1.1 Safeguarding Children

The Children Act 2004
Provides the legal framework for Every Child Matters.
This Act's ultimate purpose is to make the UK better and safer for children of all ages. The idea behind the Act is to promote (co-ordination) between multiple official entities to improve the overall well-being of children.
The Children Act 2004 was designed with guiding principles in mind for the care and support of children.
These are: * To allow children to be healthy * Allowing children to remain safe in their environments * Helping children to enjoy life * Assist children in their quest to succeed * Help make a contribution – a positive contribution – to the lives of children * Help achieve economic stability for our children’s futures
The Education Act 2002
Identifies the responsibility of head teachers, local authorities and all those working in schools to ensure children are safe.

Children Act 1989
This Act identifies two important sections.
Section 17 - Under Section 17(1) of the Children Act 1989 the Local Authority has a general duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children within their area who are in need; and to promote the upbringing of such children by their families.
Section 47 - places a duty on local authorities to investigate a child’s/young person’s welfare when either emergency protection measures have been taken or there is reasonable cause to suspect that a child or young person living in the area is suffering or is likely to suffer significant harm.

E-Safety
The Head Teacher, Mr Wiffen has overall responsibility for internet safety and will have access to all email addresses and passwords provided. The school follows guidelines for Internet use/E-safety laid down by the North East Grid for Learning and the Local Authority.

1.2
Several services and agencies work together in partnership to safeguard children.
The Senior Designated Person for Child Protection at Whinney Banks Primary School is Mrs Thorpe
Schools should create and maintain a safe learning environment for children and young people; and identify where there are child welfare concerns and take action to address them, in partnership with other organisations where appropriate.
Health professionals and organisations have a key role to play in safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. They should aim to ensure all affected children receive appropriate and timely therapeutic and preventative interventions.
The police have child abuse investigation units (CAIU) and should be notified as soon as possible where a criminal offence has been, or is suspected of, being committed.
Childminders and everyone working in day care services should know how to recognise and respond to the possible abuse and neglect of a child. All organisations providing day care must have a designated person who liaises with local child protection agencies and Ofsted on child protection issues.
A child social worker provides assistance and social services to improve the psychological functioning of children to maximize their academic performance as well as the family's well being.

2.1
When working as a Teaching Assistant closely with children you are likely to notice when a child feels unwell or looks unwell.
Symptoms such as: * Headache * Temperature * Cough * Sore Throat
These are all signs of a child feeling generally unwell. The severity of these symptoms denotes whether or not the child needs to go home or needs medical assistance.
When working in Nursery a child that is usually boisterous and joins in, may be sitting quietly and look quite unhappy. This could be a sign that the child is not feeling very well and staff would speak to the child to try to establish that. The children in Nursery are very small and may not have the vocabulary to explain to the member of staff what is wrong. Therefore all staff must be vigilant to spot any changes in behaviour of