If you need support with understanding this information, please get a trusted adult to help you. 

Hello – My name is Parker the Parrot. I am going to help you learn about what adults do to help keep children safe. We want every child to be safe, happy and healthy.

Sometimes we worry that children are not safe.

Sometimes we worry that children are not safe. When this happens there are adults who can help to keep children safe. Children need to know that if they feel unhappy unsafe or are worried about something, they can talk to adults who can help. Let’s see what this is all about. Sometimes adults need to help to keep you safe, happy and healthy.

How can adults help children to be safe? 

Sometimes the people children live with, play with or know don’t keep children safe. Sometimes, children can be hurt, unhappy, or hungry.

When this happens helping adults need to help the children and the people children live with. This is called protecting children. Making sure that children are protected from being unsafe. All adults must speak to each other and agree how to keep you safe

Why do adults sometimes worry about children?

Sometimes children are not safe, happy or well. That can be because adults or other children have done something that makes a child not safe, not happy or not well.

When this happens, it is important to know what is happening and to help children be safe, happy and well.

Why is it important to be safe? 

Being safe means that you don’t feel scared, hurt, very lonely, cold or hungry. Nobody wants to feel like that. Feeling safe should mean that you have people who love you, you have people to talk to who listen to you, you can play and learn, and you have people to ask for help if you need it.

If you feel unsafe, there are adults who can help you. Tell someone who you trust. That might be someone you live with, your teacher, a family friend or someone else you trust.

Who can help children?

You will know adults who look after you. People like mums, dads and grandparents care for children. But there are also lots of helping adults who care about children too. These are teachers, police officers, nurses, doctors, neighbours, carers, and people called social workers who have a special job to help children and their families. All the adults you know must keep you safe.

In Scotland, all the people who make decisions about what people can and can’t do are responsible for keeping you safe too. Everyone together wants to make sure that children are safe, happy and healthy.

What is unsafe?

There are many things that can make children feel unsafe or not safe and that adults will worry about. Let’s take a look at some of these: Children can be hurt in ways that bruise or break parts of their body.

This might be because they have been hit, kicked or bitten or hurt in some other way. Children can be very unhappy because they have been left alone for a long time or are very cold or hungry. Children can feel scared because they are being shouted at or hurt in some other way.

Children can feel uncomfortable because the way someone is touching their body or speaking to them feels uncomfortable. Children can feel frightened because they are being bullied, blamed or picked on. Children can feel very worried about people they love shouting, being hurt or fighting.

Children can be stopped from doing things that might keep them safe, happy, and healthy like playing with friends or going to school. And children can feel worried if an adult or child asks them to keep a secret about any of these things.

What happens when an adult tries to help a child be safe?

If an adult thinks that a child may be unsafe they will work with helping adults to make the child safe. The helping adults will need to see what has been happening and ask questions. If a child has been hurt, a doctor will also help.

Sometimes, the people who the child lives with might need some help to keep the child safe. When this happens, helping adults will speak to the child to explain what is happening. They will listen to the child. There will always be someone who will work to make sure the child is protected from being unsafe and make sure that the child can feel safer

All the adults will work together and build a plan to make sure the child is safe. It will look at who the child knows and feels safe with, where they live, go to school and what they need. Sometimes it is not safe for the child to stay at home.

When this happens, the helping adults will find a place where the child can be safe with people who can look after them. The child will be told what will happen next and when they can see the people who they live with again. This will be as soon as this is possible and is safe for them. Adults will explain what is happening and what is going to happen to keep the child safe.