CYPCore33-1.1 - Outiline current legislation, guidelines, policies and procedures within own UK Home Nation affecting the safeguarding of children and young people
CYPCore33-1.3 - Analyse how national and local guidelines, policies and procedures for safeguarding affect day to day work with children and young people
List all the current legislation relating to safeguarding and how this has helped your setting to produce its own policies and procedures to protect children and staff
There are many pieces of legislation which have been put together in order to keep children and young people safe from absue and exploitation. The Children Act 1989 was brought into place to ensure that all adults or staff working with children would be able to recognise and report signs of abuse. It looks at protecting children from abuse by requiring all childcare settings to be registered and for local authorties to provie services for children and families in need of support.
There is also The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 which ensures that all children are safe and looked after. It states that children have the right to be protected from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury, abuse or exploitation, including sexual abuse, by those looking after them.
The Safeguarding Vunerable Groups Act 2006 came into force from autumn 2008. It was designed to make sure that adults working with children and any other vunerable groups are vetted not just in child care institutions but also in other organisations such as football clubs and swim teams for example. The standards of this act make it clear that anyone who has not been checked with the Criminal Records Bureau must never be left unsupervised with the children. This could include volunteers at your work setting. The Act also covers those adults who work with other vunerable adults such as those with learning difficulties.
Finally there is the Childcare Act 2006 which came into effect in September 2008. This Act has significant implications for settings in England. This Act incorporates the welfare standards which all settings registered to work with children under 8 years must comply with. It also provides a learning framework for children aged 0-5 years called the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). This requirement affects most day to day practice such as adult to child ratio in rooms, the qualification levels of staff and any types of food or drink or snacks that the children can have.
These acts have helped influence my own setting safeguarding policies and procedures as it is a policy of the nursery to provide a safe and secure environment for children as mentioned in all Acts. Our procedures are consistent with the good practice guidelines of our local council (Luton Borough Council). When recuriting staff to work at our setting we follow a systematic selection process designed to assess the applicants suitablity. We use the Disclosure, Barring Service (DBS) to check suitability and two references must be obtained. Staff also undertake an induction process so they can get to grips with the safeguarding policy of the nursery while they are on their probationary period.
CYPCore33-1.2 - Explain child protection within the wider concept of safeguarding children and young people
List some other issues that children need protection from
Every organistation that deals with children should have a safeguarding policy in place to ensure the safety of the children there. This should be reviewed and updated regularly. It is vital that this policy is know by staff within the setting that they arent unsure of what to do if they think they have spotted a sign of abuse. It is also important to have designated safeguarding managers so you know who to go and talk to within your own setting.
Child protection is a term which is specifically catered around abuse but comes under the umbrella term of 'Safeguarding'. Safeguarding are all the things that we as staff should
