Safeguarding means:
• Protecting children from abuse and maltreatment.
• Preventing harm to children’s health or development.
• Ensuring children grow up with the provision of safe and effective care.
• Taking action to enable all children and young people to have the best outcomes.
There are six principles of safeguarding as defined by the Care Act 2014:
• Prevention – The act of organisations working to stop abuse before it happens, raising awareness, training staff and making information easily accessible are all ways that they can demonstrate prevention measures and encourage individuals to ask for help.
• Empowerment – Ensuring people are supported and confident in making their own decisions and giving informed consent.
• Protection – Organisations put measures in place to help stop abuse from occurring and offer help and support to those at risk.
• Proportionality – Ensures that services take each person into account when dealing with abuse, respecting each individual and assessing any risks presented, taking a proportionate and least intrusive response to the issue presented.
• Partnership – Forming partnerships with local communities and other appropriate organisations provides the opportunity to work together, to create solutions, so as they can assist in preventing and detecting risk and abuse.
• Accountability – Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility and accountability and having complete transparency in delivering safeguarding practice makes sure that everyone plays their part when it comes to safeguarding children.
Key Definitions Relevant to Safeguarding Children
A child – is defined as a person who is aged under 18, and includes an unborn child.
A child at risk – is a child who:
• Is experiencing or is at risk of abuse, neglect or other kinds of harm.
• Has needs for care and support (whether or not the authority is meeting any of those needs).
It is important to note that the use of the term ‘at risk’ means that actual abuse or neglect does not need to occur, rather that early interventions to protect a child at risk should be considered to prevent actual harm, abuse and neglect.
The two conditions necessary to demonstrate a child is at risk of abuse or neglect ensures that protection is provided to those with care and support needs who also require actions to secure their safety in the future. Risk of abuse or neglect may be the consequence of one concern or a result of cumulative factors.
Harm is defined as ill treatment; this includes sexual abuse, neglect, emotional abuse and psychological abuse.
It also includes the impairment of physical or mental health (including that suffered from seeing or hearing another person suffer ill treatment) and the impairment of physical, intellectual, emotional, social or behavioural development (including that suffered from seeing or hearing another person suffer ill treatment).
Types of harm include but are not limited to:
• Physical abuse – Hitting, slapping, over or misuse of medication, undue restraint, or inappropriate sanctions.
• Emotional/psychological abuse – Threats of harm or abandonment, coercive control, humiliation, verbal or racial abuse, isolation or withdrawal from services or supportive networks, witnessing abuse of others.
• Sexual abuse – Forcing or enticing a child or young person to take part in sexual activities, whether or not the child is aware of what is happening, including: physical contact, including penetrative or non-penetrative acts; non-contact activities, such as involving children in looking at, or in the production of, pornographic material or watching sexual activities or encouraging children to behave in sexually inappropriate ways.
• Financial abuse – This category will be less prevalent for a child but indicators could be, for example, not meeting their needs for care and support which are provided through direct payments, or complaints that personal property is missing.
• Neglect – Failure to meet basic physical, emotional or psychological needs which is likely to result in impairment of health or development.
In addition to the above, harm can also include the following acts which are not included in the Care Act:
• Cyber bullying – This occurs when someone repeatedly makes fun of another person –online, or repeatedly picks on another person through emails or text messages. It can also involve using online forums with the intention of harming, damaging, humiliating, or isolating another person. It includes various different types of bullying, including racist bullying, homophobic bullying, or bullying related to special education needs and disabilities. The main difference is that, instead of the perpetrator carrying out the bullying face to face, they use technology as a means to do it.
• Forced marriage – This is a term used to describe a marriage in which one or both of the parties are married without their consent or against their will; in the case of children, a person is only able to give their consent if they are over the age of 18 years. A forced marriage differs from an arranged marriage, in which both parties consent to the assistance of a third party in identifying a spouse but this does not apply to the under 18s, unless they are in Scotland which is governed by a different legal system and those 16 years and over may give their consent. The Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 make it a criminal offence to force someone to marry.
• A “mate crime” – Is when “vulnerable people and children are befriended by members of the community who go on to exploit and take advantage of them” (Safety Network Project, ARC). It may not be an illegal act, but it still has a negative effect on the individual. A mate crime is carried out by someone the young adult or child knows, and it often happens in private. In recent years there have been a number of Serious Care Reviews relating to young people and children with a learning disability who were seriously harmed, or even murdered, by people who purported to be their friend.
• Radicalisation – The aim of radicalisation is to inspire new recruits, embed extreme views and persuade vulnerable individuals to the legitimacy of a cause. This may be direct through a relationship, or through social media.