Child protection policy

Introduction

A Child Protection Policy or Procedure relates to the standards and policies that organisations develop to protect children from both intentional and unintentional harm.

Why

Simply put, all organisations should have a child protection policy that helps create a child-safe organisation. Even if children are not your main focus, you will be surprised how many moments of contact you actually have with children. 

A Child Protection Policy is designed to protect children (from abuse and exploitation by staff), staff (by providing guidance and laying out a correct process for handling allegations) and the organisation (from damage to its reputation). It is essential that all aid and development organisations can ensure that they have systems in place to properly recruit staff, address poor practice and behaviour, and respond to concerns when they arise.

What you can expect

In 15 steps, we will help you formulate your own Child Protection Policy that is compliant with all major guidelines such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The content is based on the widely recognised 11 standards for child protection, developed by Save the Children in 2011 and based on the principles that all children have equal rights to protection from abuse and exploitation and NGOs have a duty of care and safeguarding to children with whom they work and with whom their representatives work.

What you get

Know how

• All knowledge necessary to develop your own Child Protection Policy

Example

• 3 sample Child Protection Policies [partly anonymised]

Tools

• Risk analysis
• Stakeholder analysis
• Privacy guidelines for photos and videos
• Code of Conduct template
• Checklist for gathering local information
• Grid to identify training needs
• Child Protection Policy Implementation Action Planner