Child Protection & Safeguarding
Everyone has a responsibility for safeguarding children and young people. We can help you make sure no child in your care is harmed. You will need.
- Core safeguarding children standards
- Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)
- Information about child abuse
What is safeguarding?
It might be difficult to accept, but every child can be hurt, put at risk of harm or abused, regardless of their age, gender, religion or ethnicity.
Safeguarding legislation and government guidance say that safeguarding means:
- Protecting children from maltreatment
- Preventing impairment of children’s health or development
- Ensuring that children are growing up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care.
- Taking action to enable all children and young people to have the best outcome and “the action we take to promote the welfare of children and protect them from harm – is everyone’s responsibility. Everyone who comes into contact with children and families has a role to play.” Working together to safeguard children (HM Government 2013)
- Almost one in five children today has experienced serious physical abuse, sexual abuse or severe physical or emotional neglect at some point in their lifetime.
- One in 10 children in the UK has been neglected.
- There were a total of 21,493 sexual offences against children recorded by police in the UK in 2011/12.
- One in 14 children in the UK has been physically abused.
- Around one in five children in the UK have been exposed to domestic violence.
- On average, every week in the UK, at least one child is killed at the hands of another person.
- Over a third of serious case reviews involve a child under one.
- For every child placed on a child protection plan or the child protection register, we estimate there are another eight children who are suffering from abuse and neglect and not getting the support they need.
- There were more than 91,000 looked after children in the UK in 2012.
- Deaf and disabled children are more than three times more likely to be abused or neglected than non-disabled children.
Why should you have safeguards in place?
Making sure your organization has policies and procedures in place for safeguarding and child protection:
- Protects children and young people from harm and abuse
- Enables staff and volunteers to know what to do if they are worried
- Shows that your group is responsible and has pride in its work.
You may also want to develop safeguards because you:
- Have been told that you need a child protection policy and procedures in order to get funding or public liability insurance
- Are applying for charitable status, and the Charity Commission has asked if you have a child protection policy
- Suspect, or have experienced, an incident of abuse, and want to make sure it doesn’t happen again
- Have read or seen news about a case of child abuse
- Simply want to ensure your group is as safe as possible for children.
Is there safeguarding legislation?
In England, the law states that people who work with children have to keep them safe. This safeguarding legislation is set out in The Children Act (1989) and (2004). It also features in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (to which the UK is a signatory) and sets out the rights of children to be free from abuse. The Government also provides guidance in their document ‘Working Together to Safeguard Children 2013’.
Jobs that involve caring for, supervising or being in sole charge of children or adults require an enhanced DBS check (previously called an enhanced CRB check). r this kind of work if they know they’re on This includes checking whether someone is included in the two DBS ‘barred lists’ (previously called ISA barred lists) of individuals who are unsuitable for working with children, young people, and adults at risk.