Analysis: Safeguarding - Safety plan permits measure of risk

The children's sector is bursting with jargon, but with last week's launch of the Staying Safe Action Plan the government may just have hit on a winning new phrase - "rare risk".

According to junior children's minister Kevin Brennan, the strategy aims to highlight the difference between real risks to children, such as safety in the home, and the rare risks all parents fear, such as paedophiles or terror attacks.

"We're trying to get a proper understanding of the real risks rather than the rare risks children face," he says. "If you look at the statistics, children in the most at-risk groups, particularly in disadvantaged areas, have a hugely increased risk of serious injuries or death from accidents in the home."

Culture change

To this end the government has put together an action plan that aims to end the culture of fear surrounding activities for young people. A key area is school trips and the plan outlines ways to make it easier and less bureaucratic for teachers to run outside activities for children.

This will involve new guidance on taking children out of the classroom and work with the Health & Safety Executive to reinforce the message to schools that risk assessment must be in proportion and not excessive.

The government also says it will bring together existing safety and quality accreditation badges into one easy-to- understand system for schools, so venues known to be safe for children, for example museums, do not have to be risk-assessed every single time a school plans a trip.

"A trip to the British Museum seems to me an excellent idea and if I were a teacher I would be prepared to risk a terrorist attack, for example, to take children round what is one of the world's best museums," Brennan says.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) has welcomed the plans and Brennan's stance. Chief executive Tom Mullarkey says: "Teachers need support and guidance, not endless form-filling. This initiative will be widely welcomed in staffrooms throughout the country. We need to promote a culture where things are as safe as necessary, not as safe as possible. Restricting children will not help them to cope confidently in later life."

Teachers' unions including the Association of Teachers and Lecturers and the Professional Association of Teachers have also hailed the reduction in red tape when planning school trips.

Understanding risk is a strong theme of the plan and the government has said it will set up a Child Safety Education Coalition to give child safety education across England. There will also be a communications campaign to give more information on children's safety, and there is potential for safety education to be incorporated into PSHE lessons.

But fundamentally, Brennan says, the safety of children is everyone's responsibility. "All of us need to keep an eye out for children and young people. Culture change is the most difficult part of government. We can't just push a switch and make it happen."

On more disturbing issues such as paedophilia and sexual abuse, Brennan urges some perspective: "What we would like to do is have a debate about the rarity of risks like the stranger-danger debate. Some awful cases come up from time to time and it's understandable that becomes an item on the news, but it's important people understand how rare it is for that to occur and sometimes the real risks children face are closer to home."

Child protection

But the concept of rare risk is not one shared by everyone. Marilyn Hawes, director of child protection consultancy Enough Abuse, which promotes educating children and families on spotting the signs of sexual abuse, says the government is burying its head in the sand.

"Is that same parent who is going to be told about dangers in the home and fire safety, going to be educated about the 'good friend' who is walking into their home?" she asks. "We do tell kids about fire safety but we like to swat away the subjects of grooming and sexual abuse. To say these situations are rare is rubbish. I think latest figures from the NSPCC say one in five adults have experienced sexual abuse in the past. It could even be one in four people. I don't know one in four people who have been damaged in the home."

England's children's commissioner Al Aynsley-Green welcomes the plan but has similar hopes that the government will do more to help children who have been sexually abused. "Our aim should be to ensure every child who has been sexually abused has access to appropriate care as and when they need it," he says.

STAYING SAFE ACTION PLAN - THE KEY POINTS

- Work with the Play Safety Forum to help providers understand the balance between risk and opportunities in play

- Review the delivery of sex and relationships education in schools

- Work with the Children's Workforce Development Council on new guidance for safer recruitment of the workforce

- Implement the 2007 child road safety strategy

- Set up a National Safeguarding Unit for the third sector to advise voluntary organisations on recruitment and anti-bullying policies

- Launch new guidance for tackling bullying outside schools

- Work with the Youth Justice Board on a new safeguarding strategy for young people in the secure estate

- More protection for child trafficking victims, child prostitution victims and more legislation against forced marriages

- www.cypnow.co.uk/doc.