Parents are asking questions about safeguarding: here's how to respond
Under the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations, Principle 3 (and related state-based standards for child safe organisations) highlights the important role that families and communities play in promoting child safety and wellbeing is recognised.
One way to involve families is by encouraging open conversations and welcoming questions about safeguarding. This helps build trust and engage families in the shared responsibility of keeping children safe.
Here are five practical ways to respond well if you’re asked questions about safeguarding in your organisation.
As community awareness and understanding of child safeguarding grows, parents and caregivers are more likely to ask about your organisation’s policies, recruitment and screening practices, staff training, supervision, or how concerns and complaints are managed.
Taking time to anticipate common questions and discuss how to respond with your supervisor and colleagues helps build confidence and prepare you to answer queries well.
Parents or caregivers may ask safeguarding questions of anyone in an organisation, not just managers or safeguarding leads. The first person they speak to might be a receptionist, coach, instructor, volunteer or support worker.
Everyone should know how to answer basic questions confidently or at least know who to refer people to for more detailed information.
Complete safeguarding training, discuss safeguarding in team meetings and use opportunities to refresh your knowledge and discuss real-world scenarios with your colleagues. This will help make sure you have the safeguarding knowledge you need to talk to families about these issues.
Questions about safeguarding are usually not a criticism. They are often a person’s way of seeking reassurance that their child will be safe in your care.
When asked questions, you should answer without being defensive, even when questions are repeated or seek a lot of detail.
If you don’t know an answer, it’s OK to say so and follow up with the correct information later.
When a someone asks about safeguarding, take it as a positive sign. You can show your leadership as a child safe organisation by having great responses ready.
Start by thanking the person for asking the question, provide the information they need, and remind them that they are welcome to raise concerns or ask questions at any time.
An open and positive response shows you are listening to them, listen to their views, and acknowledge the role they play in safeguarding.
Instead of simply answering the question and moving on, you can have a longer conversation to inform, engage and build an active partnership in promoting safe environments for children.
Having safeguarding policies is important, but parents and caregivers are usually looking for more than a copy of the document.
They want to know if you understand those policies and can apply them in practice.
Policies should be easy to access, and everyone working in an organisation should be able to explain how they guide their everyday decisions and actions. Giving practical examples of how you apply policies in practice helps parents and caregivers understand what the policies really mean.
Remember: Organisations that have open conversations are putting National Principle 3 and relevant state-based standards into practice by creating opportunities for families to be informed, involved and heard. The more confident parents and caregivers feel asking questions, the stronger your organisation’s safeguarding culture is likely to become.
Please reach out if you have any questions or would like support putting these tips into practice.