Running a safe youth organisation

Every agency must consider the way they offer services to children and parents. Visit the Every Child Matters website for more information.

For information specific to voluntary organisations, you may find our Safeguarding in voluntary agencies page useful.

Reference material

Here are some useful links to help organisations comply with legal requirements

• Section 11 of the Children Act 2004 came into force on October 1 2005. This places new duties on most agencies who provide public services to make sure they are doing everything appropriate to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. This applies to contracted or commissioned services as much as services provided directly. For more information, download our leaflet explaining your duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.
• The Shipman Inquiry made recommendations about the need to protect vulnerable adults
• The Equality and Human Rights Commission provides information on the Race Relations Act

Safe recruitment

• The Sexual Offences Act 2003 protects children and vulnerable adults by making certain abuses of trust by workers providing a service a criminal offence. View the key points for children and families.
• The Department for Education has published a guide to the Protection of Children Act 1999
• The guidance safeguarding children, safer recruitment and selection in education is useful to many organisations working with children. It can be downloaded from Teacher Net.
• Human Resources guidance documents are also available from the links below
  Safeguarding standards in human resource management
  Safer disciplinary decisions in human resource management
  These provide advice on safer recruitment, selection and workforce management. 

Workforce skills

• The Department for Children, Schools and Families has published a toolkit to support agencies in developing multi agency working. This is available through the multi-agency working guidance.

Local policies and protocols

• Download the safe organisation checklist or contact Southwark safeguarding children board if you would like a printed copy.
• For information on safeguarding vulnerable adults, including our safeguarding adults policy, see our protection of vulnerable adults pages
• See working or volunteering with children for information on policies and procedures.