Preschool Learning Alliance National Conference

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Pre-school Learning AllianceNational Conference

• Friday, 23 June 2006
• Workshop Keep me safe safeguarding children
  in early year settings
• Christopher Cloke
• Head of Child Protection Awareness
• NSPCC

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Introduction

• Vulnerability of young children
• Expansion of early years provision
• Based in the community
• Role of pre-school workers
• Prevention

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Working Together

• We all share responsibility for safeguarding and
  promoting the welfare of children and young
  people. All members of the community can help to
  safeguard and promote the welfare of children and
  young people if they are mindful of their needs,
  and willing and able to act if they have concerns
  about a childs welfare.
• (Working Together, 2006)

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Childcare Services

• Childcare services family and childrens
  centres, day nurseries, childminders,
  pre-schools, playgroups, and holiday and out of
  school schemes play an important part in the
  lives of large numbers of children. Many
  childcare providers have considerable experience
  of working with families were a child needs to be
  safeguarded from harm, and many local authorities
  provide, commission or sponsor specific services,
  including childminders, to work with children in
  need and their families.
• (Working Together, 2006)

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So what is child abuse?
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Child abuse is

• Physical abuse
• Emotional abuse
• Sexual abuse
• Neglect
• Bullying

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How much child abuse is there?

• 16 of children experienced serious child
• maltreatment by parents.
• Physical Abuse
• 6 experience physical abuse.
• Neglect
• 6 experienced serious absence of care.
• 5 experienced serious absence of
• supervision.

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How much child abuse is there? Continued

• Emotional Abuse
• 6 of children experience frequent and severe
  
• emotional maltreatment.
• Bullying
• 31 experienced bullying during childhood.
• (Child Maltreatment in the United Kingdom, NSPCC,
  2002)

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Do people really abuse very young children?
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Numbers placed on child protection registers

• In 2005 - 25,900 on child protection registers in
• England
• 41 were under 4 years (10,400)
• 12 were under a year old (3,000)
• Babies and toddlers vulnerable to serious
  injuries
• and death

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Who abuses young children?

• Why might they abuse young children?

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What are the signs of child abuse?
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Neglect

• Physical signs to look out for
• Being constantly hungry and sometimes stealing
  food from others
• Being in an unkempt state frequently dirty or
  smelly
• Loss of weight or being constantly underweight
• Being dressed inappropriately for the weather
  conditions
• Untreated medical conditions not being taken
  for medical treatment for illnesses or injuries

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Neglect

• Behavioural signs to look out for
• Being tired all the time
• Frequently missing school or being late
• Failing to keep hospital or medical appointments
• Having few friends
• Being left alone or unsupervised on a regular
  basis
• Compulsive stealing or scavenging, especially of
  food

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Physical abuse

• Physical signs to look out for
• Injuries which the child cannot explain, or
  explains unconvincingly
• Injuries which have not been treated or treated
  inadequately
• Injuries on parts of the body where accidental
  injury is unlikely, such as the cheeks, chest or
  thighs
• Bruising which reflects hand or finger marks

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Physical abuse

• Cigarette burns, human bite marks
• broken bones (particularly in children under the
  age of two)
• Scalds, especially those with upward splash marks
  where hot water has been deliberately thrown over
  the child, or tide marks rings on the childs
  arms, legs or body where the child has been made
  to sit or stand in very hot water

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Physical abuse

• Behavioural signs to look out for
• A child is reluctant to have their parents
  contacted
• Aggressive behaviour or severe temper outbursts
• A child who runs away or shows fear of going home
• A child who flinches when approached or touched

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Physical abuse

• Reluctance to get undressed for sporting or other
  activities where changing into other clothes is
  normal
• Covering arms and legs even when hot
• Depression or moods which are out of character
  with the childs general behaviour
• Unnaturally compliant to parents or carers

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Emotional abuse

• Physical signs to look out for
• A failure to grow or to thrive (particularly if
  the child thrives when away from home
• Sudden speech disorders
• Delayed development, either physical or emotional

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Emotional abuse

• Behavioural signs to look out for
• Compulsive nervous behaviour such as hair
  twisting or rocking
• An unwillingness or inability to play
• An excessive fear of making mistakes
• Self-harm or mutilation
• Reluctance to have parents contacted

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Emotional abuse

• An excessive deference towards others, especially
  adults
• An excessive lack of confidence
• An excessive need for approval, attention and
  affection
• An inability to cope with praise

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Sexual abuse

• Physical signs to look out for
• Pain, itching, bruising or bleeding in the
  genital or anal areas
• Any sexually transmitted disease
• Recurrent genital discharge or urinary tract
  infections without apparent cause
• Stomach pains or discomfort when the child is
  walking or sitting down

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Sexual abuse

• Behavioural signs to look out for
• Sudden or unexplained changes in behaviour
• An apparent fear of someone
• Running away from home
• Nightmares or bedwetting
• Self-harm, self-mutilation or attempts at suicide
• Abuse of drugs or other substances
• Eating problems such as anorexia or bulimia
• Sexualised behaviour or knowledge in young
  children

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Sexual abuse

• Sexual drawings or language
• Possession of unexplained amounts of money
• The child taking a parental role at home and
  functioning beyond their age level
• The child not being allowed to have friends
  (particularly in adolescence)
• Alluding to secrets which they cannot reveal
• Telling other children or adults about the abuse

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What influences a child telling?

• Their stage of development
• The language they are exposed to in formative
  years
• Speech impairment or communication difficulty
• Whether they have received an appropriate
  response to attempts to communicate (for example,
  if a child asks a question and is ignored she may
  do something to attract attention another way or
  might just stop asking questions)

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Why adults dont hear

• No one could possibly abuse a child in that way
• The child is too young, or not clever, and
  therefore is not trustworthy
• The child is a liar or is fantasising
• The child is wicked and evil
• The child is trying to get the adult into trouble
• No one would stoop so low as to abuse a disabled
  child

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Who do I turn to?
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Who do I turn to?

• What does your safeguarding policy say?
• Tell someone you trust
• Dont do nothing
• NSPCC Child Protection Helpline
• Social services/police
• Offer support to families under stress

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Talk til it Stops autumn 2005

• Do something to help stop abuse. Every action
  counts
• Mobilise society to take action to end cruelty to
  children
• Offer children and young people the opportunity
  to engage with Full Stop
• Offer non-specialist childcare professionals
  working with children training to help them
  recognise the signs and understand the symptoms
  of abuse, overcome barriers and act effectively

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NSPCC/EduCare Objectives

• To mobilise people working with children to help
  end cruelty to children by encouraging them to
  consider their awareness of child cruelty and
  their responses to it
• To encourage people working with children to
  undertake the EduCare training
• To understand the training and support needs of
  people who are working with children so that the
  NSPCC can work to ensure these needs are being
  met
• To start engagement on a continuous basis with
  the professional groupings that represent or
  supervise these staff

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207,500 copies of module 1 sent out

• Child Protection Awareness in Health GPs,
  practise nurses, dentists, ambulance staff
• Child Protection Awareness in Education
  addressed to the head teacher of each school to
  disseminate to teaching and other staff working
  in schools.
• Child Protection Awareness (General) child
  minders, early years and nursery staff, community
  police, fire officers

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Nursery/Pre-school Staff

• 15,548 allocation of modules ones
• 2,554 (16.4) module ones completed and module
  twos sent out
• 678 (27) module twos completed and payment for
  modules three and four received
• A total of 486 (72) of these have completed the
  programme and been certified

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Feedback from Pre-school staff

• 96.7 felt that completing EduCare had helped
  them to develop a clear understanding of child
  abuse
• 97.6 felt that completing EduCare had helped
  them to identify their role in protecting
  children
• 96.7 felt more confident in their ability to
  recognise child abuse
• 93.55 felt more confident in their ability to
  take action if they suspected abuse than they did
  before they completed EduCare
• 32.2 said that they had changed something they
  do at work as a result of having completed the
  programme

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Reviewed pre-school child protection policy and
altered volunteer induction form to include a
signed statement that they have read, understood
and agree to abide by the policyWe are
looking into child protection policy on
allegations against staff as a separate policy
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Uptake of Training and Support Needs Survey

• 19,422 people completed the survey

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Child Protection Concerns

• 88.4 of people who completed the survey come
  into direct daily contact with children
• 50 of these had had concerns about the safety of
  a child, or suspected that a child was
  experiencing abuse during the course of their
  work
• The average number of children that each
  respondent had had a concern about was 5

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Taking Action

• The majority of people had taken action last
  time they had a concern about a child. The three
  most likely forms of action were
• Raised concerns with a colleague within the
  organisation who has responsibility for child
  protection (21)
• Referred concerns to social services (21)
• Discussed the concern with colleagues to get
  their advice (20)

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Barriers to Action

• The main barriers or difficulties that people
  reported experiencing in deciding what to do
  about their concerns was the following
• Being unsure as to whether abuse was taking place
  (28)
• Being worried that if they did something it would
  have a negative impact on their relationship with
  the childs parents/carers (13.18)
• Thinking that it might make the situation worse
  for the child if they did something (7)

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Child Protection Policies and Procedures

• The majority of professionals know that their
  organisation has a child protection policy
• 40 of these however are only broadly familiar
  with it or not familiar at all

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Training

• The issues which respondents would most like
  to receive updates on were as follows
• Understanding the roles and responsibilities of
  other agencies/working together
• Understanding the legal and policy framework for
  safeguarding
• Communicating with children and young people
  where there are child protection concerns
• Domestic violence and child protection
• Assessing risk where there is a child protection
  concern
• Working with families where there is a child
  protection concern

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Child Protection Concerns

• Early Years Workers were the least likely to have
• had concerns about a child (22)

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