Keeping children safe
A toolkit for child protection
Over recent years, there has been increasing recognition of the global nature of child abuse, and growing acceptance of the potential risks to children of adults working in positions of trust. Greater attention, therefore, has been paid to how aid and development agencies ensure that children they are in contact with are kept safe from harm. As a result, many agencies are now putting in place policies and procedures designed to protect children and keep them safe from harm.

However, many agencies are still not sufficiently aware of the importance
of building protection measures into their work. Even agencies that
have taken steps to address this are discovering the real challenges
of making their agencies ‘child safe’. All are looking for
practical guidance, tools and support materials to assist them in overcoming
a host of obstacles that confront them in tackling child protection
issues in their work.
For aid and development agencies that have contact with children,
some of the key issues and challenges include the fact that:
-
Protection systems in many countries are often weak, and leave
agencies and staff facing complex child protection dilemmas.
-
Children in emergencies are especially vulnerable to abuse and
exploitation.
-
There is little common understanding across agencies of child
protection issues, standards of practice, or the organisational
implications of these.
-
There are huge difficulties in operating child protection policies
in the many different legal, social and cultural contexts in which
agencies work.
-
Children may be at risk of abuse and exploitation, not only from
individuals in the communities where they live, but also from agency
staff, volunteers or other representatives.
-
For these agencies, and for the sector as a whole, there is a
need to develop a common understanding of child protection issues,
develop good practice across the diverse and complex areas in which
they operate and thereby increase accountability in this crucial
aspect of their work.
Keeping Children Safe: A Toolkit for Child Protection
will help agencies to:
-
recruit staff safely
-
strengthen policies and procedures that prevent abuse within agencies
- help them deter, detect and respond to abuse
-
increase staff confidence to deal with child abuse concerns when
they arise
-
create child safe environments
-
keep children safe beyond agency boundaries
-
ensure increased protection for children around the world
-
integrate child protection into all areas of operation.
The toolkit is based around agreed standards that require staff and
other agency representatives to receive an appropriate level of training,
information and support to fulfil their roles and responsibilities to
protect children.
The toolkit is available free to any coalition agencies, their partners,
and affiliated agencies that are willing to distribute it. Not-for-profit
agencies can obtain up to 10 copies free. Other private, commercial,
academic or independent agencies or consultants will be charged £75.00.
Hard copies of Keeping Children Safe: A Toolkit for Child Protection
can be ordered from
publications@keepingchildrensafe.org.uk
Costs of postage may be requested for multiple copies or international
despatch.
Further copies of the Keeping Children Safe Toolkit and other information
can be downloaded in electric format from the Keeping Children Safe
website
www.keepingchildrensafe.org.uk
The Keeping Children Safe Coalition is a coalition of the following
agencies: Save the Children UK, World Vision UK, World Vision International,
Plan, NSPCC, Tearfund, International Federation of Terre des hommes,
Everychild, the Consortium for Street Children, People in Aid, Oxfam
and the NGO Group on the Convention of the Rights of the Child.
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