Understand How to Safeguard the Well-being of Children and Young People Task B : Roles and Responsibilities of Organisations • Social Services Social Workers have a responsibility to provide support and care for vulnerable children and their families. They may have been alerted to a particular situation for example; if parents are struggling to care for their children or there are other challenging situations such as drug abuse, domestic violence and reports of abuse to the child(ren).
Social Workers are always involved in the intervention of situations involving the abuse or harm of children or young people.
Residential Care Workers have a responsibility for ‘looked-after’ children who reside in care homes and not with their families. With usually high vulnerability, these children and young people need to be cared for and the Residential workers have a specific duty of care to provide safeguarding of their health and welfare. Family Support Workers have close contact with vulnerable children and their families. They have a responsibility to care for and provide support for them, usually through home visits or through local children’s centres.
They are often called upon to give opinions and monitor families that give cause for concern in regards to health, safety or welfare. • Health Visitor Health Visitors have a responsibility to monitor the health and development of children under the age of five. Their usual first point of contact is during home visits and at clinics and health centres. With crucial skills, they are usually the first people to identify concerns about a child’s safety and welfare. They are able to gather information and have the ability to recognise vulnerability and signs of harm, neglect or abuse in both parents and children.
The Essay on Child Care The Effect On Family Life
More and more families are putting their children into daycare every day. There are different reasons as to why they have to do this. The main reasons are that both parents have to work, or the child is in a single parent situation, and the parent has to work in order to have an income to buy basic needs. In order to pay the child care bill and the cost of enrolment fees, etc, parents will need to ...
They have contact with multi-agencies and support the work of the Local Safeguarding Children’s Board (LSCB).
They also work closely with both midwives and school nurses and can offer individualised plans for those recognised as being ‘in need’. Their early intervention can be crucial in protecting a child. • NSPCC The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) is a charity with a duty to protect children from being abused and neglected. It has the statutory power to bring care proceedings in its own right.
They also work closely with Childline (a 24 hour service for children to telephone for help and advice. ) They operate a 24 hour child protection line also which accepts referrals and passes the information to the relevant service. The NSPCC may be commissioned by Children’s social care to undertake specific child protection related work. It also provides services for families and children and has the same responsibilities as other voluntary agencies. • GPs General Practitioners have a responsibility for the general health of members of the practice.
They usually have contact with children and families in the community and will be instrumental in recognising and identifying signs for concern during routine appointments or home visits. The will be responsible for reporting suspected abuse or neglect and should follow the correct procedures for doing so. • Probation Probation Officers will be responsible for the support and rehabilitation of some offenders in the Community. This supervision will involve monitoring people convicted previously of offences against children and ensure that they do not pose s threat to the Community.
The Essay on Child Protection History
That is that all professionals whose work is associated with children must report instances where they are “at risk of harm”. In 1998 new Legislation in NSW was introduced. The Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act. (see hand out for more information) During this time Aboriginal families and children are overrepresented in the child protection system. In NSW, approximately 2% of the ...
They also liaise with Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) such as safeguarding children, procedures covering ex-offenders, domestic abuse and child protection procedures. • Police Police have a responsibility for the general safety and protection of the general public. Their role is to prevent crime and disorder and protect individuals. Children have the right to be fully protected. With specialist training, the police can investigate cases with the Child Abuse Investigation Units (CAIUs).
The police need to gather information and work closely with other agencies in the cases of criminal proceedings against suspected child abusers. All of the information collected is passed on to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
The police also possess power to enter premises to ensure that children will be protected immediately from being harmed in any way. • School School staff are responsible for creating and maintaining a safe learning environment. They are trained to identify any concerns and act upon this information. To maintain this field of expertise, the staff must attend child protection and first aid courses.
They are responsible for protecting children from abuse and bullying and can observe behaviours that may give cause for concern. They are required to meet health needs of children with specific needs. The staff should be in contact with multi agencies and to support the child and attend case conferences. They should, under the Children Act 1989 have a key role in referring children and providing information to assist police in criminal proceedings. They should safeguard children with reference to Internet usage and provide policies and procedures to be adhered to regarding child protection and risk assessments.
