Recognising and Preventing Child Abuse - How to Keep Children Safe at Home, School and Online

Any child or young person can experience abuse or neglect. They may experience harm in a family environment, or in an institution or community setting such as a school or sports club.

They may know the person who is abusing them, or more rarely, experience abuse from a stranger. Abuse can happen in person or online, or through a combination of the two.

On average, two children in a primary school class have experienced abuse or neglect and this can have serious and long-lasting impacts on their lives.

But it’s important to understand that child abuse is preventable, and it’s never too late to help a child.

In this blog, the NSPCC’s Caroline Nicholson explains what can be done to help keep children safe.

Recognising and responding to abuse

It can be very hard for children and young people to speak out about abuse. Often, they fear that there may be negative consequences if they tell anyone what’s happening to them.

Some may delay telling someone about abuse for a long time, some might not recognise what they are experiencing is abuse, while others never tell anyone, even if they want to.

It’s so vital that children and young people are empowered and able to speak out whenever anything is wrong, and that whoever they tell take them seriously and acts on what they’ve been told.

Even if a child doesn’t tell someone verbally about what’s happened to them, there may be other indicators that something is wrong. People who work with children need to be able to recognise the signs and know how to respond appropriately.

Children who have experienced abuse may show signs of distress or a change in behaviour and adults need to ask them appropriate questions about what might have caused this. More information about recognising and responding to abuse can be found on the NSPCC Learning website.

Protecting children from abuse

At the NSPCC, we understand that a key part of ensuring children are kept safe, happy and focused is enabling them to recognise when something isn’t right and empowering them to speak to a safe, trusted adult.

It’s essential for every child to understand that they have a right to be safe. Part of the work we do to ensure this happens is to explain to them in an interactive, age-appropriate way:

• What abuse is

• How to spot the signs

• And what to do if they are ever made to feel scared or worried by something

The NSPCC’s Speak out Stay Safe programme helps support schools’ safeguarding duties by linking directly to the curriculum and helps reinforce key messages about abuse and neglect using age-appropriate language.

With the help of our mascot Buddy, it teaches primary-age children about the different signs of abuse and how to get help should they need it, including from our Childline service.

It consists of virtual assemblies for children aged 5-7 and 7-11; follow-on lesson plans with engaging activities and resources to help reinforce and embed key messages; and face-to-face workshops for children aged 6-7 and 9-11. All are available in BSL too.
There’s also an adapted six week Speak out Stay safe programme for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and additional needs (ASN/ALN).