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Social Work vocabulary · Child Protection and Safeguarding

Child protection

Meaning in social work, with examples

nounCore term

In social work, child protection means: The work of identifying children who are suffering, or are likely to suffer, abuse or neglect and taking action to keep them safe.

In Turkish: çocuk koruma, çocuğun korunması

How it is used

Used for a team, a procedure and a whole field of practice: a child protection team, a child protection plan, child protection procedures. In the UK it is the part of safeguarding that responds when a child is at risk of significant harm.

Example sentences

  1. She has worked in child protection for twelve years.

  2. The case was passed to the child protection team the same afternoon.

Common collocations

  • child protection plan
  • child protection team
  • child protection procedures
  • child protection conference
  • safeguardingAll the measures taken to protect children and adults at risk from harm, abuse and neglect, and to promote their wellbeing.
  • significant harmIn UK child protection law, the level of harm, or likely harm, that justifies statutory action such as a formal investigation or care proceedings.
  • case conferenceA formal meeting where the professionals involved in a case, and usually the family, share information, assess risk and agree a plan.
  • neglectThe ongoing failure to meet a child's or dependent adult's basic needs, such as food, safety, hygiene, health care, supervision or emotional warmth.
  • abuseTreatment that causes someone physical, emotional, sexual or financial harm, usually by a person they know, trust or depend on.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Child Protection and Safeguarding

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