Safeguarding Children and Young Persons training: A first hand account.

It is our responsibility to take care of those who can’t defend themselves. Unfortunately, many children are often victims of some form of abuse. Whether it be mental or physical, we must open our eyes and recognise the signs. That is why Safeguarding Children and Young Persons training is an excellent way to put all the information you might already know into the right places.

What is Safeguarding children?

This is how I define Safeguarding: It is protecting children and their rights no matter where they come from. It is giving every child equal opportunities in life by preventing all kinds of abuse, and by helping those who have already suffered.

Who needs it?

Safeguarding children training is useful for everyone, but is is arguably essential for those working with children and young persons. It is a big responsibility to work with them and their welfare is the number one priority.

How can we help?

We can all see bruises, we can all recognise if a child is behaving differently to his/hers peers. However, I don’t think everyone knows how they would proceed from there. What would you do if you saw a child with torn clothes and he/she doesn’t look well cared? Should I first talk to the child? Or perhaps call the police? The parents?

These are the questions that I had before the training, I wasn’t sure what would be the right thing to do. Every situation is different, which means that the ways of dealing with them are different too, familiarising yourself with the different situations and solutions is key.

What are the benefits?

This training helps to provide perspective on topics that may seem obvious. You will know if a child has an unexplained bruise or broken arm, you will know if they appear to be behaving out of character.

But, what do these different signs mean? We can all see the signs, but identifying their root cause is not as easy. This training will teach you the correct ways in which to proceed, for every situation.

What did I learn?

What I learned when I did my Safeguarding Children and Young Persons training was not only how to recognise different signs that indicate abuse, but more importantly, how to react and address them.

Some people can get very attached to the children they are working with and helping, I am one of those people, that is why this was excellent training to do.

Now I know the correct ways to react, and the best ways to proceed, when it comes to the Safeguarding of Children and Young Persons.