This week I have been reflecting on Child protection for one of two reasons.
1. To reflect on the importance on how I would handle myself when faced with a child disclosing information to myself or a member of my team.
Through my career I have experience in making observations and reports to authorities and find that it is very important to train educators in how they present themselves. It is important to ensure non emotional documentation is completed, however, it is something I feel that all educators need to have time practicing and given support in completing as it can raise personal trama in educators.
I also feel that services need to have a space where ongoing documentation can be accessed at any time and a educators can creating a timeline wellness record that is accessable to all. This will ensure if there are multiple disclosures or concerns they are kept in one central location and can become evidence if a report is needing to me made.
2. Services need to ensure they have a clear understanding of their govement child protection guidelines and ensuring their team is confident in where and how to make reports. I feel that through critical reflection, conversation, and ongoing discussions on how services can better their documentation and ensure it is showing a detailed timeline without emotion, they can be assured they are doing their ethical responsibility in protecting the children in their care. It also supports a culture of ongoing self-assessment that helps identify continuous improvement and improved outcomes for children, families, and educators.
Child protection and ensuring that services are prepared and know their ethical responsibilities is a big step towards ensuring all children in their care are safe and protected. It is something that I aways address when interviewing new educators and training that I feel is important to revisit on an annual basis.
What are your thoughts?