Safe? is for anyone working with teenagers, whether that’s professionally or in a voluntary role. It’s designed to help you recognise signs of various types of abuse or safeguarding risk by creating hypothetical situations and asking you to consider your response. As the fictional case study grows, you’ll have to decide whether or not this young person is a safeguarding concern, and how you’d respond.

It’s an ideal refresher for those who’ve already completed safeguarding training and need to remind themselves what to look out for, and it’s a great way to get teams discussing safeguarding issues without having to talk about sensitive cases. It is intended for teams or small groups of colleagues to use together. Of course real life is much more complicated but we hope that Safe? will help give you confidence in your practice, and help you to spot crucial signs and behaviours in your interactions with young people should they occur.

Safeguarding doesn’t end here and we recommend you make sure you and your teams are comfortable and confident with your current safeguarding policy and referral processes.

The resource has been developed in partnership with leading safeguarding agency, thirtyone:eight who have been providing training, consultancy and support for churches, charities and organisations for over 40 years, making them leading experts in safeguarding, working with government to inform legislation and promoting high standards in safeguarding practice.

Martin Saunders, Deputy Chief Executive of Youthscape said "At Youthscape we take safeguarding really seriously, and our partnership with thirtyone:eight has allowed us to translate our passion for good safeguarding into a national resource for anyone working with teenagers."

Thanks to thirtyone:eight’s unparalleled knowledge and wisdom on church-based safeguarding, and Youthscape’s track record of equipping youth workers with creative resources, the result is a very practical tool which can be immediately applied to raise safeguarding standards in any church and a range of other contexts. We’re delighted with the results, and look forward to seeing Safe? in use across the UK and beyond.

Justin Humphreys, joint CEO at Thirtyone:eight said "our vision is to equip society with the knowledge and skills to create safer environments for children and adults at risk and to empower society to respond appropriately to those who are vulnerable or have experienced abuse."