Child Protection is a fundamental issue that has been addressed at various levels of governance. The United Kingdom is one of the many countries that are still grappling with how best to protect a child from any dangerous exposure. Prof Eileen Munro was tasked to come up with a report on how to minimize the cases of child abuse in the United Kingdom. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to identify what child abuse is and how it should be addressed. We shall also look at what we should consider when we are drawing up policies for child protection. Victims of child abuse will also be identified to understand who is more vulnerable. We shall also look at the laws in the United Kingdom addressing child protection and finally look at Eileen Munro's recommendations in her report and whether they have been implemented.
Children are a special blessing from God. Anyone under the age of sixteen years in the United Kingdom is considered to be a child. A child is a very vulnerable person in the society. Therefore, proper mechanisms should be put in place to ensure the safety and well-being of the child. Governments all over the world have come up with legislation meant to ensure the child is not exposed to any form of danger. These policies fall under the child protection policy. The child protection policy is a policy meant to protect a child from any kind of violence, physical or mental abuse, exploitation and other dangers that a child can be exposed to. The government or the United Nations normally run these policies through the United Nations International Children's Fund. Before a government comes up with a strategy regarding child protection, several factors ought to be addressed. One such element is to discuss the real requirements that need to be in place for a child to be safe. There should also be ways of identifying any rising case of child abuse and the clear procedures of how to handle such an issue should it occur. There should also be proper guidelines on how such cases should be reported so that should it happen, people will be having adequate knowledge on how to handle it. The policy should also address best conditions in the workplace to ensure the safety of the workers. Recruitment process should also be directed to ensure the integrity of the staff recruited. Firms should only hire a team that respects the safety of the children. Further to this, the policy should make it mandatory for all organizations to train their staff on child protection at the place of work (Kleinman et al. 2015, p. 79-101).
The United Kingdom has one of the most progressive legislation regarding child protection. Since coming up with first child protection legislation in 1908 called Children's Act 1908, the Kingdom has had several amendments meant to improve the welfare of the child. The age of execution in the United Kingdom was raised from the initial sixteen years to the current eighteen years. For a child to be criminally responsible for his or her actions, the said child should be aged seven years or above. The protection act also addresses the area of smoking whereby any person under the age of eighteen years is not allowed to smoke. The limited age a child should be allowed to take alcohol is the age of five years. However, this is only limited to private residential areas only. Any licensed premises should just sell alcohol to persons over the age of sixteen years. This is meant to protect the child from alcohol and drug abuse. Any person below the age of sixteen is not allowed to engage in any form of prostitution. Gambling is also limited to persons over the age of eighteen years (Stoltenborgh et al. 2011, p. 79-101).
Other laws in the United Kingdom meant to ensure the safety of the child is the restriction addressing the age one should attain before engaging in any form of gainful employment. This law is intended to ensure no child is subjected to forced labor. It is unlawful to employ someone in the United Nations without that person having attained the minimum age provided which is sixteen years. However, there is an exception to this rule as one may employ a child aged over thirteen years provided that the teenager is only engaged in part-time assignments. Sexual intercourse is also restricted to those with the age of sixteen years and above while begging is also restricted to sixteen years and above (Kempe et al. 2013, p. 79-101).
While the laws for child protection in the United Kingdom are highly progressive, the rules have not been able to curb cases of child abuse in the Kingdom. Every day, cases of child abuse are recorded in the country. Schools are not spared either as several cases of child abuse are reported at the learning institutions. The government, therefore, tasked Prof Eileen Munro to come up with a report on ways in which child abuse can be eliminated or at least reduced (Radford et al. 2011, p. 111-136).
After years of research, Prof Munro came up with a very comprehensive report addressing the key areas relating to child abuse and recommendations on how best to address this issue.
1.The first recommendation from the professor says the government should revise its statutory guidance and policies to ensure that attention is given timeliness in the identification of children's needs and distinguish the rules that are essential for effective working together from other guidance that may inform any form of professional judgment.
2. The report further recommended for the inspection framework to understand whether the contributions that the other institutions are bringing to the welfare of the child are useful or not.
3. The third recommendation dwelled on the looking how the child's life and experiences influenced the kind of help provided and how effective that response was.
4. The professor's report recommended that authorities tasked with implementing child protection policies should read published articles around the world to compare and understand how best they can improve on the existing systems already in place.
5. The report also recommended for the amendment of existing laws so that reports from Local Safeguarding Children Boards are directly sent to the Chief Executive of the Children's Trust Board.
6. The report further recommends in the sixth recommendation the amendment of the statutory guidance on child protection so that the effectiveness of the help extended to the vulnerable and effective ways of ensuring the well-being of the child.
7. The seventh recommendation of the report is the need for local authorities to accord the role of child protection officers the respect it deserves. This can be done by ensuring child protection officers are not assigned extra duties not related to child protection. This will ensure that the officers concentrate on their primary responsibility which is child protection.
8. The government ought to collaborate with other stakeholders like Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health with an aim providing help to the vulnerable and victims of child abuse.
9. The ninth recommendation rooted for the abolition of Ofsted evaluation of the Serious Case Reviews but instead use systems methodology.
10. The government should ensure local authorities and statutory partners provide efficient services whenever there is a looming possibility of a case occurring.
11. There is also a need for Social Work Reform Board to put in mind the capabilities of a child in a child's social development.
12. The report further recommends on the preparedness of the employer and colleges on the issue of child protection. The report says higher learning institutions should impact child protection skills to the student while the employer must ensure that he employs only people with training in child protection.
13. Local authorities should also ensure that ways in which work is done in the families are reviewed, so that family work that may result in child labor is abandoned.
14. A post needs to be created for a Principal Child and Family Social Worker whose role will be to be at the forefront advocating for child protection.
15. The government should also create a post of Chief Social Worker who will play an advisory role to the government regarding Children Protection matters.
These were the radical proposals from the report aimed at addressing the issue of child abuse. However, several years since the report was published, cases of child abuse have not reduced. Most of the recommendations from the report have never been implemented. The report shows that over one hundred thousand children are under the care of the government due to cases of child abuse while thousands of children need protection from the government as they are victims of child abuse (Radford et al. 2011, p. 111-136). According to the official records in the government, cases of child abuse are on the rise with NSPCC head of helplines Mr. John Cameron admitting that the figures are worrying. The United Kingdom should, therefore, come up with tighter laws to ensure that this vice is curbed.
References
Kleinman, P.K. ed., 2015. Diagnostic imaging of child abuse. Cambridge University Press.
Stoltenborgh, M., Van Ijzendoorn, M.H., Euser, E.M. and Bakermans-Kranenburg, M.J., 2011. A global perspective on child sexual abuse: a meta-analysis of prevalence around the world. Child Maltreatment, 16(2), pp.79-101.
Kempe, C.H., Silverman, F.N., Steele, B.F., Droegemueller, W. and Silver, H.K., 2013. The battered-child syndrome. In C. Henry Kempe: A 50 Year Legacy to the Field of Child Abuse and Neglect (pp. 23-38). Springer, Dordrecht.
Radford, L., Corral, S., Bradley, C., Fisher, H., Bassett, C., Howat, N. and Collishaw, S., 2011. Child abuse and neglect in the UK today.
Sousa, C., Herrenkohl, T.I., Moylan, C.A., Tajima, E.A., Klika, J.B., Herrenkohl, R.C. and Russo, M.J., 2011. Longitudinal study on the effects of child abuse and children's exposure to domestic violence, parent-child attachments, and antisocial behaviour in adolescence. Journal of interpersonal violence, 26(1), pp.111-136.
