CYPCore33-1.1 Outline current legislation, guidelines, policies and procedures within own UK Home Nation affecting the safeguarding of children and young people.
Current legislation is the result of The Children Act 1989 which was brought in to ensure that all people who work with children worked together and were clear about their responsibilities and knew how to act if allegations of child abuse were made.
Following the death of Victoria Climbie, who was tortured and murdered by her guardians in the year 2000, an independent inquiry by Lord Laming highlighted many problems with how reports of neglect and child abuse were dealt with and found that vulnerable people in society were not being safeguarded.
Victoria Climbié's death was largely responsible for the formation of Every Child Matters and the introduction of the Children Act 2004.
The Every Child Matters paper is aimed at ensuring every child should be helped to have positive outcomes in life .They should; stay safe, enjoy and achieve, have economic wellbeing and make a positive contribution.
The main points of the 2004 Children Act was that every local authority has a director of children's services who is ultimately responsible for ensuring that children are safeguarded.
Local safeguarding boards were set up and children's wishes taken into account. Children's services now have a duty to safeguard children and to work together with a multi- agency approach to promote their welfare. The common assessment framework was introduced to identify children's needs.
The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) was launched in March 2002, and checked the criminal background of all people who worked with children or vulnerable adults in schools, voluntary organisations or professional bodies. It collected information from the police and government agencies. Allegations made against someone could also be recorded.
The vetting system operated in two stages. Names were checked against the Department for
Education and Skills List 99, which was a confidential register of all people convicted or suspected of child abuse. Once this had been checked, contact was made with police forces in every area of the country in which the applicant had lived or worked for details of any relevant convictions. Checks were also made for any convictions that may have expired under the 1974 Rehabilitation of Offenders Act, as well as any cautions, warnings or reprimands. In addition, checks were made from local police intelligence to find, for example, details from a child protection case conference. Before the introduction of the CRB, applicants were only checked against the Department for Education and Skills List 99.
It was highly publicised child murder and abuse cases such as the murder of two pupils,
Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman by school caretaker Ian Huntley that led to the development of the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB), covering England and Wales. Similar arrangements were set up in Scotland (Disclosure Scotland) and Northern Ireland (Access
Northern Ireland). People who wanted to work with children or vulnerable adults in schools, voluntary organisations or professional bodies had to have a CRB completed so that their employer could check to see if they had a criminal background. Depending on the type of work/position, an employer may request an enhanced or standard CRB check. In March
2012, figures from the CRB revealed that the checks had prevented more than 130,000 unsuitable people, including rapists and paedophiles, from working with children or vulnerable groups.
The scheme is now called the disclosure and barring service.
Long waiting lists and general dissatisfaction with the CRB service were followed by the
Singleton Review, which led to the planned introduction by the last Labour Government of the Independent Safeguarding Authority. Aspects of this plan were ill thought-out, and led to much public criticism. The Coalition Government changed the scheme and the new
Disclosure & Barring