Safeguarding Young People And Children

Introduction

The safeguarding of young people and children is important because they are unable to differentiate between right and wrong as well as lack effective knowledge regarding the way to protect themselves from dangerous situations. In this essay, current legislations along with procedures and policies regarding the welfare of young people and children are to be discussed. In addition, the role of the agencies which are involved in protecting children and young people are to be discussed.

1.1 Identifying the present legislations, policies, guidelines and procedures to safeguard the welfare of children and young people including e-safety

The Protection of Children Act 1999 mentions a list of people who are regarded unsuitable to work with the young people and children is to be developed, power is to be extended to the authorities to make regulations under section 21(8) of the Education Reform Act 1998, develop further provision regarding the list and allow protection to be affordable for the children who are suffering from any mental impairments or similar conditions (legislation.gov.uk, 1999). The Act mentions that individuals previously identified to harm children along with have shown previous misconduct or abusive behaviour against children are regarded to be unsuitable for working with the children. This is because such individuals are found to be vulnerable to harm and abuse children and thus allowing them to work with the young people and children would make them remain unprotected in the society from harm (Tlapek et al. 2017). Therefore, through background check as suggested in the Protection of Children Act 1999 people not suitable to work with the children and young people are to be listed to ensure their welfare.

The Protection of Children Act 1999 under the section 21(8) of Education Reform Act 1998 informs that teachers on medical grounds, grounds of misconduct, identified to unfit person to care for the children as they lack proper skills and knowledge regarding child management and teaching are to be avoided to care for the children and young people (legislation.gov.uk, 1999). This is because such individuals in the educational institution if are recruited would be unable to assure the welfare of the children and young people as well as would act as vulnerable person who could harm the children. In various cultures, it is seen that female children and young people are vulnerable to face female genital mutilation (FGM) which is the removal of external genital of girls for non-medical reasons. The FGM is mainly executed to control the sexuality of the female and the process is regarded to be extremely painful for the people (Hodes et al. 2016). However, the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003 is developed in this case which is the legislation that imposes ban on the female genital mutilation for addressing the practice of taking girls to different countries and aboard from the UK to execute female genital mutilation procedures. The Act imposes penalty of 5-14 years of prison for the people involved in such activity (legislation.gov.uk, 2003). The Act is effective to develop fear of punishment among the people to be involved in FGM, in turn, ensure the protection of female children and young women.

The Female Genital Mutilation Protection Order is referred to the court order that is issued for protecting victims of the process. The order mentions different requirements and restrictions which are unique in each case and to be followed to keep the individuals who have suffered from the process to be kept safe (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk, 2019). The legal order is effective to protect young women and female child who are at risk of FGM, as well as those, believe they are at risk. The order is issued provide on the basis of evidence given by the client. The courtrooms in these cases allow video recorded evidence to be provided along with protective screens to be installed so that the confidentiality of the respondents is maintained (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk, 2019). This informs that the legal order is effective to provide protection to the child even during the processing of the order by preventing their identity to be disclosed.

The Serious Crime Act 2015 is developed with the provision to outcast causes of emotional distress among children, regulate drug agents, manage corrupt business which assists in criminal activities and manage offences with paedophilia, female genital mutilation and make amendments to the Terrorism Act 2006 (legislation.gov.uk, 2015). Part 5 of the Act extends support to protect children by extending the definition of child cruelty to include neglect, abuse or psychological damage. The part of the Act also prohibits the intentional interaction of any sexual nature with the minors for the purpose of having sexual gratification (legislation.gov.uk, 2015). This indicates that the Act is effective to protect children from sexual abuse or harm from individuals. Part 5 of the Act informs that the child is to be protected from getting suffocated in coercive behaviour within intimate or family relationships (legislation.gov.uk, 2015). This provides protection to the vulnerable children who are at risk of getting abused due to family violence or neglect of care from the parents.

The Part 2 of Serious Crime Act 2015 is seen to amend the Computer Misuse Act 1990 according to which 14 years of imprisonment is mentioned to the provided to individuals who are involved in damaging computer that hinders the environment or the economy of the country (legislation.gov.uk, 2015). This aspect of the Act leads to provide punishment to individuals involved in computer crime. In the current era, it is seen that more children and young people are addicted to use computer to use social media and share information through internet (legislation.gov.uk, 2015). The amendment of the Computer Misuse Act 1990 through the Serious Crime Act 2015 would be effective to provide punishment as well as raise concern among individuals who are trying to misuse data from the minor children and young people not to execute any nature of the crime. Thus, this, in turn, would act to ensure welfare to the children and young people by providing them protection while using computer and internet to share information.

The Prevent Strategy 2011 has three objectives to be fulfilled which are responding to ideological challenges related to terrorism and threat towards individuals who are promoting it, prevent individuals to be attracted towards terrorism and ensuring proper advice, as well as support, are given and work with institutions to response to radicalisation risks (gov.uk, 2011). This policy is effective to provide protection to the children and young people from getting attracted towards terrorism as the strategy mentions to take steps to advise people regarding the way they are to refrain themselves from getting drawn towards terrorist activities. The Counter-Terrorism Strategy 2018 has the key aim to lower risk of terrorism for the UK citizens as well as their interest towards it so that people are able to move around freely with confidence to live their own lives. The key objectives mentioned under the strategy is to stop people to become terrorist, stop attacks of terrorism, strengthen the protection regarding terrorism and resolve the impact of terrorism (gov.uk, 2018). The following of the strategy to establish its objectives is essential for the welfare of the children and young people as lowering risk and interest regarding terrorism would promote carefree movement of children and young people in the society without the fear of facing harm due to terrorist attacks.

The E-safety for Schools developed by the UK government informs that staffs, as well as volunteers in school, are to be confident regarding online safety and identify as well as resolving concerns related to it. The policy also mentions that children at schools are to be taught regarding the way to maintain confidentiality and stay safe online, careful advice are to be shared with the parents regarding the way to managing online exposure of the children to protect the individuals from any e-abuse or harm and authorities are to regularly review and improve e-safety provision in the environment (learning.nspcc.org.uk, 2019). This is effective to ensure the e-safety of the children and young people as it delineates the actions to be taken to ensure online safety to the individuals.

The Children Act 2004 has the key aim to improve local working for safeguarding and promoting well-being of the children and the Act takes a child-centred approach to provide universal targeted and specialised services to the children (legislation.gov.uk, 2004). Thus, the Act is effective to ensure safety to the children and young people as it leads social workers to deliver specialised care based on the specific needs of the individuals. The Every Child Matters is an initiative established in the UK with the intention to resolve poverty, discrimination and barriers which are important to resolve any gap in care faced by the children (gov.uk, 2003). The initiative ensure safeguarding of the children by ensuring them to have services as well as assistance required to resolve vulnerable issues faced by them that is bothering their safety. The Working Together to Safeguard Children 2010 informs the way different organisations along with individuals are to work collaboratively to ensure safety and welfare to the children and young people in relation to Children Act 2004 and Children Act 1989 (gov.uk, 2010). The Act is effective to ensure safeguarding to the children and young people by making different organisations to work together to resolve needs and ensure safety and protection to the vulnerable individuals.

1.2 Describing different agencies role in safeguarding the welfare of the children and young people

The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command under the UK’s National Crime Agency which is the organisation that ensure lawful practices are maintaining within the country acts to work nationally as well as internationally to arrest and bring individuals involved with child trafficking, distribution and viewing of child abuse materials and others to the UK court (ceop.police.uk, 2020). The agency under the command is able to promote the welfare of the children and young people as they are able to take legal steps and arrange punishment through court for the individuals who are involved in sexual abuse of the children. The Child Abuse Investigation Team (CAIT) is referred to the unit run by the police in the UK who are bestowed with the power to investigate, interview and arrest any individuals who are suspected to be involved in any form of child abuse. The CAIT provides confidential advice to the children, develop close links with the children's specialists services along with provide stage and comfortable environment for the victims to report any incidence (wandsworth.gov.uk, 2019). The agency is effective to ensure the welfare of the children and young people as they provide assistance to the victims regarding the way legal steps are to be taken and provides platform for accessing help to save themselves from abuse, in turn, ensuring safeguarding opportunity for the individuals.

The Children’s Social Care agency in the UK acts with the aim to work with carers, parents and young people through partnership on the basis of respect, fairness and equity to provide support and advice to individuals to ensure their well-being (somerset.gov.uk, 2020). The priority of Children’s Social Care agency is to identify people at risk and recruit, assess as well as supervise foster care for the individuals (somerset.gov.uk, 2020). This act of the agency is effective to ensure the welfare of the children and young people to protect them from abuse or harm as they work to find out people in distress and vulnerable to harm to protect them from getting abused by providing them foster care. The Local Safeguarding Children Board (LSCB) is referred to the multi-agency organisation which is established in each of the local authorities and work collaboratively with Director of Children’s Services to coordinate the activities for child welfare done by all organisations to ensure safeguarding and promote the welfare of the children and young people in the area. The police, health services, probationary services, local youth offending team and the Children and Family courts Advisory and Support Services are represented on the LSCB (citizensadvice.org.uk, 2020). Thus, the agency works in collaboration to ensure safeguarding for children and young people by arranging legal actions through police, health support through health services, supervising offenders and developing provisional reports in the criminal courts to assist sentencing of the offenders through probationary services.

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) in UK is developed for children within 3-5 years of age to ensure they receive proper education as per national curriculum to make them develop the idea of learning in a structured environment (gov.uk, 2015). Thus, EYFS is effective to ensure welfare of the children by making them develop skills regarding the way to understand and act in structured learning. The Office of Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (OFSTED) is responsible to inspect the education and skills of learners of all ages to ensure adequate and outstanding education is delivered by educational institution (gov.uk, 2020). Thus, this agency ensure welfare for the children and young people is providing by creating better education environment for them where the children and individuals can learn properly to develop better career in future. The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) is the main UK charity for the children that act to prevent abuse and assist the children who are vulnerable to abuse or gave faced harmed to lead better lives (nspcc.org.uk, 2019). Thus, this agency ensures safeguarding of the children and young people by providing them care and arranging services for them to make them protected from any vulnerable situation or abuse or harm.

Conclusion

The above discussion informs that safeguarding of children and young people is essential as they are unable to take their own care and therefore are often exposed to abuse or harm. The current legislations such as Protection of children 1999, Female genital mutilation act 2003, Female Genital Mutilation Protection Order, Serious Crime Act 2015, Prevent strategy 2011, Counter-terrorism strategy 2018 and others are effective to ensure welfare for the children and young individuals. The agencies such as Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command under the UK’s National Crime Agency, Child Protection Investigation Unit (CPIU), Children’s Social Care agency and others are working effectively to ensure safeguarding for the young individuals and children in the locality.

References

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