Below is a list of particular factors that make children and young people vulnerable in terms of Fit for All. The list comes from work by the Childrens Commissioner for England. There could be other factors to consider when you fill in your HAF registers but, hopefully, the list should help.
When you fill in your register, you only need say YES or NO to whether a young people is vulnerable. You don’t have to list vulnerability factors.
Vulnerability Factors
- a youth carer or sibling of a child who is disabled or who has special educational needs
- not in mainstream education
- bullied at school
- looked after (in local authority care) or in foster care, placed for adoption or in other placements
- LBGTQ+
- excluded from school, in a PRU or reported as missing from education
- being pregnant or being the parent of a child themselves
- being subject of a Child Protection Plan
- being subject of a Special Guardianship Order – this will include children who are living with foster carers
- having experienced Domestic Violence or abuse
- having experienced parental neglect or maltreatment
- being homeless or living in temporary accommodation
- parent has alcohol or drug dependency or uses substances problematically
- parent has mental ill health
- born to parents one of whom was under 18 years old
- in a family in which parent is in prison
- in youth custody, or mental health secure accommodation or having received in-patient mental health treatment
- having experienced significant emotional or mental health issues or having had contact with mental health services
- having experienced FGM or trafficking
- having been the victim of crime in the last 12 months
- having limiting or longstanding illness
- regularly going hungry
- in a family in which the parental relationship is in distress
- unaccompanied asylum seekers or in a family with asylum seekers or who are irregular migrants to the country
- Romany, traveller or gipsy
- at significant risk of radicalisation
- subject to a youth caution, sentence or a member of a street gang at risk of exploitation by a street gang.