Safeguarding/Child Protection
What is it?
Whether we refer to the protection of children as safeguarding or child protection, the fundamental message is the same:
"Safeguarding is everybody's business" (Warwickshire Safeguarding Children's Board)
It is our responsibility as professionals to do everything possible to ensure that children and young people are kept safe. These may include interactions that are beyond the child’s developmental capability, as well as over protection and limitation of exploration and learning, or preventing the child participating in normal social interaction. We should ensure that children and young people are protected from harm that will impact upon their physical and mental health and development.
Categories of Abuse
Physical:
This 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 carer fabricates the symptoms of, or deliberately induces, illness in a child.
Sexual:
This involves forcing or enticing a child or young person to take part in sexual activities, not necessarily involving a high level of violence, whether or not the child is aware of what is happening. The activities may involve physical contact, including assault by penetration (e.g. rape or oral sex) or non-penetrative acts such as masturbation, kissing, rubbing and touching outside of clothing. They may include non-contact activities such as involving children in looking at, or in the production of, sexual images watching sexual activities, encouraging children to behave in sexually inappropriate ways or grooming a child in preparation for abuse (including via the internet). Sexual abuse is not solely perpetrated by adult males. Women can also commit acts of sexual abuse, as can other children.
Emotional:
This is the persistent emotional maltreatment of a child such as to cause severe and persistent adverse effects on the child’s emotional development. It may involve conveying to the children that they are worthless or unloved, inadequate, or valued only insofar as they meet the needs of another person. It may include not giving the child opportunities to express their views, deliberately silencing them or ‘making fun’ of what they say or how they communicate. It may feature age or developmentally inappropriate expectations being imposed on children. These may include interactions that are beyond the child’s developmental capability, as well as over protection and limitation of exploration and learning, or preventing the child participating in normal social interaction.
It may involve seeing or hearing the ill-treatment of another. It may involve serious bullying (including cyber bullying) causing children frequently to feel frightened or in danger, or the exploitation or corruption of children. Some level of emotional abuse is involved in all types of maltreatment of a child, though it may occur alone.
Neglect:
This 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 carer failing to:
- Provide adequate food and clothing, shelter including exclusion from home or abandonment
- Protect a child from physical and emotional harm or danger
- Ensure adequate supervision including the use of inadequate care-takers
- Ensure access to appropriate medical care or treatment
It may also include neglect of, or unresponsiveness to a child’s basic emotional needs.
The Probable Effects
The immediate and longer term impact of these can be: anxiety, depression, substance misuse, eating disorders, self harm, offending and anti-social behaviour.
If you believe a child or young person may be being abused then:
ACT NOW DO NOT DELAY
Share your concerns, follow the safeguarding procedure for your organisation. It is the responsibility of the person who first suspects abuse and/or is told by the child or young person they are being abused to initiate the correct proceedings.