Child safeguarding FAQ
Your most asked questions, answered.
What is child safeguarding?
Child safeguarding is the responsibility of organisations to ensure they do no harm to children. This means doing all they can to prevent exploitation and abuse, and if abuse occurs, to respond appropriately.
What is child protection?
Preventing and responding to all violence, exploitation and abuse against children. Child safeguarding is an essential component of child protection.
What is the definition of a child?
Any person under the age of 18.
What is child abuse?
Child maltreatment is the abuse and neglect that occurs to children under 18 years of age. It includes all types of physical and /or emotional ill-treatment, sexual abuse, neglect, negligence and commercial or other exploitation, which results in actual or potential harm to the child’s health, survival, development or dignity in the context of a relationship of responsibility, trust or power. (World Health Organisation).
I am concerned a child is being abused. What should I do?
You should always speak out if you are concerned a child is being abused.
If you feel it is safe to do so you should report it to the police or child protection services.
If you believe the child might be put at further risk by reporting to national authorities, or if the police and child protection services are not functioning in that context, then you can contact Child Helpline International for advice. www.childhelplineinternational.org
You can report online abuse to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children CyberTipline at https://report.cybertip.org
I am concerned about child safeguarding in my organisation. Can you help?
Yes. You can book a session through our Child safeguarding helpdesk or contact our Standards and Learning Team directly to discuss your concern.
My organisation would like to develop a child safeguarding policy, where do we start?
Go to our Resources for practitioners page for free tools and guidance on developing a child safeguarding policy.
You can find out more about how to implement child safeguarding in your organisation by downloading the International Child Safeguarding Standards and guidance.
My organisation does not work with children, do we need a child safeguarding policy?
Yes. All organisations should have a policy to safeguard children from abuse.
Even if you do not work directly with children, you may come into contact with them online or in the community. You may also have access to children’s data or use their images and stories in your work. All of these situations have the potential to put children at risk of abuse.
Learn more about how to understand your child safeguarding risks on our resources page:
Where can I learn more about child safeguarding?
You can learn more about child safeguarding and the International Child Safeguarding Standards on our Support and resources page, as well as with our online courses on the KCS Learning platform.
You can also register for one of our international events.
Which types of organisations does Keeping Children Safe support?
All types! This includes schools and universities, sports organisations, NGOs, donors, faith-based organisations, governments, the private sector and militaries.
How can my organisation become a KCS Member?
Membership of our global child safeguarding network is open to all types of organisations. Find out more and register your interest on our Membership page, or get in touch with our Membership team.
Can I join the Keeping Children Safe Network as an individual?
Yes! We offer a range of membership benefits for safeguarding practitioners including free online courses and access to our exclusive members’ newsletter, webinars events and conferences.
Find out more and register your interest on our Membership page, or get in touch with our Membership team.
Can Keeping Children Safe help my organisation improve our child safeguarding measures?
Yes. We have worked with tens of thousands of organisations across the world including training, mentoring and technical support, audits, investigations and safeguarding practice reviews.
More information about our services is on our Support for organisations page, or you can get in touch to find out more about how we can help.
Can Keeping Children Safe help my organisation develop online courses on child safeguarding?
Yes. We have developed tailor-made online courses for all types of organisations across the world. Please get in touch with our Standards and Learning Team to find out more about how we can help.
Does Keeping Children Safe offer funding?
Unfortunately, we are not able to offer funding or financial support.
We offer free child safeguarding advice and support via our Child Safeguarding Advice Surgery, free safeguarding resources and templates and free online courses on the KCS Learning platform.
Child safeguarding helpdesk
We offer free places for our international events and all of our membership services are free for small organisations.
You can sign up for our free online newsletter.
If you are new to child safeguarding, start here:
The International Child Safeguarding Standards
The core principle for a robust and proactive approach to safeguarding
Complete introductive courses online, in English or Spanish
Guides and tools to help you start your safeguarding journey