Looked After Children Essay

A child related reason as to why a child may become looked after is because of disability for example Down syndrome. This is when a child is unable to function in everyday life in the same way as everyone else. Ways in which we could help the child is through specialised care for example using treatments and medication suited to their needs to make them well or to improve the quality of life. Also the child could have interaction with other children who suffer from the same illness as them to help them socialise and feel better about themselves. A weakness of this is that some parents are unable to accept the child having a disability and are uneducated on how to deal with them so this also could be a reason they become a looked after child. Another child related reason as to why a child may become looked after is through committing a criminal offence. This is where the child would commit a crime by breaking the law for example violence and theft. The reason for the child being taken away could be that they are being influenced by other children around the area they live in so to experiment and see if the child is still misbehaved when away from those children they could be taken into foster care. Another example for this is when they are being looked after it could cause them to never recommit the crime and avoids harming other people. In other cases the parent could disown the child for committing the crime. The next child related reason a child could become looked after is through learning difficulties. This means the child has an incapability to learn which doesn’t enable them to move forward intellectually due to delayed development and it could affect everyday life. This is because it could affect the child’s future and independence for example they are unable to learn and so unable to go to college and receive any qualifications and so they are unable to get a job, also there could be limited access to edu cation, sources and resources for the child’s difficulties. The parent may also not be able to cope and think the child is not normal compare to all the other children and this could lead to neglect which could be another reason leading the child to become a looked after child. Behavioural problems is an issue in which could provoke a child to become looked after. This is the range of actions and mannerisms made by the child which are often unacceptable. The reason in why the child may become looked after is because the behaviour could influence other siblings for example if child number one is always badly behaved child  number two could see child one is getting attention and therefore imitate their behaviour. The child could just get taken away for respite care so the parents can rest or for therapy, they do not necessarily have to be put into 24 hour full time care. A family related reason as to why a child may become looked after is because of suspected or actual maltreatment. This is a form of poor care or neglect, if a child doesn’t have basic needs to satisfy them such as food, shelter and hygiene then it would be up to social care workers to make sure they receive this care from becoming looked after. If the child doesn’t receive the correct care and the social care worker fails them then this could cause risk of harm/illness or even death. It could affect their physical, emotional, social and intellectual development. Also could harm the future of the child for example cause the child to become bullied and so therefore they make excuses not to go to school which puts their education at risk and they are unable to get a job from having no qualifications and no confidence. Another family related reason as to why a child may become looked after is through parent illness. This is when the parent is unwell. If they are mentally or physically unable to function or fulfil a child’s needs then this would become a concern for a social work er. If they was unable to take on the roles and responsibilities of being a parent then the reason for this could be the parent struggles financially as they are unable to work due to their illness and so the child may not get his/her full wellbeing this could be a reason they become looked after. Also another reason could be that the parent is dying from cancer and it could be too much pressure for the child to see them deteriorate and so this could be another reason as to why they become looked after. Parental capacity is another reason as to why a child may become looked after. This is when the parent is unable to look after a child for various reasons for example may not be able to afford to look after them, cannot cope with the child and their basic needs. The parent could also have an addiction and so their priorities are not right for example they put alcohol before the child’s food. This would cause great concern for a social worker and so therefore the child may become lo oked after in foster care, or in rest bite care until the parent becomes clean.