Legislation

UN Convention on the rights of the child 1989

This is an international framework to which all of the countries of the UK have signed up that outlines the fundamental rights of children. You can access the website by clicking the title (above) or by clicking here.

You can download the convention from their website but we have also added the full and summary versions into the materials so that you can download it from within this course if you wish to.

Children Act 1989 & 2004

Children’s Acts are part of UK law and arise from the UN Convention on the rights of the child. There are many Children Acts dating right back to 1889, the the most significant are the 1989 Act, which established the current approach to safeguarding and the 2004 Act which amended the 1989 Act in the light of the lessons learned following the death of Victoria Climbié. A copy of the report can be found here.

Education Act 2002, 2005 & 2011

Education acts tend to focus on 2 key aspects of safeguarding:

• Producing better outcomes for children
• Suitability of staff and accountability for ensuring safety

Safeguarding is key in educational settings and therefore it is important that they prioritise the achievement of best practice.

Safe recruitment and the suitability of staff is addressed in a number of pieces of legislation including:

• Sexual offences act 2003
• Protection of children act 1999
• Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006
• Childcare Disqualification Regulations 2009
• Disqualification under the childcare act 2006 (2018)
• Protection of Freedoms Act 2012

Children and Social Work Act 2017

This This act made significant changes to social work practice, including in the areas of training, professional development, and support of staff. It also made changes to the status of Safeguarding Children Partnerships (formerly Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCB))

Prevent and FGM duties

These duties require specified workers to report concerns about radicalisation (Prevent Duty) and Femal Genital Mutilation (FGM Duty) to the Local Authority so that action can be taken to protect them.