Safeguarding
Lecture 1
Angeliki Nikolaidi
anikolaidi@warwickshire.ac.uk
Week 1
Guidelines for supporting children within early year's settings and relevant legislation
Task 1 written essay submission
Task 2 Seminar -attendance
Submission of accompanying notes
Learning Outcomes:
- Understand the role of the early years professionals in safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children
- Understand types and indicators of child abuse
Early Years Foundation Stage :
Safeguarding in Early Years
- provide a safe environment
- pay attention to children's well-being
- keep children safe and secure
- promote good health
- help them to understand and manage risk and danger
- take action (if you have concerns)
Common Features of
safeguarding
Common Features of
safeguarding
In groups
- Define Child Protection
- Define Safeguarding
In groups
Where does child protection sit?
Where does child protection sit?
Safeguarding
Safeguarding is a relatively new term which is broader than ‘child protection’ as it also includes prevention
Safeguarding children and young people covers:
- protecting them from maltreatment
- preventing impairment of health or development
- ensuring they are safe and cared for in school or FE college (or other setting)
- enabling them to have best life chances and enter adulthood successfully
Principles of Safeguarding:
- Child centred
- Rooted in child development
- Focused on outcomes for children
- Holistic in approach
- Ensuring equality of opportunity
- Involving of children and families
- Building on strengths as well as identifying difficulties
- Multi/Inter-agency in approach
- A continuing process not an event
- Providing and reviewing services
- Informed by evidence
Child Protection
Part of safeguarding and promoting welfare
- Activity undertaken to protect specific children suffering, or at risk of suffering, significant harm
- Local Authorities have a legal duty (Children Act 1989) to investigate
- We have a responsibility to work in partnership to safeguard and protect children and vulnerable adults.
In your group :
Discuss and record on a flip chart, three
- policies
- procedures or
- practices
that your organisation/setting has in place to help ensure the safeguarding of your learners
Teachers' Responsibilities
Provide a safe environment in which children can learn a...
What are your roles and responsibilities?
- Provide a safe environment in which children can learn and develop
- Identify children who may be in need of extra help or who are suffering
- Be aware of the signs of abuse and neglect in order to be able to identify children who suffer
- Be alert to changes in children's behaviour
- Be aware of systems and policies within their schools (staff induction)
- Be aware that may be asked to support social workers to take decisions
Child abuse
- When a child is suffering, or is likely to suffer, significant harm, as a result of someone inflicting harm or failing to act to prevent harm
- May happen in the child’s family, or in a community or institutional setting
- A ‘child’ is anyone under the age of 18.
Child abuse ...
- Child abuse is a major public health problem all over the world.
- According to Selwyn et al. child abuse is defined as “the non-accidental physical injury, minimal or fatal, inflicted upon children by persons caring for them.”
- Types of abuse: physical, sexual and emotional abuse and neglect.
- Neglect can be as damaging to a child as physical abuse.
Research shows:
- In 2003, National Children's Homes (NCH) published the number of children who recorded on the child protection register :
4,200 children under year 1
7,600 children between 1-4 years
7,600 children between 5-9 years
7,000 children between 10-15 years
- In 2002, the most commonly recorded risk category was neglect (39%) and the emotional abuse (17%) (DoH, 2003)
- In 2016, the most common primary need for children was neglect (50.6%) and emotional abuse (35.3%) (DoE, 2016)
- Over 2,800 children were identified as needing protection from sexual abuse in 2016/17
Characteristics of children in need: 2017 to 2018 England
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/762527/Characteristics_of_children_in_need_2017-18.pdf
Research shows:
- SEVEN children DIE every day as a result of child abuse and neglect
- 'It is estimated that up to one million children may have been exposed to domestic violence in the UK, with significant consequences for their social and emotional development in childhood and later life
- 83% of abuse is commited by a child's biological parents
Child abuse statistics...
- Many parents who abuse their children were themselves victims of child abuse
- Children with disabilities are at increased risk from abuse (DoH, 1999)
1. Parents
- who themeselves have been abused
- who have experienced poor parenting themselves
- very young parents, who may be unaware of the child's needs
- who have unrealistic expectations of their child's behaviour
- who experienced poverty, poor housing and social isolation
- who have low self-esteem
- with history of alcohol or drug abuse
- With mental health issues
- where the child was an unwanted pregnancy
2. Children
- A child with disability: Physical care could become frustrated -parents taking it out on the child
- An eldest child: Will be given more responsibilities - being held accountable for problems (Emotioanly and physically abuse)
- Looked-after children (by the state)
- A loner: Child without friends - easiest target for paedophiles
- A child who cries a lot or is difficult to feed: Parents who are tired and stressed can find it harder to control their emotions
3. Children with disabilities
3. Children with disabilities
- They receive less information on abuse and their rights
- They are more dependent on physical care from different people
- They less likely to tell what happened, due to communication barriers
- They may be more likely to have low self-esteem and feel less in control
- They may find it difficult to distinguish between good and bad touches.
Pair Activity
Create a power point :
1. The types of abuse (and definitions)
2. The signs
3. Who gets abused?
4. How can we prevent abuse?
Don't forget to use
references
- Different types of Physical abuse:
- Physical abuse happens when a child is physically hurt or injured
- Different types of Physical abuse:
hitting
pinching
shaking
throwing
poisoning
burning or scaling
drowing
suffocating
shaking a child
(Working Together to Safeguard Children, 1999)
- Deliberately causes ill health to a child from whom they are looking after (Munchausen syndrome by proxy)
- Children may be more at risk when parents have problems with :
- drugs
- alcohol
- mental health
- Babies and disabled children
higher risk of suffering physical abuse
serious and long-lasting harm (brain injuries)
Physical Indicators:
- Unexplained multiple bruises in unusual places
- Frequent bruises at different stages of healing
- Bruises in the shape of objects, e.g belts, rope
- Internal injuries which can cause pain, fever, vomiting
- Any bruising on a young baby who is not yet mobile
- Unexplained/untreated burns and scalds
- Unexplained/untreated fractures
- Cigarette burns
- Bite marks
- Fingertip bruises
Behavioural Indicators:
- Unlikely explanations for injuries
- Aggressive
- Reluctant to change clothing for swimming or PE
- Playing inappropriately with or without toys
- Poor social skills
- Low self-esteem
- Unusually fearful
Activity :
- On a skin map, enter the common sites for accidental injury
- On the same skin map, enter sites for non-accidental injury and identify the types of injuries
Accidental and non accidental injuries
https://www.ndna.org.uk/NDNA/Training/Quizzes/non_accidental_bruising_Quiz.aspx
- A child is sexually abused when they are forced or persuaded to take part in sexually activity
- This is where a child is made to take part in sexual activities, whether or not they know what’s happening and whether or not there is a threat of violence
- Sexual abuse is not solely perpetrated by adult males.
- Women can commit acts of sexual abuse, as can other children.
Physical contact
Contact abuse involves touching activities where an abuser makes physical contact with a child, including penetration
- sexual touching of any part of the body (with or without clothes)
- rape or penetartion by putting an object or body part inside a child's mouth, vagina or anus
- forcing of encouraging a child to take part in sexual activity
- making a child take their clothes off, touch someone else's genitals or masturbate.
Non-contact abuse involves non-touching activities, such as
- grooming
- exploitation
- persuading children to perform sexual acts (internet)
- encouraging a child to watch or hear sexual acts
- meeting a child following sexual grooming with the internet of abusing them
- showing pornography to a child
- sexually exploiting a child for money or power
- allowing someone else to make, view or distribute child abuse images
- online abuse including making, viewing or distributing child abuse images
Grooming...
- Groomers they will spend a long time gaining a child's trust
- Groomers may try to gain the trust of the family to allow them to be left alone with a child by:
- pretending to be someone they are not
- offering advice or understanding
- buying gifts
- giving the child attention
- taking them on trips, outings or holidays
- using their professional position or reputation
Abusers who groom are often:
Group Activity
- Identify the physical and behavioural signs of sexual abuse
- Who might be the victims of sexual abuse?
- Who might be the perpetrator?
Physical Indicators of sexual abuse
Physical Indicators of sexual abuse
- Pain, itching or discomfort in the genital area
- Difficulty when having a bowel movement
- Eating disorders (bulimia or anorexia nervosa)
- Torn, stained or bloody underwear
- Bruising/bites to breasts, lower abdomen, thighs, genital, or anal areas
- Sexually transmitted diseases or pregrancy
Behavioural Indicators
- Nightmares, night terrors and sleep disturbances
- Dramatic behavioural changes, causing disruption of child care activities
- Aggressive or Overly co-operative
- Destructive or anti-social behaviour
- Apparent sadness almost all the time
- Poor relationships with other children
- Lack of self-confidence
- Frequent lying without apparent reason
- May fear going home or being left alone
- Fear of adults or specific adults
- Self- destructive behaviour (e.g. pulling out hair, biting oneself, wrist-cutting)
Who gets sexually abused?
- At higher risk are kids with
- a disability
- a history of previous sexual abuse
- experienced other forms of abuse
- a disrupted home life
target children who are neglected by their parents, or children without family or friends
Girls are being abused by a family member
Boys are being abused by a stranger
Girls aged between 15 and 17 years are at higher risk
Social media, chats rooms and web forums
Preventing child sexual abuse
Emotional abuse
- Is an ongoing emotional maltreatment or emotional neglect of a child
- Emotional or psychological abuse can seriously damage a child's :
emotional health emotional development
- Is the most difficult and under-estimated form of abuse to detect because there are no physical indicators.
Group Activity
- Identify who might be emotionally abusing a child
- Identify what the abuser may be doing
- Identify what an emotionally abused child might look and behave like
Types of emotional abuse
- Humiliating or constantly criticizing a child
- Threats, shouting at a child or calling them names
- Making the child the subject of jokes
- Using sarcasm to hurt a child
- Blaming
- Manipulating a child
- Being absent, not giving love and attention
- Exposing a child to distress events or interactions such as domestic abuse or drug taking
- Never saying anything kind
- Never expressing positive feelings
- Never congratulating a child on successes
Characteristics
of a emotionally abused child
Characteristics
of a emotional...
- Attention seeking
- Withdrawn a...
- Attention seeking
- Withdrawn and isolated
- Stealing or telling lies
- Inability to have fun
- Low self-esteem
- Speech disorders
- Inability to play
- Poor concentration
- Developmental delay
- Fearful of parents/carers- reluctant to go home
- Physical symptoms of emotional abuse or neglect are not obvious
- Changes in emotions are a normal part of growing up, so it can be really difficult to tell if a child is being emotionally abused
Characteristics of babies and pre-school children :
- be overly-affectionate towards strangers or people they haven't known for very long
- lack confidence or become anxious
- not appear to have a close relationship with their parents (e.g when being taken from nursery)
- be nasty towards other children and animals
- be aggressive
- struggle to control strong emotions
- seem isolated from their parents
- lack of social skills
- have few, if any, friends
Signs of emotional abuse in children
- Children are more at risk when their families a...
- Children are more at risk when their families are under pressure or additional stress like:
- mental health problems
- domestic abuse
- drug or alcohol addiction
- relationship problems
- family arguments
- financial problems or unemployment
- immigration
- language problems (communication
difficulties or non speaking english)
Neglect :
- Is the ongoing failure to meet a child's basic physical and/or psychological needs
- Educational Neglect
- Emotional Neglect
- Medical Neglect
Neglect ...
- Children who are neglected also suffer form other types of abuse
- Neglect is not always straightforward to identify
Group Activity
- What constitutes neglect?
- Identify the physical and behavioural signs and symptoms of neglect
Physical Indicators of Neglect
- Clothing is inadequate, dirty, torn or inappropriate for weather conditions
- Leave in dangerous conditions (around drugs, alcohol or violence
- Untreated medical problems
Behavioural Indicators of Neglect
- Lack of interest, difficult to stimulate
- Persistently late to school or frequently missing school
- Withdrawn
- Low self-esteem
- Aggressive
- Self-harm
- All children have the right to be kept safe from abuse or neglect
Summary
- Abuse can seriously affects children's health and development
- Early Years Professionals are in a unique position to observe signs of abuse and neglect, or changes in bahaviour which may indicate a child may be being abused or neglected
- Physical
- Emotional
- Sexual
- Neglect