Evaluation of an Organisation that Campaigns on Issues of Relevance to Children and Families - Research Paper Example

Critically evaluate an organisation of choice which campaigns on issue(s) of relevance to children, young people, and families The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) is a well-established and long standing registered charitable voluntary organisation with direct involvement over matters of crucial importance to children, young people and the families of which they are a part. It is an organisation with direct links to the Charity Commission which is the government body with powers to oversee all charities in Britain. The Charity Commission does not directly administer child protection legislation, but oversees the maintenance of high standards in trustees appointed to all charities that are registered with the Commission. It can assist in the screening of trustees and practitioners by charities in obtaining information from the Criminal Records Bureau for which they are legally entitled. Children and young people in growing up to become adults, either within a traditional family setting, or in care, have necessarily to go through various stages with or without ’rites of passage’ in keeping with cultural and societal norms. Some of these stages of transition may be accompanied by physiological changes such as the reaching of puberty by girls. Or, it could be a change of environment like moving up from primary school to secondary school. However, Some children may have to face very particular and personal transitions not necessarily shared or understood by all their peers. These include: family illness or the death of a close relative; divorce and family break-up; issues related to sexuality; adoption; the process of asylum; disability; parental mental health; and the consequences of crime (http://www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/deliveringservices/commoncore/transitions/. Such transitions are identified as requiring additional support to, not only those who directly undergo them, and their families, but also to professional carers and institutions that support them. The NSPCC is uniquely positioned to come to the aid and support of not only the trustees and staff of charities but also most critically to those who are legislators, policy makers and government institutions working in the child protection field. This role of the NSPCC is approvingly acknowledged by the Charity Commission in providing the URL of the NSPCC as a resource, in an Internet document entitled ‘Safeguarding Children‘. There are a range of agencies and publications which can guide in the development and updating of their safeguarding policy and procedures. A selection is identified below and a more detailed list is available at http://www.nspcc.org.uk (http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/supporting charities/protection.asp. The NSPCC, not only provides training for others but also accredits them by issuing ‘certificates of recognition‘as qualified and suitable for such work. The NSPCC appears to be at the cutting edge of research in the field of child abuse and neglect. In the year 2000 it commissioned and published a research report on ‘Child maltreatment in the United Kingdom: A study in the prevalence of abuse and neglect’ (Cawson et al, 2000). The report concludes in summary that The findings challenge us to rethink some fundamental issues about the way we care for children and support families. These include family life, gender, socio-economic status and age-peer relationships. The family offers the primary source of nurturing, love and development to children and was effective in doing this for most of the sample. But it also was the source of stress and problems to quite large minorities. Implications of the figures obtained from this random sample are that, in a full double-decker school bus at the end of the day, at least seven children are likely to be going home to families which they do not experience as loving or close; as many as ten may be shouldering a ’double shift’ burden of housework and caring for parents who are incapacitated by their own health or social problems; two or three will be going home in fear of the frequent violence between their parents, and two or three will be returning to a life of regular beatings or denigration. These figures are not cumulative and some children will be experiencing several or all of these situations (op cit). This report in the series NSPCC Research Findings was hailed as one of the most comprehensive reports on the subject of maltreatment of children in the UK. The authors interviewed 2869 randomly selected sample of young people aged between 18 and 24. They used Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) to ensure confidentiality. It concludes that in ‘(I)n interpreting the results, it is important to consider the national population to which the results are relevant’ (op cit). In an estimated child population of 12 million in the UK ‘… even 1% of this represents 120,000 children and young people’ (op cit). The research was so seminal that there was a follow up report by one of the authors, P.Cawson (2002) entitled ‘Child maltreatment in the family: the experience of a national sample of young people’. Although there are difficulties for research due to a lack of consensus by researchers on what constitutes maltreatment, especially in its less overt and dramatic forms like neglect and emotional maltreatment, the above two pieces of work especially commissioned by the NSPCC stands out as charting new territory for continuing work in this field. In addition to its 24-hour child protection helpline and the ‘there4me.com’ (online service for children) NSPCC provides Consultancy Services with a large number of publications on national policy and procedures on child protection. A few of these are: Stopcheck: required information on child protection policies and procedures in organisations. Firstcheck: a step by step guide to help organisations prepare child protection policies and procedures. Safetycheck: a set of nine standards for safeguarding and protecting children in organisations. Kidscheck: a companion guide for children and young people to assess their organisation themselves so that they can contribute to making it safe. The NSPCC is also involved in a joint project with Sport England in providing an accreditation scheme for national sports governing bodies and county sports partnerships. The NSPCC Child Protection in Sport Unit provides advice and training to sport and leisure organisations. This includes Sportcheck: a resource for establishing standards for safeguarding and protecting children engaged in sport. The NSPCC has also looked at and commented on what had come to be popularly known in the USA as Megan’s Law. After the sexual assault and murder of a seven year old child Megan, the public anger and outcry was such that legislators passed amendments to a series of laws that led to the compulsory ’community notification’ of sex offenders by allowing public access to information on those convicted of child sex crimes. There is a strong body of opinion in the UK that seeks to introduce similar legislation for revealing the whereabouts of sex offenders here in the wake of the horrific sexual assault and killing of a child, Sarah. However, the NSPCC is inclined to the view that there is no conclusive evidence to suggest that Megan’s Law has succeeded in the US in the way that the public and the legislators had envisaged it would. The latest information on this subject is that there would be an assessment of the suitability of a ‘Sarah’s Law’ to UK conditions by trialling it in a few selected locations. It appears from this brief discussion that the voluntary sector charity NSPCC takes a leading role in all areas of child protection policy and practice in the United Kingdom and is worthy of being emulated by all who are charged with the responsibility of safeguarding our children. It fully deserves the public support it currently enjoys. Works Cited 1. < http://www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/deliveringservices/commoncore/transition/ > 2. < http://www.nspcc.org.uk > 3. < http://www.charitycommission.gov.uksupportingchildren/protection.asp > 4. Cawson, P., Wattam, C., Brooker, S. and Kelly, G. (2000) Child maltreatment in the United Kingdom: A study of the prevalence of abuse and neglect. London: NSPCC. 5. Cawson P. (2002) Child maltreatment in the family: The experience of a national sample of young people. London: NSPCC. Read More