There are strong links between safeguarding and child development. The level of detail in which we need to understand this will vary depending on our role, however, we all need to have at least a basic understanding of what we should expect of children at particular stages.

We said earlier that safeguarding involves both protecting from harm and also promoting wellbeing.

Promoting wellbeing

In order to promote the child’s wellbeing and to create a stimulating environment that encourages the child’s development and provides the opportunity for them to consolidate and strengthen existing skills and to develop and learn new skills, we need to understand child development. We need to be clear about what the child can and can’t do at that stage, but also, what is needed to start to develop the skills they need to move on to the next developmental stage.

Protecting from harm

If we are to effectively identify and manage risk, we must understand what the child is capable of, otherwise, we risk injuring or otherwise harming the child or hindering rather than promoting their development and wellbeing.

Later in this course, we will think in more detail about other aspects of this including:

• That abuse impacts numerous areas of the child’s development
• That abuse manifests itself differently at different stages of the child’s development
• That children’s vulnerability to abuse varies depending upon their developmental stage
• That some types of abuse (e.g. Criminal or sexual exploitation) are more likely to occur in some developmental stages than they are in others due to the child’s knowledge, skills and level of independence