The safeguarding of children is everyone’s responsibility, particularly when it comes to protecting children from abuse. Everyone has a responsibility to ensure the safety of children and young people – we will place the needs of the child first and winning and competition second.

The underlying principles with respect to Wellbeing & Child Protection are that:

  • The child’s well-being is the first consideration.
  • All children, regardless of age, any disability they have, gender, racial origin, religious belief and sexual identity have a right to be protected from abuse.
  • Children and young people must be treated with integrity and respect.
  • Children and young people’s programmes and competitions will be relevant to their ages and stages of development.

Our children’s activities:

  • Aim to create an enjoyable environment, where young people have the right to be safe, secure and free from threat.
  • Acknowledges that young people have the right to be treated with respect and for their concerns to be listened to and acted upon.
  • Aim to ensure that junior members have suitable programmes designated for them, with adequate supervision.
  • Ensure that all participants, whatever their role, read and agree to our Code of Conduct by way of sign-up.
  • Ensure that all members undertaking regulated work are PVG Scheme Members.
  • Provides clear, comprehensive, easily understood procedures for dealing with:
    • allegations of abuse
    • requests for help and support on a confidential basis
  • Is committed to an equitable recruitment selection policy for coaches.
  • Will always emphasise fair play.

We operate our activities that include children according to the GIRFEC policy principles outlined by the Scottish Government in The Children & Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 :

GIRFEC, as a strengths-based approach, seeks to realise children’s rights on a day-to-day basis and is therefore underpinned by key values and principles. The following refreshed values and principles were developed together with stakeholders including children and young people from across Scotland:

  • placing the child or young person and their family at the heart, and promoting choice, with full participation in decisions that affect them
  • working together with families to enable a rights respecting, strengths based, inclusive approach
  • understanding wellbeing as being about all areas of life including family, community and society
  • valuing difference and ensuring everyone is treated fairly
  • considering and addressing inequalities
  • providing support for children, young people and families when they need it, until things get better, to help them to reach their full potential
  • everyone working together in local areas and across Scotland to improve outcomes for children, young people and their families

Based on these principles, GIRFEC is about enhancing the wellbeing of all children and young people as well as building a flexible scaffold of support: where it is needed, for as long as it is needed. This is delivered through the core components of:

  • a named person who is a clear point of contact for children, young people and families to go to for support and advice. A named person can also connect families to a wider network of support and services so that they get the right help, at the right time, from the right people;
  • a shared and holistic understanding of wellbeing and a single model of how this can be considered and supported; and,
  • a single, shared and rights-based approach to planning for children and young people’s wellbeing where support across services is needed, co-ordinated by a lead professional.

Further information can be found on the Scottish Government website: Getting it right for every child – policy statement

We do our utmost for every child we encounter and aim to uphold these principles wherever possible.

Complaints

If you have a complaint, it can be made to our team directly, or to the GIRFEC team:

Email: girfec@gov.scot

Telephone: 0300 244 4000 – Central Enquiry Unit

Post:
GIRFEC Team
Scottish Government
Children and Families Directorate
Victoria Quay
Edinburgh
EH6 6QQ

We are also aware of the following children’s policies and frameworks:

UN Convention of the Rights of the Child 2021

This contains 54 Articles relating to the rights of the child and states that: ‘without discrimination, children have the right to be protected from all forms of abuse, neglect and exploitation.’

Respect for All

Respect for All is Scotland’s national approach to anti-bullying for children and young people. The guidance contained within Respect for All highlights the role that adults in all settings have in preventing and responding to bullying behaviour.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/respect-national-approach-anti-bullying-scotlands-children-young-people/pages/2/

Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Act

In 2007 the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Act came into force. This act makes it a criminal offence to:

Employ an individual (paid or voluntary) into a regulated work role with vulnerable groups such as children and young people if they are barred from working with this group. In order for an organisation to know whether a prospective employee or volunteer is on the Children’s List they will need to seek clarification on the individual’s PVG Scheme Membership Status. To fail to make a referral to Disclosure Scotland when the criteria for referral have been met.