NYA launches free safeguarding resources for youth workers
Joe Lepper
Thursday, April 29, 2021
The National Youth Agency (NYA) has launched a safeguarding and risk management hub to bolster training and support to help youth workers and volunteers protect young people.
The online platform is being launched to address a deficit in specialist safeguarding training for youth workers and offers a range of free resources for youth work organisations.
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The NYA reviewed 1,000 safeguarding courses in England but just three per cent were relevant to youth workers.
The free resources hub has also been developed after discissions with the NSPCC and Youth Safeguarding Forum on child protection needs in the youth sector.
Included in the hub are resources and tools as well as training materials specifically designed for youth workers. These have been produced with the support of social work staff with youth sector experience, says the NYA.
It adds: “The diminishing infrastructure support available to youth workers and volunteers, and the organisations they work with, means there is inconsistent training, continuing professional development (CPD) and resources available across England.
“Meanwhile, the complexities of young people’s needs and risks have increased.”
The hub has been funded through the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), the National Lottery Community Fund and Youth Futures Foundation.
It includes sections focusing on developing safe policy and procedures as well covering issues such as whistleblowing, supervision and managing groups.
Training includes a course offering an introduction to safeguarding for volunteer youth workers. Another focuses on safeguarding in youth work settings.
“With an estimated two million young people with emerging needs triggered or caused by the wider impacts of the pandemic and associated lockdowns, it is crucial that the youth sector, youth workers and volunteers have resources and tools to safely deliver youth work,” said NYA youth work director Abbee McLatchie.
She added that the hub aims to be "a pivotal resource centre, aimed specifically at the needs of the youth sector.”
