Safer Together – Child safeguarding
Safer Together, or Child Safeguarding as we call it in our international movement, is the collective name for our training and a set of policies and guidelines designed to ensure that our activities are safe and secure for children.
Save the Children is the world's leading children's rights organization. Our commitment to children's rights means that we must do everything in our power to ensure that our organization is safe and secure for children.
Everyone at Save the Children needs to have knowledge about Safer Together. As a volunteer, you need training and knowledge of our policies.
Before starting an activity for children, those responsible need to make a risk assessment and ensure that our partners comply with our policy.
When we meet children in our activities, we need to inform them about the policy and report any incidents or risks.
To become a volunteer
1. Policys and guidelines
As a volunteer you need to read and sign the Safer Together policy, our Policy on Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA), and the Guidelines for Voluntary Work. Show your signed copy to the volunteer coordinator or chair of the board.
Policy for safe and secure activities for children
Annex 1 - Safer Together - Declaration of authorisation
Policy Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA)
Code of Conduct for Volontary Work
2. Criminal record extract
You are required to request a criminal record extract from the Swedish Police.
Show your extract to the volunteer coordinator or chair of the board. You can order this from the Police’s website using Bank-ID or by sending a completed form. Please select the extract titled “Work with children in activities other than school and childcare.”
3. Complete the training
To become a volunteer with Save the Children, you need to complete our Safer Together training. Show your diploma to the volunteer coordinator or chair of the board.
The purpose of the training is to make you confident in your role and in your interactions with children, as well as to provide you with tools to prevent and identify potential risks.
To access the training you need to set up an account on the Online Academy (free of charge).
Set up Online Academy account
Safer Together Training
Starting a new activity
Before starting a new activity, those responsible (usually a local branch or a regional office) need to make a risk assessment to prevent risks and plan measures if risks occur.
Do a risk assessment
Risk assessment procedure for safe and secure operations
Inform the children
It is important to inform the children we meet in our activities about Safer Together and where they can turn if they feel that any of our leaders have violated the policy or if they have experienced something during the activities that did not feel right.
All children we meet in our programs should feel safe. To provide this information, you can use the informational materials that can be ordered or printed. The materials are available in several languages.
Report risks and incidents
If you see or suspect something that is in violation of the Safer together policy or guidelines, you must report this. Risks in the activities which could lead to an incident must also be reported.
- via direct contact with the chairperson or manager,
- via the digital reporting channel rapportera.rb.se (if you are able to understand basic Swedish), or
- send an email describing the situation to rapportera@rb.se.
All reporting must be done immediately and within 24 hours.
If you are concerned that a child is being harmed
If you are concerned that a child is suffering or at risk of suffering harm, you should report your concerns to the social services. Please contact the chairperson or manager.
Q&A
Yes, contact your volunteer coordinator, the chairperson of the local board or e-mail us on medlem@rb.se to get help.
Yes, if you are a citizen of another EU country, the Police is obliged to collect information from there when you request an extract. The EU-country has 20 working days to send a response.
Yes! We need volunteers with different language skills.
As a volunteer for Save the Children Sweden you have a duty to report to the social services if you suspect that a child is harmed or at risk for being harmed. If a child has been exposed within Save the Children, we are obliged to promptly report at rapportera.rb.se. Talk to your volunteer coordinator or the chairperson of the local board for support.
Yes, but if it is possible to identify children in the photos, we must obtain the child's consent and written permission from their parents. An easier solution is to take photos where no faces are visible, for example, hands or backs, or alternatively, use smileys to make the photos anonymous. This also applies to partner organizations.
Contact us!
If you have questions, please e-mail us on medlem@rb.se
- Medlem & volontär
