Beverley Hughes

Welcome to Childsafe

“We are determined in government to safeguard children, butweknow that what parents do matters even more, ” says Beverley Hughes MP , minister for children, young people and families

Is there a parent today who doesn’t worry sometimes – justifiably or otherwise – about whether their child is safe, and whether they have done everything they reasonably can to keep them that way? As a parent myself, I very much doubt it.

Inevitably, there are risks for our children in the world today and they come in many different forms. They range from risks with which we are all familiar, such as that of being involved in a road traffic accident, to new and more insidious threats such as that of encountering a sex offender while surfing the internet, or of experiencing violence on the street or at school.

Part of growing up is learning to recognise risks and to make good choices about avoiding and managing them, and for this reason it is widely agreed that we cannot “wrap our children in cotton wool”. Even to try to do so would be a mistake, since this would prevent children from developing the resilience they will need to thrive as young adults. But these messages are much easier to give than to receive and, for parents, getting the balance right can be extremely difficult.

That is why I welcome Childsafe, because it contains solid information about the risks that face children, and simple but authoritative advice about what parents and others can do to help guard against them. Both these elements seem equally important to me. I hope that a good understanding of what the risks are for children and of the straightforward things you can do on an everyday basis to manage them will help both parents and children to enjoy life to the full. Child safety is my top priority: it is central to everything we are doing in government to help improve children and young people’s lives, including our Every Child Matters programme which is bringing services together to make them easier for children and families to use and more responsive to what they say they need.

We are determined in government to play our part in safeguarding children, but we know that what parents do matters even more.

So I hope this new magazine helps you to be and to feel confident and informed about child safety, and keep your children “safe and sound”. I can’t think of anything more important. Can you?

 

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