Safeguarding and child protection in the voluntary and community sector

This section contains information on safeguarding and child protection, specifically tailored to the voluntary and community youth sector. Find out about:

• What is 'safeguarding'?: an introduction to keeping young people safe

• Sound Systems: an accrediation scheme for voluntary and community organisations to develop and use safeguarding policies and procedures when working with young people

• Safe Systems: a scheme to help small to medium voluntary and community organisations achieve good safeguarding practice - an introductory level of achievement towards Sound Systems

• Keeping it Safe: a resource developed by NCVYS providing a young person-centred approach to safety and child protection

• Information and resources: links to useful external resources

What is 'safeguarding'?

In order to grow and thrive, young people need to be challenged as well as kept safe by those offering opportunities for them to develop.

Safeguarding young people is about much more than child protection. It means taking a comprehensive approach that prevents young people from any potential source of harm.

This is not just about preventing and acting on the worst case scenarios, such as abuse happening to a young person, but it is about educating parents as well as those working with young people to deal with them in the most appropriate ways. It is about making sure that the right people are recruited as employees and volunteers to work with young people in all settings, and creating a culture of openness and honesty, and protecting young people from harm and danger without smothering their potential and need for challenge and excitement.

NCVYS continues to develop the Sound Systems Accreditation project, an initiative that supports voluntary and community organisations to develop and use safeguarding policies and procedures when working with young people.

As part of this we developed the first set of safety standards and guidelines that take young people's perspectives as their starting point. Written by the voluntary sector for the voluntary sector, Keeping it Safe: a young person-centred approach to safety and child protection has achieved widespread endorsement and praise. In 2007, NCVYS launched the second edition of this document, which offers even more up-to-date guidance on writing and implementing policies and procedures in all aspects of safeguarding, and current information about national policy.

''Keeping it Safe' remains an impressively comprehensive and practical document, and I am sure it will continue to serve as an invaluable tool for practitioners from across the voluntary and community and beyond, particularly as we prepare for the implementation of the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 from autumn 2008.'

The Sound Systems safeguarding work at NCVYS has three aspects:

• Keeping it Safe: a young person-centred approach to safety and child protection: a comprehensive guide including recommended standards in all areas of policy and practice in safeguarding young people, guidelines on how to reach these standards as well as sample forms and templates to help you get there. It also incorporates a workbook which is a useful tool to measure your own organization against the standards, and which you will use to work towards Sound Systems Accreditation;

• Training, advice and consultancy: to enable organisations to implement the standards and develop their own policies and procedures;

• Sound Systems accreditation: a kitemark developed by NCVYS which can be achieved to demonstrate an organisation’s commitment to safeguarding and child protection.

Back to top