University of Salford embeds a Child Safe approach
Higher education has an emerging key role to play in safeguarding children and child protection. The ChildSafe movement raises awareness among members of the community including young people on several child protection issues; issues that directly affect them and their peers; issues they could face in their community; and issues related to traveling and volunteering abroad.
The University of Salford was the first ChildSafe certified university in the world and considerable work has been put in to producing resources which will give Salford students the necessary tools to put them in a better place to support and protect children living in their communities, as well as to recognise when children might be at risk of significant harm.
The university aims to play a significant role in ensuring every child gets the best start in life which will contribute to making Greater Manchester a centre of excellence for the health and wellbeing of children and young people. Through this approach, and the resources being made available, it is hoped that stronger neighbourhoods can be created with healthy, happy, and safe children and young people at their hearts.
Professor Andrew Rowland, Honorary Professor for Children’s Rights, Law, and Advocacy at the University of Salford, who led the implementation of the ChildSafe initiative at the university, said:
“Part of our approach is to ensure that all students feel confident in raising the alarm if they witness child abuse, neglect or situations that place children at risk of significant harm, and that they know how to report these concerns.
“We want our students to be active and responsible citizens, both as students and as alumni, and to help to create safer communities for children throughout Salford and beyond as our graduates implement, around the world, their learning gained at the University of Salford.”
Colleagues within the School of Health and Society have been working collaboratively with M’Lop Tapang in Cambodia to learn more about the local implementation of the ChildSafe initiative in the community, and to develop bi-directional professional learning opportunities for health and social care professionals, from the UK and Cambodia.
Ms Maggie Eno MBE, Co- Director at M’Lop Tapang, said: “What an achievement! We truly appreciate how much work and effort this will have taken, from us starting with discussions on how wonderful it would be to have ChildSafe messages incorporated into higher education all those years ago, to actually making this happen.
“That is a result of not only hard work and perseverance but also of a high level of commitment to make things safer and better for children around the world.”
You can find further information on the partnerships in the below video.
For all press office enquiries please email communications@salford.ac.uk.