Your Role in Safeguarding Children
Your Role in Safeguarding Children
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As a staff member in a healthcare setting you may frequently come into contact with children, young people and their families or carers. You have a responsibility to play your part in keeping children safe. By acting on your concerns you may help to prevent abuse, or further neglect, of a child from continuing.
Everyone working with children and their families or carers in society has a responsibility to work together to try to stop and prevent the maltreatment of children and young people. This includes people working in healthcare settings, schools, the police, social workers and many others.
Remember that no one needs to (or should) act alone when they have concerns about child abuse; in your Trust, GP surgery or other healthcare setting, contact your line manager or another senior person if you are concerned.
Key members in your local child safeguarding team outside the healthcare setting are listed on the right.
The UK Government has produced a guide to inter-agency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children - a link to the guide is available in Resources [6].
You have a duty to the child. You have witnessed a concerning interaction with physical and emotional abuse. You cannot know at this stage what else is happening in this child's life
Direct confrontation by a single member of the staff is usually unhelpful and may lead to an escalation of concerning behaviour. Members of the safeguarding team are skilled at having this sort of difficult conversation with parents and carers. Further information may be needed beforehand
Police may be needed urgently in some concerning situations. However, in this case the most appropriate action is to talk to your line manager and arrange for a member of the safeguarding team to help
Referral to Social Services will be done after discussion with the mother. The safeguarding team will usually do this
Case Example
Carla is at the medical tent at a large festival. A woman and her two young children (a boy aged about 3 years and a girl aged 8 years old) come to visit the woman's friend who is receiving treatment for seizures.
Carla notes that the children are scruffily dressed and seem very subdued. The mother asks to take the girl to the Portaloo. Carla visits the toilets herself, and on opening the door, she hears the mother speak very nastily to her daughter and then hit her on the back. The mother looks embarrassed before bursting into tears.
What should Carla do? What would you do?
Comfort the mother and do no more about it
Pretend not to notice; think the mother is probably upset about her husband and do nothing
Accuse the mother of harming her child
Ring the police
Refer the girl to social services
Discuss her concerns with her line manager or the event manager on duty
Ring Child Line or the NSPCC
Answer
Answer
Speak to her line manger or event manager
You have a duty to the child. You have witnessed a concerning interaction with physical and emotional abuse. You cannot know at this stage what else is happening in this child's life
Direct confrontation by a single member of the staff is usually unhelpful and may lead to an escalation of concerning behaviour. Members of the safeguarding team are skilled at having this sort of difficult conversation with parents and carers. Further information may be needed beforehand
Police may be needed urgently in some concerning situations. However, in this case the most appropriate action is to talk to your line manager and arrange for a member of the safeguarding team to help
Referral to Social Services will be done after discussion with the mother. The safeguarding team will usually do this
The Event manager arrives. The children are sitting quietly, the mother has stopped crying and is talking to her friend. What should the Event manager do next?
The event manager should reassure Carla that it was just a one-off and do nothing
Contact the The XL Teams safeguarding team and discuss the case with them
Ask the mother to leave
Answer
Answer
The Event Manger would discuss the incident with a Safeguarding Manager (If not present)
The XL Team has a duty to the child. A concerning interaction with physical and emotional abuse has been witnessed. You cannot know at this stage what else is happening in this child's life. Asking the mother to leave is not addressing the problem.
The event manager contacts a member of the XL Team's safeguarding team who comes to talk to the mother. The mother reveals that her friends illness is causing her a lot of stress as she is worried that her friend is terminally ill, and she is a single mother who relies on her for support.
The safeguarding team member discusses with the mother the witnessed hitting of her 8-year-old daughter and the concerns about both children seeming very subdued. The safeguarding team member suggests that perhaps the mother is struggling to keep up with things, as she wonders whether the children are normally better dressed than this.
The safeguarding team member explains to the mother they are professionally obliged to refer the family to children's social care, but that the main reason for this is to obtain support for the mother and her two children. Other helpful people for support in this case might be:
GP
Health visitor/school nurse
Voluntary bodies
Sharing Information
Social services will assess the circumstances around this family to ascertain whether or not the children are at risk of harm.
This is an enquiry carried out over several weeks talking to all agencies involved with the family in order to find out what the family's strengths and weaknesses are.
These agencies include those shown in the diagram.
Sharing information in this way is a key part of safeguarding.
By sharing information, agencies are able to assess the level of risk the child might be exposed to. They can then together decide what the next steps will be - either supporting the child and family or, if there is a greater risk, taking action to protect the child from further harm.
Children’s social care
Children's social care will:
Take a lead in the enquiry and management of child protection cases
Know whether or not the child and/or family has been previously involved with children's social care
Police
Police will have knowledge of any previous criminal involvement of the child/parents/carers and records of call-outs to the family house regarding incidents of domestic abuse.
Health visitor/school nurse
A health visitor/school nurse will be aware of issues relating to the health and development of the child/young person; they may be aware of issues affecting other children and/or parents in the family.
School/nursery teacher
A school/nursery teacher will have a good knowledge of the child's day-to-day demeanour and developmental/academic strengths and weaknesses.
Paediatrician
A paediatrician will be aware of significant medical issues that may affect the child and have expertise in medical aspects of child abuse.
GP
A GP may well have a knowledge of the whole family, for example parental mental health or substance abuse issues.
Others
The housing department, mental health team, substance abuse team, midwife, etc. may also provide vital information.
Youth workers can assess and support young people at risk of or involved in criminal exploitation, sexual exploitation or serious youth violence.
Looked-After Children
Most children stay with their parents after a child protection inquiry. They are closely monitored for a variable period of time to ensure that the support offered to the children and parents/carers is making a positive difference to the child's life.
Occasionally children are taken into care. This follows a legal process and the decision is taken by a judge after all the evidence is presented. These children and young people are called 'looked-after children' and the local authority becomes responsible for their welfare.
Session Summary
Key Points
All children have the right to grow up in a secure and loving environment that caters for all aspects of their development, physically, intellectually, socially, emotionally, behaviourally and sexually
Child abuse is the maltreatment of a child through action or lack of proper care by parents or adult carers
There are four categories of child abuse:
Physical abuse
Emotional abuse
Neglect
Sexual abuse
Domestic abuse damages children and may indicate that there are other types of child abuse occurring
Multiple forms of abuse may be affecting the child
Any type of abuse can cause long-term damage to a child both during childhood and when they have grown up
All staff in healthcare settings coming into contact with children need to be aware of their responsibilities to safeguard children
Awareness of extra-familial risks and the consequent increased risk of involvement in youth violence and criminal exploitation
Next Steps
Continue to the Safeguarding Children Level 1 eAssessment. This should be completed to demonstrate the required knowledge and understanding and to complete the training. Remember to also familiarise yourself with local procedures.
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