Notes on the current legislation, guidelines, policies and procedures within own UK home nation affecting the safeguarding of children and young people.

All schools need an environment where children feel ‘safe’, they have the right to deal with any circumstances where they feel a child is concerned with a matter towards abuse or neglect. Legislations are put in place along side guidelines and policies to ensure the health, safety and security of all children.
The legislation for safeguarding says that we need to protect children from maltreatment. Help to prevent impairment of children’s health and development by ensuring that children are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care, and taking action to enable all children and young people to have the best possible outcome.
The action we take to promote the outcome is outlined in school procedures and policies. Schools develop a range of polices to ensure the safety of pupils, the policies show parents and teachers a layout of reporting procedures that they must follow.
An outline of current legislation is the disclosure and barring service, (DBS) this is taking out on anyone who will be caring, uncharged or alone with children at anytime, this includes checking criminal records from two barred lists it will detect any form of police record to inform employers. It is then by employers discretion that you would be employed for working with children.
Safeguarding has replaced the term ‘child protecting’ and has only been developed in the last fifty years. The children act 1989 identifies the responsibilities as a parent to ensure the safety of any child. It states that local authorities have a duty to investigate children who are in significant harm, or who are in need.
The Education Act 2002 then gave local education authorities and all those working in schools the right to ensure that children are free from harm. The safeguarding policy helps to protect children and young people from abuse and enables staff to know what to do if their worried and the reporting procedures. In 2013 21,493 cases of sexual abuse against children in the UK were recorded as discovered by schools.
Child protection is a government-run service designed to protect children and young people who are under the age of 18. Child protection is a part of safeguarding and promoting welfare. It refers to the activity that is undertaken to protect specific children who are suffering, or are likely to suffer significant harm. Schools will use child protection as a part of their policies and procedures for safeguarding.