Safeguarding round-up - September

This bulletin has been prepared by NCMA's Safeguarding Children Working Group (SCWG) to keep you up to date with emerging news and information about safeguarding issues.

 

Are they safe? packs

Are they Safe? packs are available free of charge from the Safe Network – a body jointly run by Children England and the NSPCC. The pack has been designed to help voluntary and community organisations get the essentials in place to safeguard children they work with. You can order it or download the section you’re interested in.

 

Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre

The UK’s national centre for protecting children published its 4th year results in July. Results show that the number of children safeguarded from abuse through the work of the centre has doubled in the past year bringing the total number since the organisation was launched in 2006 to 624.

 

Internet safety

Whilst the internet is of great educational and social benefit to children and young people, there can be substantial risks to their privacy and safety. This article on the NSPCC website provides useful information as to the dangers to surfing the web and safe surfing guidelines.

 

Child Sex Offender Disclosure Scheme

The Child Sex Offender Disclosure Scheme has been launched and provides members of the public with a way to check whether people who have contact with their children are a possible risk – and if it can help keep children safe the police will pass on information.


Having already protected more than 60 children from abuse during its pilot in Cambridgeshire, Cleveland, Hampshire and Warwickshire, the scheme has expanded to eight additional forces (West Mercia, Bedfordshire, Norfolk, North Yorkshire, Thames Valley, West Midlands, Essex and Suffolk), taking the total number of areas covered to 12. A further 12 forces (Northamptonshire, Staffordshire, Sussex, Leicestershire, Wiltshire, Cheshire, Durham, Northumbria, Dorset, Lincolnshire, Surrey and Gloucestershire) will come online by the autumn and the remainder of areas by spring 2011.


Under the scheme a parent, carer, guardian or another interested party, can ask the police to check whether someone who has access to their children has a record of committing child sexual offences. If they are found to have convictions for sexual offences against children, and pose a risk of causing serious harm to the child or children concerned, then this information may be disclosed.


More information about the disclosure pilots, including leaflets and booklets being used by the police forces, can be found at www.direct.gov.uk/keepingchildrensafe.
Parents who are concerned about the safety of their children can and should go to any police force at any time about their concerns – every force already has a public protection team to deal with these issues.


There is a research report into the pilot which can be downloaded.

 

Evaluation of new Local Safeguarding Children Boards in England

The Centre for Research in Social Policy/Centre for Child and Family Research published this final report into the evaluation of new LSCBs on 26 August 2010. The overall goal of the study was to examine whether the new structures and processes established by LSCBs have overcome identified weaknesses of ACPCs and promoted interagency co-operation.