What it is and why it is important to have it – case studies

Case study1: Organisation Play with children organises weekly art workshops for children. It employs professional art teachers and students as trainees/volunteers. It has a blog where it posts photographs of art work with photographs of their authors. One time, a parent of a 12 year old boy was late. His teacher offered to bring the boy home. They had a nice chat in the car, the boy showed the teacher more of his work, and since then they have been in touch outside the workshop hours on whatsapp. The teacher also posted some of the boy’s work done at home, including portraits of his younger siblings. 

Case study 2: A research institute is developing a training for teachers on how to empower children to report about bullying. Children are invited to take part in focus groups, to work together with researches and social workers during the development of the training and comment on the training once the curriculum is ready. During the focus group several children talk about other type of violent behaviours than bullying happening at schools and at homes.

Case study 3: A school is organising a summer camp for students. One of employees of the organisations in charge of sport activities has recently got married. From his FB account it is clear that his wife is under 18 years of age.

These fictional situations can take place when implementing a project. All persons involved in such situations should know what the safeguards for children are, i.e. what are the rules to make sure that no harm is done to the child or that appropriate response is taken, if the harm takes place.

What is child safeguarding:

Child safeguarding is the responsibility that organisations have to make sure their staff, operations, and programmes do no harm to children, that is that they do not expose children to the risk of harm and abuse, and that any concerns the organisation has about children’s safety within the communities in which they work, are reported to the appropriate authorities. (Keeping children safe)

What is child protection policy (CPP) and why do we need it?

CPP describes what safeguarding measures are in place to protect children, rules on how to behave when working directly with children, how to prevent them from abuse and harm, whom to report if any of this happens and how to respond to the situation in an appropriate manner.

CPP provides information for children, young people and parents on what to expect from the organisation, guides all employees in their daily work, and gives the organisation the accountability. CPP is in place also to protect staff, including volunteers and trainees. It must be publicly available, written in a simple language, endorsed by all employees and the management and presented to beneficiaries.

When and why do we require CPPs?

Under the REC programme, in all rights of the child and violence against children calls for proposals, we require child protection policy from applicants who will work directly with children. Such activities may involve e.g. questionnaire with children, focus groups, consultation on a training and documents, pilot testing of a training or other activity, workshops, visits at schools, participation in meetings/conferences, etc.

For us, it is one of the most important elements of the proposal. If a CPP is well designed, it shows that the organisation applying for funding is serious about working with children, knows how to protect and support children, is aware about potentially risky situation, has an appropriate structure and reporting mechanisms and knows how to react and support children and families in case sth bad happens.

We strongly encourage participation of children at all stages of the life-cycle of projects. We are convinced that children are experts in what affects them and projects addressing needs of children are simply better, if children have a say about their needs and how they want to have them fulfilled. Participation must be safe, meaningful and does no harm for children. That’s why organisations need to have child protection policies in place. 

The quality of CPP submitted in the application package is assessed under the operational capacity. We advise to clearly indicate in the proposal if the project will involve children and which partners will be directly working with children.

If the CPP is not attached to the proposal or it is of a very poor quality (e.g. quotes of the national legislation or the UNCRC, very general or vague statements about the organisation and its activities or manual of procedure that does not say anything about protecting children), the project will receive a negative score under the operational capacity and may be rejected. 

Before you submit your proposal with the CPP – ask yourself if you would fund this project.

Tips and resources:

Must –have elements of the child protection policy:

1. Definitions, including of risks that may affect children in the specific context of the organisation activities and its mission and clear information about what behaviours are not accepted when working with children
2. Description of safe recruitment procedures and data protection procedures
3. Information about training of staff on child safeguarding and child protection policies
4. Information about how often will the documents be revised,
5. Indication of who will act as a child protection officer,
6. Information about complaints and reporting procedures, incl. forms and algorithms, about referral and child protection systems outside the organisation 
7. Language of the CPP must be strong and clear (not may, but must, not should, but have to) and the CPP must be available publicly (on-line)

TIPS on how to develop and implement the CPP:

1. The child protection policy should be developed or at least consulted with children – they know best what works and what doesn’t work for them
2. There is no one CPP that fits all – every organisation and every project is different, the document needs to reflect this differences. Get inspiration from good documents, but don’t copy them.
3. Work with relevant staff in your organisation to give ownership of the document
4. Be practical – reflect on what works in your organisation and focus first on what good practices are already in place.
5. Make links with other existing actors in the child protection system.
6. Appoint trusted persons at different levels, not only among the management.
7. Make a child friendly version of the document and put both versions on-line
8. Good CPP doesn’t need to be very long
9. Review your policy on a regular basis- child safeguarding is not a one-time event, it is
   a process.
10. CPP is not just a document – its principles must be an integral part of the organisation’s culture and performance of every member of the organisation.

Guidelines on how to write and implement a safeguarding policy:

• https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/safeguarding/writing-a-safeguarding-policy/
• https://www.keepingchildrensafe.org.uk
• https://www.thorntons-law.co.uk/knowledge/a-new-child-centred-approach-to-safeguarding-in-sport

Examples of good child protection/safeguarding policies: 

• Comic Relief’s safeguarding framework
• https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/safeguarding-policy-protecting-vulnerable-adults/sd8-opgs-safeguarding-policy
• https://fdds.pl/about-us/child-protection-policy/
• https://www.tdh.ch/en/media-library/documents/child-safeguarding-policy
• https://www.education.ie/en/Schools-Colleges/Information/Child-Protection/Information.html