Assignment 8 Safeguarding

Safeguarding children and young people is everybody’s responsibility.   It should be a concern of the whole community and all public services, not just ones providing directly to children and young people. Children and young adults are vulnerable and easily susceptible to serious harm if appropriate action for their safety is not taken. They do not yet have the physical and mental ability developed enough to care for themselves and need appropriate care and protection from adults around them.  
Health professionals and social care workers have a duty of care towards children under their care and as such they should do everything they can to keep the children and young adults safe from harm. The younger the child is, the more vigilant the carer should be and the greater the duty of care is. This should continue until the child has the ability to anticipate and deal with potential dangers, has a more robust immune system, has empathy for others, and has communication skills developed enough to be able to articulate harm to them carried out by others.
All actions and statements must be factual and the persons own words, I would make sure all evidence is fact, signed and dated, timed and locked away safely so that nobody unless authorised to do so can have access to it. There may be tension when recording any abuse or harm as confidentiality will have to be broken as no secrets or promises can be kept and the person may become upset in knowing this.
A type of abuse a child or young person may experience is: physical, emotional, sexual, financial, neglect, discriminatory and mental abuse. The signs of these could range from, constant bruises in unusual places, broken bones, withdrawn, depression, sores in the groin area, infections, bed-wetting, fearful, aggression, changes in behaviour and health. Some of these could be ignored or mis-interpreted as the child being clumsy or falling over a lot. The steps I would take if a child’s behaviour gave me cause for...