Protecting Children
If you think a child is being abused
If you have concerns about a child's welfare, or feel that they
may be being abused, please call our Children’s Assessment Team on
0300 123 5012.
If you need to contact someone out of hours and you believe it
to be an emergency that can't wait, please call our Emergency Duty
Team on 0300 123 5022. Alternatively, in an emergency, phone
the police on 0845 458 0000.
For more information about how to spot child abuse, please refer
to the Safeguarding
Children section or go to Cheshire East
Local Safeguarding Children Board’s Child Protection
Procedures
Help for Families
Sometimes for one reason or another a family cannot resolve some
of their problems and need extra help and support. The sooner these
problems can be identified the better it is and this is where the
Common
Assessment Framework (
CAF
) can help. The
CAF
is a way of
working that is designed to help you at these times - it can make
problems easier to understand and quicker to solve.
Help us to Keep Children Safe and Support
Families
Behave Yourself (PDF, 235KB)
is a leaflet is produced by the NSPCC and is about parenting. It
offers advice on how to get children to behave well and sets out 10
steps that should help you to achieve a well-behaved child. The
leaflet also details other family orientated organisations that may
be of assistance and how to contact them.
Have Fun and Be Safe (PDF,
864KB) is a guide produced by the NSPCC to help parents and
carers choose children’s activities. It has sections on what you
should look into such as their acceptable behaviour guidelines and
things that you should be wary of. The leaflet also has contact
details for the NSPCC and other useful organisations.
Listening to children – A
guide for parents and carers (PDF, 2.1MB) is
a leaflet is produced by the NSPCC and is divided into the
following topics:
- Why listening is important
- Listening to your baby
- Listening as your child grows up
- Listening to older children
- Some talking and listening tips
- Improving family communication
- Some special difficulties
- Helpful organisations
It also has a section where parents talk about their experiences of
communicating with their children and gives helpful tips.
Handle with Care (PDF,
635KB) is a leaflet produced by the NSPCC. It gives
helpful advice on how to handle very young children with Do’s and
Don’ts on how to handle them. It also has details on how to cope
with the stresses of parenthood as well as organisations that you
can contact in order to get help.
NSPCC Help and Advice - Advice on protecting children at home,
internet safety, and much more
Internet Safety
There are various sites to support parents and
carers in ensuring the safe use of the internet for their
families.
Thinkuknow is a site that
has pages aimed at different audiences, including parents, carers,
teachers and children aged 5-16, giving information on suitable
sites, how to report sites and users and resources when working
with children.The Child Exploitation and Online
Protection Centre is dedicated to eradicating the sexual abuse
of children with lots of ways to help parents make their home
internet safe.
Click Safe,
Click Clever is a site designed to act as an everyday
reminder of simple good behaviours, to help parents and your
children avoid common risks online.
There are also leaflets available to help you learn more about
the internet (PDF,
984KB), including mobile phones (PDF, 479KB), blogs (PDF, 818KB),
downloading music
(PDF,468KB) and social networking (PDF, 581KB).
Other useful information
- If you are looking after a child for more than 28 days and you
aren't a close relative then you must inform the Private Fostering
team on 0300 123 5012. Private fostering is where a parent
arranges for a child aged under 16 (or 18 where the child has
disabilities) to be cared for by someone other than a close
relative for more than 28 days. It does not apply where the child
is placed by the Council, voluntary organisations, or as a result
of certain court orders.
- Spot Teen Abuse
is a site giving advice to parents and young people at risk
of or in an abusive relationship
- Action for Prisoners’
Families (APF) is the national membership organisation for
those interested in the well being of prisoners' families
and wants every prisoner's family to get the support they
would like and need.
- Kidscape offers a
helpline offering support and advice to parents of bullied
children
-
SafeNetwork offers useful advice for parents and carers on
keeping your children safe.
- Cheshire Local Resilience Forum has launched a new public
awareness raising campaign -
Help us to Help you, Be Prepared for
Emergencies.
- The Good Egg Guide (PDF,
3.2MB) covers all in-car child safety, including information on
the law, care seats and more.
