Director of the Safe Network John Brownlow would like to wish you all a happy new year and thank you for your support in our first six months.
The Safe Network website launched six months ago and has had a great response. I am confident that we are achieving our aim of creating a site where third sector organisations can find everything they need to know about safeguarding children. The site now has up to 10,000 visitors a month, with questions about the new Vetting and Barring Scheme at the top of the list.
Our free Are they Safe? resource pack has been distributed to thousands of organisations across England and we are already planning a reprint.
We have started work on developing core safeguarding standards for community and voluntary organisations and will be seeking views on these over the next few months.
A set of safeguarding materials for organisations working with Black and Minority Ethnic communities is due for publication in January 2010. We will be rolling out a series of workshops to help organisations to use this and our resource pack through the course of the next year.
Our core team and network of Children England regional development officers is making links with a wide range of organisations locally and nationally and we are always ready to answer any questions you may have.
We are also planning plenty of new content for the website to cover areas such as:
- how to report a concern within your group
- more LSCB case studies highlighting good practice in the sector
I would like to take this opportunity to wish you a very happy New Year.
John Brownlow
Director of the Safe Network