Encouraging progress in child safeguarding

Photo by Sasin Tipchai from Pixabay

On 25-26 June 2019, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) held its annual “How safe are our children?” conference to discuss child safety online.

The NSPCC is the United Kingdom’s leading children’s charity. It specialises in child protection and is the only children’s charity in the country with statutory powers – enabling it to take action to safeguard children at risk of abuse.

The NSPCC has been working for over 100 years to prevent child abuse in various ways, including:

• workshop sessions for school children;
• eLearning sessions for anyone working with children; and
• conferences focused on child abuse. 

The 2019 “How safe are our children?” conference was attended by child protection professionals. It held engaging workshops, debates and keynote presentations that explored the most up-to-date and relevant topics on child safety online. It was at this conference that the UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid delivered a speech noting the advancements made throughout the previous nine months. He also spoke about how, while the challenge continues to evolve, the efforts of governmental and non-governmental actors are seeing encouraging progress.

In addition, Rt Hon Sajid Javid mentioned the results of the Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) Out of Shadows Index – the ground-breaking index that highlights how over 60 countries address sexual violence against children. The Index helps develop a better understanding of sexual violence against children, showing where progress is needed, identifying factors that can potentially drive change and bringing more attention to this neglected issue. To read the full speech, click here.

Oak Foundation supports organisations, like the NSPCC and the EIU, under our Prevent Child Sexual Abuse Programme strategy, which seeks to: (1) promote, advance and scale up solutions to reduce child sexual abuse; and (2) engage with and hold global institutions accountable to prevent abuse and to end impunity for child sexual abuse. We at Oak Foundation are pleased to see our partners receive recognition of this kind. Well done to all involved!

To learn more about Oak’s grantees’ work to prevent child sexual abuse, read pages 10-15 of Oak’s 2018 Annual Report or check out Oak’s Prevent Child Sexual Abuse Programme strategy.