There are a number of essential safeguards which should be observed in all settings in which children live away from home, including foster care, residential care, private fostering, armed forces bases, healthcare, boarding schools (including residential special schools), prisons, young offenders institutions, secure training centres, and secure units.
Where services are not directly provided, essential safeguards should be explicitly addressed in contracts with external providers. These safeguards include that:
- children feel valued and respected and their self-esteem is promoted;
- there is an openness on the part of the institution to the external world and external scrutiny, including contact with families and the wider community;
- staff and foster carers are trained in all aspects of safeguarding children; alert to children’s vulnerabilities and risks of harm; and knowledgeable about how to implement safeguarding children procedures;
- children who live away from home are listened to and their views and concerns responded to;
- children have ready access to a trusted adult outside the institution, e.g. a family member, the child’s social worker, independent visitor, children’s advocate.
- Children should be made aware of the help they could receive from independent advocacy services, external mentors, and ChildLine;
- staff recognise the importance of ascertaining the wishes and feelings of children and understand how individual children communicate by verbal or non-verbal means;
- there are clear procedures for referring safeguarding concerns about a
- child to the relevant local authority;
- complaints procedures are clear, effective, user friendly and are readily accessible to children and young people, including those with disabilities and those for whom English is not their preferred language.
- bullying is effectively countered;
- recruitment and selection procedures are rigorous and create a high threshold of entry to deter abusers;
- there is effective supervision and support, which extends to temporary staff and volunteers;
- contractor staff are effectively checked and supervised when on site or in contact with children;
- clear procedures and support systems are in place for dealing with expressions of concern by staff and carers about other staff or carers.
- Organisations should have a code of conduct instructing staff on their duty to their employer and their professional obligation to raise legitimate concerns about the conduct of colleagues or managers.
- There should be a guarantee that procedures can be invoked in ways which do not prejudice the ‘whistle-blower’s’ own position and prospects;
- there is respect for diversity and sensitivity to race, culture, religion, gender, sexuality and disability; and
- staff and carers are alert to the risks of harm to children in the external environment from people prepared to exploit the additional vulnerability of children living away from home
