Task A (1) ‘Duty of care’ means to exercise a degree of attention and caution to avoid negligence which would lead to harm. Duty of care in a childcare setting is keeping children and young people safe, protecting them not only from physical harm but also emotional and sexual harm. Working with children and young people need a significant amount of duty of care, the younger and more vulnerable the child the greater the duty of care because of a child’s limited ability to care for themselves. Good vigilance is needed to keep a child safe, for example to foresee and cope with potential dangers. This extends to respecting the rights, cultural beliefs and values of the parents and family.
(2) Duty of care contributes to the safeguarding and protection aspects of a setting. An example would be carrying out risk assessments to prevent potential hazards which would then reduce the risk of harm to the children. A further example would be setting clear boundaries/ expectations by communicating with the children what is unacceptable behaviour. Consistent reinforcement of this may be necessary to discourage the children from repeating hazardous behaviour that could cause harm to themselves or others. Understanding of the signs of neglect/abuse if any signs/indicators of abuse or neglect were noticed they should be reported to the relevant third parties to protect the child. Making observations and assessing children help to check to see if individual children are progressing and developing at suitable rates, if not so then I would need to take relevant action with other parties such as parents or professionals
Task B Example of potential conflict orDilemma | How to manage the risk | Where to get additional support | Risk taking – such as a child accidently slipping of a step of a climbing frame and the child’s parents asking for that equipment to be put away, this would conflict with all children’s opportunity to develop and learn | The