situation?

Note that this is the same family as in the earlier case. The difference is that 8 months have passed with little or no support for the family.

Achieving good outcomes for children requires all those with responsibility for assessment and the provision of services to work together according to an agreed plan of action.

(Source: What To Do If You’re Worried A Child is Being Abused, 2006)

Lord Laming [March 2009] reiterated the importance of frontline professionals getting to know children as individual people and, as a matter of routine, considering how their situation feels to them.

(Source: Working Together to Safeguard Children 2010, 1.15, p32)

Ofsted’s evaluation of 50 Serious Case Reviews conducted between 1 April 2007 and 31 March 2008 highlighted ‘the failure of all professionals to see the situation from the child’s perspective and experience; to see and speak to the children; to listen to what they said, to observe how they were and to take serious account of their views in supporting their needs as probably the single most consistent failure in safeguarding work with children.’


Protecting children from mistreatment

Preventing impairment of

children’s health or development

Ensuring children

grow up with the provision of safe

and effective care


Enablingchildren to have

optimum life chances and to enter adulthood

successfully

Child protection isa part of safeguarding

and promoting the welfare of children. This refers to the

activity that is undertaken to protect specific children who are suffering, or are at

risk of suffering, significant harm.


Section 47 of the Children Act 1989 places

a duty on local authorities to make enquiries if there is

“reasonable cause to suspect that a child who lives, or is found, in their

area is suffering, or is likely to suffer,

significant harm.”

‘harm’ means ill-treatment or the impairment of health or development, including, for example, impairment suffered from seeing or hearing the ill-treatment of another;

‘development’ means physical, intellectual, emotional, social or behavioural development;

‘health’ means physical or mental health; and

‘ill-treatment’ includes sexual abuse and forms of ill-treatment which are not physical.

(Source: Children Act 1989 as amended by the Adoption and Children Act 2002)

Under s31 (10) of the Children Act 2004, the question of whether harm suffered by a child is significant relates specifically to the child’s health and development. Their health or development should be compared with that which could reasonably be expected of a similar child.


There are no absolute criteria on which to rely when judging what constitutes significant harm. Consideration of the severity of ill-treatment may include the degree and the extent of physical harm, the duration and frequency of abuse and neglect, the extent of premeditation, and the presence or degree of threat, coercion, sadism and bizarre or unusual elements. Each of these elements has been associated with more severe effects on the child, and/or relatively greater difficulty in helping the child overcome the adverse impact of the maltreatment. Sometimes, a single traumatic event may constitute significant harm.


More often, significant harm is a compilation of significant events, both acute and long-standing, which interrupt, change or damage the child’s physical and psychological development. Some children live in family and social circumstances where their health and development are neglected. For them, it is the corrosiveness of long-term emotional, physical or sexual abuse that causes impairment to the extent of constituting significant harm. In each case, it is necessary to consider any maltreatment alongside the family’s strengths and supports.


Children who may be more vulnerable to beingharmed

babies and younger children

disabled children

children who are isolated

children who are already thought of as a problem (e.g. children in care; children in secure accommodation, children with emotional/behavioural difficulties)

The under-ones are particularly vulnerable to abuse (although it should be remembered that abuse can happen at any age).

The homicide rate for under-ones is nearly five times greater than the average.

Babies under one havethe highest rate of child protection plans.

Disabled children are:

3.8 time more likely to beneglected;

3.8 more likely to bephysically abused;

3.1 times more likely to beemotionally abused.

(Source: Safeguarding disabled children-Practice guidance - DCSF 2009)

Professionals must take special care to help safeguardand promote the welfare of children and young peoplewho may be living in particularly stressfulcircumstances. These include families: living in poverty; where there is domestic violence; where a parent has a mental illness; where a parent is misusing drugs or alcohol; where a parent has a learning disability; that face racism and other forms of social isolation; living in areas with a lot of crime, poor housing and

high unemployment.

(Source: Working Together to Safeguard Children 2010, Ch. 9)

… vulnerability is such that they are unlikely to

reach or maintain a satisfactory level of health

or development, or their health and development

will be significantly impaired, without the provision of services;

those who aredisabled.


Local authorities have a duty to safeguard and promote the

welfare of children in need.


Everyday needs

Simple support needs

Child protection

needs

s47

Complex support needs

s17Common

Assessment Framework

Everyday needs


Child protection

needs

s47


s17Common


Helen has a two month old son.

She was in care as a child.

Everyday needs


Child protection

needs

s47


s17Common


As a child, she was sexually abused by her

father and later by a care worker.

Everyday needs


Child protection

needs

s47


s17Common


She has mental health problems and learning

difficulties.

Everyday needs


Child protection

needs

s47


s17Common


She is struggling to understand and meet her

son’s needs.

Everyday needs


Child protection

needs

s47


s17Common


Her son has a scratch and a bruise on his face

and she is unable to explain this.

Everyday needs


Child protection

needs

s47


s17Common


Everyday needs


Child protection

needs

s47


s17Common


Children Act 1989 - Education Act 2002 -Children Act 2004

Children Act 1989 - Education Act 2002 -Children Act 2004

In this establishment, the person you should talk to is:

or, in their absence:

Children can be abused in a family or in an institutional or community setting, by those known to them or, more rarely, by a stranger for example, via the internet. They may be abused by an adult or adults, or another child or children.


NEGLECT

PHYSICAL ABUSESEXUAL ABUSE

EMOTIONAL ABUSE

Physical Abuse

Physical abuse may involve hitting, shaking, throwing, poisoning, burning or scalding, drowning, suffocating, or otherwise causing physical harm to a child. Physical harm may also be caused when a parent or carer fabricates the symptoms of, or deliberately induces, illness in a child.


Sexual Abuse

Sexual abuse involves forcing or enticing a child or young person to take part in sexual activities, not necessarily involving a high level of violence, whether or not the child is aware of what is happening. The activities may involve physical contact, including assault by penetration (for example, rape or oral sex) or non-penetrative acts such as masturbation, kissing, rubbing and touching outside of clothing. They may also include non-contact activities, such as involving children in looking at, or in the production of, sexual images, watching sexual activities, encouraging children to behave in sexually inappropriate ways, grooming a child in preparation for abuse (including via the internet). Sexual abuse is not solely perpetrated by adult males. Women can also commit acts of sexual abuse, as can other children.


Neglect

Neglect is the persistent failure to meet a child’s basic physicaland/or psychological needs, likely to result in the seriousimpairment of the child’s health or development. Neglect mayoccur during pregnancy as a result of maternal substance abuse.Once a child is born, neglect may involve a parent or carer failingto:provide adequate food, clothing and shelter (including exclusion

from home or abandonment);protect a child from physical and emotional harm or danger;ensure adequate supervision (including the use of inadequate

care-givers); orensure access to appropriate medical care or treatment.

It may also include neglect of, or unresponsiveness to, a child’sbasic emotional needs.


Emotional Abuse

Emotional abuse is the persistent emotional maltreatment of a child such as to cause severe and persistent adverse effects on the child’s emotional development. It may involve conveying to children that they are worthless or unloved, inadequate, or valued only insofar as they meet the needs of another person. It may include not giving the child opportunities to express their views, deliberately silencing them or ‘making fun’ of what they say or how they communicate.

cont. ….

Emotional Abuse (cont.)

It may feature age or developmentally inappropriate expectations being imposed on children. These may include interactions that are beyond the child’s developmental capability, as well as overprotection and limitation of exploration and learning, or preventing the child participating in normal social interaction. It may involve seeing or hearing the ill-treatment of another. It may involve serious bullying (including cyberbullying), causing children frequently to feel frightened or in danger, or the exploitation or corruption of children. Some level of emotional abuse is involved in all types of maltreatment of a child, though it may occur alone.

(Working Together to Safeguard Children 2010, 1.34, p38)

Exercise:

What are the signs of:

Physical Abuse

Sexual Abuse

Emotional Abuse

Neglect

LIST 3/5 etc. under each category

Now see handout …..

Take time to

read local C.P.

procedures and

guidelines.

Think about what you might say/do/how you present before it happens.

Try to be

available to be

spoken to. The

child may not be

ready when you

are.Listen carefully to what the child says without interrupting.

Keep an open

mind about what

you are told.

Take any disclosure seriously, even if you cannot see any injury which would support the story.

Be sensitive -

arrange a safe

and private

environment for

the child to talk.

Stay calm - don’t

show shock or

horror.

Be reassuring - tell the child that they were right to tell/have done nothing wrong etc.

Be responsive - acknowledge how difficult it was for the child to tell, explain what needs to happen next.

Be honest -

don’t make

promises that

you can’t keep.

Be supportive - put arrangements in place for initial support.

Don’t promise

confidentiality.Don’t pre-judge

what you are

told or make

assumptions.

Don’t delay action in response to a disclosure.

Don’t be afraid of being wrong, or be concerned

about starting an investigation - you will be supported.

At the earliest

opportunity

make a written

record.

Questions should be:

Necessary – the purpose of questions at this stage is to establish whether or not there is a concern, not to interrogate the child or conduct an investigation.

Non-leading – do not use questions that suggest an answer.

Open – avoid questions that invite only a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer.

Always telephone children’s services without delay if you believe that a child has suffered or is at risk of suffering harm.

Parents should be told of yourconcern and that you intend to refer (unless informing parents would place the child at risk of harm) – see London Procedures – if in doubt, seek advice.

You do not need parental agreement to make a referral in respect of a child at risk of harm.

Whenever you make a telephone referral, always back this up in writing (within 48 hours) using your local authority’s referral form.

If your referral is in respect of support for a Child-in Need where the threshold of significant harm has not been reached, a written referral can be submitted to children’s services. This is sometimes made after

assessment under the Common Assessment Framework has indicated that it is required.

An assessment under the Common Assessment Framework and/or referral for support for a ‘Child in Need’ should only occur with parental consent.

Know your establishment’s child protection

procedures.

Know how to recognise the signs that should

cause concern.

Discuss your concerns about a child with your

manager, a senior manager or the person with

responsibility for child protection.

Always make a referral to the local authority

children’s services department when you have

cause to believe that a child has suffered and/or

may suffer harm.

Seek advice from the local authority children’s

services department if in any doubt about making

a referral.

Documents

The aim of this brief training session is to raise awareness regarding the safeguarding of children and to remind you of your responsibilities whenever