The new report  How safe are our children?, from the NSPCC, identifies nine factors which put children at a higher risk of abuse or neglect.

These factors include living with domestic violence, parental mental ill-health, living in poverty and debt and children with a mental or physical impairment.

Domestic Violence

Here are some of the facts and figures from the report:

“A recent analysis of 268 serious case reviews (SCRs) showed that 34 per cent of the cases examined were found to have domestic abuse as a risk factor”

“Children who witness domestic violence often experience severe emotional effects as a result”

 ”It is estimated that 14% of 0-17 year olds have been exposed to domestic violence”

Emotional abuse, sometimes called psychological abuse, is probably the category of abuse which is the most difficult to define and also to recognise that it might be taking place. Working Together 2013 states that “some level of emotional abuse is involved in all types of maltreatment of a child, though it may occur alone”.  Emotional abuse is defined in the 2013 document as “persistent emotional maltreatment to cause severe and persistent adverse effects on the child’s emotional development.”

The characteristics of emotional abuse are varied and may include the following:

• Conveying to a child that they are worthless or unloved, inadequate, or valued only insofar as they meet the needs of another person.
• Not giving the child opportunities to express their views, deliberately silencing them or ‘making fun’ of what they say or how they communicate
• Age or developmentally inappropriate expectations being imposed on children
• Interactions that are beyond a child’s developmental capability, as well as overprotection and limitation of exploration and learning, or preventing the child participating in normal social interaction
• Seeing or hearing the ill-treatment of another
• serious bullying (including cyber bullying), causing children frequently to feel frightened or in danger,
• the exploitation or corruption of children

To learn more about child abuse and how you can safeguard the children you work with click here to see details of our online child protection courses.

The latest government statutory guidance, Working Together to Safeguard Children 2013, identifies four main categories of child abuse; Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual abuse and Neglect.

The guidance gives the following definition for the generic meaning of child abuse:

“A form of maltreatment of a child. Somebody may abuse or neglect a child by inflicting harm, or by failing to act to prevent harm. Children may be abused in a family or in an institutional or community setting by those known to them or, more rarely, by others (e.g. via the internet). They may be abused by an adult or adults, or another child or children.”

Definitions of the four categories of abuse are also given within the guidance, which can be accessed here.

The Children’s Society have published a new guide for the parents and carers of children who are at risk of running away. The guide, What to do if your child goes missing, has been written with assistance from parents who have experience of their children running away from home. The guide includes the following sections:

• What to do before contacting the police
• Contacting the police
• When your child returns home
• Why do young people run away from home?
• Other things you can do
• Where to go for further information and support.

Children who go missing have been identified as being very vulnerable through research by The Children’s Society.  Their research found that  a quarter of young runaways are forced to leave home, often fleeing violence, abuse and chaos at home then once on the street they are at risk of physical abuse and sexual exploitation.

If you work in a school or education setting how can you be sure that all the necessary child protection requirements are being fulfilled?

Assured Safeguarding “ Ensuring that leaders know that children are being kept safe”, is a booklet produced  for leaders in schools and early years settings. Produced by safeguarding leads and the SHA in the East Midlands it poses questions to help leaders reflect on how they know whether their management procedures assure them that children are being kept safe.

Questions for Head teachers & leaders include:

1. How do I know that all staff give priority to keeping children safe and feeling safe?
2. Am I confident that policy and procedures follow the Local Safeguarding Children Board and Local Authority guidance? When were they last updated?
3. What do I do to ensure we are working well with other agencies?
4. How do I make sure that relationships with parents and carers help us to keep children safe?
5. Do I have a clear, robust communication policy and procedures for staff, pupils, parents and carers?
6. How do I ensure that all staff checks have been carried out?
7. What processes do I have in place for the early identification of vulnerable children and young people?
8. Do I know that all staff have received the appropriate level of training?
9. How do I know that this training is helping to keep children safe?
10. What do I do to help staff understand that safeguarding is our core business?

Helping Schools meet their Child Protection responsibilities

ChildProtectionCompany.com provides a range of resources specifically written for schools and educational settings to enable child protection responsibilities to be fulfilled.  These resources include:

• Online and face to face child protection training at both an introductory and advanced (lead role) level
• Support packages with comprehensive checklists and policy documents
• e-Safety training for school staff and a separate online awareness programme for parents.
• DBS (formely CRB) checks via our partner company

Taken from Assured Safeguarding -For leaders in schools & early years settings below is a definition of what Ofsted is looking for in terms of outstanding safeguarding practice:

‘The school is a leader of high quality practice, ensuring, for example that its
procedures are constantly updated to reflect developing technologies. The school
has excellent quality assurance and risk assessment systems, which are routinely
informed by pupils’ and parents’ views, including those who may have barriers
to communication. There is a comprehensive awareness of safeguarding issues
among the governors and staff at all levels, all of whom receive regular training on
safeguarding, in particular child protection. As a result, a realistic and proportionate
approach to safety and safeguarding permeates all aspects of the school’s life.
The school’s collaborative working with other key agencies is exemplary.’ Ofsted.

The NSPCC have published a new leaflet Emotional neglect and emotional abuse in pre-school children which looks at the latest research into this type of abuse.  The information leaflet provides definitions, behaviours to look out for (in both the mother and the child) and details of action to take when concerns arise.  The extract below provides examples of emotional neglect and emotional abuse.

Examples of emotional neglect include:

•  ignoring the child’s need to interact
•  failing to express positive feelings to the child, showing no emotion in interactions with the child
•  denying the child opportunities for interacting and communicating with peers or adults.

Examples of emotional abuse include:

• persistently telling a child they are worthless or unloved
• bullying a child or frequently making them frightened
• persistently ridiculing, making fun of or criticising a child.

The leaflet is aimed at all professionals working with preschool children including health visitor, childminders and pre-school staff.

Ofsted has released updated documents in January 2013 for Childminders and Yearly Years providers.

One document:  Records, policies and notification requirements of the Early Years Register  is a fact sheet setting out which written records and policies childminders must keep.  This fact sheet is designed to assists childminders to ensure they meet the legal requirements of the Childcare Act 2006  and the safeguarding, welfare, learning and development needs of young children; as set out in the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage.

Documentation childminders are required to maintain include records of:

• complaints received and their outcomes
• parental permission for outings
• personal information and contact details for each child in their care
• all medicines administered to children
• accidents and first aid treatment provided to children whilst in their care
• each child’s dietary needs.

The Government’s Working Together to Safeguard Children 2012 document states the definition of children, as in the Children Acts 1989 and 2004 respectively, as “a child is anyone who has not yet reached their 18th birthday. The fact that a child has reached 16 years of age, is living independently or is in further education, is a member of the armed forces, is in hospital or in custody in the secure estate for children and young people, does not change his or her status or entitlement to services or protection under the Children Act 1989″.

The document is a guidance of what is expected of organisations, individually and jointly, to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and will update the 2010 version of the document of the same name.

ChildLine is a charity organisation set up some 25 years ago by Esther Rantzen to provide a counselling service to children. Each year, a report is published which, as well as setting out statistical data, identifies what children see as their most important concerns.

Statistics show that ChildLine received 1.5 million requests for help last year – by telephone and email.

This year’s report shows that children are most concerned about family conflict, second was bullying (with 31,599 enquiries) and third was physical harm.

The analysis shows that bullying is starting to affect younger children with a definite change in the type of bullying. Cyberbullying is now more prevalent than in previous years, with a 7% rise showing on ChildLine’s statistics. The report goes on to suggest that the support offered to those being bullied is becoming more and more inadequate and therefore ineffective.