When an individual is caring for children and young people they have a responsibility to make the safety of these people a priority, doing all they can within their power to protect them. There are many different types of abuse that may occur and it is important for care workers to have awareness and knowledge regarding types of maltreatment, risk of maltreatment and indicators of maltreatment in order to take appropriate actions and promote the safety of the child or young person.

If someone is to deliberately cause a child physical harm this is physical abuse. Physical abuse may be displayed in the form of hitting, kicking, biting, drowning, suffocating or using items within the environment to cause harm such as throwing objects at the child or by using a match or oven to burn them.
There may be many signs and indicators of physical abuse. Children often fall over and bump into objects due to poor awareness and coordination, meaning they may have bruises and cuts on their body. It is important for care workers to keep this in mind and maintain perspective of the situation. However it may be cause for concern when an injury is unexplained, for instance if the child has injuries that the care worker has not been informed about for example if it happened in the morning when a different staff member was on duty and they did not pass along or record this information, or if the child can't seem to properly explain where the injury came from for example by telling the care worker “I tripped over my toys and hurt my knee.”
It may also be cause for concern and an indicator of abuse if the bruises are of large quantity or in areas which imply self-defence for example on the forearm if used to defend and protect themselves. Bruising may be caused by hitting or nipping, and if the child has been gripped forcefully there may be bruising in the shape of finger and hand