Unit 10: Caring for children and young people.
P1) There are lots of reason as to why children and young people are taken away from their families and put into care.
For example if an individual is being abused either emotionally, sexually, physically or even being neglected. Physical abuse is when someone is deliberately trying to hurt you. Examples of this could be punching or kicking. Emotional abuse if someone is always shouting at you and making you feel bad about yourself. Sexual abuse is when you are being pressured or forced into any type of physical activity. Neglect is when you’re not getting the things you need at home such as food.
Another reason could be stress. Living with someone who is stressed can be hard because that person starts to become more focussed on themselves causing them to find it hard to provide and support other people.
If a parent struggles with drug and alcohol addictions then it can result in parents or carers experiencing difficulty in organising their own and their children's lives, being unable to meet children's needs for safety and basic care, being emotionally unavailable and having difficulty in controlling and disciplining their children. Problem drug misuse may cause parents to become detached from reality or lose consciousness. Some problem drug using parents may find it difficult to give priority to the needs of their children. Finding money for drugs may reduce what is available to meet basic needs, or may draw families into criminal activities.
Behavioural issues can cause to lots of arguments and disagreements in the family, causing relationships to be damaged. Especially during puberty children may become more defiant. If the child or young person’s behaviour is unmanageable then parents may find it hard to cope with and request them to be out into care.
Imprisonment of parents or a child can cause the individual to be put into care. If a parent has committed a crime and been sent to prison and their child has no immediate family that they can stay with, then they will be taken into care and most likely, they will be fostered which could lead to adoption.
Unit 10 P2) In this part of the assignment I will be outlining the arrangements for providing quality care for looked after children and young people.
There are many types of care that can be arranged for children and young people. For example, foster care is a short term arrangement but can sometimes turn into long term if certain factors change. To become a foster carer, the individual will have to go through many procedures by the local authority. This is to make sure that they are suitable and appropriate to provide care for vulnerable children and young people within their own homes. Foster carers need to be able to adapt to different ages and complex behavioural changes. For example, one week they may have a two year old who has been a victim of neglect and the next week they may be looking after a sixteen year old with anger problems.
Another short term arrangement is respite care. Respite care is normally organised in advance between a carer/organisation, social services and the family. Normally this type of care is put in place for families who have children with learning or physical disabilities in order to give their families a break from their full on day-to-day life. Respite care is when the child who has a disability spends a certain amount of time in an environment that provides suitable care that meets their needs.
Residential care is provided for children and young people who are either in an emergency situation that can be harmful for them, for example, victims of serious abuse. Residential care can also be used as a respite service for families. Sometimes residential care is arranged for children and young people with complex needs such as behavioural problems so that they can be cared for by staff that are trained in that specific area and know how to interact with them.
A long term type of care is