Birth to three matters - Communities and Local Government

(Whipple 1999);training projects for earlyyears workers (Culp et al 1991; Daro 1993).The NSPCC’s (2000) recent guide forpractitioners includes data on the natureand prevalence of abuse, family risk factorsand sudden infant death. It providesguidance for parents and professionals.Since a baby in the UK under one year oldis four times more likely to die at the handof another human being (Butler 1996),knowledge about babies and children andthe prevention of abuse is vital for parentsand professionals.In some cases, children displayingdisruptive and apparently hyperactivebehaviour, or extremes of hyperactivityand periods of being very withdrawnin an ECEC setting, may alert staff todomestic violence. The abuse may be‘indirect’ and in families where anotherchild is the focus of that violence, theChildren Act 1989‘s grave concerncategory may be invoked.Current research (Cox forthcoming)indicates that parents of older childrenplace paedophilia as one of their greatestconcerns. Yet West (2000) argues thatsuch anxieties are fuelled by presssensationalism and that the statisticsused are misleading, since criminalstatistics do not confirm an escalation.Re s e a rch on inte ra g e n cy pra ct i ce (Tay l o rand Daniel 1999) in Scotland reveals apossible gap be tween the re s ponses ofhealth and social ca re pro fe s s i o n a l s. Th e s ere s e a rchers state that although there arekn own to be links be tween neglect andemotional abuse and failure to thri ve,some pra ctitioners are not re cog n i s i n gthe po te ntial risks for some of the childre nwho are not thri v i n g. Ti te (1993) fo u n dt h at early years pra ctitioners in Ca n a d awould often fail to call on otherp ro fessionals in abuse cases where theybe l i eved they could suppo rt the pare nt sand help them ove rcome their difficulties.While Walsh (2002) in Au s t ralia has arg u e dt h at early years pra ctitioners are ofte nm a rg i n a l i zed by other pro fe s s i o n a l s.Howeve r, as David (1993a.) has state d,ECEC pra ct i t i o n e r s, g i ven re l eva nti n fo rm at i o n ,t raining and suppo rt are themost info rmed about babies and yo u n gc h i l d ren genera l ly and, a p a rt from thec h i l d re n’s pare nts and family, the mostkn owledgeable about individual childre nwith whom they wo rk . Often staff mayh ave a ‘gut fe e l i n g’ a bout a child be fo ret h ey be come conscious of any signs ors y m p toms that a child is witnessing orbeing subjected to abuse. All ECECp ra ctitioners need designate d,ex pe ri e n ced colleagues with whom theycan discuss their co n ce rns in co n f i d e n ce.This is espe c i a l ly impo rt a nt fo rchildminders who may feel isolated andanxious about the child in question anda bout their re s po n s i b i l i t i e s.The developmental points for Keeping Safe,one of the components of the aspectA Healthy Child, include:-Young babies make strong andpurposeful movements. They tend notto stay in the position in which theywere placed.133