Understand Your Role within Safeguarding & Child Protection

Everyone agrees safeguarding is everyone's job. It's harder to say what that means for you when you're on the gate, running a club or supporting a reading group, and a child says something that stops you in your tracks.

Here are the basics, set out plainly. Safeguarding is everything you do to keep children well and safe. Child protection is when someone steps in because a particular child is at risk of harm. Your part includes helping make school a place children feel able to speak up, noticing when a family might need early help, and passing concerns to your designated safeguarding lead without delay.

Above all, you'll know how to handle a disclosure. Don't promise to keep it secret, keep your face neutral, avoid leading questions and write down the child's own words.