Understanding Child Protection: NSW Working with Children Essay

This essay delves into the critical aspects of working with children in New South Wales (NSW), examining the author's understanding of safeguarding and child protection within this context. It defines vulnerable persons, emphasizing the core skills required, such as effective communication, empathy, and negotiation. The essay analyzes the challenges associated with this field, including high staff turnover and the emotional toll on workers. It also includes a SWOT analysis of the Working With Children Check NSW organization, evaluating its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, with a focus on financial sustainability. The author reflects on the impact of community engagement, highlighting personal growth and the acquisition of valuable skills, such as effective communication, listening skills, and situation analysis. The essay concludes with a reaffirmation of the author's commitment to community engagement and appreciation for the efforts of community workers.

Running Head: WORKING WITH CHILDREN NSW 1
WORKING WITH CHILDREN NSW
AUTHORS NAME
UNIVERSTY OF AFFILIATION

WORKING WITH CHILDREN NSW 2
The context of my essay, is working with children. I will explore my understanding and
knowledge of safeguarding and critically scrutinize protection meaning in the regard of working
with children. I will assess the impact the activity on community engagement has had on my
career path. I will refer to children and vulnerable people such as the disabled, to explain the
issues and confusion that may occur. To begin with, who is a vulnerable person? A vulnerable
person is a person who is 18 year and above, and in need of community care services due to facts
of being mental disable, age or illness, who is unable to protect himself or herself against harm
and who is unable to take care of himself (Wbsb.co.uk, 2017).
Working with children and vulnerable persons, I realized that there are ordinary core value skills
that one needs to poses (Yor-ok.org.uk, 2017).First, effective communication is the critical skill
in these field of work. Good and effective communication is the key to working with children
and vulnerable person. It's excellent communication that I can build trust between them and me,
and encourage them to make good use of services provided. I realized that communication is not
only about the talking but it involves the body language that I use. It is essential to show
empathy and sincerity and listen to them. To be able to build a good relationship with the
children, I had to be respectful, honest and understanding; this is because when the relationship
is continuous people tend to become engaged, and there is an improvement on their lives as well.
Secondly, listening and building empathy is an essential skill. I had to hear calmly without being
judgmental (Harskuti, 2017). I had to listen keenly and acknowledge what had been said. Lastly,
one has to poses consultation and negotiation skills. From the beginning of the process, I had to
consult the careers about them. I had to involve the children in expressing what makes them
happy. I had to help them describe what they are experiencing and courses of actions (Yor-
ok.org.uk, 2017).
Working with children poses some challenges like any other work. First, an organization that
works with children faces a massive staff turnover: many social workers go through burnout and
may opt to change job or career path (Work.chron.com, 2017). Secondly, the main reason for
high staff turnover is burnout. Working as a social worker can be physically draining and
emotionally draining too (Early Years Careers, 2017). Through the engagement, I realized that I
need to have a high tolerance for frustrations. This is because I worked in cases that involved
child abuse, child neglect or child safety. Lastly, personal safety of the worker can be at risk.in
some scenario; I was called to intervene a situation that involved an angry parent. Since the
parent has nowhere to direct their anger to, due to experiencing emotional turmoil, the violence
was addressed to me. As a social worker, one needs to learn to how to effectively communicate
with the client and assess if the scenario poses a threat to your safety (Work.chron.com, 2017).
Working With Children Check NSW Organization
The organization works effortlessly to improve the protection of children in NSW, through
helping individuals get a clear understanding of the importance and advantages of protecting the
safety of children (Kidsguardian.nsw.gov.au, 2017).
Company SWOT analysis

WORKING WITH CHILDREN NSW 3
Strength
• The organization has been granted
authority to persecute people who fail
to meet the requirement s of child
protection promptly.
• The company can implement laws that
enable improvement of child protection.
• They have the permission to get
children out of dangerous environment
without warrants (Pinterest, 2017).
• The company receives fund provision
from the government.
Weakness
• The children court failed to ensure that
caseworkers are following the policy in
a right manner (Pinterest, 2017.
• The number of cases worn has been key
used to judge performance of the
organization.
• Oversight authorities are not willing to
ensure there are transparency and
compliance.
• The government failed to comprehend
the long impact that the children
removed from homes forcefully tend to
have, or those forced to be adopted.
Opportunities
• The company benefits from the
information provided by the
organization that is not funded by the
government.
• Sluggish increasing cost of the
department present an opportunity to
them, it’s because of fruitless policy.
• The company has managed to create a
safe place for children at home.
Threat
 Many children removed from parents
who are capable of taking care of them
are damaged.
 Creation a further generation that keeps
up the spirit of child abuse poses a
threat to the company.
 Agenda adoption push by famous and
influential persons who are not able to
conceive is a threat.
 Child responsibility is given to NGO
who are the critical course of their
previous abuse due to profit.
 The NGO are responsible for ensuring
the funding for the children is on long-
term which supersedes the family first
right (Pinterest, 2017).
Financial Sustainability
The present form of recent volunteer demands, funding form government levels, and cost of
processing units, I can say that the working child check NSW is not financially sustainable. The
ration of a volunteer to employee check is higher than expected while volunteer check to date has
increased to 5 times more than the forecast. There has been a significant program deficit.it can be
linked to the government funding being made to cover the employee volunteer check since no
fee is imposed for these checks, check given to the employee is enough to cater processing cost
(Kidsguardian.nsw.gov.au, 2017).

WORKING WITH CHILDREN NSW 4
Conclusion
Being an introvert, choosing to volunteer was a thing that brought a lot of question in mind as to
whether to do it or not. Being part of the community engagement has exposed me to different
people who are going through the various situations. The activity has made me always to
appreciate and be content with what I have since other people wish they could have it too, but
they don’t. The activity made me appreciate more the community workers for their efforts. I
consider them hero and heroines, since the kind of work that they are involved in is not a walk in
the path, but saving lives.
Today, I can proudly say, that the experience has made me feel more of complete than before. I
have been able to acquire a lot of skills and sharpened on some of my abilities. Some of the skills
learned are effective communication, good listener, and situation analyst. The activity has
brought me out of my comfort zone. I will continue being part of community engagement
activity from now henceforth.

WORKING WITH CHILDREN NSW 5
References
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