The purpose of this report is to show how to deal with safeguarding issues regarding the case study. First, it will include the initial safeguarding concerns and the risk factors which are related to the concerns. Secondly, it will include which Legislations, frameworks, and guidelines that practitioners must follow when dealing with safeguarding and child protection issues. Then it will show the multi-disciplinary practice that would work together to safeguard the child/children in the case study. Finally, it will describe the role and responsibilities of a Year three teacher who is also the Safeguarding officer, which will include equality of opportunity, inclusive and anti – discriminatory practice.
In the case study, there are some indicators that Tom could potentially be suffering from physical abuse due to three or four large dark bruises spotted whilst he was getting changed for PE. Physical abuse is when a child or young person is injured intentionally and some of these injuries may include broken bones, cuts, burns, and bruises (NSPCC, 2016). However, (Corby, 2016) explains that physical abuse is difficult to report as the seriousness of injury or injuries needs to be taken into account. For example, minor bruises are not seen as serious even if a practitioner thinks that it is not accidental. Whereas if there is a range of bruises that cannot be explained then it is more of a concern to report. As Tom has a range of bruises on his stomach which he tries to hide from other class pupils and staff, it is concerning and would be reported as the evidence above states it should. Tom lives with his mother, his mother’s partner (who recently moved in) and his three older sisters who are all the school age. As signs and indicators of abuse in physical, sexual, emotional and neglect are very similar it is important not to assume that Tom is just experiencing Physical abuse but to take into consideration that they could also be other types of abuse taking place. It’s important when looking at this case to not to jump to conclusions but to take everything into consideration and to see if there are any potential signs of abuse with his sisters.
When working with children and young people there is many legislations, framework, and guidelines that practitioners should follow to ensure that children are safe and protected from harm. Within the School, there will be a Safeguarding policy which will have been written by the Local Authority or Governors of the school which all staff and volunteers must follow. The Children Act 1989 was put together to bring most laws in England and Wales about Child Protection together as one piece of legislation. It is known as the core of the safeguarding system, it states under section 47 that agencies including schools have a duty to work with the local authority under investigations (Hughes and Owen, 2009). The Children Act 2004 was made to help and guide practitioners on how to effectively safeguard children and young people. The aim of the act is to improve planning, delivery of planning and commissioning. It also states that all children should meet the five outcomes of every child matters, which are enjoying and achieving, staying safe, being healthy, making a positive contribution and economic well-being (Walker, Thurston, and IVONNE, 2006). Working together to Safeguard Children 2015 was put together to provide information on how the local authority should be safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people based on the Children Act 1989 and 2004. In this guidance, it states that everybody who is involved in the child’s life has a responsibility to protect them from harm and to safeguard them (Working together to Safeguard Children, 2015). “Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is defined for the purposes of this guidance as: protecting children from maltreatment; preventing impairment of children’s health or 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” (Working together to Safeguard Children, 2015, pg. 5). UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 was made to make sure that children had basic human rights and there are three principles that conclude the convention. The first one is that children must have access to all the conventions without being discriminated. The second is that all concerns and action that will be taken regarding a child’s life must have their best interests considered first. The last one is that the child’s views matter and they should be heard in situations that affect them. There are also three principles which relate to safeguarding children and young people, the first one is that children and adults have different needs. The second is that a protective and caring family is the best environment for a child and the last is that all adults and the government should always act in a way that puts the child’s best interest before anything else (Walker, Thurston, and IVONNE, 2006). The Education Act 2002 in Section 175 helps practitioners within schools to understand what their duty is in safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. Practitioners should provide a safe environment to enable learning. They should be able to identify and act when a child or young person is suffering or at a high risk of suffering harm and to make sure that they are safe. They should also be able to work effectively with other agency’s/companies who also work with children and young people (Walker, Thurston, and IVONNE, 2006).
o When working with children and young people, it is important to be aware of your responsibility in the safeguarding process and how you need to report and record your concerns. The safeguarding process has five stages which will assess if the child has suffered/suffering from significant harm, each stage this question is asked and if the answer is no the child will be removed from the process. However, if a child is in danger then they will be an Emergency Protection Order requested which will remove the child from a dangerous situation and be placed in a safe environment and this can be done at any stage of the process. The first stage is observation and recognition; this is where the year three teacher saw the large bruises on Tom and she will have recorded what she seen. As she is the safeguarding lead, the recorded report will have been taken to the Head teacher of the School, who will have referred the case to the Local Authority which is the second stage of the process. At the referral stage, social workers have twenty-four hours based on the evidence they have been provided with to decide if the case needs to carry on in the process and if there is a child protection concern. The referral stage is also the first point where agencies should work together and communicate to get an outcome. The third stage of the process is investigation and initial assessment. In this stage the initial task to find out as much information as they can about the individual and family. Checks will be made from doctors, police, education and social service’s. In this situation, once the checks have been made, social services and the police will have interviews with the referrer (year three teacher), The child (Tom), siblings, parents and alleged abuser. The child will also need to go under a medical examination which they can refuse to take, this is to help provide evidence, what abuse has taken place and if there are any medical needs. The fourth stage is the child protection conference; this is when all the agency’s that work around the child come together to bring a plan in place. It helps to provide safety for the child and prevent future harm and what actions need to be taken to make this happen. The last stage of the process is core group, core assessment and review. This is when a core group of agency’s work together to make plans and agreements that will take place for six month which includes a core assessment on how to meet the child’s needs including using the common assessment framework to help the child. Then a review will take place three month after to ensure that the child is not experiencing harm or likely to be caused harm and should take place on a regular basis (Walker, Thurston, and IVONNE, 2006).
o Multi-disciplinary practice is when a group of professionals from different professions work together. The Children Act 2004 included the importance of a multi-disciplinary practice to make sure that all five outcomes of Every Child Matters are met due to the poor multi-disciplinary practice that resulted in the death of Victoria Climbie. The team around the child, is a range of professionals that work together to meet the needs of a child. The professionals who work together will be in contact with the child and family on a regular basis. The professionals that work together will vary depending on the case and the child. The aim of the team around the child is to ensure that all practitioners are having effective communication and outcomes which improves safeguarding and protecting children and young people (Cheminais, 2009).
o Within a school, teachers and staff have many roles and responsibilities to help safeguard children. A year three teacher who has the responsibilities of the safeguarding lead has more responsibilities than other staff within the school to safeguard and protect children and young people. The department of children, schools and families, set out that schools need to have a safeguarding lead and the roles and responsibilities of this individual. Some of these are to have the knowledge and awareness of the safeguarding system, also to make sure that the staff within the school have safeguarding training and know what to do if a child is at risk, this will also be in the schools safeguarding policy. The safeguarding leader, head teacher and sometimes governors have the responsibility to update and review all policies within the school which have an importance and significance in safeguarding children. When a case is being referred, it is important that the safeguarding lead knows who to report the case too, however in this circumstance, the head teacher will be referring the case to relevant agencies (Hughes and Owen, 2009). Within schools it is important that all staff are promoting an inclusive and anti-discriminatory practice alongside equality of opportunity. Children and young people should be given equal opportunity’s regardless of race, gender, background (and many more) this is when children are given the same chance to reach their full potential and for the education system to meet there needs (Burger, 2013). Inclusive and anti-discriminatory practice within a school is when children can be valued and accepted into society and education no matter who they are, where they come from and what their needs are (Tassoni, 2008).