The NYA Blog
Safeguarding young people
13 May 2010
We need to rethink and strengthen some of our approaches
Whatever the outcome of the charges being brought against a former employee, in the National Youth Agency we are left with the conviction that there are some real weaknesses in the current systems and approaches to safeguarding young people. The lack of regulation in our profession is something that must be addressed.
We, like most youth organisations, take our safeguarding responsibilities very seriously. We use enhanced CRB checks for any members of staff likely to have contact with young people, we have robust systems for identifying, reporting and acting on safeguarding concerns and we train staff so they understand their responsibilities with regard to ensuring young people are kept safe.
On this basis I am confident that we can guarantee that those whose criminal records suggest they are not suitable to get access to young people do not get those opportunities through us. I am also confident that if a member of staff has concerns there are systems and processes in place for those concerns to be addressed. The issue is that all these safeguarding policies and processes will not stop those who have not yet been caught and those who are good at covering their tracks from working in my organisation or indeed yours.
So, what do we do?
Well, the first thing we need to do is not lose faith in the systems we do have, but we also need to rethink and strengthen some of our approaches to safeguarding young people. When you are an adolescent, whilst adults can help, the only person who can really keep you safe is you. There is a really urgent need to do more work with young people, supporting them to understand what aspects of behaviour are risky and where in their worlds they are most vulnerable. Then we need to work with them to develop strategies to mitigate and if possible avoid it.
The second thing we need to do is to back campaigns for teen chat rooms to be more closely regulated and monitored, with this funded by the providers of these sites as a matter of statute.
Finally, while it may not have influenced the situation the agency faced the other week, it really is time youth work stopped being the one professional area that directly engages with young people without any form of professional regulation. We need registration so not just anyone can call themselves a youth worker, walk on to the streets and get access to our young people. We need to be part of a profession with a code of conduct and professional ethics to which we all adhere and, should an individual breach the code of conduct, we, the profession, need to be able to debar them, whether they face criminal prosecution or not.
As I write this on the day after the general election it is not clear who or what the next government will be. Whoever they are, the National Youth Agency will lobby for changes in these areas. If Government won’t do it then we will lead the sector to do it for ourselves.
Fiona Blacke is chief executive of the National Youth Agency. She can be contacted on fionab@nya.org.uk
Thank you for making an open post on this. On the issue of online safety, I would encourage The NYA to carefully consider the right and most sustainable and effective approaches to this. It is impossible to moderate and monitor all online interactive spaces that might be used by young people: and legislating to require moderation of spaces potentially leads to the loss of positive online interactive space for young people (as terms and conditions are added to exclude young people because of the cost of moderation) - or to interaction taking place in even more unregulated spaces. However, as we explored in the Youth Work and Social Networking report commissioned by The National Youth Agency in 2007 (see particularly the Interim report http://bit.ly/aGG0o3 for a full literature review on online safety evidence - and also the Byron review for a similar literature review), appropriate responses to online risks need, as your recognise, to support young people to have strategies and skills to navigate risk. It also requires peers to be equipped to look out for each other. At present the youth work profession remains ill equipped (though with some outstanding examples of good practice emerging) to support young people to understand and learn about the digital world, and to develop the skills to navigate it safely and make the most of its opportunities. This, rather than potentially counterproductive legislation and regulation of spaces, is a key area for effort to be focussed on. At present I understand The National Youth Agency does not have a voice on the UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS), and there are very few voices for informal education in this group. Both UKCCIS and The NYA could benefit from working together. I would also extend an open invitation to staff from The NYA to join in dialogue on Youth Work Online about how we can promote opportunities and safety for young people in a digital world: http://www.youthworkonline.org.uk
Posted by Tim Davies on 15/05/2010