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Child Protection
| CrossReach is highly committed to ensuring that all the services we operate are child-centred, safe and with an open environment for all young people we work with. This requires us to maintain a system of "Safe Care" and Child Protection. This reflects a number of key national and international standards such as -
- The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
- Protecting Children and Young People - The Charter
- Protecting Children and Young People - The Framework for Standards
- Scottish Social Services Council Codes of Practice
The Framework for Standards describes child abuse as "A deliberate act of ill-treatment that can harm or is likely to harm a child's safety, well-being and development" and the five main categories of abuse are physical injury, sexual abuse, non-organic failure to thrive, emotional abuse and physical neglect. However Geilsland has also added bullying/peer harm to these categories in terms of our child protection policy.
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We follow the government's guidance in terms of child protection - "It's everyone's job to make sure I'm alright". This statement is the key to the approach and actions taken by all staff, in that, all/any harm observed, witnessed or suspected is reorted to the appropriate manager and it is not assumed that it is already known and been dealt with in the past. Staff do not attempt to investigate or make judgements as to whether a concern is a child protection concern or not, they will record and report all such concerns to a manger who will then deal with it by discussing it firstly within the school executive to establish if immediate action is required (ie removal of a member of staff or another young person from the school/unit) and then with the young person's local authority. An agreed partnership approach is then taken.
CrossReach has a clear and concise Child Protection policy that all staff are trained in and have access to in order to inform their practice.
At the heart of child protection is "Safe Care" and we work hard to ensure the environment is safe for everyone. This involves having suitably qualified and vetted staff, having clear policies and guidelines in place, having good systems in place such as a well understood and open complaints procedures, recording systems, regular discussions with young people in formal and informal forums, involving young people in decisions and planning that affects them, being open and welcoming of visitors, advocates, inspections agencies etc.
We are inspected on a regular basis by the Care Commission, who use the National Care Standards to ensure we are providing a hgih standard of care to young people within a safe and therapeutic environment.
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