Confidentiality myst remain at all times during g assessment, equal opportunities must be practised at all times ensuring all young people receive equal access, consider their culture background, learning needs and any disability. Be positive focusing on their strengths and not their weakness, and always use an holistic approach you need to look at the child as a whole. Young people and children are affected by wide variety of personal and external factors in their development and are conditioned by variants such as family environment and education establishments.
As a child is developing in the womb, its development can be affected at this time, for instance if the mother smokes or uses drugs or excessive alcohol. This can have an adverse effect on the baby’s development and can subsequently harm the baby during pregnancy. Anxiety, stress and diet in pregnancy can also affect the development of the child. We have to take into account factors that will influence a Childs development such as health which can be determined by diet, environment and other factors. Some children may be born with an illness or condition such as sickle cell or other may be susceptible to an illness.
A child is more likely to develop asthma in an environment where there are damp conditions and parents smoke. This will affect the Childs development he may not want to play as much, hindering early stages of development. This can have an impact on their personal development. If a child has a disability this can prevent a Childs natural development. If a child is born deaf this will inevitably lead to a child being disadvantaged in some areas of development his ability to commun There are also external factors to consider in the development process such as children and young people living in poverty will have an adverse effect on their development. Such as poor diet, this can affect a child’s growth and behaviour as families may buy processed foods.
Children ma y live in poor housing conditions affecting health and nowhere to play, as mentioned previously damp in houses can bring on asthma, poor education in low income families are less likely to have equal access to good Schools and resources such as the internet. Family environment is important in a child’s development some families do not have the capabilities for this as they are affected by drug and alcohol misuse and may be contribute to parents not being able to successfully nurture the children’s development.
Looked after children statistically have fewer life opportunities that child not in care this can be seen as in most families good attachments are formed that are key in a Childs development to form good lasting bonds with their primary carers that enhance a Childs academic abilities and overall social and emotional development. icate will be at a disadvantage and will affect his cognitive development.
Assessing children and young people’s needs has to be done sensitively and accurately. There are a number of factors to be considered when we are to assess child’s needs and that we are able to justify our assessment. We need to employ a mixture of assessment to gain a wide picture of the needs of the child and it needs to be holistic taking into account the five main factors of development in a child so we need to use methods that are able to gain information that can relate to their physical, communication, cognitive, social. And moral areas of need. The methods also need to incorporate a Childs interest. One of the key assessment we use is observation, using a variety of techniques to collate information. It is important that when we are observing children and young people that we adhere to confidentiality, taking into account their cultural back ground any disability and make sure we use equal opportunties.
Open and closed recording methods
This confidentially can only be broken when a child is at real risk. When carrying out observations you must take account of the child’s wishes and feelings if a child is upset or wants you to stop then you must stop. We can also gain information by talking to careers other professionals and reading up on notes to help build a picture of a Childs need.
The features of an environment or service is vital in promoting the development of children and young people. Nottingham city council who is responsible for the enviroemnt at Clayfields House thart provides the service to children and yioung people in its care. Clayfields is a stimulating and attractive environment for children and young p[eople it has a wide range of facilities to make interesting, stimulating and attractive to youn g people. It has its own School on the premisies with a small classrooms to cater for all youngh people.
Its play area has a rqange of facilities including physical excedrsise machines, places to play football and other outdoor sports, it has a bmx track, gardens where young people can grow andn tend to plants, a indoor sports hall were they can play a variety of sports. All yopung people are expected to participate in both leasrning and fun activities. They are given opportunities every day to decide what activities they want to do and are encouraged to try a variety of different activities.
We have young people’s meetings wher young people can have their say in what activities they want to do. Moral reasoning whereby young people are given tasks that are to do with morality and discussions are held on a daily basis. Young people have key working sessions with their key worker where they are encouraged to plan for the future and tackle tasks that will help them. It works with a wide variety of agencies to provide an holistic service from GP’s to musicians, and specialist sports facilities such as trampoline to give the young person a varied opportunities to try different things.
It its acknowledged that our working practice can affect a children’s and young people development we need to be aware of what these factors are that can affect this. Where I work in Clayfields we observe young people in the play area to make sure that they are physically participating in activities such as football, basketball or rounder’s to ensure they are getting the right amount of physical interaction to maintain a level of fitness. Making sure that the environment the child is in is safe, welcoming and stimulating providing a variety of different activities that will help a child development.
In the environment I work the children’s work is displayed in a bright and colourful way, there is a notice board for them to place their individual and group work upon and it keep them informed of any relevant events that come up such as Black history month . The classrooms are set out in a way that grabs their attention, changing with the relevant topics we cover for example Black history month. Being inclusive and providing a range of activities for all genders and cultures can have an impact on their wellbeing making sure we celebrate all faiths and religions and providing gender based activities such as football, dance.
Moral reasoning sessions are delivered every day to provide moral stimulation to raise issues that challenge the moral beliefs on different topics encourage them to be more moral. If not practicing effectively then the children will not be developing properly. Observations and assessments will ensure better planning for the individual child and their needs by adapting activities for them. Also children need to be challenged if the work they are given is too easy they will become bored.
It is clear that working in a multi displinary way improves the outcomes of children and young people. Nottingham City Council works with a variety of agencies to ensure the young people of Clayfields have an holistic service that meets the needs of them. For example we work with advocacy agencies that can be used to be the objective vouice of yopung people if they feel theya re not being represented properly or fairly by the service and can challenge services provided to make sure that they are meeting the required needs of children and young people.
We work with the SocialCare teams to make sure that we work in a focused way to ensure the aimns of the childs are being met. We work with the Youth justice board with children and young people with behaviour problems and have been sentenced so we are able to rehabilitate young people with the aims of the justice board. Working with a variety of agencies ensures that the children and young people needs are being met. However sometimes this can be difficult as we have differ t philosophies and ethos regarding how to work with young people. For example the youth justice board may want to make sure that a child who has committed an offence receives the right punidhmrnt for the crime and so their liberty is taken away this might not coincide with the agencies policies.
