Protecting the Rights of the Worlds Future - Coursework Example

Protecting the Rights of the World’s Future Children have always been considered fragile. Because of their size and inexperience, they may be vulnerable to exploitation by adults around them. For them to have a meaningful, relevant and productive childhood, their health, safety and security should be ensured. Children’s rights must be upheld and protected. This is echoed by the the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) which declares that "the child, by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth", Article 2.2 further details, “States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that the child is protected against all forms of discrimination or punishment on the basis of the status, activities, expressed opinions, or beliefs of the childs parents, legal guardians, or family members.” The UK is signatory in the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child. Every five years, the UK government is required to report to the UN Commission on its progress in implementing the convention in the country. It is expected that all government departments hold responsibility to promote the convention and the five key outcomes set out in Every Child Matters namely: being healthy, staying safe, enjoying and achieving, making a positive contribution and economic well-being. This document provides the vehicle for the delivery of the convention in the country. It widens the scope of government involvement in children’s development and challenges all those involved with children to develop effective practices in promoting positive developmental outcomes for all. Inspectors of children’s services will be looking for evidence that “Children and young people, parents and carers are involved in identifying their needs and designing services” and “Children and young people contribute to performance management and their views are listened to” (Ofsted, 2004). “In the Children Acts 1989 and 2004, a child is anyone who has not yet reached their 18th birthday. ‘Children’ therefore means ‘children and young people’ throughout.The fact that a child has reached 16 years of age, is living independently or is in further education, is a member of the armed forces, is in hospital, in prison or in a Young Offenders’ Institution, does not change his or her status or entitlement to services or protection under the Children Act 1989. “(HM Government, 2006, p.34) Children are given the same protection from domestic assault as is accorded to adults in the UK and ending the societal acceptance and legitimization of hitting children. In the document for Every Child Matters, Working Together to Safeguard Children (HM Government, 2006), important definitions on some constructs on hand were given: Abuse and neglect are forms of maltreatment of a child. Inflicting harm or acts that do not prevent harm are considered acts of abuse or neglect. Such acts may fall in one or more of the following: “Physical abuse may involve hitting, shaking, throwing, poisoning, burning or scalding, drowning, suffocating, or otherwise causing physical harm to a child. Physical harm may also be caused when a parent or carer fabricates the symptoms of, or deliberately induces, illness in a child.” (p.37) “Emotional abuse is the persistent emotional maltreatment of a child such as to cause severe and persistent adverse effects on the child’s emotional development. It may involve conveying to children that they are worthless or unloved, inadequate, or valued only insofar as they meet the needs of another person. It may feature age or developmentally inappropriate expectations being imposed on children. These may include interactions that are beyond the child’s developmental capability, as well as overprotection and limitation of exploration and learning, or preventing the child participating in normal social interaction. It may involve seeing or hearing the ill-treatment of another. It may involve serious bullying, causing children frequently to feel frightened or in danger, or the exploitation or corruption of children. Some level of emotional abuse is involved in all types of maltreatment of a child, though it may occur alone.” (p. 38) “Sexual abuse involves forcing or enticing a child or young person to take part in sexual activities, including prostitution, whether or not the child is aware of what is happening. The activities may involve physical contact, including penetrative (e.g. rape, buggery or oral sex) or non-penetrative acts. They may include non-contact activities, such as involving children in looking at, or in the production of, sexual online images, watching sexual activities, or encouraging children to behave in sexually inappropriate ways.” (p. 38) “Neglect is the persistent failure to meet a child’s basic physical and/or psychological needs, likely to result in the serious impairment of the child’s health or development. Neglect may occur during pregnancy as a result of maternal substance abuse. Once a child is born, neglect may involve a parent or carer failing to: provide adequate food, clothing and shelter (including exclusion from home or abandonment) protect a child from physical and emotional harm or danger ensure adequate supervision (including the use of inadequate care-givers) ensure access to appropriate medical care or treatment. It may also include neglect of, or unresponsiveness to, a child’s basic emotional needs.” (p.38) Anda et al (2005) discussed in their study that the traumatic experiences of abused or neglected children often stays on with the victim into adulthood, and can even influence the raising of that victim’s own children. More often than not, abused children repeat the pattern with their own children. Some children may never fully recover from the trauma, resulting in lifelong depression, anxiety, and personality disorders. Other individuals may be predisposed to engage in prostitution, pornography, drug abuse, or crime (Browne & Finkelhor, 1986; Bryant & Range, 1996; Ferrara, 2002; Malinoskey-Rummell & Hansen, 1993). The long-term consequences of child maltreatment can be so devastating that it has been called "soul murder" (Shengold, 1989) Springer, Sheridan, Kuo & Carnes (2003) add to the long-term consequences of child abuse possible post traumatic stress disorder (PSTD), chronic pain syndromes, chronic fatigue syndrome, eating disorders and irritable bowels. Compared with non-abused adults, those who experienced childhood abuse are more likely to engage in high-risk health behaviors including smoking, alcohol and drug use, and unsafe sex. Hence, such population report an overall lower health status and use health services more than their non-abused counterparts. Socially, abused children may be withdrawn and have difficulties in forming and maintaining social relationships. Childhood sexual abuse survivors tend to have difficulties in intimate relationships and are at an increased risk for revictimization (Springer et al, 2003). Likewise, there is a substantial body of literature linking childhood abuse with poor educational outcomes (Springer et al, 2003). For example, Kinard (1999) found that abused children have lower grades, lower school attendance and more placements in special education programs. Eckenrode et al (1993) reported that maltreated children scored lower and had lower grades in reading and math, with neglected children scoring lower than physically or sexually abused children. Perez and Widom (1994) found that the academic and intellectual outcomes of childhood abuse persist into adulthood. It is important to remember that childhood abuse usually occurs in the context of other adverse family environment factors such as poverty, having very young and immature parents, lower cognitive ability, lower grades in school, less education and poor physical health (Springer et al, 2003). In addition, coexistence with other adverse experiences such as witnessing parental marital problems, parental substance abuse, domestic violence and overall family dysfunction may worsen the long term effects of childhood abuse. The serious implications of the violation of children’s rights have urged not only concerned individuals but also large organizations to actively denounce child abuse. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, requires in Article 19, that: ‘States Parties shall take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation including sexual abuse, while in the care of parent(s), legal guardian(s) or any other person who has the care of the child’. It is pathetic that most often, the abuser or neglector is someone known by the child (i.e. parent, relative or neighbor) and the abuse usually happens in the child’s home or child care center, places where the child views as his safe haven. (Administration for Children and Families, 2004). Many factors are to be considered to validate that a child is truly abused or neglected. The following framework is suggested by Every Child Matters (p.109): A trained social worker assesses a child suspected of child abuse or neglect. The initial assessment should address the following questions. (p. 110) What are the developmental needs of the child? Are the parents able to respond appropriately to the child’s identified needs? Is the child being adequately safeguarded from significant harm, and are the parents able to promote the child’s health and development? What impact are family functioning and history, the wider family and environmental factors having on the parents’ capacity to respond to their child’s needs and the child’s developmental progress? Is action required to safeguard and promote the welfare of the child? Upon confirmation of the abuse, a child protection plan is devised. The outline child protection plan should (p. 130): identify factors associated with the likelihood of the child suffering significant harm and ways in which the child can be protected through an inter-agency plan, based on the current findings from the assessment and information held from any previous involvement with the child and family establish short-term and longer-term aims and objectives that are clearly linked to reducing the likelihood of harm to the child and promoting the child’s welfare, including contact with family members be clear about who will have responsibility for what actions – including actions by family members – within what specified timescales outline ways of monitoring and evaluating progress against the planned outcomes set out in the plan; and be clear about which professional is responsible for checking that the required changes have taken place, and what action will be taken, by whom, when they have not. The Children Act 1989 covers the following: “reforms the law relating to children; makes provision for local authority services for children in need and others; amends the law with respect to children’s homes, community home, voluntary homes and voluntary organizations; makes provision with respect to fostering, child minding and day care for young children and adoption and for connected purposes.” (DfEs Children Act and Reports, 1989; 2004). This act is further polished with Children Act 2004 and provides a wider strategy for improving children’s lives. “The overall aim is to encourage integrated planning, commissioning and delivery of services as well as improve multi-disciplinary working, remove duplication, increase accountability and improve the coordination of individual and joint inspections in local authorities.: (DfEs Children Act and Reports, 1989; 2004). This development was brought about by the death of Victoria Climbié, a little girl who was severely maltreated by her relatives eventually leading to her death. Although her death is a tragic loss, it has awakened in the government its vigilance in the protection of children, hence, Victoria’s death was not in vain. “The Government’s response to the inquiry report and the first joint Chief Inspectors’ Report (Cm 5861) identified the key features of an effective system to safeguard children. These informed the Green Paper Every Child Matters (Cm 5860) and the Children Act 2004, in particular the plans for integration of services around the needs of children through the creation of children’s trusts, the requirement for local authorities (LAs) to set up Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCBs) and the new duty on agencies to make arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of children (HM Government, 2006, p. 32) The key outcomes of children’s growth and development detailed in the Every Child Matters report and represent a considerable shift in focus for staff providing public services for children. (Baxter & Frederickson, 2005). Being so, a number of agencies providing services and support to children in need and their families are concerned in upgrading the quality of their services. They also find themselves collaborating with a number of other agencies which also provide services for children and families. Reder and Duncan (2003) describe as the ‘interagency mindset’: ‘each individual must remain aware of the existence of other relevant people and of the need to impart information to them. Hence, each individual needs to conceptualise themselves (and the case) as linked in to a web of other people and agencies.’ (p. 94) Many agencies are after safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. Every Child Matters defines such as : “protecting children from maltreatment; preventing impairment of children’s health or development; ensuring that children are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care; and undertaking that role so as to enable those children to have optimum life chances and to enter adulthood successfully.” (HM Government, 2007, p.11) It is heartening to know that everyone is putting in their own efforts and doing their share in the protection of children. Having a multi-agency network in protecting children from abuse is very reassuring. Being our hope for the future, children indeed deserve utmost love, care, respect and protection if we are envision the world to be a better place tomorrow. References Administration for Children and Families. 2004. Chapter 5: Perpetrators. In Child maltreatment 2004.Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Anda, R. F., V. J. Felitti, J. D. Bremner, J. D. Walker, C. Whitfield, B. D. Perry, S. R. Dube, and W. H. Giles.(2005). “The enduring effects of abuse and related adverse experiences in childhood: A convergence of evidence from neurobiology and epidemiology.” European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience 256(3): 174–86. Browne, A., and Finkelhor, D. (1986). “Impact of child sexual abuse: A review of the research. Psychological Bulletin, 99(1), 66-77. Bryant, S. L., & Range, L. M. (1995). “Suicidality in college women who were sexually and physically abused and physically punished by parents.” Violence & Victims, 10, 195-201. Child Welfare Information Gateway. 2004. Child abuse and neglect fatalities: Statistics and interventions. Available at: www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/factsheets/ fatality.cfm. DfEs Children Act and Reports, (1989; 2004) information retrieved on December 6, 2009 from http://dfes.gov.uk/publications/childrenactreport/#1989 and http://dfes.gov.uk/publications/childrenactreport/#2004 Eckenrode J, Laird M, Doris J. School performance and disciplinary problems among abused and neglected children. Dev Psychol. 1993;29:53– 62. Every Child Matters: Change for Children. Retrieved on December 5, 2009 from http://www.everychildmatters.gov.uk Ferrara, F. F. (2002) Childhood sexual abuse: Developmental effects across the lifespan. (Pacific Grove, Calif.: Brooks/Cole). Hallett, C., (2000) “Children’s Rights”, Child Abuse Review Vol. 9: 389–393 HM Government (2006) Working Together to Safeguard Children: A guide to inter- agency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. Every Child Matters Change for Children. London: TSO HM Government (2007) “Statutory guidance on making arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of children under section 11 of the Children Act 2004” Every Child Matters Change for Children. London: Department for Education and Skills Kinard EM. Psychosocial resources and academic performance in abused children. Child Youth Serv Rev. 1999;21:351–76. Malinosky-Rummell, R., & Hansen, D. J. (1993). “Long-term consequences of childhood physical abuse.” Psychological Bulletin, 114, 68-79. Perez CM, Widom CS. Childhood victimization and long-term intellectual and academic outcomes. Child Abuse Negl. 1994;18:617–33. Shengold, L. (1989). Soul murder: The effects childhood abuse and deprivation. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press). Springer, K.W., Sheridan, J., Kuo, D., Carnes, M., The Long-term Health Outcomes of Childhood Abuse: An Overview and a Call to Action J Gen Intern Med 2003;18:864–870 United Nations (1989) Convention on the rights of the child (Geneva, United Nations). Read More