Unit 2 – Understand how to safeguard children and young people
Q1.1 Outline current legislation, guidelines, policies and procedures within UK Home
Nations affecting the safeguarding of children and young people.
Early years curriculum
It is dictated by law that all UK organisations that work with children must have policies in
place to ensure that children are kept safe and are protected from harm. Each home nation
not only follows the legislation that is in place for managing safeguarding, but also follows
nation specific mandatory early years curriculum that, among many other things, details
how to safeguard children effectively.
In England, the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) sets the standard of learning,
development and care for all children up to five years old and is mandatory for all Ofsted-
registered early years providers. The EYFS outlines the safeguarding and welfare
requirements all early years providers must follow.
In Wales, the Foundation Phase is the developmental curriculum for 3-7 year olds that is
statutory guidance for all early years providers. The main aims for the Foundation Phase are
to encourage children to use their initiative and imagination, with learning outside the
classroom encouraged.
In Northern Ireland, the Foundation Stage is the statutory curriculum for children aged 4-6
and focuses on settling children into a school setting and familiarising them with new areas
of learning that build upon their current experiences.1
In Scotland, The Early Years Framework (2008) outlines the vision for early years services in
Scotland, ensuring that children get the best start in life, and the curriculum for Excellence
(CfE) builds on the foundations previously developed.
The Children Act 1989
Before The Children Act 1989 was introduced, there were several different laws in place that
protected children but not one that was solely dedicated to child protection in the UK. The
act states that a child’s welfare is the most important factor when making decisions about
their upbringing, but that every effort should be made to preserve a child’s home and family
links. The act also details what Local Authorities and Courts must do to protect the welfare
of children, putting more responsibility onto the Local Authority in that they must
investigate when there is a reasonable cause to suspect that a child is suffering or is likely to
suffer significant harm.2
The Children Act 2004
The Children Act 2004 does not replace the 1989 act but develops upon it. It details that
there must be a Children’s commissioner for England and that each local authority has a
director for Children’s Services appointed. A duty is placed on local authorities, among other
services such as health services and the police, to cooperate in promoting the well-being of
children and young people, with revised arrangements for sharing information also being
introduced to allow for greater collaboration between these services. The act also puts in
place local safeguarding boards and makes it an offence to cause mental or physical harm
1
Twinkl, The Northern Ireland Curriculum,
https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resources/northern-ireland-resources/the-northern-ireland-curriculum-northern-
ireland/foundation-stage-the-northern-ireland-curriculum-northern-ireland
2
Inside Government, What are the national policies for safeguarding?,
https://blog.insidegovernment.co.uk/schools/what-are-the-national-policies-for-safeguarding
,that leaves a mark on a child, as well as establishing the Common Assessment Framework
(CAF), which helps to identify individual needs (now replaced by the Early Help Assessment -
EHA).
The main aims of the act are to improve and integrate children’s services, promote early
intervention, provide strong leadership and bring together different professionals to achieve
positive outcomes for children.
Every Child Matters
The Children Act 2004 also enforces the ‘Every child matters’ initiative, a green paper
published by the government in 2003 alongside the formal response to the report into the
death of Victoria Climbie. Climbie was an eight-year-old girl who died at the hands of her
carers but was seen by several parties, such as doctors and priests, who could have
prevented her death. The paper built on existing plans to improve preventative services by
focusing on four main areas:
- Increasing the focus on providing support to families, guardians and carers.
- Ensuring intervention takes place prior to children reaching crisis point.
- Addressing the poor accountability and lack of integration of services.
- Ensuring professionals working with children are correctly trained and valued.
The paper aims for every child to have the support they need to be healthy, stay safe, enjoy
and achieve, and make a positive contribution and achieve economic wellbeing. Each of
these aims is subject to a detailed framework through which multi-agency partnerships
work together to achieve the objectives of the initiative.3
Helping Children to Achieve More
The Coalition Government renamed ‘Every Child Matters’ to ‘Helping Children to Achieve
more’ in 2010. The Every Child Matters agenda had increased the range of multi-agency
services available to children and families and the decision to rename meant that
organisations involved with providing services to children would be working together in a
new way. The new government realised that it could not interfere with the importance of
Every Child Matters and so it continued both initiatives as it had succeeded in providing a
common purpose and a framework of guiding principles for schools and services.
Working Together to Safeguard Children 2018
This is the statutory guidance produced by government that outlines how practitioners that
work with children should be working together to keep children safe and protect them from
harm. The guidance contains the legislative requirements of services to safeguard and
promote the welfare of children as well as providing a clear framework for the effectiveness
of services to be monitored.
What to do if you’re worried a child is being abused 2015
This is non-statutory advice that aims to assist practitioners identify child abuse and neglect
and take the correct action in response to recognising it.
Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE)
3
Brendan Fleming, Family law specialists, Every Child Matters, https://www.brendanfleming.co.uk/what-we-
do/care-proceedings/every-child-matters/
, This is statutory guidance provided by the Department of Education (DfE) that outlines the
legal responsibilities that all schools and colleges must follow when carrying out their duties
to safeguard children under the age of 18. The document is typically updated each year,
with the most recent version of the guidance having come into force on 1 September 2022
and must be read (either sections of the document, or its entirety) by all staff.
The Protection of Children Act 1999
This act creates a system for identifying individuals who are considered unsuitable to work
with children by checking criminal records with the Disclosure and Barring Service. Any
childcare organisation, which is defined as those concerned with the provision of
accommodations, social services or health care services to children or the supervision of
children under 18, have a mandatory obligation to check the DBS for all staff.
The Disclosure and Barring Service
This service assists employers in making safer recruitment decisions and preventing
unsuitable candidates from working with children. The DBS accesses records kept on two
lists: the DfE list and the Department of Health list, with the independent safeguarding
authority checking the suitability of those applying to work with children.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)
This is a legally binding international agreement that sets out the civil, political, economic,
social and cultural rights of every child, regardless of race, religion or ability. The UNCRC is
made up of 54 articles that set out children’s rights and how governments should be
working together to make them available to all children. The convention states that
governments are required to meet children’s basic needs and them to reach their full
potential, and central to this is the acknowledgment that every child has fundamental rights,
which include the right to:
- Life, survival and development
- Protection from violence, abuse and neglect
- Education that enables potential to be fulfilled
- Be raised by, or have a relationship with, their parents
- Express opinions and be listened to
The Education Act
This was created in response to the UK adopting the Human Rights Act and made changes to
many areas of educational policy. The act introduced the requirement of safeguarding
children from abuse and neglect and outlined that anyone working with children has a
requirement to share information or concerns in relation to a child’s safety and wellbeing.
The Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015
This is an act of Parliament that contains a duty on specific authorities to have “due regard
to the need to prevent people from being drawn into terrorism”. This duty is better known
as The Prevent Duty.
All staff must be able to identify children who may be vulnerable to radicalisation and know
what to do when they are identified. Protecting children from the risk of radicalisation is
part of schools’ and childcare providers’ wider safeguarding duties, however it is important
to note that the Prevent Duty is not intended to stop pupils debating controversial issues
