Consultation on safety education

Staying Safe is a major consultation which provides the opportunity for the government to consult with parents, children, young people, their partners and the children's workforce on children's safety. Staying Safe aims to:

· Raise awareness of the importance of safeguarding children and young people
· Promote better understanding of safeguarding issues, encouraging a change in behaviour towards children and young people, and their safety and welfare
· Ensure work in this area is coherent, and effectively coordinated across government, by outlining existing work in this area
· Reinforce existing activity by proposing new actions to plug gaps and improve linkages

Of the Every Child Matters five outcomes, young children have said that they see safety as the most important. Staying safe is about more than preventing accidents.  It is about helping to keep children safe from bullies, crime and anti-social behaviour and protecting children who are at risk of abuse and neglect. Children’s safety has improved in many areas, but there are still areas to be tackled, including bullying inside and outside school, which is consistently reported by children and young people as their top safety concern.

The government is launching this consultation to raise awareness of issues around children’s safety, including how to strike a balance between keeping children safe and allowing them to grow, explore and enjoy their childhoods.  The consultation document summarises what is already being done nationally and locally to keep children and young people safe – work is already underway to improve safety for all children and young people and includes:

• preventing accidents in the home and injuries caused by road accidents
• improving protection for children and young people on the internet
• continuing to make schools, colleges and early years settings safer for children and young people, including creating a safe physical environment, tackling bullying, checking the background of those working with children and improving safety outside the classroom
• protecting children from abuse and neglect
• better support for children in care
• provision of short breaks for disabled children and their parents
• improved support for young people at risk
• better protection for children and young people involved with the courts
• measures to improve the safety of young people in custody
• improving practice in social care
•  improving safety on the streets – including tackling bullying outside school
• improving support for victims of abuse
• tackling exploitation of children and supporting victims of forced marriage

It proposes some new actions to reinforce and complement what is already in place, which include:

• measures to encourage children and young people to learn to take risks when playing or taking part in activities in a safe environment
• a campaign to help parents, children and young people understand and manage risk
• promoting safer vetting and recruitment practices to ensure that unsuitable people cannot work with children and young people
• addressing new threats to children’s safety – particularly online and mobile phone use
• providing additional support for listening services via ChildLine
•  launching a public education campaign to improve the public’s ability to identify and report concerns about children’s safety
• supporting Local Safeguarding Children Boards by publishing a best practice guide
• launching a new national safeguarding children awards scheme
• extending bullying policies used in schools to other settings, including children’s homes, extended schools services, further education colleges and youth groups; identifying effective anti-bullying strategies and disseminating good practice examples

The consultation invites views on the issues and proposals and includes a series of questions to prompt thinking. The consultation will run until the end of October, and will include a range of activities for local authorities and their partners to explore this vital area of work.  A longer summary and the full consultation document are available at: http://www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/stayingsafe/