Other Examples of Abuse:

Bullying.

For example: peer group bullying at school or in a social context; adults such as parents/carers and teachers engaging in bullying and shaming to demean a child in order to exercise power and control; failure to take a child’s concern about bullying seriously or condoning or justifying it.

Financial abuse:

For example: extortion of pocket money, including by peer group; having finances exploited by a family member, such as misuse of a benefit provided for their care (e.g. abuse of Disability Living Allowance (DLA)); theft or misuse of a sum of money which the child had inherited.

Cyber abuse/online abuse:

Including ‘sexting‘ which is illegal as by sending an explicit image, a young person is producing and distributing child abuse images and risks being prosecuted (even if the picture is taken and shared with their permission); texting inappropriate information about the child; spreading untrue rumours; taking unauthorised photographs, films or recordings of the child; threatening the child or telling lies about the child or themselves; adults with responsibilities towards the child failing to control the child’s internet access to inappropriate websites and chat-lines; adult perpetrator pretend they are a child to entice, mislead and groom the child/children through social media or message boards etc.

Grooming

Someone builds an emotional connection with a child to gain their trust for the purposes of sexual abuse or exploitation. Children and young people may be groomed online or in the real world, by a stranger or by someone that they know e.g. a family member, friend or professional.

Self-harm

Slashing wrists or arms occurs in both childhood as well as adulthood and is one of the signs which could indicate that a child is being abused or has experienced it in the past.

Use to answer question 11.1 vi of the Care Certificate