Recommendation 38: Government department safeguarding policy reviews

All government departments have been made aware of the Inquiry’s recommendation and of the contents of Professor Thoburn’s detailed report. As Professor Thoburn’s report acknowledges - ‘It is appropriate that safeguarding policies and procedures will vary according to the differing remits of government departments … and extents to which employees provide services to children in general and specifically to children who are vulnerable to abuse’. Nonetheless, Civil Service HR has developed and launched a model safeguarding policy and a ‘Health Check’ process, which again have been made available to all departments. These products enable departments to robustly check their own procedures and practice to ensure they are fit for purpose, and are driving a consistent approach to safeguarding across departments. The Civil Service HR safeguarding products recognise that children are one group of several who may be vulnerable to harm and exploitation. They were launched in January 2020 for departmental implementation and a check of their use in departments will be undertaken later this year. In addition, all departments which spend overseas aid budget (Official Development Assistance (ODA)) are invited to attend a quarterly meeting on safeguarding - focused on tackling sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment (SEAH) in the aid sector. This is a forum for departments to share lessons, identify risks and align approaches to safeguarding in relation to ODA spend, including how to assess the suitability of partners’ safeguarding policies and procedures and to raise departments’ own capability. The forum is working on a cross-government ODA strategy on safeguarding against SEAH across the aid sector, within ODA-spending departments and across the UK’s ODA funding. It has also agreed a register of strategic safeguarding risks to be reviewed on a six monthly basis.