1. Our Commitment
D2 Youth Zone Ltd (“the Charity”, “we”) is unconditionally committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of every child and young person we work with. Their safety, welfare and voice are our highest priority and override every other consideration. We believe that every child has the right to be safe from harm, abuse, neglect and exploitation, and to be heard, respected and supported.
This policy applies to all paid staff, sessional workers, trustees, volunteers, students on placement, contractors, consultants and anyone else acting on behalf of D2 Youth Zone. Although our primary work is with young people aged 11–18, we also support some young people outside this range; this policy applies whenever we work with anyone under the age of 18.
2. Legal and Guidance Framework
This policy has been written with regard to the following legislation and statutory or sector guidance current at the time of review:
• Children Act 1989 and 2004 — including the duty under s.11 to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.
• Children and Social Work Act 2017 and the Children and Families Act 2014.
• Working Together to Safeguard Children 2026 (DfE, statutory guidance, March 2026 edition) — multi-agency duties to help, protect and promote the welfare of children.
• Keeping Children Safe in Education 2025 (DfE, statutory guidance, in force from 1 September 2025) — followed as best-practice benchmark for non-school settings.
• Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 — the Prevent duty.
• Sexual Offences Act 2003 — including offences relating to positions of trust.
• Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003 (as amended) — mandatory reporting duty for FGM in under-18s.
• Modern Slavery Act 2015.
• Domestic Abuse Act 2021 — recognition of children as victims in their own right.
• Equality Act 2010 — duty not to discriminate and to make reasonable adjustments.
• UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 — including the lawful basis for sharing information for safeguarding purposes.
• The Charities Act 2022 and Charity Commission guidance, including CC3 *The Essential Trustee* and the Commission’s safeguarding guidance for trustees.
• National Youth Agency (NYA) Safeguarding Standards for the Youth Sector (April 2025 update) and the NYA Code of Ethics.
• Local guidance issued by the Newcastle Safeguarding Children Partnership.
3. Definitions
We use the following terms with the meanings set out in Working Together to Safeguard Children 2026:
• Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children — providing help and support to meet needs as soon as problems emerge; protecting children from maltreatment within or outside the home, including online; preventing impairment of mental and physical health or development; ensuring children grow up in circumstances consistent with safe and effective care; and taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes.
• Child protection — the activity undertaken to protect specific children identified as suffering, or likely to suffer, significant harm.
• Child — anyone under the age of 18, in line with the Children Act 1989.
4. Roles and Key Personnel
4.1 Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL)
D2 Youth Zone has a named Designated Safeguarding Lead with lead responsibility for safeguarding and child protection. The DSL is the first point of contact for any safeguarding concern.
• Name: Angela Smith
• Role: Youth Project Manager
• Phone: Available on Request
• Email: Angela@d2yz.co.uk
The DSL holds protected time for the role, attends level 3 safeguarding training at least every two years (with refreshers when required and ongoing CPD), and has the authority to make safeguarding referrals without first seeking approval from anyone else.
4.2 Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead (DDSL)
A trained Deputy DSL is appointed so that there is always a designated person available.
• Name: Gemma Myhill
• Role: Family Support Worker
• Phone: Available on Request
• Email: Gemma@d2yz.co.uk
4.3 Safeguarding Trustee
One trustee holds the safeguarding portfolio and provides board-level scrutiny of safeguarding arrangements, including reviewing the safeguarding log at least quarterly and reporting to the full board.
• Name: Rebecca Tulip
• Role: Chair / Safeguarding Trustee
• Phone: Available on Request
• Email: Rebecca@d2yz.co.uk
4.4 Responsibilities of Everyone
Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. Every staff member, volunteer and trustee must:
• Be alert to signs of abuse, neglect, exploitation and harm (including online and outside the home).
• Listen to children and take what they say seriously.
• Report any concern about a child’s welfare to the DSL or DDSL on the same day, without delay.
• Follow this policy and the Code of Conduct at all times.
• Never promise confidentiality to a child.
• Complete the safeguarding training required for their role.
5. Categories and Indicators of Abuse
We recognise the four statutory categories of abuse, together with the wider range of harms that affect young people today. Indicative — not exhaustive — examples are listed below.
5.1 The Four Statutory Categories
• Physical abuse — hitting, shaking, throwing, poisoning, burning, drowning, suffocating, or otherwise causing physical harm; fabricated or induced illness.
• Sexual abuse — forcing or enticing a child to take part in sexual activities, whether or not the child is aware of what is happening; includes non-contact activities such as involving children in looking at or producing sexual images, watching sexual activity, or grooming. Includes peer-on-peer sexual abuse.
• Emotional abuse — persistent emotional maltreatment causing severe and adverse effects on a child’s emotional development; includes humiliation, threats, witnessing ill-treatment of others, and serious bullying.
• Neglect — persistent failure to meet a child’s basic physical and/or psychological needs, likely to result in serious impairment of health or development.
5.2 Specific Risks We Are Alert To
• Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) and Child Criminal Exploitation (CCE), including ‘county lines’.
• Contextual safeguarding — harm in peer groups, schools, neighbourhoods or online (extra-familial harm).
• Serious youth violence, including knife crime and gang affiliation.
• Domestic abuse — under the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, children who see, hear or experience the effects of domestic abuse are victims in their own right.
• Online harms — grooming, sextortion, image-based abuse, exposure to harmful or illegal content, misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories, generative-AI-enabled harm.
• Radicalisation (Prevent duty) — any concern is referred to the DSL who will, where appropriate, make a Channel referral.
• Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) — staff are aware of the mandatory duty to report known cases of FGM in under-18s to the police.
• So-called ‘honour-based’ abuse, including forced marriage and breast ironing/flattening.
• Modern slavery and trafficking, including referrals via the National Referral Mechanism.
• Mental ill-health and self-harm, including suicidal ideation.
• Bullying, including racist, sexist, homophobic, biphobic, transphobic and disablist bullying, on- or offline.
• Harmful sexual behaviour between children, including sexual harassment and image-sharing (“nudes”).
• Substance misuse, including alcohol, illegal and prescription drugs, and emerging substances.
• Children missing from home, care or education.
6. Procedure for Responding to a Concern
6.1 If a Child Is in Immediate Danger
Call 999 without delay. Then inform the DSL or DDSL as soon as the immediate situation is safe.
6.2 Listening to a Disclosure
If a child tells you something that worries you:
• Do stay calm, listen carefully and let the child speak in their own words.
• Do reassure them that they have done the right thing to tell you.
• Do tell them, gently, that you cannot keep what they have said a secret because you need to make sure they are safe — and that you will only share with people who need to know.
• Do make a written record as soon as possible afterwards (and within 24 hours), in the child’s own words, dated, timed and signed. Stick to facts and what was said; do not add interpretation.
• Do not promise confidentiality.
• Do not ask leading or probing questions; only ask open clarifying questions if essential (“can you tell me a bit more about that?”).
• Do not investigate yourself. That is the job of statutory agencies.
• Do not discuss the disclosure with anyone except the DSL/DDSL.
6.3 Reporting to the DSL
Pass your concern and your written record to the DSL (or DDSL) on the same day. If you cannot reach either, contact the Safeguarding Trustee or the local authority directly (see section 7). Failing to pass a concern up because “someone else will probably do it” is a serious breach of this policy.
6.4 DSL Action
On receiving a concern, the DSL will:
• Make a written record on the secure safeguarding log.
• Assess the level of risk and decide whether the threshold for a referral to Children’s Social Care, Early Help or the police is met. Where in doubt, the DSL will consult the local authority’s MASH/Front Door.
• Make a referral within 24 hours where the threshold is met (immediately if a child is at risk of significant harm), and confirm any verbal referral in writing within 48 hours.
• Inform parents/carers, unless doing so would place the child at greater risk (e.g. suspected familial abuse, FGM, forced marriage).
• Keep a clear record of every decision and the reasons for it, including decisions not to refer.
• Follow up with the receiving agency to confirm the referral has been accepted and to obtain feedback.
7. Local Authority and Statutory Contacts
If the DSL and DDSL are both unavailable, or if the concern is about the DSL, contact the local authority directly. You do not need permission to make a safeguarding referral.
• Newcastle Children’s Social Care (Initial Response Service / Front Door): 0191 277 2500.
• Emergency Duty Team (out of hours): 0191 278 7878.
• Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) — for allegations about an adult working with children: 0191 277 4636.
• Northumbria Police: 999 (emergency) or 101 (non-emergency).
• NSPCC Helpline: 0808 800 5000 — for confidential advice when you are unsure.
• FGM mandatory reporting line / 101.
• Anti-Terrorist Hotline (radicalisation, non-emergency): 0800 789 321.
Trustees and senior staff are encouraged to verify these numbers annually as part of the policy review, as local arrangements change.
8. Allegations Against Staff, Volunteers or Trustees
Any allegation that an adult working or volunteering for D2 Youth Zone has:
• Behaved in a way that has harmed, or may have harmed, a child;
• Possibly committed a criminal offence against, or related to, a child;
• Behaved towards a child or children in a way that indicates they may pose a risk of harm; or
• Behaved or may have behaved in a way that indicates they may not be suitable to work with children (the “transferable risk” test);
must be reported immediately to the Youth Project Manager (who is the DSL), who will contact the LADO within one working day. Allegations about the Youth Project Manager must be reported to the Chair of Trustees. Allegations about the Chair must be reported to the Vice Chair or another trustee, who will contact the LADO.
The individual concerned will not normally be informed before the LADO has been consulted. Suspension is not automatic and will only be used where it is clearly necessary; alternatives will be considered first.
Where, following investigation, an individual is dismissed or would have been dismissed had they not resigned, on the grounds of harm or risk of harm to children, D2 Youth Zone has a legal duty to refer them to the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) under the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006.
9. Safer Recruitment
Safer recruitment is the first line of defence in safeguarding. The detail is set out in our separate Safer Recruitment Policy. In summary, for every paid role and every volunteer role that involves contact with children, we will:
• Use a written role description and person specification that makes the safeguarding responsibilities explicit.
• Require a completed application form (CVs alone are not accepted).
• Interview face to face with at least two interviewers, including safeguarding-focused questions.
• Take up at least two references, in writing, including one from the most recent employer or volunteering placement, and verify any gaps in employment.
• Verify identity and right to work.
• Obtain an Enhanced DBS check with Children’s Barred List check for all roles in regulated activity, before the person starts work where possible, and never later than the role’s start date.
• Maintain a single central record of recruitment checks.
• Have at least one panel member who has completed safer-recruitment training.
10. Code of Conduct (Summary)
The full Code of Conduct is a separate document. The key requirements for everyone working or volunteering with D2 Youth Zone are:
• Never be alone with a young person in a private space or vehicle unless this has been risk-assessed and recorded.
• Never give a young person your personal phone number, email address or social media handle. All communication uses official D2 Youth Zone channels and is open to scrutiny.
• Never form secretive, exclusive or romantic relationships with young people. The Sexual Offences Act 2003 ‘position of trust’ provisions apply.
• Never use physical punishment, humiliation or favouritism.
• Always model professional behaviour and challenge poor practice in others — including more senior colleagues.
• Report concerns about another adult’s behaviour using the procedure in section 8 or the Whistleblowing Policy.
11. Information Sharing and Confidentiality
We share information for safeguarding purposes in line with UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018 and Working Together 2026. The ‘Seven Golden Rules’ from the DfE’s information-sharing guidance are followed: in particular, that data protection law is not a barrier to sharing information where the disclosure is necessary and proportionate to protect a child. Consent is not required to share information where there is a lawful basis (such as a vital interests or substantial public interest condition) and seeking it would place the child at greater risk.
Safeguarding records are kept securely, separately from other personnel or membership records, with access strictly limited to those who need it.
12. Online Safety
Online harms are a safeguarding issue and are covered in this policy as well as in the separate Online Safety Policy. Staff are alert to the four Cs (Content, Contact, Conduct, Commerce/Contract), to age-appropriate use, and to risks from generative AI, sextortion, image-based abuse, and exposure to misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories. Online concerns are reported through exactly the same route as any other safeguarding concern.
13. Records and Retention
All safeguarding records are kept on a secure, restricted-access system maintained by the DSL. In line with the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) recommendations and Working Together guidance, safeguarding records relating to a child are retained until that child’s 25th birthday at a minimum, and longer where there is reason to do so. Records are not deleted at the point a child leaves the service.
14. Training
• All staff, volunteers and trustees receive safeguarding induction training before their first session of unsupervised work with young people.
• All staff and volunteers complete a safeguarding refresher at least bi-annually.
• The DSL and DDSL complete NYA-recognised DSL training (or equivalent) every two years, with reading of updated KCSIE annually and ongoing CPD.
• Trustees, including the Safeguarding Trustee, complete trustee-level safeguarding training every two years.
• Specific topics (Prevent/WRAP, FGM, online safety, contextual safeguarding) are refreshed as guidance is updated.
15. Whistleblowing and Raising Concerns
If anyone has concerns about safeguarding practice within D2 Youth Zone itself — whether about an individual or about the way the organisation is responding — they can raise it under the Whistleblowing Policy. Where internal routes have failed or are unsafe, concerns can be reported directly to the NSPCC Whistleblowing Helpline on 0800 028 0285.
16. Monitoring, Review and Improvement
The Board of Trustees reviews this policy at least annually, and immediately if there is a significant change in law, statutory guidance or local arrangements, or following any serious safeguarding incident.
The Safeguarding Trustee, supported by the DSL, will use the NYA Safeguarding Self-Audit Tool annually to assess D2 Youth Zone’s progress towards a culture of safeguarding excellence. Findings will be reported to the full board.