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The Safe Communities Project is a three year NSPCC initiative to ensure all children and young people in England and Wales can safely take part in organised activities. Those community and voluntary groups involved in the programme will have access to a Toolkit , developed by the NSPCC, which provides the essential information needed to put child safeguards in place.
We want to reach organisations working with some of the most disadvantaged and hard-to-reach groups of children and young people and help them introduce safeguards. The project will: give people the ability to act on child protection concerns; enable parents and carers to feel more confident about their children taking part in activities; and give youngsters someone to turn to if they have concerns. We also want this programme to act as a catalyst to bring about far-reaching changes in child protection practice and policy at both government and local level.
Early-years groups, out-of-school activities, youth and recreational organisations, church and faith-based groups, black and ethnic minority and Welsh-speaking groups. Larger organisations are adopting safeguards so we now need to reach smaller groups, which are often unregulated.
As part of its mission to end child cruelty the NSPCC understands the importance of working at a community level to ensure protection procedures are introduced effectively wherever needed. The Children Act 2004 introduced a number of measures aimed at strengthening local statutory support for safeguarding children. However, there is currently no statutory financial commitment to help small voluntary and community organisations implement these necessary measures. We believe this initiative could be the single most effective way of ensuring children are safe from harm when they are taking part in activities run by community organisations.
Information on abuse in community-based organisations is limited but there is evidence that it is a problem. A 2000 study of institutional abuse found that more than half (52%) the victims were assaulted while in these groups 1 .
The programme will cost over £1m. The initial aim is to reach 5,000 organisations and up to 500,000 children, so this works out at around £2 per child.
Through the Community Fund Strategic Grants Programme of the Big Lottery Fund , which is providing a large proportion of the money. This is one of the biggest grants the NSPCC has ever received.
The Safe Communities Project will be piloted in three areas: Brent, Birmingham and Denbighshire , North Wales. It will later be rolled out nationally. Brent was the first area to trial the programme and launched the project at a conference for interested parties on 28 November 2006. There will be community conferences in Birmingham and Denbighshire as well.
English and bilingually in Welsh, Urdu, Punjabi and Bengali.
They reflect the commonly spoken languages across England and Wales.
No. Child abuse has no boundaries, it occurs in all communities. However, if we do not actively promote the issue in certain communities, there is a danger they will be overlooked.
They are representative of the rest of the country and have diverse populations.
Children and young people up to the age of 19. This is the first time the NSPCC has developed a programme to cover all ages from birth to adulthood. As far as we are aware there are no other child protection community programmes like this.
We are concentrating on community programmes because that's where most out-of-hours activities take place. One of the aims of this programme is to bring together local authorities and the voluntary sector to enhance child protection work.
Through the pilot projects or umbrella organisations and grant-making bodies.
Any community organisation working with children can apply for one.
The pilot areas will get 300 toolkits each. A total of around 6,300 will be made available for the whole programme.
The pilot projects will be evaluated to ensure proper procedures have been followed. The toolkits are easy to follow and training will be given to the person designated at an organisation to implement the procedures. However that person will not be expected to investigate allegations of abuse. They should refer their concerns on to an appropriate organisation - the NSPCC, police or local authority.
One part of the toolkit is the award-winning distance learning Educare child protection awareness programme developed by the NSPCC's highly regarded Training and Consultancy Department and which has been used by 100,000 professionals. Once this has been completed an NSPCC certificate is awarded.
A step-by-step guide explaining how to run a safe organisation and how to use the toolkit. A child protection awareness DVD for use with volunteers, parents and children. NSPCC Educare child protection awareness programme - distance learning training materials to raise awareness of child protection. A range of materials targeted at parents and children and young people as well as NSPCC Child Protection Helpline and ChildLine posters and leaflets.
No. Toolkits are free.
As part of the toolkit application process, each organisation will select a lead person whose responsibilities will cover these areas.
The community pilots will be rolled out from November 2006 and will run until the end of summer 2007. The rest of the project will continue to run until 2009 and there is a hope that the project will continue to run beyond that period. A similar scheme is being sponsored by the National Assembly in Northern Ireland so we aim to encourage government in England to do likewise.
Funding from the NSPCC and the Big Lottery Fund will cover the cost of the three year project. However we would like to continue the programme beyond this and will probably need additional funding to help to extend the scheme.
The toolkit aims to target groups that are small voluntary and community organisations (up to 5 full time equivalent staff).
There is no government scheme which encompasses this but we hope once Safe Communities has been established we can engage in discussions with the Department for Education and Skills with the aim of introducing it into policy for England and Wales.
Community organisations in England and Wales will be eligible for the programme. Sports groups are already covered by the Child Protection in Sport Unit which was set-up in 2001 by the NSPCC and Sport England. Northern Ireland is introducing its own government-sponsored scheme and in Scotland child protection issues are looked after by Children 1st .
They will be available for every community organisation working with children. Particular attention is given to those working with disadvantaged children because we do not want them to slip through the net.
We do not expect them to have undertaken vetting procedures but the toolkit gives advice on how to recruit the right people to work with children.
No. If people are interested in working with children they will have safeguards in place or will want to introduce them. The Safe Communities programme does not involve intrusive procedures. It has been designed to give support to community organisations and ultimately to protect children.
The programme is aimed at community groups.
Individuals who have concerns about a child should call the NSPCC's 24-hour national Child Protection Helpline - 0808 800 5000. In Wales they can call the Cymru/Wales Child Protection Helpline - 0808 100 2524 and there is an Asian Child Protection Helpline - 0800 096 7719. They can also contact the police or their local authority's social services department. If someone helping to run a community organisation is worried about a child attending one of their events they should refer to the organisation's child protection policies and procedures. The Safe Communities Toolkit will give them appropriate advice.
This can be a complex issue so it is advisable for them to refer to someone who has been professionally trained in child protection issues. Again the Toolkit will give guidance.
There is a possibility that such organisations might get overlooked. This programme is for all sections of the community and we want to make sure they are included.
Preventing child cruelty is not something that can be tackled by one organisation. We all have a role to play.
1. Gallagher, B. (2000) The extent and nature of known cases of institutional child sexual abuse. British Journal of Social Work , 30(6): 795-817.
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