Child Protection Act 1999 & Child Welfare Services: Ensuring Child Safety & Security Essay.

With reference to current Child Protection Legislation in Ireland (namely Children First Guidelines 2011), you are required to complete a review of the Case Study presented on Joey under the following headings: 

• Brief outline of the history of Child Protection Legislation. With reference to Children First Guidelines 1999 & 2011, and Our Duty to Care 2002 as they apply to ECCE settings.

For the purpose of ensuring the rights of children in terms of their safety and security the legislative actions in the form of Child Protection Act 1999 have given a specific framework.  Every aspect of this Act deals with some of the relevant areas concerning the protection of the child (Moran et al. 2017, p.14). The interest and welfare of the children are given utmost value. The child’s family plays a significant role in ensuring the fact that all the rights is provided. Providing protection does not necessarily encompass excessive intervention. Equal participation a interest needs to be involved regarding the formulation of plan for the child. In case of any important decision making it is important to maintain a balance within the family of the child. Right to information is the fundamental right of both the child as well as the family (Parkes et al. 2015, p.423). Any behavioural practice conducted with the child must adhere to the cultural context of the respective families. The families need to create a suitable environment for the child to be ensured a comfortable, protected and secure life in future. The members of the family need to have a well coordinated and collaborative approach to foster the child.

• Provide accurate identification of potential needs of the individual (s) involved in the Case Study.

Children during their early years of life need extra care, concern and comfort to foster their growth in the rightful manner. It is most desirable that other than the learning and education provided by the special caregivers equally caring surroundings is provided to the child from the part of their families. Joey Murphy being a 3 years and 7 months old child belonging from a well reputed and sound background was admitted to the Alphabet Crèche and Pre-School. A working parent needed their children to be taught the necessary prerequisites to be socially acceptable as a part of their family. Joey’s deteriorating health condition and emotional instability were indicators of deficiency of proper care and attention (Alexander and Arday, 2015, p.72). The caregivers on identifying bruises in his back could predict that he was lacking the safety and protection that a child needs to be assured of. As specified in the Child Protection Act 1999, family support is treated as fundamental prerequisite to be able to ensure the factor of child safety and security. Any sort of harm or threat towards safety issues of the child is required to be addressed through the incorporation of the said Act.

• Outline your immediate concerns, what type of abuse should be considered and evidence?

Some of the most prominent abuses identified within the context of the scenario fall evidently under the Children First National Guidance. Neglect is one of the prime concerns for the present case. Joey Murphy who was initially identified as a lively cheerful and enthusiastic child was gradually evident to get transformed into a child in bad shape (Mergaert and Lombardo, 2014, p.50). He stayed disturbed agitated and exhibited temper tantrums. Emotional abuse can be potentially a strong factor for the sudden behavioural changes noticed. Imposing an excessive strict routine upon the child will definitely hinder the emotional state of the child. In addition to that, sufficient evidences of physical abuse could be traced. Marks of bruises found by the caregiver in the pre-school are substantial evidences to support in favour of the physical abuse taken place over Joey (Holmgren and Arora-Jonsson, 2015, p.241).

• Steps you would take to support the child and the family in question, relate to best practice

The Need for Child Protection Act 1999

Child welfare services can prove to be a source of great help in case of putting the child’s family into question for the abuses taken place upon the child. The strong evidences that are enlisted on the basis of categorisation of abuses taken place on Joey can be treated as the source to take the steps forward. It is needed to respond to the family in a rather supportive manner to prevent the child’s welfare being threatened. The family should undergo therapeutic intervention for enhancing their family life. This shall greatly reduce the risk for the child and the family configuration at large. The lack of coordination and cooperation among the family members and the relationship with the child must be addressed (Holmgren and Arora-Jonsson, 2015, p.241). Direct services must be provided to the child to be able to re-integrate himself with his family.

• Steps you would take within the childcare setting to gather as much information as possible include collaboration and best practice.

The avoidance towards prevention of the child to enter the child care system must be practiced widely. It is mandatory for conducting sessions with both child and the family separately as well as together to address the current issues faced. For inducing the component of collaboration in practice it is necessary to work towards promoting competence and confidence among the parents of such children. The childcare settings do not merely take interaction with the child into account (Mergaert and Lombardo, 2014, p.50). They rather encompass the entire surrounding of the child that affects the areas of threat caused to the child. However, the members of childcare setting try to connect with the families with the help of their supportive networks in the community. This process will help minimise the impact of risk upon children to enhance their experience with their families.

As Joey attends the service, you as supervisor have a duty of care for him under Child Protection legislation. You are required for this part of your project to devise and outline an action plan outlining how you will ensure Joey’s health, safety and well-being in the short, medium and long term.

Actions that need to be implemented in the short term; from now – 1 month

As the services follow the Child Protection Legislation the action plan needs to incorporate measures in a gradual progression. The initial stage of the project must include strategic meeting (Holmgren and Arora-Jonsson, 2015, p.241). This step will ensure that open information sharing must take place to ensure maximum protection for the child also including his siblings who are likely to encounter similar consequences. The management team must focus upon all the relevant circumstances and run a critical evaluation of each of these situations. The prime objective of this meeting is to share and obtain information available from all the sources, be it the parents, grandparents or the children themselves. This step is more relevant to initiate the project with a momentum so that short-term goals can be feasibly addressed (Bowden et al. 2016, p.81). The limited span is set with some important goals to address the short-term objectives which shall try to implement certain immediate actions into practice. This can be possible if control of behaviour is imposed upon the parents. Excessive indulgent parenting with the use of strict parental guidelines can damage the growth of the children. The available legal options are to be chosen from. The Criminal Evidence Act 1992 should be followed to ensure that no violation of clause is taken place in context with the present scenario. This step is more prominently identified as it plans the early intervention process. All the possible sources through which protection can be assured to be explored to provide maximum support for the child are needed to be assessed in this step. The families as well as the child are to be allocated with responsibilities. It is necessary to ensure as a service professional to make the family perform the tasks in the proper manner (Alexander and Arday, 2015, p.72). The most essential intention that this phase of the service carry is to reduce the risk impact and threatening behaviour upon the child by their families.

Actions that need to be implemented in the medium term; 1 month – 3 months

Adequate Child Protection plan needs to be structured with relevance to the present context. As both the parents are working and remain extremely busy with their professional sphere of life, it is important to make them allocate necessary level of attention towards their children. Even after having two children the parents are planning for a third one in their families. It is highly advisable that if they aren’t able to manage to take care of the two children, they should not go for such a plan. Each child belongs to different age group having their own specific needs. The parents must be potent enough to be able to deal with and satisfy each of their needs. It is the tasks of the professional expert to make the parents convinced with the fact that instead of relying solely upon the external help sources their children get the same from their own families. Adequate time and resource allocation must be incorporated within their routine schedule to be able to manage both their professional as well as their personal lives. A copy of the child protection plan must be handed over to the family members and to the children respectively. The objective of the plan thus formulated needs to be made clear to the other party so that they not only gain awareness but also tend to practice them in the rightful manner. The roles as desired by the structure of the family must be must undergo modification. The components of interagency and interpersonal cooperation to a great extent determine make the implementation of the child protection act successful. Incorporation of these techniques and measures shall aid the families to be able to fulfil long-term goals to ensure sustained protection towards their children.

Actions that need to be implemented in the long term; 3 months – 6 months

After the intervention action plan has traversed a course of 3 long months, it is likely to expect that the families along with the children shall be fostered with some positive outcome (Sargeant, 2014, p.45). The long-term management is only possible if the crucial component such as cooperation is to strike between disciplines and agencies. In order to make this protection process more concrete and durable it is important that an ongoing session is continued with the child. The child needs to be free from fear and the reduction of disturbance must be ensured to the most. Just as it is essential to keep a continued process of consultation with the child, it is equally relevant for their parents or carers to seek consultation. It is necessary for the professional to assess through their evaluative sessions as to what are the viewpoints of the parents after the long tenure. They need to be sure of the fact that the parents have truly modified their thought as well as behavioural patterns towards the children. The ongoing assessment process should be carried on in a progressive and continual manner. This continual process shall enable the assessor to minutely evaluate each transformation in attitude and behavioural patterns. This shall get reflected through the emotional state and the health condition of the children as well. They must take into account each of the circumstantial changes very seriously, as it concerns the protection of lives of children. The front-line practitioner is expected to conduct supervision and support the working of the child along with their family members. This is done with a purpose to keep a record of the consistency in the modifications brought in by the families. A subsequent conference with respect to the child protection review must be arranged (Sargeant, 2014, p.45). This procedure will enable to analyse whether service could generate positive or negative outcomes in their respective lives. This process does not merely help in taking forward the applicability of the legal framework but also review the real life instances under the legal regulation. The session is thus accomplished by abiding to the legal statutory measures and regulations. The child protection act must therefore be adhered to for the purpose of gaining more realistic and effective outcomes in terms of ensuring child’s protection.

This project is describes about childcare sector in Ireland. From the history of Irish child sector we can observe that pre-school education is not existed in there due to the fact that majority of the women from Ireland didn’t work outside the home. Irish society discouraged the women from working in public service. Since 1980s and 1990s, society thinks that the main jobs of women are inside their home as wives and mothers (Buxbaum et al. 2014, p.56). Therefore the progress in preschool education is coming from the private sector.

In Early Ireland, childcare sector is not considered as a desirable career choice because of the low status and income. In 1969,the government opens a state run pre-school in public sector which  was considered as a important initiative in childcare. The department of education had given importance to the Childs from economically backward with the help of Van Leer Foundation (Collins, 2017, p.5). This school was considered as the Early Start pre-school, these school provides a good start to the children education.

In 1992 ,UN(United Nations) Convention on the rights of child was formally sanctioned  by  Ireland ,so it will helped to know about the rights of children into public. Also in 2000,the department of health and children was published a 10 year strategy, for the improvement of children’s lives  named as National Children Strategy with the vision of improving the life status of children in Ireland as a young citizen (Hynes 2016,p.35).

National Children’s Strategy has the following goals:

-Children will get quality supports and services to promote all aspects of their development.

-All children are supported by family and society to enjoy a fulfilling childhood .

There were many initiatives that support the child sector progress these are the followings (McNally 2013,p.5):

- National Forum on Early Childhood Education (1998)

This forum has given importance to the early childhood education and provided organizations and individuals to support that.

- National Voluntary Childcare Collaborative (1999)

These organization is working for the promotion of ECCE  in Ireland.

There are seven organizations now involved in NVCC are:

1. Barnardos
2. Childminding Ireland
3. Children in Hospital Ireland
4. Forbairt Naíonraí Teo

5. Early Childhood Ireland

6. Irish Steiner Kindergarten Association

7. St Nicholas Montessori Society of Ireland.

- White Paper on Early Childhood Education, Ready to Learn (1999)

The purpose of this organization was to describe the government  policy on early childhood education issues.

- Centre for Early Childhood Development and Education (2002)

It was launched in 2002, to achieve goals described in Ready to Learn. It was an initiative by Minister of Education and Science and it was disbanded in 2008 because all its goals are achieved. This forum has produced the first quality framework: The National Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education (2006).

- Child Care (Pre-School) Regulations 2006

It describes all the requirements met by the organizational and individuals providing the ECCE services to the children aged between 0 and 6. 

- Síolta (2006)

This framework is a product of  Centre for Early Childhood Development and Education(CECDE) and involved more than  50 different organizations.The main aim was to improve the quality of ECCE in Ireland.

The Role of Childcare Settings and Community Networks

- Aistear (2009)

Aistear, The Early Childhood Curriculum Framework I, was a curriculum with the aim of development of the whole child.

- Free Pre-School Year Programme

By this programme all children from Ireland get benefit from free pre-school education. Before the introduction of this program the child from economically backward does not get the benefit of pre-school education because it was too expensive.

Concerning current situation of Ireland it is evident that due to the prevailance of diversity various unequal practices are in progress in different aspects. These differences lie fundamentally in the areas of ethics and culture. Discriminatory practices and prejudices are predominant in these areas. There are certainly diverse grounds in which they have failed to render respect which might b noted as gender, class, religion, sexual orientation, disabilities economic status, language and age. The Irish society is most likely to have deep roots of continual and profound impact of discriminatory attitudes (Parkes et al. 2015, p.423). Then children being brought up in such circumstances tend to develop with these values as nurtured by their parents. It is therefore said that it is only upon the hands of the Irish people to bring a revolutionary change in the societal picture of Ireland. In order to bring about such a transformed culture, they must be entitled to equal access, participation and outcomes that help them to develop their learning opportunities. a non-discriminatory environment needs to be perpetuated by and for the Irish people at large. As children tend to develop the sense of their world around from the tender age, it is responsibility of their caregivers to provide them with the appropriate environment (Sargeant, 2014, p.45). The acquisition of identity and attitudes taking place in a child’s life greatly determine the learning that children adapt. It is solely the role of the social relationships and the environment in which they live that makes all the difference in their attitudinal development. The context of diversity and differences that children learn get varied from one aspect to another.

The biggest challenge that Ireland is facing in its societal life is provision of education devoid of prejudice. There has been considerable change in the present scenario with regard to these aspects. However, the efforts need to be more proactive, one-dimensional and bias free on the part of the educationists in these regions (Smith, 2014, p.199). It is the social educators, parents and professional trainers who incorporate the elements of belief within the child to gradually mould their attitudes in a desired and particular direction. Hence, in order to bring a change in the developing attitudes of the children, it is important to focus upon the social constructionists who shape the future for the children.

An antibias curriculum is generated by the United States to develop the people Ireland towards a non-discriminatory vision. The Diversity in Early Childhood Education and Training are networks and proactive steps taken forward to motivate more of the Irish people to get persuaded by the feeling of equality and result in embracing diversity. These measures have greatly contributed towards the crucial understanding regarding how children’s learning get influenced through the behavioural manifestation of the elders.

Section 2

There are three types of services that have been provided by in the following headings (Horgan et al. 2014, p.16):

- Seasonal services

   Provides services for particular time interval during a day(Eg.9am-1Pm)

- Full-time services

- Provides services for entire day.

-Part time services

Provides a hour based service that is more than 3.5 hours and less than 5 hour in a day.

Almost all the services in child sector in Ireland are owned by private sector. These services must obey the rules and regulations described in the Childcare regulations 2006 and follow the frameworks Síolta and Aistear(Murray 2017,p.89). Now we can move to the types of services. They include many kinds of services:

Seasonal services:

1. Play groups

Their working time is usually 3 hour in a day. Children aged between 2.5 to 4 years are   attended these kind of service organization. Most of the play groups are owned and operated by private sector.

2. Montessori Schools

They also operate for approximately 3 hours in a day. Most of them are privately owned. They may have two sections morning and afternoon. They run on  principles and methodologies of Maria Montessori.

3. Naíonraí

These are pre-schools that use Irish language as medium. An organization named Forbairt National Teoranta is supported to these schools. These schools follow the Aistear framework.

4. Early Start  

It is a pre-school program that was introduced in the disadvantaged areas that targeting the children who can’t reaching their potential from the normal school system.

5. Pre-schools for Traveller Children

These schools are specifically for traveller children, they unable to avail of a pre-school year.

6. Pre-schools for Children with Special Needs

These schools are for providing special care and support to the children that are differently able .They are responsible for providing psychological services and speech and language therapy services for pre-school children with disabilities.

7. Parent and Toddler Groups

Parent and Toddler groups are providing  play and socialisation opportunities to children from community centres.

Full-time Services:

1,Crèches, Day Care Centres and Nurseries

These institutions provide full time services to babies and children .Children aged between 6 month and 4 year are attend these pre-school institution. There is a regulation in here is that the child-adult ratio must not exceed 1:3. Most full-time services are privately owned and funded by parental fees, a small number are government funded.

2, Family Day Care/ Childminders  

This is considered as the most common ECCE service in Ireland. Approximately 70 percent of children from Ireland are cared in this way. Childminders who care for three or fewer children they are encouraged to register under their local Childminder Advisory officer (CMO) .

The first legislative control in Ireland came in the form of the child care regulation in 1996.The purpose of this was  the implementation of regulations to improve the quality of early childhood care and education services in Ireland(Murphy 2015,p.287). Under these study, sample of pre-schools are examined to ensure the structural and process aspects of quality (Keatinge, 2015, p.72). It was acknowledged that increased level of investment and improved levels of training, may have affected quality of provision. These studies was completed based on the data collected in 1994/1995 during phase II of the IEA2 pre-primary project. Use of this data allowed comparison of both structural and process elements in ECCE provision. These study was conducted by taking interviews and administrating questionnaires to teachers and supervisors. The key issues that focused in the study are. First, regulations do not directly improve the quality of pre-school education. There is a need of training to improve the quality of pre-school education in Ireland. While increasing the awareness of training and increased levels of funding appear had an effect on quality (Pandiella, 2016, p.23). Another issue is that there is a need of changing the role of pre-school teacher. This study also provided the information about the nature of the relationship between regulation and quality provision. From these as a conclusion we can say that training and proper implementation of rules and regulations can improve the structural and process aspects of quality.

Devising an Action Plan for Joey's Well-being

Child care Act by department of Health was describes the entire legal framework related to children under eighteen years of age in Ireland. All the citizen of Ireland, they are coming under this act as children, staff, parents, visiting professionals and the members of public have the responsibility to obey and follow these act. Policies and procedures must include and incorporate any appropriate legislation.

Barnardos (2005) provides main items of legislation and useful guide with the aim of informing ,who the legislation applies to ,and other related information(Rochford et al. 2014, p.89).The legislation is categorized under:

- Children, including child protection

- General regulations for employers and employees

- Health and safety in general, incorporating information on fire, infectious disease, tobacco, toys and food

- Building, planning and environment regulations.

- Finance, including regulations on tax, wages, etc.

- Management and governance, including regulations on equality, insurance, freedom of information, and data protection

Moloney also provides the guidelines, acts and the policy of government. European Union directives have impact on the legislation, so changes occur regularly. In Ireland, the standards are included in Childcare(Pre-school services)Regulations that describes about the safety, health and welfare of young children(Moloney 2016, p.84). According to the Office of the Minister for Children (2006), the main adjustments to the Regulations are:

- Each child’s learning, development and well- being is facilitated within the daily life of the service was ensure by the service provider (Anderson et al. 2017, p.63).

-All staff, students and volunteers in the service are responsible to properly examine the relevant procedures to ensure the facilities.

In addition to specific ECCE legislation, services should consider the following broad areas:

-Employment

-Equality

-Health and safety

- Building and planning

- Data protection

- Finance

- Management and governance

Outline your understanding of Social Policy.  Select one area of Social Policy relating to the ECCE Sector that has positively affected children’s early development and education in Ireland. Discuss the opportunities this policy affords to families and children. Critically evaluate the research findings of your chosen area of Social Policy.The opportunities this policy affords to families and children. Critically evaluate the research findings of your chosen area of Social Policy

The quality of child care varies from one cultural background to another. For challenging the discriminations that prevail with respect to the various aspects of childcare can be essentially promoted through open ended discussions. One specific area that needs to be addressed among the ECCE Sector of the Social Policy is referred to as the aspects Equality and Diversity (Bowden et al. 2016, p.81). In order to prevail and implement this aspect among the practices to develop the children a collaborative effort needs to be initiated from the part of the parents of the children as well as the service providers. The mutual participation of the children as well as the parents need to take place by both so that they talk and listening to each other. The gap between the home culture and that of the practitioners need to be bridged with the help of real dialogues initiated by both the service providers and the families (Grant, 2015, p.56). Since it is extremely evident that the families will be the greatest source of information on the part of the children, an open discussion with them shall reveal their understanding regarding diversity and equality practices they implement. It is highly recommended that the families of the children along with the staff members shall work together using collaborative efforts in a common dimension to implement diversity and equality approaches. The eradication of the variables such as diversity of background, culture, special needs and language can be possible if the knowledge of the parents is transferred to the caregivers (Boon, 2015, p.45). It is the responsibility of the parents to inform the staffs with the necessary details before granting them with the duty to deal with their children. The staffs on the other hand need to show equal amount of reciprocal response to consider these information with serious significance. The practice of discrimination and its wide spread impact needs to be understood from the point of view of one’s own experiences (Pearson, 2015, p.13). The cumulative impact of such discriminatory behaviour befalling upon the children tends to keep a long-term mark in the child’s mind. Such kind of an involvement taken forward in mutually adjusted manner shall not only aid the minority cultures to gain their position in the social arena but also equally empower the majority culture in bias-free surroundings. 

Provide appropriate and justified recommendations in response to research and findings on how this area can be further improved / implemented on a national level.  

The Initial Stage of the Project: Strategic Meeting

The area of diversity and equality can be improved by implementing the policies of diversity and equality within the child care sector (Pearson, 2015, p.13). The health care sector needs to follow The Equality Act 2010 in order to ensure that every employee as well as the care users needs to be equally treated. The policy of equality will enable to understand the values on equality and diversity in creating fair work practice inside the care home. Hence, by following the policies of equality the customers can understand that the care home practices fair working system. Moreover, it is essential for the management to support all the members in the child health care sector (Coddington et al. 2014, p.540). Besides, the managers need to gain a commitment and develop these policies by consulting with the employees in order to promote better workplace. The care home needs to identify the areas that is creating diversity and manage it accordingly. With the implementation of policies the care home will aim in encouraging the health professionals to provide equality among all. It is also essential for the health professionals to identify the area of discrimination inside the child care home of Ireland. The policies also have some specific actions that the care home can adopt (Rich-Orloff, W. and Camaitoga, 2017, p.205). The health professionals can set particular action plan for achieving organisational objectives and fulfilling the target. By including a management level inside the work culture can make the policies familiar among all the employees. Training is effective as it will guide the staffs in understanding Equality Act 2010. They also need to monitor the work environment in order to control and stop harassment and bullying.

In addition, the health care professionals need to give opportunities in an equal manner by avoiding discrimination. All child should be treated equally as every child is equal at the time of promoting care. There should not be any discrimination among the child as it can affect the upbringing of children (Moloney, 2014, p.90). Therefore, implementing Discrimination act within the child care sector will be effective as it will stop in controlling such actions. People who does not abide by equality and discrimination act will be punished. Hence, all the staffs should be responsible enough to stop discrimination and abide the policies. Equality training should be provided to make all the staffs aware of the equality policies and how much it is important to the employees. Hence, when equality will be promoted within the care home it will bring a huge diversity within the care centre. It will promote and foster all individual rights. Every child will be equally treated and care and they will be free from discrimination (Prince et al. 2013, p.76). The care professionals need to give equal choice and respect every child in the care home sector. Taking feedback from the service users is an effective strategy where all the employees will understands their needs and requirement. All the children should be supported equally to give them a sense a belongings and love. Establishing diversity and equality approach is also essential in creating children health care settings a feeling of belongings. Treating the child with love and fostering empathy is essential for letting the children discuss about their own feelings and experiences (Chao et al. 2014, p.340). The higher management should punish under the equality act to those individual who does not give equal opportunities to the child to share their thoughts and allow giving choice of living. 

Compile a list of logical conclusions. This should include identifying your learning goals’ and how this policy will assist others in identifying learning goals within the context of the social, legal and health framework for ECCE settings which may include further training. 

From this section an understanding has been provided regarding the care of ECCE settings. The diversity and discrimination policies are been effective in implementing in the care centre. Parents of a child need to show responsibility towards their children to give a better upbringing for their future. By abiding the social aspect like avoiding discrimination between the children can promote individual rights (Firehiwot, 2016, p.72). The child care centre of Ireland needs to show love and belongings by giving preference to every religious child. This enables in promoting diversity within the work culture. Legal framework like Equality Act 2010 has proven to be effective as it ensures the health professionals to give equal health treatment to the children. The government influence is quite effective as because the child care sector has taken initiatives to demonstrate the application of ECCE settings in their care home. From this section I have learnt about the opportunities that the social policy policies follow (Manning et al. 2015, p.50).  By understanding various aspects of social policies and its influence over a child early development and education can be handled. Proper practice in the child care can also stop child harassment and bullying. Moreover, the staffs should be properly trained so that they can able to understand the needs and preference of children and care them in proper manner. Giving proper training regarding the policies will enable the staffs to understand the outcome that they will receive in the care centre (Pershing et al. 2016, p.135). Moreover, child protection guidelines act can help in developing and supporting health and wellbeing of children. 

A brief overview regarding the equality and diversity for childcare

The equality policy for children especially in their early childhood proves effective to ensure rights of the children in different family settings within their local area (Malhotra et al. 2014, p.10). The policies must reflect and outline the aspects of equality to avoid any sort of discrimination in case of these children. As framed in the Equality Act 2010 the legislation provides protection against all sorts of bias practices which might include the following areas.  Age, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, disability, race, maternity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation are some of the note worthy aspects that must be protected against through implementation of this Act (Haran, 2015, p.63). The Equal Status Acts of 2000 to 2004 is implemented to guide the childcare practitioners to avoid any kind of discriminatory acts upon the children.  

To ensure a protected future for the children it is mandatory to develop the surroundings around them as a secure one. However, to do so implementation of these policies is necessary. These policies are framed and applied to make the staffs and care providers aware of the regulations so that they tend to appreciate, recognise and understand the value of diversity and granting equality to them. A written policy shall be of great advantage for the avoiding different misunderstandings and control the discriminatory situations easily (Holmgren and Arora-Jonsson, 2015, p.241). In order to ensure whether diversity and equality is maintained at every stage of service provision that corresponds with Equal Status Acts 2000 to 2004 as well as the Employment Equality Act 1988 to 2004.

Recommendations to improve the equality and diversity in childcare practices

For bringing about further improvement in the designing and implementation of the policies regarding equality and diversity it is important to incorporate uniqueness within them. It must address the specific needs of the concerning issues raised and make practitioners value them with utmost worth. Some of the necessary steps that need to follow to ensure that comprise the prerequisites.

To make changes implement for long-term good, it is not possible to do so through individual efforts. However, the teamwork in this field makes a huge difference in managing the role (Conley, 2014, p.320). All the services that encompass the childcare provision need to be addressed at all levels. An appropriate leadership plan must be used to obtain optimum level of commitment towards the senior hierarchies in the course of implementation of policies. Responsibilities need to be allocated to the senior staff members to extend an eye of vigil to monitor over the rightful implementation of policies related to diversity and equality. A review report must be regularly published on the basis of progress towards the targeted motive. To bring an overall transformation in the childcare sector practices the policies need to undergo improvisation (Svensson and Edström, 2015, p.509). This can be possible with regard to implementation of equality and diversity by targeting upon the attitude and value system of the staffs in this sector. the personal attitudes and values of the responsible people must be put to assessment. Higher aim must be set to develop consensus among the staff members. The safe and secure environment needs to be fostered.

For the purpose of achieving adequate results in terms of improving the policies of equality and diversity the fundamental roots that need to be addressed is to generate the knowledge and awareness regarding the concerning issues (Sowman et al. 2014, p.41). Moreover, to make this happen in practice diverse issues related with equality and diversity must be randomly raised and the staff members must be assessed on the basis of their attitude upon those issues. Every member must be given a written copy of the policy papers to develop as well as review their own performance in relation with those terms and regulations.

Implementation plan for including the recommendations to change the Equality policy

For the purpose of implementing the discussed recommendations to improve the Equality policy an effective plan needs to be designed (Kumar and Quisumbing, 2015, p.423). The childcare management must follow a proper curriculum associated with networking process upon diversity and equality is necessary to imply the developments in a proper manner. The agencies and organisations can be contacted to practice policies in a widespread manner. This will generate greater applicability and open bigger avenue for equal opportunities (Loots and Walker, 2015, p.371). The next step of the plan must encompass a proactive initiative taken on the part of the management and staff to discuss openly the possible biases that are likely to arise in different stages starting from recruitment to performance of duties. The cognitive stereotypes need to addressed and effectively negated to influence the attitudes of the staffs in a positive manner. The following step is intended to conduct an overview to arrange the recruitment process carefully. The knowledge program should enlighten the staffs that no matter what background the child comes from equal treatment needs to cater to them through the services (Alexander and Arday, 2015, p.72). It is e important to include staffs from diverse backgrounds; cultural basis shall help address the issues of children belonging from the same origins. The lifestyles, orientations and preferences of the children can be easily comprehended if the staffs are adequately allocated to take care of children from same diversity. The child shall also have the same comfort level to express their problem areas in their own fluent language. Hence planning to generate equality and diversity among the childcare practitioners prove to be extremely beneficial for the performance of the staffs as well as the development of children (Givens and Case, 2014, p.54). The plan needs to incorporate steps that are feasible and easily applicable to bring fruitful results by fostering improvement in the Equality policy.

Assess four significant policies and procedures relevant to ECCE settings that ensures adherence to Legislation And National Practice Guidelines. Discuss how they are shared, implemented and updated in the setting by the staff. Give the title of the policy the main aspects that should be in it, and an explanation as how it supports National Policy e.g. ‘A Health and Safety Policy supports the Preschool Regulations by ‘providing a safe secure environment for children’s learning, supporting their welfare and protection’. 

Structuring an Adequate Child Protection Plan for Joey

Assess four significant policies and procedures relevant to ECCE settings

Staffing arrangements for childcare

The main aspects of concern comprising this policy include the following terms:

• Creation of a safe, secure and protected environment for the children
• Establishing a warm, friendly and respectful relationship with the children
• Encouraging the children to participate actively in the learning programs
• Mutual respect, equity, fairness and respect are the principle pillars to base the workplace relationship upon

Staffing arrangement is that necessary step manifested in the form of a policy framework that enhances the children’s ability to learn and develop in a protected environment (Villa and Smith, 2013, p.293). This measure not just fulfils the safety and wellbeing of the children but also ensures an overall growth among the children. The application of this policy ensures on the fact that educator to child ratio is such where qualification requirement in an important requisite to maintain at all times (Nunez, 2016, p.1997). These policies also act as professional standards to guide the staffs to conduct interactions, relationships and practices related with the children. However, this policy makes sure that educators, coordinators and employees work in a collaborative manner to face the various challenges they might face while confronting with their activities of dealing with the children. Staffing arrangement is that significant element that encompasses steps such as training, observation, interaction and open end discussion (Panter?Brick et al. 2014, p.1207). These interactive sessions shall convey mutual respect, feelings of equity and recognition to identify each other’s strengths and skills.

Collaborative Partnerships with families and communities

Family Rights and Responsibilities:

It is the responsibility of the families to shape the behaviour of their offspring by behaving using appropriate language, right conduct in a lawful manner. It must be made clear to them that poor level of behaviour is surely unacceptable (Pickett, K., 2014, p.22). Such practices might include harassment, bullying, abuse and other discriminatory activities. If the families fail to comply to fulfil these regulations the childcare professionals need to guide them in the right way.

Collection of Children

During the early childhood phase the children visit the caregivers in the professional training and education institutions (Rubery, 2015, p. 0019793915588892). It is the responsibility of the parents to collect their children. Under the policy legislation it is also clearly mentioned that it is only be parents of children who are permitted to collect their children from the early learning programs. The photo identity proof shall be a must to provide the due authorisation of the child. In case of unavailability of both the parents it is expected that a third reliable option shall be enrolled who shall be responsible to collect their child in their absence (Mergaert and Lombardo, 2014, p.50).

Orientation

The orientation of parents is definitely a strong influencing factor to determine the characteristics of the children. A respectful and supportive relationship is expected to be established with the children with the family structure. The concerns need to be raised in a manner so that both the parents and the caregivers stay alert and aware of the behaviour they show in front of the children (Coleman, 2016, p.72). They need to cautious before conducting their behaviour towards their children.

Relationship with children

Relationship with children is that determinant which seems to behaviourally guide the children in their way to development (Kangas et al. 2014, p.86). There are certain challenges that are faced by the parents, caretakers and the children themselves in this process of raring up children. a proper measure of behaviour guidance strategy shall enable them to confront those circumstances in an effective manner.

Parental Responsibility and Professional Support

Educators take initiative to incorporate the s quotient in adequate measure while guiding the children in their activities (De la Porte et al. 2014, p.54). Children need to be given the equal space, opportunity and freedom to explore their own identity and abilities. In order to develop more complex social skills it is mandatory for the children to develop a relationship which is health and friendly with their respective authorities. A routine of activities need to introduced in the lives of the children during their early childhood phase so that they fall into the methodical approach of life (Payne and Bennett, 2015, p.581). Accomplishing the children’s activities within the diameter of the routine boundary shall enable them to incorporate discipline, time management and scheduling for their life henceforth as well. The children during their early phase of learning must encompass group activities to understand the relevance of social interaction and inter-related sharing aspects (Bauer and Jenny, 2015, p.581). The optimum utilisation of resources in the form of time, space and equipment need to be built within their senses right from the fundamental years of their lives.

Development of children in physical environment

One of the most relevant ECCE setting that acts as a determinant factor is that of the physical environmental factor. The policy thus framed tries to highlight and ensure the National Quality Standard for the children’s welfare. The areas that this policy takes into account are design and location of the premises that must be appropriate for the children to operate and explore (Lopreite, 2014, p.363). The outdoor as well as the indoor spaces, infrastructures, facilities, buildings and resources for the purposes of the children to develop are ensured through this policy. It also looks into the matter whether the resources such as materials, equipments are sufficient in number and are available in an organised state to be implemented in an effective way (Erne and Imboden, 2015, p.32). These services are necessary to surround the environment around the children to ensure and secure and suitable future for the children to develop appropriately.

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