2.Staying safe

Sometimes the people who need to keep children and young people safe are not able to. Sometimes people mean to harm children and young people, sometimes something they do harms children and young people even if they didn’t mean to.

When this happens, children and young people need help and the adult needs support.

Sometimes children need help because they are not safe. Sometimes they might be in danger and adults will worry children could be hurt. 

When this happens, children and the people they live with will need this extra support.

Adults who need to keep children safe as part of their job will work with you and your parents or carers to work out a plan to keep you safe. Together you will talk about what this might look like for you. 

Everyone has a responsibility to make sure children are not unsafe and in danger. This means that anyone who is worried about a child, should pass their concerns on to any one of the many people whose job is also to keep children safe like a social worker, the police, or a teacher. 

This could be someone who knows you well like the people you live with, family or friends, a youth worker or it could be a teacher or an adult who works in your school, or a doctor or a neighbour. It can also be someone you don’t know who has seen or heard something that has worried them. 

If someone is worried about you and thinks you might not be safe there are some things they should do.

They should pass on the worries they have to adults who can help to support you and the people who you live with.

This is so that the adults whose job it is to keep children safe from harm can work together with you and take action.  

They will check if you are safe and give you the help you need to make you feel safe again.

Information about worries and what is happening can be shared between people who can help you. This information is not a secret but it is confidential which means that they should only share this information with people who need to know this information so that they can help and protect you.  The information should be held securely.

If you are hurt or injured, the police may be called to protect you from further harm and a doctor, nurse or health visitor will be asked to help you.

At all times, you have a right to privacy and information about you should be treated with respect and be kept confidential.

Sometimes the people whose job it is to keep you safe need to tell other people who can help to protect you from being unsafe and harmed. 

The information they share is what they think is important and they need to tell someone else this so that they can help and take action.

This information can be what they know about you, who you live with and whether you are safe when you are at home, school or somewhere else. They should only share enough information that is needed to protect you.  

They don’t need to ask you if it’s OK to share this information with the people who need to know the information to help to keep you safe.

Children should always feel able to speak to someone they trust if they feel unsafe or if they are worried about someone else. They might speak to someone they live with, a friend, a teacher or a police officer or a social worker. There are also people specially trained to speak to children on the telephone or internet like Childline. 

When someone is worried about a child, they might need to talk to the child. 

When adults think children may have been harmed or they think other children may be harmed, children may be asked to speak to the police and social workers. They listen very carefully to what the children tell them.

They do this so that they can understand, listen and learn from you about what led to the worry or concern.

They will want to find out information from you to help decide if an adult or anyone else has hurt or harmed you and find out whether you or any other child may need to be protected.

They will only speak to you if you are able to speak to them. 

If you have been hurt, you may need to go to a doctor or to the hospital. This is to see if you need any treatment to help make you better. 

It can also help the adults understand what might have happened to you, help them plan how to support you, and decide what they might need to do to protect you from the person who hurt you.

The doctors and nurses will explain to you what is happening. An adult you trust can go with you to help support you. You do not need to do anything that makes you feel uncomfortable. Where it is possible, you will be given a choice about which doctor you see. For example, if you would prefer to see a doctor who is a woman or a doctor who is a man.