Introduction
This report discusses a wide range of socio-economic influences and how they affect children’s health and wellbeing. We will also define safeguarding and outline issues of safeguarding while also identifying children at risk, we will examine the role of the practitioner when ensuring children’s health and development needs are met. And what steps they should take when they suspect abuse. We also discuss the case study what support is available for little David and his family
Socioeconomic influences
JRF. (2018) explains how UK Poverty 2017 highlights, that around fourteen million people live in poverty today, at least four million of them is children and eight million of those people live in families where at any rate one person is in work.
A family’s income could have a huge effect on a child’s health and holistic development, low income families or families going through poverty are at jeopardy of depression or other psychological disorder which could negatively influence a child’s development and health, as you can see in figure two this is potential thoughts that feeling that children going poverty face. (Raissian, K. and Bullinger, L. 2017) found that children that grow up or live in low income families have greater possibilities of harm, they also found that changes to the minmum wage tends to increase family income hence increasing the minimum wage usually leads to less reports on children suffering from maltreatment. (Kessler and Cleary, 1980) took a survey and they showed that families from low income where more likely to suffer from psychological distress. This can in turn affect the children living in these households as the parent is not in the right mind mentally to care for and provide the child with the right warm environment and childhood experience they need. (Egbuonu and Starfield, 1982) focused on the connection concerning poverty and child health. Just as of lately, we’ve come to understand that other social classes can also suffer psychological disorders due to stress similar to low income families, they found that financial position are emphatically connected with children’s wellbeing and development.
However, is it mainly income that affect a child health and wellbeing? Having researched this I found many other facts that might influence a child’s health and development. One being maternal age, in 1970 the common maternal age of first birth was 21.4, however today the average age went up to 28.8 years in 2016, this shows a delay in childbearing age, as well as a decrease In family size, this could be due to the changing position of women, several women today instead of caring for a large family prefer and aspire to work and earn for themselves, hence some find it easier to care for one or two children compared to the past when women did nothing but take care of large sized families. Research shows that maternal age is a huge factor in influences a child’s health and development, as younger mother’s offspring’s often have highest of risk of developmental problems and health issues, this risk drops as the mother’s age increases to the age of 30.
Other socioeconomic influences that impact on the health and wellbeing of children could be, obesity and parental education; it could be quite difficult for parents to care for a child without the proper knowledge of a child’s need, for instances, the nutrients they require to grow or certain toys that help build a child’s fine motor skills, this could affect a child as they might have problems developing. Unemployment could also be quite stressful for both parents and children as the parents are struggling to care for the child, so they might ignore children’s emotional needs while trying to provide basic needs. Number of siblings and family instability are also other factors that influence a child’s well-being negatively.
Safeguarding
Safeguarding can be defined as the act of shielding children from harm, for instance, abuse; which is labelled in four types; physical, sexual, neglect and emotional, this could be by any adult or child however statics show that majority of the abuse towards children are by the parent themselves. By safeguarding a child, one is aiming to preclude any damage to that child’s holistic development and health. The children act 2004 states that safeguarding children is everyone’s responsibility, so if practitioners (individuals that work with children in any facility) suspect any kind of abuse is happening or going to happen then they should take immediate action and inform the local authority children’s social care, there are no legal requirement to report abuse or neglect however it is your duty as an early year practitioner and a human being to report what is happen and help that child.
Some Indicators of abuse and neglect are very hard to see as some children are afraid of speaking out, the NSPCC listed a number of indicators of abuse or neglect, “a child not crying or responding to parent’s presence or absence from an early age, a child developing milestones late, such as delayed speech, with no medical reason, if a child is significantly underweight but eats well when given food, if a child becomes secretive and reluctant to share information or reluctant to go home after school, if the child’s parents are reluctant for professionals to visit the family home, if the child has poor school attendance and punctuality, or late being picked up and if a child’s parents show little interest in child’s performance and behaviour at school.” [NSPCC. 2018] Thanks to of these indicators practitioners can use their skilled judgment to explore the signs in front of them and conclude whether it is abuse or not. There is numerous support available for Fiona and her family one-way Fiona can get help is through the school, The EYFS explain the triangle of relationship stating that parents are experts on their child hence, it is essential to build and maintain a successful partnership between them in order to progress an understanding of the child’s needs.
There are many issues with safeguarding children if we take the unfortunate case of Victoria Climbie for example, there were many mistakes and little thing that were not taken seriously, for instance it took one whole month for the home visit to happen after an anonymous phone call was made about Victoria having cuts and bruises, there was no partnership between the family and the social workers; no one was talking. It is important they have several sit downs with the family and child and try to work out a solution to any problems, they should also follow up on the family and keep a close eye on any indicators of abuse if there were any suspicions. It is crucial any staff working with children have the proper training and have been cleared by the DBS check, so they are fit to work with children and also be full prepared for anything. It is hard to safeguard a child when you don’t have the tools and power to protect these children from harm, it could be quite frustrating when you’re a practitioner and the most you can do is inform the local authority, if they do not find enough evidence then they cannot do anything about the issues hence you cannot do anything else to protect this child, and that is a very huge issue because as mention before it is very hard to indicate abuse and finding evidence is even harder.
The role of the practitioner
The practitioner’s role in meeting the children’s needs is to help children develop skills they require to learn such as fine and gross motor skills that can help a child read and write in the future. They also help a child feel belonged by introducing them to routines such as hanging their coats on their individual coat hangers when they come in to the nursery and sitting cross-legged on the mat, the practitioner can also help a child learn to relax when they are unhappy because it is crucial they learn to identify and expressive their feelings.
They should ensure they are empathetic and respectful to the parent and child and vice versa, they should also enlighten and help parents understand the different and new ways their child learns in school as it could be complicated for some particular parents to help their children at home, as well as importance of promoting health and well-being. Fiona could sit with the school and David, and possible talk about issues at home and in school with David and understand how he feels about everything while also come up with a solution to get David happy with moving forward with his education.
Another help Fiona can get is therapy as she is technically raising four young children alone all together this can be stressful, and she might just need someone to talk to, David also needs someone he could trust and talk to. Fiona could also sit down with the GP and talk about David’s eating and nutrition’s as well as his sleep schedule if he’s getting enough sleep or not, what could be causing his tiredness? And why is there a delay in his speech language skills? If Fiona isn’t cooperating or there is signs of abuse or neglect then a full report should be sent to the Mash team, this stands for the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub, they are a group of key safeguarding agencies such as police and social care, and they gather your report and inform the right government body to deal with that issues immediately. If the government bodies investigate and find nothing then it is important you keep an eye on David and if it gets serious them call the following important contact details, the Single Point of Access (SPA) by phoning their number 0300 555 0050 their hours are 9am–5pm Monday to Friday. However, if you feel at David is at risk of harm call the police on 999 or 101.
Conclusion
In conclusion we disused how socioeconomic factors such as poverty can influence a child’s health and wellbeing, we explained safeguarding and the role of the practitioner when it comes to promoting a child’s health and development. We examined some issues that a practitioner may face when safeguarding children and we talk about potential support Fiona and David could get from the government to help them.