Steps to Report Safeguarding Issue

This article discusses the steps to report a safeguarding issue and protect vulnerable individuals. It covers the professionals involved, legislative frameworks, and empowerment strategies. The case study focuses on a fictional scenario of physical abuse faced by a child on her way to school.

Running head: HEALTHCARE
Health and Social Care
Student’s Name:
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Steps or processes to be followed to report the safeguarding issue.................................................3
Professionals involved in the case...................................................................................................3
Six principles of safeguarding.........................................................................................................4
Legislative/policy frameworks to be used within the case to protect the individual.......................5
Role of early intervention/prevention within the case.....................................................................6
Recommendations............................................................................................................................7
Empowerment strategies used to protect the vulnerable group.......................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10
Appendices....................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
Safeguarding is determined to be the measures to prevent human rights, well-being, and health of
individuals especially of vulnerable adults, young people and children. As a result, the
government of the UK has published guidance and introduced a various legislative framework to
protect children from child abuse and maltreatment. It ensures that the children will be provided
with a safe environment that possesses safe and effective care. However, the paper provides a
fictional case study based on a safeguarding issue. Based on that issue that will be presented
within the case the paper will describe the processes or steps that must be followed to report the
issue. It will also discuss the professionals involved in the case as well as the six principles of
safeguarding. It will focus upon the legislative or policy frameworks along with intervention or
prevention programs that could be used within the case to prevent an individual. It will also
present recommendations and empowerment strategies that will prevent the entire vulnerable
group.
Steps or processes to be followed to report the safeguarding issue
In order to report this particular safeguarding issue faced by Alice, her parents must inform the
senior members of the schools regarding this issue. Her parents must write a statement to the
authority of the school by providing as much detail related to the physical abuse faced by Alice
while going to school. The school should implement every possible step or process to mitigate
the issue as being responsible for safeguarding issues. An appropriate plan must be executed by
the school along with the consent of her parents (Drinkwater et al., 2017). This includes any
support needed by Alice along with implementing several measures to make sure that she will be
reviewed to provide her safe environment. Therefore, the school must act immediately and take
strict actions to address the issue to ensure Alice and her parents that they will be not facing any
such issues in the future.
Professionals involved in the case
In this scenario related to physical abuse faced by Alice by other children on her way to school
the professionals those who are involved are head teachers, senior members of the school and
police. The head teachers and the senior members of the school possess legal regulations and
powers to take actions depending upon the behavior of the people outside the school (Dryden,

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2017). If necessary, the police may also be involved within the case to resolve the issue to
provide a safe environment to Alice.
On the other hand, Alice’s parents may consult mental and medical health professionals to
address the issue. There could be an involvement of the child protection systems that focus upon
the case of physical and emotional abuse of a child. The child protection systems will try to give
full protection to Alice by investigating the issue (Peckover and Golding, 2017). This clearly
states that they will provide care, protect and supervise the issue of physical abuse faced by
Alice. Moreover, the health care professionals could also be involved within the case to address
the issue that will be helpful for Alice along with her parents.
Six principles of safeguarding
The UK government have introduced new legislation namely The Care Act 2014 in 2015, where
this particular Act set out six principles of safeguarding. These principles intend to develop a
significant set of standards for the one who is responsible for safeguarding vulnerable adults. The
purpose of the principles is to outline the needs and wants of every individual and to underpin
every work with vulnerable adults. As defined by The Care Act 2014, the six principles of
safeguarding are as follows:
Accountability
Accountability is determined to be following on from the common aspect of safeguarding. Any
person appropriate must be responsible for the particular role they play in safeguarding and
accountability must not be avoided. In a few cases where harm, abuse or neglect has occurred,
the courts and the authorities must be involved (Cooper and Bruin, 2017). This clearly states that
it is significant that the responsibilities are clear and all the processes are documented.
Empowerment
Empowerment is all about serving people with as sufficient power and freedom to make
decisions for themselves. It is significant that the vulnerable must possess the ability of how they
are treated where they must be given consent of facilitating safeguarding needs in the future that
will help the individual to deal with the situation effectively (Abrines-Jaume et al., 2016).
Partnership

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Safeguarding is more effective where partnerships are made and assimilated into practice. The
involvement of the communities helps in dealing with safeguarding issues. It is significant for
the safeguarding staff to build strong relationships and partnerships with other people in order to
prevent them from facing any safeguarding issue.
Protection
Protection is considered to be a significant act of providing vulnerable people to support and care
when they are needed. The Care Act ensures that the one who deals with safeguarding from
psychological to physical abuse will be given full protection (Lawson, 2017). The person
working with vulnerable adults must possess information of whom to inform to get support and
how to protect themselves.
Proportionality
Proportionality is determined to be a component of safeguarding, where every fact must be taken
into account, and every case must be dealt with individually without extreme interruption
(Callaghan et al., 2018). This is applied while dealing with dangers or problems and planning
preventive safeguarding measures.
Prevention
Preventing abuse, harm and neglect are determined to be the significant function of safeguarding
where prevention of cause is the significant component of safeguarding. Prevention cam is
attained through several methods where excellent planning and foresight is necessary (Lonbay
and Brandon, 2017).
Legislative/policy frameworks to be used within the case to protect the individual
The UK is responsible for its laws and policies around social welfare, health, and education. The
laws are approved to protect the behavior of people that needs action to prevent children and
which can cause harm to children. In the UK the Department of Education (DfE) is entirely
responsible for child protection (Barrett, 2015). It sets out statutory guidance, legislation, and
policy based on the working system of the child protection system.
The Children Act 1989, can be used within the case related to physical abuse faced by Alice as it
provides a legislative framework for child protection in the UK. This Act will take several

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measures including a child protection plan to keep Alice safe from physical abuse or harm and
promote her welfare in the future. At regular child protection conferences, the plan will be
reviewed until Alice is no longer determined to be at risk of significant physical abuse or harm.
The Act will help in fulfilling the requirements and expectations around duties of care to Alice
along with her parents (Peckover and Trotter, 2015). The local safeguarding boards will also
provide safeguarding partners to Alice who will be entirely responsible for child protection
guidance, procedure, and policy. The safeguarding boards will work with other agencies in order
to collaborate and assure the effectiveness of work to promote and protect the welfare of Alice. It
will also make various arrangements to support and identify the issues faced by Alice. It aims to
take relevant actions to prevent Alice from facing any physical issue in the future.
On the other hand, The Children Act 2014, strengthen the support for Alice along with her
parents by creating more accountability and encouraging partnerships among different agencies
(Godson, Csikar and White, 2018). It will look after the matter in order to address the
safeguarding issue faced by Alice. The Act will take further steps to mitigate the issue faced by
Alice.
Role of early intervention/prevention within the case
Early intervention or prevention prevents the occurrence of the safeguarding issue. The
prevention programs are designed for protecting child abuse before it takes place. In the case of
Alice universal systems of early intervention could have prevented the occurrence of this issue as
it provides knowledge about how to protect child abuse that takes place within the community.
The child abuse reports are substantiated, investigated and assessed by these systems (Dale et al.,
2016). This would have helped Alice to protect herself from such physical abuse by other
children on her way to school. It teaches about the psychological effects of child abuse that
increases self-esteem and helps the child to remain free from depression and fearful.
On the other hand, Alice's parents must have taken help of intervention systems where several
agencies have responsibility for considering policies that provide relevant information regarding
interventions in child neglect and abuse (Van Dijken, Stams and De Winter, 2016). It evaluates
the mechanisms and processes utilized to recognize and confirm the cases of child abuse within
the community environment. This would have provided various benefits for Alice and her family
to reduce or avoid facing such safeguarding issues.

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Furthermore, the treatment programs developed for preventing child abuse must have been used
by her parents where the government spends $40 million. However, various programs have been
implemented by the government to reduce the possibilities of child abuse especially physical
abuse that has been experienced by Alice. Such intervention programs eliminate the potential for
child neglect behavior and abuse, thus it improves the treatment of victims. Meanwhile, the
school-based educational programs also protect child physical abuse that focuses upon the
significant placement measures (Finkelhor and Lannen, 2015). This would have provided self-
help or family counseling services for Alice as well as her parents. It also focuses upon the legal
proceedings for child abuse. Therefore, the multiple components of such programs make it easier
to consider the specific contribution of the outcomes of child treatment.
Recommendations
Physical abuse causes long-lasting and serious harm to children that make children feel
depressed and anxious. However, the physical abuse experienced by Alice may affect every
aspect of her life and continue to put an impact into her adulthood. In case of Alice who faced
physical abuse by other children on her way to school, thus it is the responsibility of the parents,
teachers and community members to identify and understand the problem and explore possible
solutions. It is highly recommended that Alice's parents must plan a family fun night and observe
the older children and adults who take an unusual interest in Alice. Her parents must ask her
about her day and attend events at her school by getting involved with her education.
On the other hand, it is strongly recommended that educators and teachers of Alice must play a
significant role in preventing Alice from facing any abuse within or outside school. The teachers
must volunteer their expertise at local parenting and prevention programs. They must educate
Alice regarding neglect and abuse. If the teacher finds neglect or abuse, she must immediately
report the issue to Child Protective Services. The teacher must identify innovative ways to
involve parents in children's education. They must teach valuable and important skills that will
be beneficial for them to protect themselves from any abuse or neglect.
Moreover, the community members also play a significant role in protecting children from any
abuse, harm or neglect. However, the community members are recommended that they must
mentor a parent or child through various local volunteer programs to make the child feel happy
and safe within the community. The community members must plan child abuse and parenting

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programs within society. Such programs may not only be beneficial for Alice bit also for other
children who are dealing with safeguarding issues. It is the responsibility of the community
members to appreciate a child when they have used good manners and tried hard at something.
Donating money as well time to local child abuse protection organizations is also determined to
be the best way for protecting a child from facing any abuse.
Empowerment strategies used to protect the vulnerable group
Empowerment is all about supporting children to reveal the issues they are facing in their life.
However, the participation of children is highly required as it provides various opportunities to
discuss the issues and decisions that put an impact on them (Berrick et al., 2015). As a result,
children could be protected from any harm, abuse or neglect by implementing several
empowerment strategies are as follows:
Enforcement and Implementation of laws
This strategy ensures that the child protection laws are implemented to protect children against
violent behaviors, physical and emotional abuse that negatively puts an impact on their health. It
helps in conducting a consultation with children by informing them regarding the rules and
regulations of Child Safe Policy (Humphreys and Bradbury-Jones, 2015). This consultation
program will make the children feel safe while going to school. Therefore, consulting and
involving with children, young people and the vulnerable group helps in improving services,
practices and policies.
Values and Norms
Strengthening values and norms support gender, positive, nurturing, respectful and non-violent
equitable relationships for all adolescents and children (Rogowski, 2015). It ensures that every
child must have respect for individuals of a different culture, social, abilities and ages along with
informed and voluntary consent.
Safe environments
The society must create a sustainable, safe environment that enables children, young people and
vulnerable to gather and spend quality time. This helps the vulnerable group to report concerns
and abuse if they feel empowered and safe within the environment (Sewell and Hulusi, 2016).

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Support from caregivers and parent
Support from caregivers and parent creates positive parent-child relationships and reduces harsh
parenting practices. This helps in preventing the risk of violent behavior, risk of child
maltreatment and separation of adolescents and children from their parents (Stephenson, 2017).
As a result, facilitating participation and empowerment of children, young people and vulnerable
groups encourage a culture of child safety.
Life and education skills
This empowerment strategy increases children’s and vulnerable group access to more efficient
life-skills training, social-emotional learning and gender-equitable education. It also ensures that
the school's environment is enabling and safe (Clawson, 2016). This also helps young people and
child to develop and understand rights and collaboration, build self-esteem and learn new skills.
Conclusion
The paper produced a fictional case study related to safeguarding issue where a child has to face
physical abuse by other children on her way to school. The measures are taken to provide a safe
environment that will be from neglect, harm, and abuse. However, based on the fictional case
study the paper discussed the processes or steps to report the issue to the senior members of the
school. Moreover, it can be seen that the head teachers, police and senior members of the school
are involved in the case. It has been observed that The Children Act 1989, is determined to be the
legislative framework that could be used within the case to prevent Alice from such issues. It
also discussed the early prevention programs that could have prevented Alice from facing such
issues. The paper also provided several recommendations along with empowerment strategies
that may help in protecting children, young people, and vulnerable groups from facing such
issues.

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References
Abrines-Jaume, N., Midgley, N., Hopkins, K., Hoffman, J., Martin, K., Law, D. and Wolpert,
M., 2016. A qualitative analysis of implementing shared decision making in child and adolescent
mental health services in the United Kingdom: stages and facilitators. Clinical child psychology
and psychiatry, 21(1), pp.19-31.
Barrett, N., 2015. A multiagency team working to safeguard vulnerable children. Journal of
Health Visiting, 3(12), pp.634-634.
Berrick, J.D., Peckover, S., Pösö, T. and Skivenes, M., 2015. The formalized framework for
decision-making in child protection care orders: A cross-country analysis. Journal of European
Social Policy, 25(4), pp.366-378.
Callaghan, J.E., Alexander, J.H., Sixsmith, J. and Fellin, L.C., 2018. Beyond “witnessing”:
children’s experiences of coercive control in domestic violence and abuse. Journal of
interpersonal violence, 33(10), pp.1551-1581.
Clawson, R., 2016. Safeguarding people with learning disabilities from forced marriage: the role
of Safeguarding Adult Boards. The Journal of Adult Protection, 18(5), pp.277-287.
Cooper, A. and Bruin, C., 2017. Adult safeguarding and the Care Act (2014)–the impacts on
partnerships and practice. The Journal of Adult Protection, 19(4), pp.209-219.
Dale, R., Shanley, D.C., Zimmer-Gembeck, M.J., Lines, K., Pickering, K. and White, C., 2016.
Empowering and protecting children by enhancing knowledge, skills and well-being: A
randomized trial of Learn to BE SAFE with Emmy™. Child abuse & neglect, 51, pp.368-378.
Drinkwater, J., Stanley, N., Szilassy, E., Larkins, C., Hester, M. and Feder, G., 2017. Juggling
confidentiality and safety: a qualitative study of how general practice clinicians document
domestic violence in families with children. Br J Gen Pract, 67(659), pp.e437-e444.
Dryden, M., 2017. Radicalisation: the last taboo in safeguarding and child protection? Assessing
practitioner preparedness in preventing the radicalisation of looked-after children. Journal for
Deradicalization, (13), pp.101-136.

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Finkelhor, D. and Lannen, P., 2015. Dilemmas for international mobilization around child abuse
and neglect. Child abuse & neglect, 50, pp.1-8.
Godson, J., Csikar, J. and White, S., 2018. Oral health of children in England: a call to
action!. Archives of disease in childhood, 103(1), pp.5-10.
Humphreys, C. and Bradbury-Jones, C., 2015. Domestic abuse and safeguarding children: Focus,
response and intervention. Child abuse review, 24(4), pp.231-234.
Lawson, J., 2017. The making safeguarding personal approach to practice. Safeguarding Adults
Under the Care Act: Understanding Good Practice, London, Jessica Kingsley Publications,
pp.20-39.
Lonbay, S.P. and Brandon, T., 2017. Renegotiating power in adult safeguarding: the role of
advocacy. The Journal of Adult Protection, 19(2), pp.78-91.
Peckover, S. and Golding, B., 2017. Domestic abuse and safeguarding children: critical issues
for multiagency work. Child abuse review, 26(1), pp.40-50.
Peckover, S. and Trotter, F., 2015. Keeping the focus on children: the challenges of safeguarding
children affected by domestic abuse. Health & social care in the community, 23(4), pp.399-407.
Rogowski, S., 2015. From child welfare to child protection/safeguarding: A critical practitioner’s
view of changing conceptions, policies and practice. Practice, 27(2), pp.97-112.
Sewell, A. and Hulusi, H., 2016. Preventing radicalisation to extreme positions in children and
young people. What does the literature tell us and should educational psychology
respond?. Educational Psychology in Practice, 32(4), pp.343-354.
Stephenson, J., 2017. Safeguarding in schools. Children & Young People Now, 2017(7), pp.26-
27.
Van Dijken, M.W., Stams, G.J.J. and De Winter, M., 2016. Can community-based interventions
prevent child maltreatment?. Children and youth services review, 61, pp.149-158.

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Appendices
Fictional Case Study
Alice is 14 years old and attends her local state secondary school since she was 11 years old.
Initially, she had been a healthy and happy student without facing any specific issue at home.
Her parents observed that over a few days she became withdrawn and quiet. Also, she spends a
lot of time in her room without engaging in conversations with anyone else. She avoids
discussing much related to the school activities, and also she had been late for school daily. As a
result, the school has communicated this particular issue with Alice’s parents through a letter.
However, her parents believed that the reason behind the changing behavior of Alice is because
of some unacceptable reason happening within the school. Therefore, they decided to conduct a
meeting with the senior member of the pastoral staff. The senior members of the schools were
unaware of any such issues faced by Alice other than occasional lateness. Her parents again tried
to talk to Alice related to her changing behavior. She disclosed the fact that on her way to school
she had been physically bullied by other children. The children chase and hit her, thus by
reaching school after everyone else she tried to avoid them. This is the reason why she is being
late to school regularly as she is very upset.