POCSA
Voluntary Sector Training Pack
And Guide

What is meant by a Care and Protection Framework

The term “care and protection” means more than “child protection”, although child protection policies and procedures are an essential part of care and protection work and an important part of this training material.

A care and protection framework is made up of a range of policies and procedures which, when combined together, help to keep children, young people and workers safe.

The range of procedures and the tasks involved in building this framework are listed in self audit 2 Care and protection work includes:

• recruiting appropriate individuals to work with children and young people;
  
• providing appropriate support and where possible training) to workers;
  
• attending to Health and Safety issues including carrying out risk assessment work. Creating safe places;
  
• putting in place Codes of Conduct / Good Practice which help to ensure that all workers understand what is expected of them;
  
• encouraging children and young people to have their say on issues which directly affect them and making sure that all workers have the basic skills to listen to any child or young person who alleges that they are being harmed or abused; Module Five: Encouraging children and young people to have their say »
  
• making sure that child protection policies and procedures are in place for responding to child protection concerns (i.e. allegations of abuse or concerns that a child or young person could be experiencing neglect or abuse).