Keeping Children Safe from Harm

This essay is based on the given case scenario which includes the condition of children and actions taken by professionals for them. It also contains various risks that occur during child handling. Along with this, the essay includes policies, rules and regulations for child protection and agencies which are working for them along with the strengths and burdens influencing the parents' abilities to care for children. At the end, the report concludes summary of the essay with essential key factors.

Part 1

Emily is the mother of Lara who is a two and half year child. She is disturbed from the behaviour of Lara and cannot able to handle her. Emily goes to child health clinic for Lara's treatment and discussed all the issues with Health visitor which are faced by her while handling Lara. With respect to this, Emily needs to hold Lara with love and care. Violences and abuses are not right way to manage children as it effects on their behaviour which leads to negative results rather than positive (Darlington and et.al., 2005). I think health visitor gives right suggestion to Emily that if she was not able to manage Lara then she is required to leave that place rather than harm her or lose temper . In addition, Emily is unable to deal Lara with care which is clear from the bruises on Lara's arm. As children behave according to their parents so, according to me, Emily should have to handle Lara with proper precaution and attention for reducing the harms.

There are various kinds of games available in the market which helps parents in keeping their children busy .In context to this, Emily should buy such types of games for Lara.

The actions taken by professionals are appropriate and in the favour of Lara's condition. Health Visitor checks Lara properly and listen Emily actively. During the check-up, he finds bruises on Lara's arm which are due to improper handling of Emily. Health visitor analyse each and everything appropriately and due to the collected information regarding physical abuse he made referral for Lara. He advises Emily to refer Lara under the Child Protection Procedure for preventing her from any type of abuse because this will bring change in her behaviour. Focusing on the injuries, he suggests Emily to leave the room at the time of frustration which prevents her to harm Lara and this is appropriate in this case. He tries to find out the reason behind Emily's harsh behaviour towards Lara by involving the social care workers in this case. Health visitor finds that it is better to keep Lara at any social services instead of Emily and her family. In addition to the above actions, the advice to refer Lara under Child Protection Procedures provided by health visitor is right and suitable. Child Protection Procedures are for the children, to prevent them from any kind of violence and abuse for keeping her engaged. This will also prevent Emily from any kind of irritation and frustration (Gilbert and et.al., 2011). Children's Act 1989 works for safeguarding and protecting the children from any kind of violence and abuse. Under this act, healthcare professionals can prevent Lara from getting harm by her mother. It is the responsibility of Social Services to keep child protected and bring improvement in them. They treat Lara as per the condition she is passing through. They visit the home for discussing issues with the Emily and for identifying her behaviour towards the other children. The decision taken by health visitor is appropriate and in favour of Lara which shows that he takes this case seriously (Dickens and et.al., 2014).

In context to the above situation and acts, all may be leading to affect the mentality and behaviour of Lara. Emily does not have etiquettes and patience which affects on the activities of Lara. Doctor needs to take care of all these things and on that basis needs to provide better facilities to Lara. The environment of house is not good which also effects on the nature and behaviour of Lara and her brother. The behaviour of mother plays important role in bringing up of her child. In this case, it is also not good. First thing which is required for Emily is to bring changes in her behaviour and second thing is she should keep her house's environment friendly and good. Health visitor needs to gather all the information about Emily and her family. In addition to this, they can also conduct meeting with the Emily for identifying her perception and behaviour towards the child care and protection (Darlington and et.al., 2005). This will also help social workers in determining if Emily is suffering from any kind of stress, depression or disorder. This information can guide doctor in taking right action for Lara. He can suggest some kind of coaching and training to the Emily which helps her in dealing and handling her daughter. She needs to guide and teach Lara with love and care which results to improvement in her naughty behaviour. She should keep some patience so that she cannot harm her child. These all things will lead to bring improvement in both Lara and Emily. It depends upon the parents how they deal their child. That type of treatment from parents makes child to act and behave accordingly.

Part 2

According to the case, the condition of family is not good. They are suffering from various issues and problems. Fights and mistrust between Emily and her husband Spencer affects the behaviour and mentality of their both children Lara and Thomas. Emily is facing problems from childhood which makes her frustrated. Emily spent her childhood in foster care and had poor relationship with her parents. Due to lack of proper care and attention, Emily joined wrong groups and became pregnant with Thomas (Dickens and et.al., 2014). The frustration regarding childhood is still somewhere in Emily's mind and due to this; she is giving less attention to both Thomas and Lara. Along with this, fear of losing husband is also disturbing her. This stress and depression is affecting the proper development of both the children. Emily is not conscious about daily activities of her children which are leading them to wrong path. Too much love towards Lara makes her demanding and this affects the mentality of Thomas who starts thinking that his father does not love him. Lack of communication among family members leads to generate unawareness towards each other. Lack of love and care makes Thomas to think negative about his father. Sparsely furnished and poorly maintained flat shows that Emily is not interested towards the household activities. Emily is facing serious family issues which need to be resolved as soon as possible. Main reason behind bad condition of house is Emily as she is facing depression and stress. If she wants, she can change and improve the situation of her house. All she need is to give time to her family and to think positive

The strengths and burdens of parents influence their abilities to care for the children in many ways. Parenting is a process which includes physical, emotional, social, financial, intellectual development of a child. The strengths that influence them to care their children are values, ethics, family background, child's future, communication with their children, surrounding, financial background, culture and social life (Gilbert and et.al., 2011). The values, ethics and family background helps parents in treating their children well (Dickens and et.al., 2014). With the help of attachment theory, parents can prevent their kids to do inappropriate acts. Along with this, attachment of child with the parents helps him/her in developing good habits instead of bad. These strengths help in building good image of parents towards their children. As Emily's family background is not good which leads to improper emotional, financial, social and intellectual development of her (Parton and Berridge, 2011). Parents from good family background do not prefer violence and abuses for handling and dealing with their children. Burden of parents which influence their ability to care their children are improper communication, misunderstanding between parents, unable to understand needs and desires of child, poor financial condition, stress, lack of trust and loyalty and lack of time for family . These all factors play negative role in parent's life which makes them to mistreat their children. Poor financial condition makes them unable to fulfil the demands of their children which create their wrong view. Lack of communication or fights among the parents also influence the child caring. In the case study, the fights between Spencer and Emily might keep them disturbed and depressed. Due to this, they are not able to pay proper attention towards Thomas and it makes him to join bad company

If in case appropriate support is not provided to the family then, it will affect the future of Lara and Thomas (Lonne and et.al., 2012). Both brother and sister are going through very crucial age of their life. In this stage they need full attention, care and love (Dickens and et.al., 2014). But lack of time, communication and attention is taking them towards wrong direction and away from their parents. This act might affect the whole life of Lara and Thomas if are not controlled by their parents on time. There are chances that Thomas can spoil his future career by becoming thief. Thomas is suffering from mild learning difficulties, in the lack of support there are chances that this problem increase and make him to suffer more. Along with this, the demanding nature of Lara can make her stubborn. In context to both the situations, in absence of support, there is risk of improper development, negative perception towards life and disrespect of parents which can also spoil their life. This can change their behaviour and perception towards life. They will start mistrusting everyone, joining wrong or bad companies, increase anger, create many kinds of disorders such as mental disorder, stress disorder, feel insecure, low weight, sadness, etc. These all factors could ruin the life of both children as they have already started doing inappropriate acts like joining bad companies. The reason behind the low weight of Thomas is improper attention. His anger and improper guidance makes him to select wrong paths. It is important to keep these children under proper guidance and care. Lack of support can make them unethical

Various polices and theories which focus on the welfare, development and protection of children

Theories

There are different theories for the welfare of children along with their protection. One of them is attachment theory (Parton and Berridge, 2011). This theory explains the manner in which child should interact with their parents. The healthy attachment of child with their parents shows that parents are fulfilling his needs. Along with this, proper attachment between the kid and his/her parents develop trust and loyalty among them. This prevents children from doing inappropriate activities and develops good manners and attitude among them. In the given case, Thomas is not conscious about his career, his parents are not paying proper attention which is taking him to danger (Dickens and et.al., 2014).

Other theory is Crisis Intervention Theory (Robertson and Bromfield, 2011). This explains that children feel difficulty in accepting the change. Thomas does not accept Spencer as his father. He is unable to accept the change as he does not like his father. Along with this, the responding way of Lara is also not good .Emily and Spencer needs to identify the manner in which their children are responding and then try to work out the best possible option for their improvement. It will take time but will improve the present situation of Lara and Thomas (Ferguson, 2011).

Policies

There are various policies given by UK government for safeguarding the children. These policies are related to protecting children from maltreatment, proper health and development, for safe and effective care of children (Safeguarding policy. 2014). According to the policy, all children should be free from abuse and neglect. In the case, Lara is preferred more by Spencer rather than Thomas which has impacted negatively on his mentality. Every child has right of protection from abuses regardless of gender, disability and sexuality. Emily needs to focus more on Thomas due to his learning difficulty problem. It is important for social workers to inform parents about the policies and procedures such as Children act 1989, Child protection act 2012, etc. regarding the treatment such as consent form filling, medical treatment fee etc. for better treatment of children (Appleton and et.al., 2013).

PART 3

As per the earlier analysis of both children's needs and vulnerabilities, both brother and sister might require good enough parenting and attention to prevent from future risks. Health care professionals need to be made subjects of Child Protection Plans because under these plans all the requirements and needs of the children will be accomplished by them. Social workers will use the best possible way to improve both brother and sister's life (Washington, 2008).

In addition, this plan helps in finding right way for child safety and improving family condition by supporting them. The local authority will have to find out family history, contacts with agencies or doctors, for implementing the plan properly and effectively. All of this information will lead to better formation of plan with the appropriate measures for child safety. With reference to this, it is important to draw child protection plan for both Lara and Thomas for ensuring their safety and welfare. The plan will review the safety, health and development of Lara and Thomas against the planned outcomes. While the formulation of this plan, local authorities will need to ensure that both the children will not face any kind of harm or risk (Hinton and Hinton, 2012)

In contrast to the present plan, they should have alternative if planned outcomes does not work. It can be other strategies and methods as per the problem which can resolve the issue of previous plan. This plan will help both the children in changing their mentality and behaviour towards their parents. It will also lead in maintaining good relation between Emily and Spencer which will tend to create a friendly and open environment. This plan will guide them for proper attention and care of their children. This will lead to create respect and love for them in Lara and Thomas's mind (Dickens and et.al., 2014).

Each and everything has their advantage and disadvantage. It depends on the purpose for which they are used (Parton and Berridge, 2011). Similarly, Children protection plan also have some advantages and disadvantage which are as follows :

Advantages

The formal child protection plan takes care of safety and welfare of children by using effective strategies for changing the current situation of family (Implementation of child protection plan, 2015). It is drawn after proper research and analysis which at the end gives appropriate ways for children protection and welfare. This results to keep children safe from any type of harm and abuse (Appleton and et.al., 2013). With the help of proper assessment, it leads to identify those risks to children from which family remains unaware. In addition, it helps parents in guiding the proper ways for child care. Use of alternative plans tends to solve the issues by resolving them effectively. At last, time to time monitoring results in knowing about the improvement.

Disadvantages

The plan becomes ineffective if it is applied in situation which is different from one for which tools were designed. In addition, lack of proper research may lead to improper formation of plan. Less emphasis on unique, unusual or context specific factors results to affect the outcomes of plan. It is important to have proper experience and practical knowledge otherwise; it can lead to inappropriate formation plan. It needs full and detailed knowledge of all theories and policies as using wrong theory at wrong place leads to ineffective plan (Robertson and Bromfield, 2011). It can be rejected by some practitioners due to lack of required or supporting theory. In addition, there are chances of having poorly conceptualized framework with improper defined risk factors which can affect the outcomes and strategies for handling and preventing child from abuse and harm. Various individuals and agencies should be involved in planning and providing services to the Emily's family.

Children's Social care

It is the agency which works for the welfare and protection of children. This social care firm draws the children protection plan with the support of various experts and professionals.There are chances of conflicts among the members of social care or family at the time of children protection plan. If line manager is not ready with the view and thoughts of lead social worker than it leads to create conflict between them. Due to this there are chances that line manager does not support the lead social worker which results to delay in formulation of plan. Improper cooperation and coordination among the core group also leads to conflicts or disputes. There are chances that core group is not carrying his responsibilities properly then this leads to dispute between higher authority and core group. The family should also ready for the protection plan. Different thoughts and interests of family members related to the present scenario may leads to conflict between them (Conflict Resolution. 2015).

Conclusion

As per the above study, it is concluded that children needs proper care, love, guidance and attention. Parent's culture, values, ethics, family background and communication plays important role in bringing of children. It is the responsibility of parent to guide their children properly. They have to spend quality time with their children and discuss with them various things. This open communication helps them in knowing the condition of child. If they think that children are not responding well then in such condition they can consult to any health doctor. Right action at right time can prevents the life of children. Parents are main support of their children and plays essential role in their development. So they need to handle and tackle child with love and care. This love and care creates respect for them in child's mind. They should not abuse or exploit their children this can affect children's mentality and may leads to suffer them from any kind of disease or disorder.

References

• Appleton, J. V., Terlektsi, E. and Coombes, L., 2013. The use of sociograms to explore collaboration in child protection conferences.Children and Youth Services Review.
• Dickens, J., Beckett, C and Bailey, S., 2014. Justice, speed and thoroughness in child protection court proceedings: Messages from England. Children and Youth Services Review.
• Ferguson, H., 2011.Child protection practice. Palgrave macmillan.
• Gilbert, N., Parton, N. and Skivenes, M., 2011.Child protection systems: International trends and orientations. Oxford University Press.
• Hinton, T. and Hinton, T., 2012. Parents in the child protection system (Vol. 150).
• Reder, P. and Duncan, S., 2003. Understanding communication in child protection networks. Child Abuse Review.
• Darlington, Y., Feeney, J.A. and Rixon, K., 2005. Interagency collaboration between child protection and mental health services: Practices, attitudes and barriers. Child abuse & neglect. 
• Gambrill, E., 2012. Social work practice: A critical thinker's guide. Oxford University Press.
• Lonne, B., Harries, M. and Lantz, S., 2012. Workforce development: A pathway to reforming child protection systems in Australia. British Journal of Social Work. p.bcs064.
• Gilbert, N., Parton, N. and Skivenes, M., 2011. Introduction to child protection systems.
• Parton, N. and Berridge, D., 2011. Child protection in England.Child protection systems: International trends and orientations.

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