Elaine Uppal
The University of Manchester, UK
Title: The Human Rights of Children with reference to Child Protection
Biography
Biography: Elaine Uppal
Abstract
It is imperative to place the needs and rights of children as the central concern. This paper will set the context of safeguarding practice in terms of the universal and targeted services available to improve the well-being of children and recognise and respond to indicators of abuse. This will be set within the legislative and policy framework to achieve a sense, not only of child protection services and processes but also the supportive services and measures that can be put in place for families to prevent abuse. Rights can be defined and adhered to differently depending upon context, location, interpretation and availability. Banks (2006: 104) emphasises the broad nature of the term, referring to a range of claims, liberties, powers and relationships. Meagher and Parton (2004: 24) suggest that justice and rights are compatible and even indispensable to each other. Justice and respect are noted as key components of social care practice (Orme, 2002; Banks, 2006). However justice in terms of an individual’s rights to care for example, is often necessarily balanced against the availability of resources and number of people in need in a form of distributive justice, meaning that needs are determined by service availability that may be incompatible with principles of social care (Orme, 2002; Fairbairn and Fairbairn, 1988). Balancing the needs of various individuals within a scenario is also a dilemma for practitioners, particularly within a safeguarding context where addressing parents or carers’ needs could impact positively on the care of children; however this must not be to the point of being detrimental to the child’s well-being.