Child labor Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Child labor - Essay Example Child labor is such an epidemic that has taken its toll in almost every society of the world with varying degrees of severity and figures. 2. Child Labor International Trade Union Confederation defined child labor as any work that hinders in the development of the true potential, acquisition of dignity and that may obscure the physical and mental growth of a child (1). There exist many types of child labors across the world; agricultural work, industrial work, lifting goods etc. International Labor Office Geneva provided the figures that around 211 million children were known to be employed in full time child labor jobs in the year 2000. According to International Trade Union Confederation, every individual under the age of 18 is considered to be a child, however the age bracket of the children included in this statistic were from 5 to 14 years of age (1). This figure does not even include the children who might be working on shifts basis for lesser durations in a day. This appalling figure serves to make one realize the severity of this situation. 3. Causes and Solutions of Child Labor According to this publication by International Labor Office Geneva, the presence of child labor is lesser in developed countries as compared to the developing ones since developed countries have been recorded to have 2% of child labor and developing nations possess as much as 30% of child labor. One factor that can explain the extensive differentiation between these figures is poverty. Udry agrees with this factor and stated that many economists believe that poverty is a major aspect that compels the parents to send their children to participate in earning for the household (2). However, the eradication of poverty cannot simple be the solution of child labor; it must be accompanied with the creation of awareness of the hazardous causes of undermining the value of education and development of mental growth of the child. It is often witnessed that uneducated parents do not conside r child labor as any wrong conduct and impose the decision of work upon their children. It seems as a natural process in their lives since their ancestors have been following the same direction since ages. This causes the poor children to grow up to be uneducated and poor adults who cannot break the vicious cycle and earn a better place and respect in the society. Vandenberg stated that the cost of education tends to become a hindrance in its acquisition and ends up making the children resort to child labor as the choice other than education (15). He also provided a useful figure that pointed out that Kenya took a positive step against the eradication of child labor in 2003 and abolished the fees from primary schools (18). This step proved to get 1.5 million children off from the streets and their work and starting acquiring education. Free education is a good approach to reduce child labor but the shortage of earnings in a family may prove to incline the parents to send the childre n in the world to earn again. A good strategy to avoid such relapses of poverty can be to regulate effective implementation of the minimal wages to ensure that every adult is able to afford a comfortable living without depending on his children to participate in making ends meet. The people or organizations that promote and encourage child labor often

Safeguarding Children in Social Work

Safeguarding Children in Social Work To answer this question I am going to critically evaluate the impact of direct work with children from a safeguarding perspective which will include children who have been placed in foster care as a direct consequence. In addition I will identify and critically assess the impact of current legislation and research on the lives of children. I will first explain direct work and its importance; secondly I will evaluate the impact of conducing direct work with children in light of legislation and policy and thirdly critically evaluate the critical issues highlighted in the theory behind the use of observation. Hapgood, 1988 ( cited in Fahlberg, 2012: 338 ) posits that; â€Å"direct work with children is used to enable children to understand significant events in the past, confront the feelings that are secondary to those events, and become more fully involved in the future planning of their lives†. Social work with children can be challenging especially as they are working with individuals who are not fully developed and may not be able to express their needs as adults can. It is at this point that a firm understanding of how to obtain information from children is understood in order to protect them, Winter, (2011). Direct work with children can take many forms and typically consists of; Listening, communication, observations and interacting with the child, (Winter, 2011). There are a variety of tools and mechanisms that can be used to undertake direct work with children and family’s such as; using drawings, life story work, playing games and using toys, (Ruch, 2014). Carroll, (1998) illustrates some tools that can be used with children such as; Treasure Island and magical houses, during my practice placement I used some of these tools as part of the single assessment, a single assessment is a holistic framework used by social work professionals which is based on an ecological approach to assessing children under three different domains, (Ferguson, 2011). For example I worked with a child who had been exposed to parental abuse and was subsequently placed in foster care. To establish a relationship with the child and explore the child’s experiences I used the Treasure Island task wh ich allowed me to establish the child’s relationships, which the child has a strong attachment with and or any concerns with their relationships, McMahon, (1992). Subsequently conducting direct work has come from lessons learnt from the past, an Ofsted report highlights that the previous focus has been on the parents and not the child, Ofsted,(2009 / 2010). To illustrate a young girl was a victim of a sexual assault by a male known to her mother, her mother misused drugs and alcohol, it was found that the girl was only spoken to once and her wishes and feelings had not been prioritised thus leaving her in a vulnerable position open to the attack, (Ofsted, 2009 / 2010). With this in mind in and reflecting on my practice from the previous example, I would adapt some of the tasks I used in this scenario; this is because I found the magical house task was too advanced for younger children: it may have been more appropriate if I used the buttons task because using objects can make things easier for younger children to understand. The impact of serious case reviews and inquiries have seen a drive to integrate direct work into social work practice which has been reinforced by legislation. The Children Act, 1989 (as amended by section 53 (4a) of the Children Act 2004) requires that the local authorities give due regard to a child’s wishes and feelings, of which S.22 (4a) Children Act 1989 includes those children that are or maybe looked after by the local authority. The Working Together To Safeguard Children’s Guidelines 2013 further strengthened these obligations as it was found, in the Daniel Pelka’s serious case review that Daniel was not spoken too until too late and at that point may not have been able to articulate himself, therefore his wishes and feelings had not been heard if they had been heard this may have saved Daniel from his untimely death, (Lock et al,2013). The importance of the Child’s Voice is also enshrined in Article 10 of the Human Rights Act 1998 which requires; † the Local Authority to ascertain the ‘ wishes and feelings’ of children and give due consideration (with regard to the child’s age and understanding) to these when determining what services to provide, or what action to take†, ( Munro, 2011:24). In addition the UK has ratified in 1992 with The United Convention of the Rights of the Child, (UNCRC), of which Article 12 (1) states; â€Å"Parties shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child, the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child†, (UNCRC,1989: 5). The local authority must also follow the; National Minimum Standards for both Adoption (2013) and Fostering (2011) which is used in inspections by Ofsted. While the Children and Families Act, 2014 affords children greater protection and support ensuring all children can be successful, Donovan , (2014) . However although legislation has reinforced the need for direct work with children there are challenges that persist in its use, ( Ruch, 2014). Luckock, (2013) argued that with the increase in legislative controls this has had an impact on the beauracracy within social work, and as Ferguson, (2011) argues this may lead practice to becomes target driven and service led rather than client led. Furthermore Ferguson, (2011) purports that practioner skills are being eroded because of the time spent at their desks typing out assessments and meeting statutory requirements. For example on my practice placement I have had experience of completing paper work for a child whom became a Looked After Child by the Local Authority, the administration that was generated from this process restricted me to the office for at least three days because statutory guidelines require that; LAC reports, court reports and legal meetings must be completed within specific timeframes. The Working Together Guidelin es reinforce this need for protocol for instance by stipulating that; â€Å" every assessment should be focused on outcomes†, (Working Together To Safeguard Children, 2013:22), which could perhaps be seen as leading towards a service led practice instead of child centred practice. In addition social care staff have also highlighted that they feel as if they are working in a culture of fear such that, any display of warmth towards a child could be misconstrued as unprofessional and exploitative, ( Mcleod, 2010). This raises difficulties for professionals when they conduct direct work with children and hope to form a relationship that allows the child to feel comfortable speaking about their experiences, (Tyler et al, 2005, cited in Oliver, 2010). Notably when Looked After Children were asked what they wanted from their social worker, they said; â€Å" they would like their social worker to be like a friend† (Oliver,2010: 29). This Current research and theory have also had an impact on the use of direct work in the lives of children who need safeguarding or who are Looked After by the Local Authority, (Luckock, 2013). Development theory such as attachment by Bowlby, (1969) can inform direct work with children to obtain the child’s wishes and feelings, observation is a method which can inform and use attachment theory to aide in the assessment process (Sharman et al, 2004). During my practice placement, I used observation as a method to inform my assessment. I observed a one year old child who became Looked After by the Local Authority. I observed the Child at the foster carer’s house, during my observation I noted that the young girl had trust issues, this was indicative from her behaviour; she would not have eye contact with adults and if she did look she would cry inconsolably. Importantly she did not allow her foster carer to touch her, she would push her hand away. When she was placed in her p lay pen she could scream uncontrollably and rock back and forth, her head was also flat which was an indication that, she had been left in one spot over long periods. Prior to this observation I planned how I would conduct the observation. I thought about the key purpose of the observation and from my thought process I concluded that I needed to ascertain what the infants’ attachment style was, (see Ainsworth, 1969). In addition I needed to observe the child’s relationships with others to establish how the infant had been emotionally affected by her mother’s maltreatment. As the child was Looked After it was the LA statutory duty to visit the child in the foster placement therefore consent was not an issue at this time. I also thought about which observation method I should use, I used the naturalistic style of observation, this meant I had to sit quietly and observe the child, it also meant that I must be careful not to make eye contact, I made notes in the present tense and my main focus was on the infant, (Fawcett, 2009). However practitioners must be aware of how their own personal and cultural experiences can have an impact on the observation, (Fawcett, 2009). Lord Laming, (2003) illustrates this point in the Victoria Climbie report by suggesting that; the focus was on Victoria’s heritage and cultural background and because of this, it acted as a barrier for professionals in assessing the need of the child, of which the need was that of any child who was suffering from abuse irrespective of cultural explanations. With this in mind Fawcett, (2009) suggests that typically, we tend to have a set hypothesis when observing and as such we try to find evidence to fit that theory, what Fawcett, (2009) explains is that we need to have an open approach to observation and think holistically. For example, I had to be mindful that although I was aware of the mum’s case history and that the case was going to court, I had to ensure that I was not looking for evidence to support the court report but t hat my task was to assess holistically. Furthermore there are strengths and limitations of using the naturalistic method of observation. The strengths to this approach is that; one is able to keep an ecological picture of the situation, notes can be taken immediately thus insuring the observation records are as accurate as possible and that it is in a natural setting, (Sharman, 2004). For example, because I was able to write the notes as the observation was happening I managed to get the intricate details , for instance her hand gestures which I may have forgotten had I written the notes later. However Sharman, (2004) noted that the limitations to the naturalistic approach raised dilemma’s such that there was no direction as to what data should be collected and the data that was collected was subsequently amassed together without structure. Reflecting back on my practice with this observation, I would have preferred to observe the child with both of the foster carers present, because the female foster carer told us that the young girl was afraid of female carers but was comfortable around the male carer her husband, it would have strengthened the assessment if I was able to observe this early on in the placement. In addition to the strengths and weaknesses of naturalistic observations another aspect to be aware of is the impact of the observer’s emotional responses in the observation (Fahlberg, 2012). For instance in my observation I had to manage my emotions when watching the child in distress, because that would have clouded my judgement of the situation. Trowell and Miles, (2009) suggests that the observers need to realise what observations are their own emotional responses and thoughts and these need to be separated and noted which emotions have come from the observer and which is the child’s. Luckock, (2013) argues that if the observers emotions are not acknowledged and examined this may lead to a different outcome of the observation as your own emotions may distort your judgement of what is actually occurring. Similarly Fawcett, (2009) highlights that the observer needs to be aware that every child is unique in for example in temperament and may not react the same way beca use their developmental path which is a mixture of biological and environmental experiences. The Every Child Matters agenda recognises such differences and purports to highlight that child development is holistic and must thus be assessed as such, Fawcett, (2009). As discussed previously consent for this observation was not problematic however at times it can be. I have had to manage a situation when this has been an issue; a young 15 year old boy had been maltreated. Children’s Social Care (CSC) wanted to observe the boy in school to see his attachment behaviour to inform their assessment. CSC would not have been able to speak with the child without permission from the parents and this was not an option. As the local authority did not have parental responsibility this can pose as a dilemma for practitioners who are assessing children that may be at risk of significant harm. However in some instances the local Authority can assess the child as Gillick competent, NSPCC, (2015) this means that the local authority are saying that the child who is under 16 is mature enough to give consent for example to being observed, NSPCC (2015). Gaining consent for the observation and using clauses such as Gillick competence raises issues of power and how social workers should work in an anti – oppressive and anti – discriminatory way, (Luckock, 2013). Essentially observation can be oppressive for the child, it can perhaps make the child feel uncomfortable and highlights the power imbalance between them and the professional, Luckock, (2013). Therefore Baldwin, (1994) posits that groups that have less power for example; children, the elderly and BME groups should be assessed on the basis of being â€Å"seen and heard† (p,79). Similarly observers need to recognise that society views for example about; being Gay, black or disabled are not necessarily positively viewed as for instance being a heterosexual white male. Therefore these differences need to be recognised when observing and the observer should perhaps use a socio – cultural frame work and discuss the observation afterwards with a supervisor as this allows for a reflective stance when making judgements, and could help achieve records that are as accurate as possible,(Hsu and Arnold, 2006). Overall legislation, policy and research has had an impact on direct work, legislation as discussed has reinforced and compelled the use of direct work in practice. This has can be seen as a positive influence leading to a child centred way of working which may be beneficial for children as they will have a voice and receive the required help. On the other hand research into how direct work can be effective for example; in observation can help to inform the direct work process and insure that children’s experiences and lives are being assessed accurately as possible.

Digital Camera :: Business Management Studies Assignment

Digital Camera Product: The product which I am planning to do is a digital camera that contains other useful features which would be ideal for the consumers. These features can range from games, music downloads, radio, Bluetooth and email access (depending on what consumers prefer better). Promotion: When promoting my product I will advertise on the television which may expand to international channels depending on how well my product will do in the market. Also have a demo of my product at exhibitions that take place for consumers to see, feel and touch the product rather than just a picture on the magazines. To aalso attract more consumers to my product; they will receive an attached printer for half price. Price: Digital cameras are ranged from  £700 to  £90 relying on the quality of it. I will have 2 take out my market research to see what price would be a reasonable price for the camera. All industries are influenced by SLEPT factors. For example, some of the SLEPT factors affecting the airline industry in recent years include: Social: increased popularity of foreign travel leading to a boom in demand for air travel. However, this has been adversely affected by international terrorism. Legal: there are increasingly tight rules about the materials that need to go into aircraft construction in order to make them safer and more resistant to fire hazards. This has had the impact of raising costs. Economic: lower interest rates have meant that people have more disposable income to spend on luxuries like long distance air travel. Political: the development of freedom of movement and trade in the European Union has led to greater levels of competition on European routes coupled with increased movement of people. Technological: modern aircraft are safer and more economic to run than in the past making possible cheap air travel. Before creating business plans or when evaluating existing ones it is important to 'scan' the external environment. This takes the form of a SLEPT analysis, i.e. an investigation of the Social, Legal, Economic, Political, and Technological influences on a business. In addition it is also important to be aware of the actions of your competitors. These forces are continually in a state of change. Social factors relate to pattern of behaviour, tastes, and lifestyles. A major component of this is a change in consumer behaviour resulting from changes in fashions and styles. The age structure of the population also alters over time (currently we have an ageing population). An understanding of social change gives business a better feel for the future market situation. Laws are continually being updated in a wide range of areas, e.g. consumer protection legislation, environmental legislation, health &

Early Intervention in North Carolina

Early Intervention In North Carolina â€Å"Early intervention is a term that often is used to describe specific agencies, programs, services, and resources. In North Carolina, early Intervention has been described as a system of services provided by many different agencies and programs for children birth to five and their families. The system is for students who are having difficulties In the general education classroom but has not been placed Into the special education class. This comprehensive, interagency system is called TogetherWe Grow. Together We Grow has two parts 1) – the Infant-Toddler Program for children birth to three & 2) the Preschool Program for children ages three to five. † The early intervention system of services is provided under federal law, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Part C of the IDEA provides the federal mandate for services for young children. North Carolina Early Intervention Branch (NCEI) Is a part of the N. C. Di vision of Public Health and is the lead agency for the Infant Toddler Program (ITP).Research has found this to be the critical time to offer positive opportunities for child development. The state of North Carolina offers eighteen Children's Developmental Services Agencies (CDAs) across the state and they work with local services to improve the children success. Together We Grow (ITP) serves families whose children have certain levels of developmental delay or conditions. They offer Service Coordination Physical, occupational and speech-language therapies Family support Special instruction Assistive technologyOther services Basic safeguards are providing to secure confidentiality of the passing of the child information. Together We Grow Preschool Program: â€Å"In February 2010, Superintendent June Atkinson created NCDPIS Office of Early Learning to implement a strategic focus on the Pre-K – Grade 3 learning continuum and its impact on high school graduation. NCDPl's focus o n Pre-K through Grade 3 alignment of standards, curriculum, Instructional practices and assessment maximizes learning gains for children throughout these early grades, providing a trong academic foundation that leads to improved high school graduation rates. There are many services that are offered within the Early Intervention program.

Proper Conduct in a Classroom Essay

Being respectful in class is important to the social structure of the educational environment. Without a certain degree of respect it would distract a lot of our valuable attention, and direct it away from our daily learning. This greatly would hinder our learning abilities and minimizes our educational benefits. The dilemma that we face is that a lot of student to not know how to present the proper behavior in class. The good thing is good classroom educate is an easily obtainable skill, but a perishable skill as well  before we learn how to demonstrate good classroom behavior; we must first learn the benefits of good behavior. Disrespect in class causes havoc and disorderliness. For instance If one were to speak out of turn not only would it upset the follow class mate because they did not get a fair chance to speak, but it would give the impression that other people can speak out of turn as well. If ever one spoke out of turn there would be no way to accomplish any thing. There will be too many interruptions, and some students will miss the opportunity to express their ideas. Respecting other and proper educate is the only way to keep order in the classroom. So how do we establish order in the learning environment? It is too simple. It is vital to speak when called upon, so students can get a fair chance to express their ideas, and solution. Plus this helps to alleviate distracts and annoyances. Talking out of turn is not the only distraction. Students should not get up, or leave on their own accord as well. However it is acceptable to ask to be excused. It is also important to be mindful of other pupil’s thoughts, ideas, emotions, and feeling. Spite, and animosity just agitates the concept of learning. Students should give each other constructive criticism, and listen to each others thoughts. It is also important to address the instructor by title (Mr., Mrs., Ms., Miss., Dr., Prof., Sir, Ma’am.), and address all your comments, concerns, and questions towards the instructor in a polite manner. Respectful behavior in classrooms is easy. However just as easy as it is, it is even easier to forget to utilize this skill. One must make a habit of  being respectful. It is a system you must employ on a day-to-day basis. If followed the method and example of classroom educate I have previously displayed will help make a more relaxing, and less stressful learning environment.