ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the 'risk' and 'challenge', be able to understand the importance of recognising and reacting to this in your work with children and be able to articulate the reasons for its consideration in your workplace with colleagues and parents from a position of strength. The Statutory Framework presents these to providers as general welfare requirements: 'The provider must take necessary steps to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. The term 'risk' can be defined in a number of ways. First, it is used in the context of developmental risk, that is to say, there are factors, health, social or educational, which could affect the young child's ability to grow and learn optimally. Placed in a historical context, safety issues have changed, but life is probably no less secure for children than it was fifty or 150 years ago.
