Conference calls for more robust child protection policies

Friday 16 June 2017

Local organisations have been urged to make sure they have robust child safeguarding procedures ahead of the Independent Jersey Care Inquiry report's release next month.

Local law firm, Benest Corbett Renouf, teamed up with the London law firm Farrer & Co to present a safeguarding conference at the Hotel de France yesterday.

The event - entitled 'Creating Safer Organisations' - brought together numerous organisations from across the Island whose work revolves around safeguarding issues to hear from experts about ways their safeguarding policies could be improved.

Speaking at the event, David Smellie, who leads Farrer & Co’s Child Protection Unit, said: “Post-Savile, we have seen repeated failures in safeguarding emerge in churches, schools, sport, charities, and with respect to children in care. Never has a more powerful light been shone on safeguarding and child protection, and never has a higher level of expectation been placed on institutions to provide the safest possible environment for children.”

Pictured: Mr Smellie addressing the audience at the conference on the 15 June. 

His speech at the busy event encouraged organisations to learn from past mistakes, contextualise issues, ensure good care for survivors and both question the strength of safeguarding policies today whilst also keeping an eye on future challenges.

Mr Smellie added: “The sort of risks that protecting children from in safeguarding are risks that are constantly changing. Today’s risks are going to be different to the risks in a year’s time and be very different to the risks in 10 years time so there is no point in being static in this area.

“A safe organisation needs to be predicting what is going to happen.”

Looking to the future challenges, Mr Smellie advised those present at the conference to be particularly mindful about about online behaviour and 'peer-on-peer' abuse.

“Online is obviously a huge area and I can’t see it becoming any less important,” he said and added: "Sometimes there is so much of a focus in the press and in the media and amongst regulators about adult abuse that it can be easy to forget just the risk posed by peer-on-peer abuse. It is very common and some sort of commentators have speculated that actually, peer-on-peer abuse is actually a greater scandal than adult child abuse and they emerge in due course.”

Mr Smellie used high profile cases seen in recent decades from boarding schools, churches and care homes throughout his presentation to illustrate his points that society must not become ‘sector-centric’ and think child safeguarding issues are specific to one industry.

“It’s a much wider issue than that,” he stated.

Video: David Smellie, leader of Farrer & Co’s Child Protection Unit, speaking at the conference. 

Mr Smellie said that as a society, we must “realise that this is a broader issue.”  

He said: "There haven’t been just one or two failed institutions here. There clearly was a broader societal issue.”

“I think the way forward probably for all safeguarding organisations is to realise we are actually dealing with a change in societal values and hopefully that’s one thing which the inquiry will bring out.”

Partner and Head of Family Law at Benest Corbett Renouf, Barbara Corbett, also spoke at the event and she highlighted the need for organisations to both protect children from risks and safeguard themselves; she gave the event a Jersey-centric focus featuring numerous case studies of past local abuse cases from schools and care homes.

Speaking about the event, Ms Corbett said: “In advance of the publication of the final report from the Jersey Independent Care Inquiry on 3rd July 2017, it is timely to reinforce to all organisations working with children the need for them to have in place robust safeguarding policies and procedures and a best practice culture, to protect both the children they work with and the risk to their organisation. We are pleased to be able to consider these essential issues with the excellent team from Farrer & Co.”