Safeguarding the Welfare of children and young people
Unit: TDA 2.2

1.1

Safeguarding legalisation and government guidance says that safeguarding means:
Protecting children from maltreatment
Preventing impairment of children’s health and development
Ensuring that children are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care.
Undertaking a role so as to enable that children have optimum life chances and to enter adulthood successfully.
The term Safeguarding has replaced the term Child Protection. It promotes the Childs Welfare and safety as well as protecting children if any abuse should happen.
The Children’s act of 1989 identifies the responsibilities of the parents and professionals who should take care of all children they come into contact with.
The Education Act of 2002 sets out the responsibilities of the Local Education Authorities.
The Children Act 2004 provides the legal framework for Every Child Matters.
Schools must provide a policy, which ensures the safety, security and well-being of all their pupils. This should set out the way Staff have a responsibilities towards the pupils, it can be written within a health and safety policy but it must include:
Safeguarding, protection and procedures for reporting incidents e-safety Bullying including cyber bullying.

The Code of conduct within my school sets out standards expected of staff, governors and volunteers they need to abide by this. All staff, governors and volunteers have a duty to keep pupils and themselves safe to protect against physical or emotional harm.

Following this code of conduct will help safeguard pupils, staff volunteers and governors. The code of conduct cannot provide a complete checklist of what is or what is not, appropriate behaviour for staff, however it does highlight illegal, inappropriate or inadvisable in relation to pupils.
In 2007 the DCFS published a guidance called Safeguarding Children and Safer Recruitment in Education, this guidance is about managing allegations that could indicate that a person is unsuitable to continue to work with children, in their present job role or in any job role connected to children.
It will be used where it has been alleged that the professional has:
Behaved in a way that has or could have harmed a child
Possibly committed a criminal offence against or related to a child
Behaved towards a child in a way that indicates they are unsuitable to work with children.
In my school the Head teacher and the deputy head are the designated personnel for child protection. If there are any concerns about a Childs well being it should be brought to their attention immediately.
Having taken advice you may be required to fill in a concerns form. Once the form has been filled in and passed on to the DCPC your responsibility has been fulfilled and you are not included in the next stage of the process. If however, you continue to have concerns for the child, then you should approach the DCPC again if you are still not happy then you should bring it to the attention of the Governor for Child Protection.
If in any doubt then you can ring the LA Education Child Protection Service for Guidance.
Abuse may be a singular incident or a pattern of behaviour, abuse can take place anywhere at any time.
Types of abuse to look out for include:
Physical Harm – hitting kicking etc, this is most common and one of the easiest to recognise it cut include bruises, cuts, burns, broken bones.
Emotional Damage to emotional state – belittling, name-calling etc, this is one of the hardest to recognise it usually tells within the Childs behaviour and often act in ways that are uncharacteristic for their age.
Sexual Anything of a sexual nature – exposure to sexual situations, fondling and rape. This is unfortunately one of the most common of child abuse. The signs that are common to look for are torn/stained underwear, difficulty walking or sitting or bruising round the