Scenario 1: a student you do 1:1 work with is very withdrawn. She looks like she hasn’t had a bath for days, has dark bags under her eyes and bruise marks on her wrists.
When abuse is suspected it is important that the individual’s health and well-being is seen as the priority. This is why the local child protection officer should be notified so that they can investigate the situation to prevent the child from harming themselves or the abuser from harming them. Even though it may be distressing for the child the means that the child protection officer will go to, to improve the child’s situation is worth the end goal of the benefits the child will feel once it is resolved. The individual is lacking in hygiene and clearly tired, so by someone intervening solutions can be found and support put in place to fix the problems that are preventing the child from developing and living a healthy life. If abuse is the case the child may need to be taken away from home this could be temporary but in unfortunate cases could become permanent unless they become adopted, but is important that children have stability. This may affect their social, intellectual and emotional development especially if they are at a young age because they need to form a strong bond with a primary caregiver which may not be possible in care depending on its quality. She may also get bullied because she is in care or may find it hard to concentrate at school. All these factors may affect this individual in the long term because it could affect the way her personality develops, but it is important to understand that it is more important to remove any young individual from a situation that is potentially harmful to them so they can have a good start to life, so this is why the responses are justified.
Scenario 2: after mid-morning break a helpful student has tried to wash the kettle in the sink. She is