Guidance for License Holders - Safeguarding Children on Licensed Premises

Context

This section closely reflects national guidance Working Together to Safeguard and Promote the Welfare of Children.

Child Abuse and Neglect

'Child abuse and neglect' is a generic term encompassing all ill treatment of children, including serious physical and sexual assaults as well as cases where the standard of care does not adequately support the child's health or development.

Abuse and neglect are forms of maltreatment of a child. Somebody may abuse a child by inflicting harm, or by failing to prevent harm.

Children may be abused in the family or an institutional or community setting by those known to them or, more rarely, by a stranger. An adult or adults or another child or children may abuse them.

Working Together to Safeguard Children sets out definitions and examples of the four broad categories of abuse:

• physical abuse
• emotional abuse
• sexual abuse
• neglect

These categories overlap and an abused child does frequently suffer more than one type of abuse. For example, a child may be suffering physical and emotional abuse.

Physical abuse

Physical abuse may involve hitting, shaking, throwing, poisoning, burning or scalding, drowning, suffocating or otherwise causing physical harm to a child. Physical harm may also be caused when a parent or carer fabricates the symptoms of, or deliberately induces, illness in a child. (Working Together).

Emotional abuse

Emotional abuse is the persistent emotional maltreatment of a child such as to cause severe and persistent adverse effects on the child's emotional development. It may involve conveying to children that they are worthless or unloved, inadequate, or valued only insofar as they meet the needs of another person. It may include not giving the child opportunities to express their views, deliberately silencing them or 'making fun' of what they say of how they communicate. It may feature age or developmentally inappropriate expectations being imposed on children. These may include interactions that are beyond the child's development capability, as well as overprotection and limitation of exploration and learning, or preventing the child participating in normal social interaction. It may involve seeing or hearing the ill- treatment of another. It may involve serious bullying (including cyber bullying), (discussed in specific detail in the Tees Safeguarding procedures) causing children frequently to feel frightened or in danger, or the exploitation or corruption of children. Some level of emotional abuse is involved in all types of maltreatment of a child, though it may occur alone.

Sexual abuse

Sexual abuse involves forcing or enticing a child or young person to take part in sexual activities, not necessarily involving a high level of violence, whether or not the child is aware of what is happening. The activities may involve physical contact, including assault by penetration (for example, rape or oral sex) or non-penetrative acts such as masturbation, kissing, rubbing and touching outside of clothing. They may also include non-contact activities, such as involving children in looking at, or in the production of, sexual images, watching sexual activities, encouraging children to behave in sexually inappropriate ways, or grooming a child in preparation for abuse (including via the internet). Sexual abuse is not solely perpetrated by adult males. Woman can also commit acts of sexual abuse, as can other children.

Please note, the fact that it is abusive to allow or coerce children into witnessing acts of a sexual nature between adults may be particularly relevant where children are on the premises and are exposed to adult focused activities where sexual themes are prevalent.

Neglect

Neglect is the persistent failure to meet a child's basic physical and/or psychological needs, likely to result in the serious impairment of the child's health or development. Neglect may occur during pregnancy as a result of maternal substance abuse. Once a child is born, neglect may involve a parent or carer failing to:

• provide adequate food, clothing and shelter (including exclusion from home or abandonment)
• protect a child from physical and emotional harm or danger
• ensure adequate supervision (including the use of inadequate care-givers)
• ensure access to appropriate medical care or treatment

It may also include neglect of, or unresponsiveness to, a child's basic emotional needs.

Neglect can also include ignoring a child's basic emotional needs. This includes children being present with or without their parents, at venues unsuitable for their age:

• where events of a sexual nature take place
• where there are convictions of current members of staff for serving alcohol to minors
• premises where gambling is the main activity and or
• premises where the supply of alcohol is the main activity and there are no activities for children or families

Please note children need to be protected even when it appears that they are not aware that the physical abuse, or sexual activity that they are involved in or witness, or the neglect they experience, is harmful to them.