Child Protection: Types of Abuse, Protection Rights, and Case Scenarios

This article discusses child abuse, protection rights, and case scenarios. It covers the major factors affecting child abuse and how to protect children from it. It also includes a case study and activities related to child protection.

Child Protection
December 9
2019
Activities based upon the concept of child abuse and the types of
abuses children face in their homes and certain case scenarios and
also the protection rights these children have is talked about in
detail below.
Case Study

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Activity 1
Question1:
The major factors that affect a child being sexually abused at home include:
1. The child being an unwanted responsibility for the young parents who are uneducated;
2. Foster children are much more prone to in house sexual abuse (World Health
Organization, 2019);
3. Vulnerable children in any form are quite prone to sexual abuse, especially little girls;
4. Race or ethnicities also play a vital role in children being abused (Darkness to Light,
2017).
In the case of Bianca and her sister, both are quite young and vulnerable. As per the case
study, both the girls are adopted and the parents who take care of them are their step- father
and step -mother. Another aspect that is in direct relation with the case study of Bianca and
her sister is that both are unwanted responsibilities of their step –parents.
Question 2:
The child in such a case must be facing a lot of challenges internally. Bianca here must be
scared to tell anyone anything. Hence, first of all specific steps shall be taken so as to soothe
her mind and calm her down. In case she wants to talk, be there for her and inform her about
a guardian being appointed to her so that she can talk about whatever she wants. Making her
feel at ease and calm might do the trick and tending to her medical needs at that moment
would be the first priority. A child psychologist can be a huge help in this case, reassuring the
child that no harm is going to happen to her and her sister again. Only then there is a
possibility that she without being afraid talks about the abuse she went through in that house
in detail. Judiciary also can be a huge help passing an order for providing protection and
providing a legal guardian for such children
Question 3:
A care order shall be made by the court in the case where child abuse is done. The step father
can be restricted from the house as he poses a threat to both the children. As in this case, the
mother can also be restricted due to her brutal actions of feeding the child drugs that can
cause miscarriage. Another individual can be brought into the picture by the court which can

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be a relative or someone familiar to these children whom these children do trust. If no such
individual is present then a third responsible person can be appointed by the court so as to
take care of these children until there is a specific decision considering the kids future is
made.
Activity 2
Question1:
In order to take a legal action in this case, and protect the child from further abuse and find
the reason behind such abuse or whether it actually happened, TAO needs to be applied.
When a TAO is applied for, an investigation is initiated and a legal authority is provided in
relation with the health and safekeeping of the child in concern under CYFA’s Section 232 as
per the reported scenario revolving around the child. Following provisions need to be
definitely included in the Temporary Assessment Order so as to help Bianca and her sister in
every way possible:
1. Authorizing the secretary involved so as to look into the matters of the household
child is living in and enter the house without any restraint.
2. An appointment with a registered child psychologist or a registered medical
practitioner to be arranged and providing them the authority to conduct a detailed
psychological and medical examination of the child.
3. After the medical tests are done, authorising the secretary to go through them and
interview the parents related to it and other questions in relation with the child and
others as per the requirement as in relation with the privileges of a child being
protected under the section 234.
4. Any other actions in respect to the safety involved for the child or children in
question, enacting orders for the benefit of the child being passed to facilitate the
investigation (Victoria State Government, 2018).
Question 2:
In regular situation when a TAO has to be applied, it can be applied within 3 days of the
report and in cases when it is not possible to conduct the procedure related to the same then
an extension of one day is provided if there is an urgent need for protecting the child and a
CAO or Court Assessment Order or the DCPL or Director of Child Protection Litigation
needs to apply to the child’s case (Queensland Government, 2019).

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Question 3:
Bianca and her sister shall be communicated and informed about the changes that are going
to be made so that she and her sister do not have to live in the house where their step- parents
are living. And a proper person that has been appointed as the guardian will be the person
taking care of these children.
Though, not much information can be provided to both the step parents since they are the
culprits or the ones who have committed the crime, but a certain part related to the same shall
be provided to them that they shall be investigated thoroughly and the custody or
guardianship of both the girls can be given back to them only after the court approves the
same.
Activity 3
Question 1:
In order to build a relationship with Bianca so as to make her open up and tell the
investigation team requires patience and a technique to communicate. Apart from harassing
the kid for information, she needs to be tended to in every aspect, talked softly with and one
of the major things that need to be done here is to gain her trust so that she opens up on her
own. The only thing one needs to be precautious of here is that loud volume or threats will
not work on the child. If required a psychologist or a relative that both kids believe in or trust
can help out in such situation well.
Question 2:
Here the primary areas that need to be tended is the safety and medical aspects as far as both
the children are concerned and hence in order to ensure both the aspects are taken care of,
Bianca and her 10 year old sibling is sent to the governmental facility. In case of her mother,
proper counselling session needs to be conducted so that the act she committed does not
happen again. Intervention of the legal authorities is much required in this case. Since step –
mother also abused her in some manner. It is required for the legal officials get involved and
enquire about the scenario.
Question 3:
As per the norms provided by the WHO World Health Organization, the maximum data that
can be collected can be later helpful. Now the data can be accumulated through various

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processes. In Bianca and her sister’s case the data has already been provided by Bianca as a
self -report has already been made, similarly, medical records from the hospital Bianca was
first admitted in due to excessive bleeding are also quite helpful. Even nowadays there are
various tools that can be used by the investigators and people involved in the investigation
such as the ICAST questionnaire (Zolotor et al., 2009). Such tools facilitate further
investigation of cases as such as every person involved in this kind of crime has their own
version of the story. In order to conclude something, there needs to be some reliable
information that can be derived from these tools (Meinck et al., 2019).
Question 4:
As a new case worker, all here that can be done is try communicating with the family. First
individually with each one of them and then altogether as a family and take notes as upon
even slight areas of doubt. Keeping the children safe is the first priority in such cases as upon
being reported some people become violent. Hence, protecting children in these cases and
taking proper measures to keep them safe is necessary. Taking proper measures and
investigating the step –parents and communicating them well is the only thing that can be
done here.
Question 5:
An order from court shall be required first of all, so as to help secure guardianship for
children and making sure that the children are safe and healthy, arrangements for the same
shall be done as per the court’s orders. Parental counselling of the mother in this case shall be
done so that no further damage or harm to these girls is done. In order to make sure that they
grow up in healthy environment certain occasional visits should be decided upon. A
departmental officer or safety officer shall be allocated by the court just to make sure that
children are in safe hands while the decision is made to give the custody.
Activity 4
FGM or Family Group Meetings are a necessity thing to be conducted as they help the
individuals in the family to tend to each other’s concerns and take family decisions so as to
empower the children. It focuses upon the construction and surroundings of the family itself
as well as the community they are brought up in and make it safe and accessible for children.
These meetings are conducted in accordance with the current legislation and policies by a
convenor who gathers everyone and arranges the meeting (Queensland Government, 2019).
These Meetings focus upon two major aspects, which are:

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1. Reviewing or constructing a certain case plan for the benefit of children
2. Discussing the various aspects related to the same and sharing thoughts for the care and
well-being of children.
In case of Bianca and her sister, certain things need to be taken care of in their case plan
chalked out, here is the case plan for Bianca and her sister:
Case Plan:
As per the order of the court, the custody of the children shall be ensured and to make sure
they are living well and healthy, time to time intervention shall be made.
1. A goal needs to be set in order to mark or measure the mental growth of the children which
shows that the children are being treated well and gaining confidence in themselves.
2. Basic arrangements related to time to time medical treatments and check -ups as well as
the basic arrangements such as school and education related small decisions shall be
mentioned in this case plan.
3. Services for the better life of these children shall be focused upon where external
supporters can help such as the school or counsellor apart from the parents being supportive
of the children’s small achievements where they forget the bad past experiences.
4. Child being able to communicate will with the individuals she is comfortable with or
someone she trusts be it in the family itself or someone outside.
5. Decisions that need to be taken up in the near future regarding the growth and education of
the children shall be decided upon at the moment or a person is agreed upon to decide in the
later stages of life of the children.
6. Safety officers and people as such being constantly making sure that the children are safe
and time to time one on one discussions with these children can help the department make
sure that there is no wrong activity happening again.
7. Involvement of a certain department that deals in child protection and an officer or an
executive being appointed to make sure that the case plan is thoroughly followed.
8. Since in this case the children are considered from the same race and ethnicity it is not an
issue but in cases where Child’s ethnicity and race becomes an issue, maintaining and

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promoting the child’s authentic aspect and helping the child mingle with a certain sect of
people is an important for the child’s growth, so certain facility to the child shall be provided
so as promote their basic nature of ethnicity and race.
9. A certain proposed day can be decided in advance so as to get together again and conduct
this meeting again so that if any changes need to be proposed can be done if required for the
benefit of the child. Reviewing the plans made earlier and changes being made while all of
the below mentioned people are present is necessary as all of them might have different
views relating to the progress of the children (Queensland Government, 2016).
Every person involved has its own role to follow,
1. Bianca: Just has to try explaining the exact thing that happened to her to the
authorities involved. Later, she just needs to work on her mental and physical health
be it anywhere.
2. Bianca’s mother: Has a lot to answer and make sure that both the children are not
harmed in any way again.
3. School Guidance Officer: Has to make sure that the students can easily come and talk
to the teachers or a certain department for any type of abuse happening to them or to
others which they might have witnessed. It should be reported as soon as possible and
making sure that the child suffering is in no manner around the abuser. After a case
plan is made, ensuring the child upon whom the abuse has been done is growing both
mentally and physically and in case there is any doubt of repeated abuse on the child,
alerting the authorities.
4. Sexual Assault Counsellor: Can make sure that the child is safe and certain tests shall
be conducted. After a case plan is made, ensuring that no such activity is being
repeated.
5. Child Safety Officer: Time to time visits should be conducted to ensure that no
repetitive abuse is done and the children are growing in every way. Pointing out the
legal aspects of the case plan and making sure everything is followed religiously.
6. FGM convenor: Shall organise the Family Group Meeting and making sure that
everything goes fine and everyone is present.

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Activity 5:
Child Protection Orders are the ones that are made when the child is in dire need of
protection, by the Children’s Court (Legal Services Commission of South Australia, 2019 ).
They are of majorly five types, a Directive Order where the court gives a certain direction
that needs to be followed, another order is known as the Supervision order where, the certain
department is ordered to supervise the child, also there is the Custody order where the court
puts the child in a department’s or relative’s custody for his/ her day to day care, while there
is also short term guardianship order that is given to the chef executive and a long term
guardianship order which is given either to a relative child trusts upon or the chief executive
himself (Queensland Government, 2019).
There are various aspects in relation to when a child needs protection that can be understood
further. There are a certain duties and responsibilities that the legal bodies need to work in
accordance with to ensure that they are working as per the Child Protection Act and for the
betterment of children facing such harsh realities. The basic aim of people involved in such
scenarios is to provide the child with protection services that are statutory (Queensland
Government, 2019). People such as the safety officers and the child safety service centre
manger ensure that the procedure is followed as per the Child Protection Act 1999 and the
Child Safety Manual (Queensland Government, 2019). Relevant legislations and policies are
being used in the process so that the child does not has to face the same thing again. Since,
children do not understand much in the legal aspect, they need to be conveyed the
information in such easy manner that they get the gist of what is happening around them.
There are various legal options available to the children as well as their families as in to send
their children to the foster care or step up and take the responsibility or to give up the
guardian ship to another relative and pay for the child’s basic needs and as such (New South
Wales Government, 2012). Such kind of abuse affects growing children in a lot of ways,
mental, physical and behavioural, in order to make things easy for children keeping them in a
company that understands them might help them grow again. If no intervention is done
before time, they might not grow up as healthy and mentally perfect children. Having suicidal
or negative tendencies in an individual or not being able to grow physically might spoil their
lifetime and make living a struggle. All support agencies and the governmental procedures
can do is, facilitate the growth of these individuals, helping them get out of the dark past and
see towards the bright future they have ahead of them. Initiating the Justice related practices
and ensuring the safety of the children in one of the major things that need to be done. Every

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state in Australia has its own set of laws and legislation related to the child protection such as
Crimes (Child Sex Offenders) Act 2005 (ACT), Crimes (Domestic and Personal Violence)
Act 2007 (NSW), Child Wellbeing and Safety Act 2005 (Vic.), Child Care Services Act 2007
(WA) and many as such are there so as to help children who have suffered abuse in any way
to gain justice (Australian Government, 2018).

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