Child Safety: The Importance of Recognising and Responding to Indicators of Harm
Childhood trauma can have lasting impacts on a child’s physical and psychological development. When a child experiences trauma, this disrupts their sense of safety, which is fundamental for their healthy development. Children are dependent on adults to provide a safe environment so that they are able to grow and develop.
The impact of this trauma can lead to negative coping strategies, such as self-harm and substance abuse, and will often persist into adulthood. The impact of trauma can be wide reaching, but better outcomes can be achieved if the indicators of harm are noticed early and responded to, so that supports and services can be established.
What is Childhood Trauma?
Childhood trauma is any kind of trauma that occurs during the formative years of a person’s life. This can arise from sexual, physical, psychological or emotional abuse, neglect or exposure to harm, such as exposure to a caregiver’s violence or substance abuse. The effects of childhood trauma are not limited to the individual and can affect families and communities across generations, creating a cycle of trauma and abuse.
There is a silent nature to childhood trauma, with many children unable to recognise and articulate the harm they have suffered and unable to seek help, especially when the trauma they have experienced was caused by their primary caregivers.
Children may present in different ways when they have experienced trauma, however there are indicators and signs that can help identify when a child may be at risk of harm or experiencing trauma.
What are Indicators of Harm?
Different types of harm have different types of indicators, which if noticed, should be explored further, and reported and responded to as necessary.
Each indicator of harm needs to be considered in the context of other indicators, as well as the circumstances of the child. No single indicator is an absolute indicator of child abuse, as children may present in different ways when they have been exposed to harm.
Indicators of harm can include:
- Physical: injuries, bruising, cuts, grazes, broken bones, repeated and unexplainable injuries, disclosures of abuse, urinary tract infections, complaints of injuries to genital areas
- Behavioural: flight, fight or fright reactions, self-harming behaviours such as cutting, hitting their head against a wall, self-soothing behaviours such as rocking, dissociation, attachment issues, verbal or physical aggression, withdrawing, fear, nervousness, compliance, secret keeping, hoarding food
- Psychological: developmental delays, changes in mental wellness such as mood swings, depression, self-harming and suicidal ideation, development of mental health concerns, poor peer relationships, engaging in risk-taking behaviours
- Visual: changes in physical appearance, changes in how they dress, poor self-care, poor hygiene, weight loss or weight gain, pale appearance, having increased health issues
- Sexual: sexualised behaviour, indiscriminate affection, age-inappropriate physical contact, age-inappropriate sexualised discussions and conversations, grooming and manipulations, evidence of exploitation such as frequent gifts, disclosures of abuse
How can Organisations Recognise and Respond to Indicators of Harm?
Organisations have a duty of care to take reasonable steps to protect children and young people from harm that is reasonably foreseeable. Organisations working with children must comply with relevant state-based Child Safe Standards and the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations to ensure that they provide a Safe Space for children and young people in their care.
Risk mitigation is an essential component of safeguarding, as is the capacity to detect child abuse within the organisation and comply with all legal and moral reporting obligations. To do so, all staff must have the capacity to recognise indicators of harm and know how to respond. Child safety training is a vital component of increasing staff capacity and awareness in this regard.
Organisations should ensure they take the following steps to ensure they are able to effectively recognise and respond to indicators of harm:
- Ensure that policies and procedures are in place to assist staff in recognising and responding to indicators of harm
- Ensure that all staff undergo regular child safety training, particularly focusing on recognising indicators of harm and how to respond to disclosures from children in a trauma-informed manner
- Ensure that all disclosures from a child are taken seriously
- Ensure that all legal and moral reporting obligations are complied with
- Ensure that all allegations and complaints are documented and invested in a trauma-informed manner.
If a member of staff is concerned about a child experiencing harm, they should explore these concerns further or report to someone who has the capacity and experience to support them and the child. It is important that an organisation takes all disclosures from a child seriously and a person receiving a disclosure should let the child know that they are listening and that they care. It is ok to ask questions and be curious, and speak to other adults in the child’s life, including caregivers (if appropriate), to try and understand what is happening for a child. However, it is not a staff member’s role to investigate the concerns, and any questioning should be open-ended (avoiding closed and leading questions) and trauma-informed.
How Can Safe Space Legal Help?
Safe Space Legal has extensive experience supporting schools, early learning centres and other organisations working with children to ensure they are meeting their child safety obligations. Our services include:
- Drafting best practice child safety policies, procedures and codes of conduct;
- Conducting root-cause analyses of critical incidents;
- Providing training on legal obligations, duty of care and child safety;
- Conducting child safety investigations which are compliant with relevant state and territory schemes; and
- Providing sound legal advice on risk mitigation and critical incident response.
Contact office@safespacelegal.com.au or call (03) 9124 7321 to organise a complementary discussion in relation to your organisation’s safeguarding needs.