Caithness CWS - Community Pages - Children - Child Protection Policy

What is Child Abuse?
The formal definition of Child Abuse is:
‘Children may be in need of protection where their basic needs are not being met, in a manner appropriate to their age and stage of development, and they will be at risk through avoidable acts of commission or *omission on the part of their parent(s), sibling(s) or other relative(s), or a carer (i.e. the person(s) while not a parent who has actual custody of the child).’

Reference ‘Protecting Children: A Shared Responsibility’.

More detailed descriptions of these categories are to be found in the publication ‘Protecting Children - A Shared Responsibility’.

This is a very open definition which encourages us to be open minded and think about what child abuse is. For those working in the field of Child Protection the definition gets broken down further into Categories of Abuse, namely:

· Sexual Abuse ·

· Physical Neglect ·

· Physical Injury ·

· Emotional Abuse ·

· Non-organic Failure to Thrive ·

More detailed descriptions of these categories are to be found in the publication
‘Protecting Children - A Shared Responsibility’.

*NB This means children at risk through either something a person has done to them OR something a person is failing to do for them.

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