Child-Safe & Child-Friendly

Child-safe means taking active measures to keep children and young people safe from physical, sexual or emotional abuse.

Child-friendly means creating a trusting environment that values, respects and welcomes children and young people. This means children and young people feel confident to raise any problem or concern and know they will be listened to.

Organisations that work with children and young people have a special responsibility to ensure and enhance their safety, well being and rights. Opportunities for prevention are pro-actively responded to by organisations through exercising extended guardianship.

A child-safe, child-friendly organisation:

• Is preventative rather than reactive
• Is child-centred. It recognises that children and young people are at the core and responds accordingly
• Has a holistic approach to working with children and young people. It knows that when children and young people are safe and valued, this will have an affect on all areas of their lives
• Acknowledges the harm done by all forms of abuse
• Actively decreases negative influences and enhances positive influences
• Has clear boundaries for behaviour within the organisation
• Has a commitment embedded in the organisational culture to the link between safety and participation (children and young people are unlikely to speak up about experiences of feeling unsafe if their participation is not valued and facilitated in an organisation)

Click here to view the child-safe, child-friendly advice, information and resources on the Office of the Children’s Guardian website.