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Safeguarding for childcare practitioners

Keeping children and young people safe, happy and healthy is a key priority for the team, our practitioners and providers. Everyone involved in the care of children has a role to play in their protection.

We aim to promote the welfare of children and families, support parents and carers who may need help and advice and offer relevant child protection and safeguarding training to our childcare providers.

As an early years childcare practitioner you are in a unique position to observe any changes in a child’s behaviour or appearance. If you have any reason to suspect that a child in your care is being abused, or is likely to be abused, you have a duty of care to take action on behalf of the child, by contacting the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH).

Your role and responsibility in child protection and safeguarding

Everyone working in childcare needs to fully understand the content of 'Your Roles and Responsibilities in Child Protection and Safeguarding; Guidance for childcare practitioners'.

Dudley Safeguarding Audit Tool for Early Years and Childcare Settings

This “Self Audit Tool” (below) has been designed to help you ensure that the service and your own professional practice are compliant with current legislation (Children Act 1989 & 2004; Childcare Act 2006) and best practice as set out in national guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children 2018 and the Early Years Foundation Stage, Safeguarding and Welfare Requirements, Common Inspection Framework, Early Years Inspection handbook and Inspecting Safeguarding in Early Years, Education and Skills Settings.

This audit tool should help you to become knowledgeable and more confident in applying safeguarding.

Whilst it is essential to have child protection policies and procedures in place, safeguarding children and young people goes beyond this. It is about a system of preventative measures that all involved in childcare and education should adopt to ensure the safety and well-being of any child with whom they are working. The system itself must also promote equality and diversity throughout the completion of the document.

This document should be completed by senior managers and practitioners with designated responsibility for child protection and safeguarding, along with whole team involvement. For childminders this can be completed individually. Support and guidance for completing this document is available from the Integrated Early Years Service.

You can also find out more information around safeguarding and the Early years Foundation Stage framework on GOV.UK.

We also have a number of other useful documents for providers of childcare.

Contact Us

Telephone: 0300 555 0050 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.

At all other times, contact the Emergency Duty Team borough wide: 0300 555 8574