Child Protections and Safeguarding-Case Study

It may be argued that the notion of child abuse is socially constructed, in other words the definition changes over time and it may even be different from one culture/country to the next, it is ‘a product of a particular culture and context and not an absolutely unchanging phenomenon’ (Corby, 1993, p.39). For example, in the UK in the 1980’s there were four types of abuse, in 1988 there were five and in 1991 they were back to four. For example, work into child protection emerged in the 1960’s and so if this was the case Corby (1993) asks if child abuse did not exist before this or was it undiscovered? Corby (1993) speaks of ‘a conspiracy of silence’ as the NSPCC were reluctant to highlight cases of sexual abuse in the same manner as neglect or physical abuse and this was the typical reaction at the time of choosing ignorance. Similarly sexual abuse was not ‘discovered’ until the 1980’s
The notion of childhood is also a definition that can change over time. De Mause (1976 cited in Corby, 1993) argues that childhood is a recent phenomenon and therefore they were previously offered little protection and so were susceptible to abuse.

One particularly difficult aspect of child protection is critically balancing between our professional and personal values and managing these beliefs as Beckett states ‘the belief that children should be protected against harm and the belief that outsiders should not .....????(Becket, 2003, p.43) Beckett argues that social workers can sometimes feel that what they are doing is wrong e.g. Removing a newborn baby from its mother as going ‘against the laws of nature’ (Corner, 1975, cited in Beckett, 2003, p.44) however, it may be that one needs to overcome their personal feelings once they are weighed against the potential harm that a child may suffer. Professionals involved should also be sensitive about protecting Serena whilst at the same time maintaining the family’s privacy.

It is also important to note that ‘child care practices