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What is the difference between child protection and safeguarding?

Exploring the importance of child protection and safeguarding, and the efforts to protect vulnerable young people from exploitation, such as through county lines gangs, and partnering with British Transport Police to create a safer rail network.

Publish date:
28/11/2024

Author:
Hannah Gosset

Category:
UK

How does safeguarding relate to child protection in the UK?

At Railway Children, we aim to create a safer world for vulnerable children and empower them to sustain positive change in their lives. Central to our work is identifying children who are experiencing or at risk of harm – and taking action to keep them safe and supported long-term. 

In the UK, safeguarding and child protection are terms that often used interchangeably, but there are some key differences between them. While safeguarding has a broader and more preventative approach, child protection focuses on immediate responses to harm or abuse.

 

What is child safeguarding?

Safeguarding refers to the steps taken to ensure that children and young people are protected from abuse, neglect and exploitation. In relation to our work, this could involve making a train station safer for young people, for example. Safeguarding also focuses on promoting the wellbeing of children by ensuring they are healthy, happy and able to achieve their potential.

Safeguarding responsibilities can include:

  • Preventing harm: taking measures to stop abuse, neglect or exploitation before it occurs, whether intentional or unintentional.
  • Creating safe environments: Making spaces and places children spend time in safe, including family homes, care homes, schools, community venues and other public places.
  • Addressing concerns: Responding quickly and effectively to any issues or signs of potential harm.
  • Supporting wellbeing: Proactively promoting children’s physical and emotional health.

WHAT IS CHILD PROTECTION?

Child protection is related to safeguarding but focuses specifically on protecting those who we know or suspect have been harmed or are at risk of harm.

Child protection can include:  

  • Assessing risks: Identifying whether a child is experiencing or is at risk of abuse, neglect or exploitation.
  • Interventions: Putting in place protective measures to keep them safe, such as providing family support.
  • Legal procedures: When necessary, involving the police or the judicial system to protect a child from a harmful situation.

What are the similarities between safeguarding and child protection?

Safeguarding and child protection are intertwined in many ways and are both vital components of children’s welfare.

Importantly, they share a common goal: to ensure children’s safety and wellbeing. To do this, both approaches look at the wider context, circumstances, policies and specific environment of each scenario. For example, if a child is at risk of exploitation, effective safeguarding and child protection approaches will look holistically at the child’s family situation, their school, what other risks they face, if any protection plans are in place and if any statutory services are involved.

In the UK, there are a set of laws and guidelines that outline the responsibilities of organisations and individuals in both safeguarding and child protection, helping to ensure a consistent approach across services. Professionals such as our Youth Practitioners, social workers, teachers and health specialists, each have a duty of care to protect children and they will often work together to share knowledge and expertise to identify potential risks, raise any safeguarding concerns and ensue that preventive measures are in place.

How does Railway Children’s work involve safeguarding and child protection?

In the UK, our Safeguarding on Transport programme is focused on improving the safety and wellbeing of vulnerable children and young people using the transport network.

Many use the railways to escape their everyday realities, which can involve abuse, neglect or difficult family relationships. Some may also be at risk of criminal or sexual exploitation, have poor mental health or experienced multiple Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).

Through our relationships with the British Transport Police and the rail industry, we are in a unique position to intervene early to prevent these children and young people from coming to serious harm – and to convert that moment into a catalyst for positive change in their lives. Through training and awareness-raising, we aim to create a network of ‘eyes and ears’ on the ground to strengthen safety responses across the transport network so that vulnerable children are spotted quickly, and effective action is taken to protect them.

Key to this work is looking at the places that young people interact with outside of the home where they may experience harm or abuse – in this case, the rail network, and stations where we know there is a high number of child safeguarding incidents taking place. We do this through our Safeguarding Action Groups, and an approach we call ‘contextual safeguarding’.

This allows us to meaningfully connect with station communities to make improvements so that they become safer and young people are better protected.

These preventative safeguarding interventions inevitably feed into and support child protection.

 

In other words, by raising awareness of vulnerabilities and risks across the transport network, it reduces the likelihood of situations that would lead to child protection intervention.

Across our organisation, our safeguarding practices and policies help to ensure that our staff, volunteers and other representatives raise any concerns of harm or abuse and keep children and young people safe and supported.

Learn more about our UK Safeguarding on Transport programme

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