Transcript Induction PowerPoint presentation

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)
 Who could become involved in supporting the
family and what might they be able to offer?
 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.’
(Source: Working Together to Safeguard Children 2010, 1.15, p32)
Protecting
children from
mistreatment
Preventing
impairment of
children’s health
or development
Enabling
Ensuring
children to have
children
optimum life
grow up with the chances and to
provision of safe enter adulthood
and effective
successfully
care
(Source: Working Together to Safeguard Children 2010, 1.20, p34)
Child protection is
a 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.
(Source: Working Together to Safeguard Children 2010, 1.23, p35)
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 illtreatment 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.
(Source: Working Together to Safeguard Children 2010, 1.28, p36)
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.
(Source: Working Together to Safeguard Children 2010, 1.28, p36)
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.
(Source: Working Together to Safeguard Children 2010, 1.28, p36)
Children who may be more vulnerable to being
harmed
 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 have
the highest rate of child protection plans.
Disabled children are:
 3.8 time more likely to be
neglected;
 3.8 more likely to be
physically abused;
 3.1 times more likely to be
emotionally abused.
(Source: Safeguarding disabled children-Practice guidance - DCSF 2009)
Professionals must take special care to help safeguard
and promote the welfare of children and young people
who may be living in particularly stressful
circumstances. 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 are
disabled.
(Source: Working Together to Safeguard Children 2010, 1.25, p35)
Local authorities have a duty
to safeguard and promote the
welfare of children in need.
(Source: Working Together to Safeguard Children 2010, 1.25, p35)
s47
s17
Child
protection
needs
Complex
support
needs
Common
Assessment
Framework
Simple
support
needs
Everyday
needs
s47
s17
Child
protection
needs
Complex
support
needs
Common
Assessment Framework
Simple
support
needs
Everyday
needs
s47
s17
Child
protection
needs
Complex
support
needs
Common
Assessment Framework
Simple
support
needs
Everyday
needs
s47
s17
Child
protection
needs
Complex
support
needs
Common
Assessment Framework
Simple
support
needs
Everyday
needs
s47
s17
Child
protection
needs
Complex
support
needs
Common
Assessment Framework
Simple
support
needs
Everyday
needs
s47
s17
Child
protection
needs
Complex
support
needs
Common
Assessment Framework
Simple
support
needs
Everyday
needs
s47
s17
Child
protection
needs
Complex
support
needs
Common
Assessment Framework
Simple
support
needs
Everyday
needs
s47
s17
Child
protection
needs
Complex
support
needs
Common
Assessment Framework
Simple
support
needs
Everyday
needs
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:
NEGLECT
SEXUAL ABUSE
PHYSICAL ABUSE
EMOTIONAL ABUSE
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.
(Source: Working Together to Safeguard Children 2010, 1.32, p37)
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.
(Source: Working Together to Safeguard Children 2010, 1.33, p38)
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 nonpenetrative 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.
(Source: Working Together to Safeguard Children 2010, 1.35, p38)
Neglect
Neglect is the persistent failure to meet a child’s basic physical
and/or psychological needs, likely to result in the serious
impairment of the child’s health or development. Neglect may
occur during pregnancy as a result of maternal substance abuse.
Once a child is born, neglect may involve a parent or carer failing
to:
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); or
ensure access to appropriate medical care or treatment.
It may also include neglect of, or unresponsiveness to, a child’s
basic emotional needs.
(Source: Working Together to Safeguard Children 2010, 1.36, p39)
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 illtreatment 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 …..
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 your
concern 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.