Safeguarding and Protecting Children in the Early Years

233 Pages·1.215 MB·English

by  James Reid, Steven Burton

Safeguarding and Protecting
Children in the Early Years
This book provides a comprehensive guide to safeguarding and child protection in
the early years. Aimed at students and practitioners, it offers insight into con-
temporary developments in early years and safeguarding practice, and sets out the
legal and policy foundations for effective practice before exploring areas of con-
temporary concern.
Drawing on the everyday dilemmas and experiences of early years profession-
als, the book focuses on helping you to seek solutions to both practical and moral
issues in a context of legal duties and responsibilities. Covering a broad range of
issues, chapters consider:
(cid:78) how to identify physical and/or emotional neglect;
(cid:78) consequential abuse that can occur as a result of parental behaviours;
(cid:78) safeguarding children’s health and wellbeing;
(cid:78) safeguarding against the misuse of technology;
(cid:78) communication with parents, carers and the ‘team around the child’ alongside
examples of real- life issues and consequences that have arisen when commun-
ication has broken down;
(cid:78) safeguarding as a member of a team;
(cid:78) safeguarding through inter- professional and multidisciplinary work.
Written by a multidisciplinary team with a wealth of experience in safeguarding
and child protection, the Early Years Foundation Stage, health visiting, social
work, the police, and in leading and managing services, this timely new text is
essential reading for all those working with young children.
James Reid is a Senior Lecturer in Childhood Studies within the Department of
Community and International Education at the University of Huddersfield, UK.
Steven Burton is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Huddersfield, lecturing in the
areas of early years, educational leadership and management, and safeguarding.
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Safeguarding and
Protecting
Children in the
Early Years
Edited by James Reid with
Steven Burton
First published 2014
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2014 J. Reid and S. Burton
The right of the editors to be identified as the authors of the editorial material,
and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in
accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act
1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent
to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-0-415-52749-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-52750-7 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-88376-2 (ebk)
Typeset in Palatino
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
Contents
About the contributors vii
Acknowledgements x
List of abbreviations xi
1. Introduction 1
JAMES REID
Part One: Legal and policy foundations and key safeguarding concerns 11
2. The recent history of central government guidance about child
protection 13
NIGEL PARTON AND JAMES REID
3. The social, legal and practice context for protecting and
safeguarding children 35
JAMES REID
4. Neglect in the early years 54
NEIL VENTRESS
5. Socialisation and consequential abuse 73
NEIL VENTRESS
Part Two: Everyday practice dilemmas and experiences 93
6. Safeguarding within the Early Years Foundation Stage 95
JULIE PERCIVAL
7. Safeguarding children’s health and wellbeing 115
SHARON FRANKLAND
8. Safeguarding children from online danger 131
STEVEN BURTON
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Contents
9. Communicating through a crisis 147
STEVEN BURTON
10. Inter- agency working, observation and assessment 165
FRANCES MARSDEN, SAMANTHA McMAHON AND ANDREW YOUDE
11. Supervision and reflective practice 180
SAMANTHA McMAHON AND JULIE PERCIVAL
12. Conclusion 194
STEVEN BURTON
References 197
Index 211
vi
Contributors
Steven Burton, in his early career, worked for a UK police force within its Force
Intelligence unit, which gave him his first introduction to the world of online
safeguarding. He began his teaching career in the fields of management and
public services. His keen interest in e- learning has developed throughout his
career, as demonstrated by his taking part in a project with a Finnish college to
investigate how e- learning has proliferated in Finnish culture. He has also man-
aged a national Learning and Skills Development Agency sponsored project
to investigate the potential use of e-l earning in initial teacher training. He is a
Senior Lecturer at the University of Huddersfield, lecturing in the areas of early
years, educational leadership and management, and safeguarding. He has con-
tributed significantly to the development of this book.
Sharon Frankland has worked since 2007 as a Senior Lecturer in Early Years at the
University of Huddersfield, where she teaches modules on safeguarding children,
children’s health and wellbeing, and work- based learning. Previously she has
worked as a registered nurse, health visitor and practice educator, undertaking
a number of roles within hospital and community settings. She was involved in
the initial launch of the Sure Start local programme in a deprived area of South
Yorkshire, where she worked with other professionals and agencies to provide a
range of services for children and their families. She is currently undertaking a
professional doctorate in nursing and is exploring how professionals from differ-
ent backgrounds work together to promote family wellbeing.
Frances Marsden is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Education and Profes-
sional Development at the University of Huddersfield. She is a programme
leader for the BA (Hons) Educational Management and Administration and the
International BA (Hons) Human Resource Development courses. She is also a
module leader for Early Years, Childhood Studies BA (Hons) programmes and
the Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education. She is a personal tutor to a
range of diverse students in the School of Education and Professional Devel-
opment, from full- time undergraduates to part- time mature professionals. Her
current doctoral research aims to investigate the role of empathy and emotional
labour from the higher education personal tutor’s perspective. She has pre-
sented papers at a number of conferences in the United Kingdom and elsewhere
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Contributors
in Europe with Andrew Youde on the topic of transactional distance and work-
based learning. She has also co- authored a range of papers and book chapters.
Samantha McMahon has ten years’ experience of nursery, primary and further
education, and her key experiences include a pilot study of the Foundation
Stage curriculum and work on seamless integrated provision for children
from the nursery to Reception. Her role at the University of Huddersfield has
included the development and growth of early years provision and the sub-
sequent progression routes. She works closely with practitioners and providers
in enhancing early years provision, including developing in-s ervice training in
child development for practitioners or teachers in children’s centres.
Nigel Parton graduated with a BA (Hons) in Applied Social Studies/CQSW from
Bradford University in 1974 and worked as a social worker in Bradford Social
Services until 1976. He joined the then Polytechnic of Huddersfield in 1977 as
a Lecturer in Social Work, teaching primarily on the Non- Graduate Diploma in
Social Work and Certification of Qualification in Social Work courses, and also
teaching social policy on the BSc (Hons) Behavioural Sciences, the Certificate in
Health Visiting and the Diploma in District Nursing courses. He became Pro-
fessor in Child Care Studies at Keele University in 1993 before returning to the
University of Huddersfield in 1994 to become Professor in Child Care and Dir-
ector of the Centre of Applied Childhood Studies. As the author of numerous
articles, reports and books he has a reputation of international significance. He
is currently the Foundation NSPCC Chair in Applied Childhood Studies at the
University of Huddersfield.
Julie Percival joined the University of Huddersfield in 2007 and is course leader
for the postgraduate routes to Early Years Professional Status within the School
of Education and Professional Development. She has been teaching (and learn-
ing) for over 20 years and has supported children in a variety of contexts,
including special schools, maintained schools, pre- school play groups and pri-
vate day nurseries. She has supported adults in their learning and development
of practice, informally in the workplace and as part of a team of advisory teach-
ers offering centrally and locally devised programmes. She has collaborated
with families and a variety of agencies, including psychological services, health
and Sure Start, to devise packages of care and learning for the very young-
est people in society. She has been a member of a team researching children’s
development and learning as part of a Sure Start evaluation project and is co-
author of a book on assessment for learning in the Foundation Stage.
James Reid, main editor of this book, joined the University of Huddersfield
in September 2008 and is a Senior Lecturer in Childhood Studies in the
Department of Education and Community Studies, where he teaches child
protection and safeguarding. He advises on safeguarding in the School of
Education and Professional Development and is responsible for a significant
increase in childhood studies, early years, initial teacher training and youth
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Contributors
and community work students gaining employer- recognised certificates in
safeguarding and child protection. He is regularly invited to offer seminars,
lectures and talks to other professionals by organisations such as the Consor-
tium for Post- Compulsory Education and Training. Subsequently to engag-
ing in social work practice with children and their families and working as a
social work manager, he spent four years as a staff development officer with
a local authority children’s department. He then took up a post with the Uni-
versity of Teesside, where he taught social work before managing the social
work programmes at that university. He has experience in developing social
work provision in Central Asia with UNICEF, is a member of the Centre of
Applied Childhood Studies at Huddersfield and has contributed to inter-
national texts on vulnerable children and the law.
Neil Ventress comes from a background of almost 30 years of social work prac-
tice with children and their families as a social worker, a manager and an
inter-a gency trainer. After starting his career with a short period as a resid-
ential social worker, he moved to fieldwork in 1977 and he gained his Cer-
tificate of Qualification in Social Work in 1982. From 2007 to 2011 he enjoyed
a post as a Senior Lecturer at Teesside University, where he taught on both
the undergraduate and post- qualifying social work programmes and was
Programme Leader for the university’s post-q ualifying programme for social
workers working with children, young people, their families and carers. He is
currently an independent trainer and consultant, and he continues to focus on
safeguarding children. His principal research and writing interests are around
the field of child neglect, although he also has an interest in inter-p rofessional
safeguarding education, and in 2007–2009 he was an active member of the
Project Advisory Group for a large- scale piece of research funded by the
Department of Health and the Department for Children, Schools and Families
on the effectiveness of inter- agency safeguarding training. He writes regularly
for Community Care Inform.
Andrew Youde is Head of Division within the Department of Education and Com-
munity Studies at the University of Huddersfield. He has particular research
interests in the skills and qualities of online tutors, and his doctoral research
involves exploring the relationship between emotional intelligence and success
in blended learning environments. He lectures on various programmes, includ-
ing MSc Multimedia and E- learning, BA (Hons) Educational Management and
Administration and BA (Hons) Leading in the Children’s Workforce.
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