Unit 5- Safeguarding Children
(P3)- Design a booklet that clearly outlines the legal framework relating to the protection of children.
In this booklet it will cover the legislations for the protection of children. These are:
United Nations convention on the Rights of the child
Human rights Act 1998
Children Act 1989
Children Act 2004
Working together to safeguard children (2006)
Framework for assessment of children in need and their families (2000)
What to do if you’re worried a child is being abused (2006)
Equality Act 2010
United Nations convention on the Rights of the child
UNICEF’s mission is to protect children’s rights, to help meet their basic needs and to expand their opportunities to reach their full potential. All children have the same rights. All rights are interconnected and of equal importance. These refer to the responsibility of children to respect the rights of others, especially their parents. Helping children to understand their rights does not mean parents should push them to make choices with consequences they are too young to handle. The rights include: guiding principles protection of rights participation of rights
Children and young people have the same basic general rights as adults and also specific rights that recognise their special needs.
Human rights Act 1998
The act came into practice on the 2nd October 2000. It gives details of the basic rights people are entitled to in the society. The rights include: the right to life protection from slavery the right to education the right to marriage
They seem like everybody has this but without human rights act we would all live in an extremely different society. There are some places around the world where freedom is restricted and people are used as cheap labour and they are not entitled to an education. The human rights act is vital in keeping our society fair and as equal as possible. People are unaware as to how we would live if such laws were not enforced. Everyone has the right to an opinion and even this is not allowed in other societies.
Children Act 1989
The Children Act 1989 is designed to help keep children safe and well. If necessary, it helps a child to live with their family by providing services appropriate to the child’s needs. The children act brought together several sets of guidance. It first outlined the amount of space that should be available as well as adult to child ratio for work with children under 8 years. This is based on the age of the children being cared for. The ratio is as follows:
Age
Adult ratio
0-1
1:3
2-3
1:4
3-8
1:8
The act also outlined some other principles: the welfare of the child is most important we should work in partnership with parents parents should care for their children whenever possible children’s opinions should be taken into account when matters concern them
Children Act 2004
Following the death of 8 year old Victoria Climbie in 2000 the government asked Lord Laming to conduct an inquiry to help decide whether it needed to introduce new legislation and guidance to improve the child protection system in England. The Children Act 2004 does not replace or even change much of the Children Act 1989. Instead it sets out the process for integrating services to children. It covers England and Wales in separate sections. It aims to improve and integrate children’s services, promote early intervention, provide strong leadership and bring together different professionals in teams in order to achieve positive outcomes for children, young people and their families. Local authorities are given a lead role in securing the co-operation of partners in setting up children’s trust arrangements and the Act allows some flexibility in how these are structured and organised. The Act aims to improve effective local working to safeguard and promote children’s well-being. The success of local implementation will be assessed by the