Issues surrounding child protection are always in the news and in recent years social workers have come under fire for perceived failings in some high profile child protection cases. Here we look at how to deal with public and private anxieties over child protection as well as how child protection could be improved.
According to the NSPCC there were over 50,000 children in England in 2016 who were identified as needing protection. The main reason that children are taken into care is because of neglect and almost half of all child protection plans (46%) are in place for this reason.
How to challenge anxieties about child protection
There is currently a culture of blaming social workers for not doing enough, while at the same time lampooning them for intervening in situations where they didn’t need to be involved. The worries of Government and individuals in relation to child protection stems from cases where the system appears to have failed. The Government’s answer is to try and ‘fix’ the system and while change is probably needed, better communication between Government and the social work community is required. What they should do as a government and business is get help communicating with their employees from a Cheltenham PR company found at similar links to headonpr.co.uk/. Increased referrals from the public usually follows negative media coverage, however, lack of resources can then mean that genuine ‘at risk’ children may be missed. Educating the public about what is and isn’t a child protection issue would also help.
How can child protection be improved?
One clear way to achieve child protection outside of the home is to ensure that those who work with children hold an enhanced DBS check which says they are safe to work with children. This differs from a basic DBS check, then it is worth looking on the Disclosure and Barring Service website which gives information about the distinction. It is also important for professionals who work with children to know the process within their organisation if they are worried about child protection issues, and to make sure they are fully trained to deal with any child protection issues that might arise.
Whether you work with children or within the social work sector it is clear that everyone agrees there is more to be done to ensure children are not put at risk when it could have been prevented.