Keeping children safe

Worried about a child?

All reports or enquiries concerning the welfare or safety of a child must go straight to the Referral and Assessment team on 0161 603 4500 as the first port of call. This applies to reports from council staff, the public, partners and outside agencies. The email address is worriedaboutachild@salford.gov.uk.

If a child is in immediate danger of being harmed, or if a child is home alone, the police should be called on 999. For further information please visit the worried about a child webpages.

Anti-Bullying Strategy

Salford has developed a city wide strategy for tackling bullying, which was written with the help of Salford's young people. Bullying is a very damaging and frightening experience for all. It is particularly frightening for children and young people who may lack the experience and confidence to know how to deal with it. Bullying does not just happen in school but happens between school and home, on the streets, in shops, in youth clubs, leisure facilities, on public transport and generally where children and young people tend to congregate. It is really important to recognise that something as simple as teasing can quickly escalate to serious bullying.

Bullying affects a large number of children and young people and is the most prevalent ill-treatment of all abuses to children. Bullying, albeit a simple term, is a complex issue that impacts across all services both within the Local Authority and outside. Salford's Anti-bullying Strategy is written with the intention of providing a whole authority approach to countering bullying and aims to coordinate the work of all organisations in making Salford a safe place for children.

Included in the strategy are the different forms of bullying, for example:

cyberbullying and mobile phone
bullying and disability
homophobic bullying
gender bullying
bullying related to race, religion or culture
bullying of children in care
bullying of young carers
brand bullying

It includes key steps and strategies to prevent, report and manage bullying. Please download Salford's Anti-Bullying Strategy below. The national charity Beatbullying provides information and advice for parents on dealing with the bullying of their child. Further information can be found on the anti-bullying pages of the Parentline Plus website. Beatbullying have also launched their CyberMentors website which is all about young people helping and supporting each other online. Two short guides are available below for parents and carers who want to know more about bullying and how to tackle it.

Each school in Salford has a behaviour policy with procedures for dealing with bullying. If you suspect that your child is being bullied you should contact the school in the first instance to bring the issue out into the open.

Childcare concerns and complaints

For concerns and complaints about registered childcare providers please visit the childcare pages. This includes private, voluntary and Local Authority run provision.

Safety in the home

Around 2,000 children are admitted to hospital every week after accidental injuries. The majority of these injuries happen in the home. Falls down stairs, scalds and burns or poisoning from cleaning products or medicines are all potentially serious accidents which can happen in the home. You can reduce these risks and protect your child by making some small changes at home. The Directgov child safety in the home pages provide a range of information for parents and carers about keeping children safe in the home as well information about fire safety and road safety.

Further information about child safety can be found on the Child Accident Prevention Trust website. It includes lots of factsheets and safety tips for parents and activities, quizzes and online safety games for children.

Road safety

The Department for Transport's THINK! Road Safety website has latest campaign and road safety advice to keep everyone safer on the UK roads. They also have the Tales of the Road interactive website for children and young people.

Despite big reductions in deaths and serious injuries, cars are still the biggest killer of children on our streets. Make sure you teach your children about road safety. Find out more on the Directgov pages on road and travel safety. There are specific tips for parents with children under six years, seven to 11 year olds and teenagers.

Salford's Road Safety Team have lots of information for road users, including child car seats and the law and Salford's road safety strategy. Their Children's Traffic Club has been extended and now offers free membership to all three year olds in Salford. They also have a wide variety of teaching materials for all age ranges to assist with the teaching of road safety education.

Internet safety

The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre is a government agency that works with parents, children and young people to safeguard them on the internet. They run an advice website called Think U Know which has lots of useful information on how to use the internet safely, including online chat, gaming, blogs, emails and surfing. Find out about the new Click Clever, Click Safe internet campaign - Zip it, Block it, Flag it.