P5- explain the strategies and methods that can be used to support children, young people and their families where abuse is suspected or confirmed.

There are many factors that could lead the individual to suspect a child to be abused. These factors could be s howed through the individuals apprentice or the way in which they act. Health professionals use a variety of strategies and responses to help and support children and young people.

For example if an individual’s self-esteem, confidence and resilience is low there become more vurable and at target for abuse. Whereas if a child or a young person has high self-esteem they will confident and less likely to be a target of abuse they are more likely to be talkative and notice that they are becoming a target of abuse. A child or young person with low self-esteem will be vulnerable as they are less likely speak out. To address this health and social care professionals should make the individuals feel valued and the child or young person should be aware and reminded of the qualities they have.

This strategy would be appropriate in some situations but not others for example if an individual is beginning to act out at school this could be a clear sign there self esteem is quite low as they are putting a front on rather than showing weakness, by addressing this low self esteem individuals will begin to feel better about them self and express there feelings. The more we work on an individual self esteem the less likely they are to be abuse or to be passive when being abused.

Another strategy used to help children and young people is sharing information that is appropriate. Guiding children and young people to share the correct responsible information which will protect children from exploitation and abuse for example children and young people need to be aware of their bodies and what the function of main parts is and how to protect this. If children are educated on what is the function for main body parts is they are likely to recognise if this is being abused.

This strategy is very appropriate in school and youth settings i.e. guide, youth clubs and child health care. If it is shown being positive and normal for individuals to speak out about personal issues such as abuse. Promoting education and guidance service about the correct way things should be such as body parts and what should be accepted of someone at there age, this will offer information to children and young people and will allow them to judge for themselves what is right and wrong and weather they need to seek advice.

Health care professionals need to insure that they offer guideless and care to children and young people one strategy for this is to help them with sharing information. Health care professionals need to encouraging children and young people to have open relationships with others, it is important for children and health care professionals to build up a relationship as it is important for the child needs to trust the professionals as they will hopefully feel they can talk in confidence. Hopefully when this approachable relationship has formed staff and professionals will be able to show the child or young person the difference between good and bad secrets.

I believe that this strategies can be affective in some cases but not in other for example in schools and other social care environments there could be an ‘open door day’ or an anemones phone line or message box which enables individuals to communicate with health and social care professionals building up a close bond without the worries and being able to reveal there secrets in a controlled way. This may not be an affective strategy as individuals may become reliant on the health and social care professional and being to disclose information which may put the professional in a tricky situation weather to brake the individual’s true in there best interests . Another issue with the strategy may be that individuals may not open up to the health and social care professionals and believe there is no need for them to build a relationship.

Another example of a strategy that could be used is respect. Respect can be given and received , respect needs to be a common ground with both children and young people and health care professionals. Respect needs to be earnt or worked on over time. If respect is built up then there is a bigger chance of the child trusting and interacting with the health care professional affectively. Unfortunately in many cases respect can be easily broken therefore the relationship between staff and children and young people has broken down.

Respect should always be a strategy used when supporting children and young people. But unfortunately they may be instances where respect either brakes down or is only one sided. Respect should be the first and most important thing health and social care professionals are aiming to show, if an individual is going to reveal personal and privet information about themselves they will need to feel respected and have a full sense of security to do so. Respect needs to be communal when working with vulnerable children and young people for a child to talk about personal issues such as abuse they need to feel respected and respect the individual they are disclosing this information to.

I believe empowering individuals is a good strategy to use in all situations as if an individual is suspected to have been abused then they are less likely to of felt empowered.

A final strategy used by health care professionals is empowering children and young people. If a child or young person knows and understands that they have the rights of their own. It is key for children to be aware of right and wrong and how to act or respond in these circumstances. Empowering children and young people is a good approach/strategy for health care professionals to use. It is vital children and young people understand and know there right, if a child is aware of their rights they are more likely to notice when there human rights are being denied. Health care professionals should be encourage children and young people to seek help if they feel they are being treated unfairly.

I believe empowering individuals is a good strategy to use in all situations as if an individual is suspected to have been abused then they are less likely to of felt empowered. If a child is aware of what the should be resaving and there rights then they are more likely to communicate with health and social care professional’s there concerns.

P4- Explain appropriate responses when child maltreatment or abuse is suspected

Although no child care provider wants to be put in the situation of having to report a suspicion of child abuse or neglect, providers should be aware that they have legal and professional responsibilities and know the protocols for making a report to child protective services (CPS). There are many safe guarding statages put into place to insure that they children and young people we care for are protected.

Whistleblowing- It is very important for staff to be encouraged to know importance of whistle blowing, whistle blowing is when a member of staff is aware of wrong doing and acts upon this. If a worker has previously reported their concerns and nothing is done then they can whistle blow to a higher member of staff or the safe guarding manager at their work. For example if an individual has concerns in a care home and they have previously reported this to the manager and nothing has been done they have the right to report this to the ‘quality care commission’. It is important to staff to be made aware that if they whistle blow they are not able to be dismissed because of this.

Reporting arrangements- ` In all health and social care environments there needs to be a strict reporting proses for example in my work placement there is a poster on a number of walls indicating the proses staff need to go through when reporting suspected abuse. The poster at my work placement show who to contact over minor queries regarding abuse and official reports of abuse.

Sequence of events- Commonly when regarding abuse there is a sequence of events leading up to death. It is important for health care professionals to observe this sequence and intervene before it become too late. Health and social care professionals have a duty to report noticed sequences to line managers, nominated child protection officers and other care professionals who will investigate this case further.

Security of records- When dealing with suspected abuse there will be a lot of personal privet information recorded. It is important for details of children who are at risk of physical, emotional or sexual abuse or neglect, and for whom there is a child protection plan. Recordings need to be kept in a safe locked area that is only accessible to professionals. If confidentially is broken this can lead to prosecution and police involvement.

Implementation of safe working practices - When dealing with vulnerable children it is important for staff to be aware of all policies and procedures within the work place. The polices were written to protect and safeguard children, young people, staff and other members of the public from danger. These polices will include health and saftey, and child protection.

Polices and laws have been designed to protect vulnerable children and young people for example:

Data protection act: The Data Protection Act (D.P.A) is a law passed by the British government in 1984 and updated in 1998.It sets out rules for people who use or store data about living people and gives rights to those people whose data has been collected. The law applies to data held on computers or any sort of storage system, even paper records. The law covers personal data which are facts like your address, telephone number, e-mail address, job history. Confidentially Confidentiality is at the center of maintaining trust between children and young people and health and social care providers. As a health and social care provider, they have access to sensitive personal information about children and young people and you have a legal and ethical duty to keep this information confidential, unless the patient consents to the disclosure, disclosure is required by law or is necessary in the public interest.

Individual Work polices are polices organized by the care setting insuring that there is a structured procedure in place to insure all laws are being met.

Children’s act 1989 allocated duties to local authorities, courts, parents and other agencies in the United Kingdom, to ensure children are safeguarded and their welfare is promoted. It centers on the idea that children are best cared for within their own families; however, it also makes provisions for instances when parents and families do not co-operate with statutory bodies

It can be very hard to call when to intervene weather a child has simply fall and hurt themselves or is there reason to suspect the child is being hurt, the aim of the legislations above are to help to guide health and social care professionals on issues such as above.

All polices and procedures aim to protect vulnerable children and young people and provide a frame work for all health and social care professional to work form , but on the other hand if a health and social care professional was trying to deal with a case and they had to take into consideration all the minor points of these policies and procedures then they would be overwhelmed , typically in most cases health professionals have to go with the gut instincts when addressing a particular case as they cannot confide to all aspects of the polices and procedures in quick timing. Another negative about having all polices and procedure is that they are constantly being reviewed and updated which makes it difficulty to apply them within each particular case. Polices and procedures are very lengthy and usually written using very tequnical language which makes it difficult for individuals to understand and incorporate them into particular case. Polices and procedures can also have a negative affect on responses to suspected abuse cases as health and social care professionals may fear not compliding with all polices and procedure therefore may or may not act on things when needed.

(Sources of the information used: Wikipedia)

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Unit 10 – caring for Children and young people Molly Harvey Pass