CWDC's Working Together to Safeguard Children defines safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children as:
Child protection is a part of safeguarding and promoting welfare. This refers to the activity that is undertaken to protect specific children who are suffering, or at risk of suffering significant harm. This document applies to children and young people below the age of eighteen. The term 'children' will be used throughout the policy to apply to children and young people below the age of eighteen.
As a contractor for CWDC, Best Practice Network is fully committed to CWDC's policy for safeguarding the welfare of all children and young people, and demonstrates this by taking all reasonable steps to protect them from physical, sexual, or emotional abuse or neglect. This document draws on CWDC's child protection policy and procedures. This is not a comprehensive 'how to' guide in child protection practice but relates specifically to a contractor's role in child protection practice, i.e. activity undertaken to protect specific children who are suffering or are at risk of suffering significant harm.
As CWDC's contractor, Best Practice Network has a responsibility to work with others to safeguard and promote children's welfare. We are not a direct children's services-providing organisation but, nonetheless, staff may have varying degrees of contact with children and young people. It is essential that staff in contact with children, young people and their families have the requisite knowledge and skills to carry out their jobs safely and effectively.
This document outlines our commitment to the protection of children and aims to:
We ensure that all staff, including freelance, contracted staff and/or associates are aware of the requirements within this policy. It is the responsibility of these groups to ensure that the personnel they are responsible for are aware of and understand the procedures and have levels of knowledge and skills commensurate to the level and nature of their direct involvement with children and young people.
We follow CWDC's practice of adopting and working within the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and believe that:
Abuse and neglect are forms of maltreatment of a child. An individual may abuse or neglect a child by inflicting harm or failing to act to prevent harm. Neglect or abuse, physically, emotionally or sexually, can have major long-term effects on all aspects of a child's health, development and wellbeing. Sustained abuse is likely to have a deep impact on the child's self-image and self esteem, and on his or her future life.
Harm may occur intentionally or unintentionally. The definitions of harm outlined in Working Together 2006 are used to determine whether a child needs a child protection plan.
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 caregiver fabricates the symptoms of, or deliberately induces, illness in a child.
Emotional abuse is the persistent emotional maltreatment of a child so as to cause severe and persistent adverse effects on the child's emotional development. Some level of emotional abuse is involved in all types of maltreatment of a child, though it may occur alone.
Parents/caregivers of children with multiple needs may find it difficult to ensure that the full range of their needs, including their emotional needs, is met. It may be hard to include such children in everyday activities alongside other family members, but not to include them may be harmful.
Sexual abuse involves forcing or enticing a child or young person into sexual activities, including prostitution, whether or not the child is aware of what is happening. They may include noncontact activities, such as involving children in looking at, or in the production of sexual online or printed images, watching sexual activities, or encouraging children to behave in sexually inappropriate ways.
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 caregiver failing to:
It may also include neglect of, or unresponsiveness to, a child's basic emotional needs.
Evidence available in the UK on the extent of abuse among children with a disability suggests that they are at increased risk of abuse, and that the presence of multiple disabilities appears to increase the risk of both abuse and neglect.
Disability may be defined as:
Children with a disability may be especially vulnerable to abuse for a number of reasons. Some may:
Where there are concerns about the welfare of a disabled child, they should be acted upon in accordance with these procedures in the same way as with any other child. The same thresholds for action and the same timescales apply. It would be unacceptable if poor standards of care were tolerated for disabled children that would not be tolerated for nondisabled children.
In any work with children and young people it is important to be clear about confidentiality. While personal information held by professionals and agencies is subject to a legal duty of confidence, and should not normally be disclosed without the subject's consent, when there are concerns that a child is or may be at risk of significant harm, then the over-riding objective must be to safeguard that child and disclosure of information is imperative.
Confidentiality and child protection should be discussed with children and young people at the beginning of any piece of work, and reminders and information given from time to time, to ensure that they understand the processes and what responsibilities the staff members have. It is absolutely essential to be clear about the limits of confidentiality well before any such matter arises.
Explanations of the reasons; the processes; the likely sequence of events; who to contact for information or for support should also be provided.
In the event of a situation in which you consider a child is at risk, you should contact the Best Practice Network designated Child Protection Officer, Hilary Murden (number will be provided) or Trudy Smith, our office based child protection contact: trudysmith@bestpracticenet.co.uk and 0117 920 9411. If you are sending an email, please copy it to both Hilary and Trudy. However, if these persons are unavailable, contact Maureen Lee, Director of Best Practice Network, (number will be provided) who will call the NSPCC Child Protection Helpline.
If you witness something that is of concern when visiting a setting, you should inform the setting manager at the time and tell the manager that you intend to pass on your concerns to BPN. You will need to inform us that day that you have referred this concern to the manager. As you will be aware, every individual has the right to make a referral to Social Care (particularly if they feel their concerns are not being taken seriously) but we would always advise you to consult with the named people first. If you think a child is in immediate and serious danger, call the police on 999. Best Practice Network recognises that persons working for the organisation are themselves vulnerable in their work with children and young people. In such circumstances you should speak to the designated Child Protection Officer or an appropriate member of their organisation, as indicated above.