At Mothers CAN (Mothers’ Climate Action Network) we want everyone to feel safe when participating in our groups and activities. We all have a legal responsibility to do everything we can to keep children and vulnerable adults safe and to report any concerns we have about their welfare.

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These guidelines provide some helpful tips for making sure your group is a safe space and any concerns are dealt with effectively. Following these guidelines means our network can be safe, effective and focused on taking action. 

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If you have any questions, please contact hello@mothers-can.org. 

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Who needs to read this? 

Ideally all members of your group should read this guidance.  As a minimum, your group leader/coordinator needs to read the guidance, as this forms part of the local group agreement. 

 

Reporting a safeguarding concern

If you suspect that a child or vulnerable adult attending your group meeting or activity is at risk of harm or is the victim of abuse, you must report it as soon as possible. A child is anyone under the age of 18.

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Unless someone is at immediate risk of harm, please report all safeguarding concerns to us by emailing hello@mothers-can.org. This should be done within 24 hours of the incident or concern being raised. We will then work with you to identify appropriate next steps. All safeguarding concerns will be treated seriously.  

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If someone is at immediate risk please call 999 straight away and then report it to us.

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What is abuse? 

Children tend to be at risk from neglect, physical abuse, emotional Abuse, and sexual Abuse.  Please read this information from the NSPCC here.

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In adults there are other forms of abuse, in addition to the above, including domestic violence, modern day slavery, and discriminatory abuse.  Please read this information from SCIE here. 

If you are not sure whether something constitutes abuse, please contact us. 

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Preventing any safeguarding issues

Follow these tips to ensure everyone feels safe and risk of harm is minimised. If you are ever unsure if a young person is under 18 and you are unable to ask, please act as if they are.

• Ensure that you are never in an enclosed or isolated space alone with children, young people or adults at risk.  Always work with another adult or  do your activity into a shared or public space.   

• Do not provide alcohol for under 18s. 

• Do not fundraise from under 18s or adults at risk.

• Consider appointing a safeguarding lead within your group. This could be a relatively informal role – someone who looks out for others and makes sure that young or vulnerable people have someone to go to if they need to.

• Check everyone in your group is clear on what to do if they are told about or witness anything of concern.

• When working with under 18s you must gain opt-in permission to use their digital images and be clear about what the images will be used for. Permission must come from their parent or responsible adult. 

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Maintaining appropriate boundaries

• Physical contact with young people should be of the kind that they can initiate or cease whenever they wish (high fives rather than hugs).

• Do not give a young person gifts or money, even to access transport or buy food at your event.

• Do not arrange to meet a young person alone outside of the event or activity.

• Do not offer a young person a lift in a private car. 

• Do not give out or accept personal contact details from under 18s. This includes “friending” on social media. 

• Avoid private communications with under 18s. This includes social media, and private messaging on platforms such as WhatsApp and within the chat in online meetings.

• To keep in touch with a young person, this can either be done through email if the young person has a shared mailbox (e.g. shared with a parent), or by always copying in another adult into email communications. 

• If you are concerned about an adult’s vulnerability try to adhere to the guidance above (eg. always cc: another group member into any communications with them).

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Group meetings

• When planning meetings, please consider the following to prevent any safeguarding concerns from arising:

• Check whether anyone attending is under 18 or has any other risk factors. You can simply ask about age; you will need to be more sensitive when considering other risk factors. If in doubt it is generally sensible to assume that there are vulnerable people in the room. While not strictly a safeguarding measure, this is also a good time to consider access needs.

• Set clear ground rules. This should be standard practice anyway, but where more vulnerable people are present it is even more important to ensure that they have space to be heard and are not at risk from bullying or abusive behaviour by other attendees. Remember that seemingly mild “bad” behaviour (consistent interrupting, for example) can make a new person, particularly if they are young or have other barriers to speaking up, feel at best unwelcome and at worst unsafe.

• Appoint a facilitator or chair for your meeting who is confident to implement the ground rules.

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If holding or events or meetings online, ways to ensure that children are safe include:

• Having a sign-up process to gather basic information about participants in advance, including whether someone is under 18 and any access needs.

• Prevent uninvited participants by not sharing the meeting link publicly, and making sure either a waiting room or password protection is in place.

• Using the waiting room to ensure that at least two adults are admitted into the meeting before anyone under 18. 

• Disabling the private chat function so you can see all communications in the chat box.

• Having two hosts, one to keep an eye on participants and another to facilitate.

• Dropping into breakout rooms to check how the conversation is going.

• Ensuring there is no possibility of one adult being alone in a breakout room with someone under 18.  

• Making use of the mute button! Ensure you’re familiar with the host controls so you can facilitate effectively and cut off any harmful behaviour such as consistent use of bad language or sharing of inappropriate content by participants.

• At the end of the meeting, using the ‘end meeting for all participants’ function so that everyone leaves the space at the same time. 

 

Direct work with children

Whilst Mothers CAN groups are most likely to only have adults involved in meetings, sometimes a group might work directly with children, for example if organising an event at a local school, or if working in coalition with young activists. Remember, a child is anyone under 18, so this also includes college age students.  

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If your group plans to work directly with children, please contact us first. Usually there are no additional safeguarding requirements, for example if working in a school the school would usually hold responsibility for safeguarding. 

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Recording abuse

In any situation where a safeguarding concern comes to your attention, it is important to keep your communication compassionate, objective and honest, and record as much factual information about what has happened as you can. You should not in any circumstance tell someone that you will keep a disclosure a secret, as you have a legal obligation to report any concerns that you have. The following guidance will help you to engage and record appropriately if a concern comes to your attention.

 

• Reassure them that they are safe and that they have done the right thing.Be truthful – never tell a lie to make someone feel better.

• Listen attentively, and if you are unsure about any details someone is telling you, ask for clarification (without making suggestions).

• Be compassionate – use appropriate tone of voice and body language.

• Do not have physical contact. 

• If possible, have another member of your group or a trusted adult present.

• Support but don’t give advice.

• Avoid commenting on what they have told you.  Reporting or disclosing abuse can generate a mix of emotional responses and your reactions may be unwelcome or inappropriate.

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Reporting

To pass on the information to us, you will need to record what you have observed, or what someone has reported to you. Key information to record:

• The date, time and location your notes were taken.

• The identity of the person supplying the information, or the identity/description of the subject of your observations.

• The name and contact details if possible of anyone else present during the record taking.

• As much factual information about the incident, report or concern as possible.  Take care to only record what is said or what is observed – do not draw conclusions or include your opinions in your report.

• Any action that you took as a result of the report or observation.

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Send this information to us at hello@mothers-can.org. If someone is in immediate danger call 999. 

 

If you have any questions about this guidance, please get in touch via hello@mothers-can.org.