An introduction to safeguarding children

‘Safeguarding’ can feel like a scary construct, engendering fear in professionals and invoking memories of feelings after hearing or reading about high-profile serious incidents of child abuse.  Safeguarding is everyone’s business: in health and education settings, in our communities and in the voluntary sector, in the criminal justice system and those working in social care or social work.  Yet, especially when starting out, our own feelings or worries about ‘safeguarding’ can give rise to confusion and fear.  Safeguarding is about taking action, about providing a meaningful offer of help to families, when there are concerns about the ability of children to thrive.  How do we understand what safeguarding is, and navigate the processes and procedures we are required to, while also still supporting families to grow and heal?  What is our role when we identify a safeguarding issue and who should we turn to for help?

This webinar is presented by Alexander Kemp.  Alexander is a qualified and registered social worker, and former senior leader of children’s social care services.  Alexander was an assistant director at Cafcass, the largest employer of social workers in the UK before being appointed as Her Majesty’s Inspector of children’s social care in England.  He now works across health services, in education and with social care professionals to support improvement.  Alexander holds a degree in social work and a master’s degree in public administration with distinction.  Alexander is care-experienced.  He is also a doctoral researcher at the University of York.

This webinar is designed as an introduction to safeguarding children and aimed at those who would benefit from the ability to reflect upon how they go about meeting their duties to safeguard children across the helping professions. As systems and processes vary across the nations of the UK and internationally, this webinar focusses specifically (where process is considered) on the position in England.  It will discuss:

• What safeguarding is, and contextualise our current systems to safeguard children with a historical perspective
• Encourage you to have the same high-standards and aspirations to keep children safe as you would for young adults
• Support you to understand your role, when a safeguarding issue arises
• Enable you to think carefully about how you support families when you need to make a safeguarding referral
• Describe the processes and procedures that are undertaken by social workers and the professional network, when families need different levels of support
• Give you some ‘top tips’ on how to approach your work in a safeguarding context kindly, minimising the potential trauma that can arise for families