Safeguarding Children

Safeguarding the welfare of our members

Child Protection is now known as ‘Safeguarding’ and our new title is County Safeguarding Awareness Co-ordinators. We are responsible for promoting the Associations Child Protection Policy, ‘Young People First’ known as The Yellow Card Policy and advise on it’s implementation within the County.

The Association’s ‘Young People First’ code of good practice is published in the form of a pocket size yellow card that all adults are asked to keep with them. This contains information about how to report concerns or allegations of abuse and also a code of behaviour that all adults are required to follow.

The Association takes seriously its responsibility to protect and safeguard the welfare of the children and young people in its care. The law defines a child for these purposes as anyone under 18 years of age.

The Scout Association is committed to:

• taking into account in all its considerations and activities the interests and well-being of young people
• respecting the rights, wishes and feelings of the young people with whom it is working
• taking all reasonable practicable steps to protect them from physical, sexual and emotional harm
• promoting the welfare of young people within a relationship of trust

The Scout Association believes that safeguarding and protecting the welfare of all the young people we work with is the responsibility of everyone.
Safeguarding is a priority and ‘ALL’ adults who are ‘invited to take part in Scouting Activities’ are required to undertake Awareness training and also to be in possession of a current Scouting CRB disclosure. In April 2008 the Committee of  the Council decided that CRB disclosures should be renewed at least every 5 years and in Coventry  the decisions has been made that disclosure checks and Awareness training should be reviewed every 3 years. For those subject to a formal review, these should ideally be carried out prior to their appointment review. All adults should now have completed a CRB disclosure even those who were in post prior to its introduction in 2002 and had not previously completed one.
During the last year we have delivered ‘Awareness Training to approximately 125 adult volunteers in the County. For some this was for the first time but for others it was as a renewal. Safeguarding issues change regularly so it is important to keep up to date with information.
We have also undertaken activity sessions across all sections to empower young people in Anti-Bullying issues.

Last year we both received training from the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) and are now qualified to deliver ‘Think U Know’ training to our members of Scout and Explorer Scout age. ‘Think U Know’ is a government initiative aimed at keeping young people safe on line. We can also advise on ‘Think U Know‘ resources for Cub and Beaver sections
We are also available to advise on the Safeguarding aspect of the Young Leader Training module.
Safeguarding Awareness Training is for ALL adults in the Movement over the age of 18 years. Its purpose is two fold, both from child safety, to safeguard the welfare of our young people and also from adult safety, to safeguard the adults who give their time in any capacity in the movement.
Training evenings are held as and when required throughout the year and can easily be arranged by contacting either one of us.  It is intended that any training evening arranged will also be listed on the County website so that they are available to anyone who needs to attend.
If you require further information or would like to host a Safeguarding Workshop for your group and others then please do not hesitate to contact us.

We now have completely new programme set up so await enquiries for training evenings. We also have a new Anti-bullying presentation which will now be delivered separately. Both are really good.

New 'Thinkuknow' presentation now available for presentation to 11-16 year olds and have had some bookings for this also. It is hard hitting but gets the point over very well. Looking forward to delivering this to our young people to keep them safe on-line. Need more people to take this up for their young people.

Val Morris and Clive Bennett.
County Safeguarding Awareness Co-ordinators.

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