Our commitment to child and adult safeguarding.

SAFEGUARDING AT SAVE THE CHILDREN.
Whether we are programming within the rural areas of KwaZulu-Natal or campaigning for the protection of children across the country, safeguarding children and adults is always our first priority. We want to ensure that everyone who comes into contact with our organisation is safe. We call this area of our work ‘Safeguarding’.

Our safeguarding commitment is to ensure that children and adults are protected from both deliberate and accidental harm and abuse caused by Save the Children staff and other representatives. 
 
HOW WE WORK TO PREVENT MISCONDUCT.
The key to safeguarding is prevention and making reporting concerns as easy as possible for children, parents, community members and staff. Our reporting channels are diverse, and are often developed with children and the community in mind to ensure that they work for the particular setting, program and culture. We also invlove relevant local authorities when the need arises. 

We regard our staff as safeguarding champions who work closely with children and adults in the communities we support and to ensure that their feedback on our programmes, approach and behaviour is listened to, and acted on.

Senior leadership together with the National and provincial safeguarding focal people support other teams to build a safe environment and strong safeguarding culture in our programmes, they conduct awareness-raising campaigns on safeguarding and they work to prevent the abuse of children and adults.

We also have a dedicated team that lead investigations of reported safeguarding concerns and manage how reports are handled.

SOME OF THE STEPS WE TAKE TO ENSURE THAT CHILDREN & ADULTS ARE SAFEGUARDED.

• Listen to children and adults in the communities we work in, and build in child and adult participation and feedback into all of our programming and advocacy work.
• Make children, their families, communities and our staff aware of the standards of behaviour they can expect from us and of how they can raise a concern.
• Proactively promote and maintain clear, accessible and anonymous reporting mechanisms, including for those with disabilities.
• Complete criminal records checks and referencing for all staff during recruitment.
• In-depth safeguarding induction and refresher training for staff, at least once every two years.
• Ensure all representatives are aware of the risks of child and adult abuse, their safeguarding responsibilities, and the requirement to report.
• Risk assess all activities and adhere to robust mitigation plans.
• Embed 'safer programming' steps throughout our programme development and implementation.
• Limit the opportunities for staff, volunteers and partners to abuse children, for example, by ensuring that no child or children are left alone with a staff member.
• Take all concerns seriously, and respond rapidly in a survivor-focused way.
• Learn lessons from all incidents, and ensure learning is implemented.
• Report all serious concerns to the law enforcement agencies and donors as appropriate.

 
OUR SAFEGUARDING POLICIES.
We have a number of policies in place across our organisation that help us deliver our commitment to safeguarding. Under the Safeguarding Framework we have the following policies to protect children, adults and our employees: Child Safeguarding Policy, Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Policy (PSEA), Code of Conduct, Anti-Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying Policy. These underpin everything we do.

PROTECTION FROM SEXUAL EXPLOITATION & ABUSE (PSEA) PROCEDURE
ANTI- HARASSMENT, INTIMIDATION AND BULLYING POLICY
CHILD SAFEGUARDING POLICY
 
HOW TO REPORT A SAFEGUARDING CONCERN.
We do not tolerate any form of abuse or misconduct such as sexual exploitation and abuse, harassment, intimidation and bullying by our staff or representatives and take all concerns seriously.

If you have a safeguarding concern related to Save the Children, any of our programmes, our staff or representatives, or even a safeguarding concern related to a child, please report it immediately.

You can email the National Safeguarding focal person or utilise any of the alternative points of contact below:
What'sApp 0860 004 004 
Online: behonest.co.za
TollFree: 0860 604 605
Email: [email protected]

HOW DOES OUR INCIDENT REPORTING PROCESS WORK.
As soon as concerns are received, we take action. We have a dedicated team mandated to ensure that all concerns are confidentially, rapidly and effectively responded to – no matter how small. After any immediate steps to look after the survivor, we investigate, and then an investigation report is shared with our Senior Management Team and Human Resources department, who ensure that robust disciplinary action is taken against any perpetrators.