Impact / News

OUR KEEPING CHILDREN SAFE (KCS) ACCREDITATION

June 9, 2021

United World Schools

4 mins

This June 2021, we are championing Child Protection. Beginning on 1 June, International Day for Protection of Children and International Day of Parents, all month we will be sharing how we are keeping children safe in every community we work in. In this blog, find out how each of our country offices underwent accreditation from Keeping Children Safe (KCS).

Every child deserves to go to school, and every child deserves to be protected from abuse, harm, neglect and maltreatment. But an estimated 246 million children are harassed or abused on the way to, or at school, and disabled children are up to four times more likely to be subjected to violence and neglect (Keeping Children Safe, 2021, UNICEF). The spread of Covid-19 has introduced additional risks to children’s safety, and the ripple effects of the economic and social impacts of the pandemic are bringing up further child safeguarding risks (UNICEF 2021). 

United World Schools recognises that it is our duty to protect children from abuse, harm, neglect or maltreatment. Just like in every community around the world, children face the risk of harm and abuse in communities we support. It’s our responsibility to recognise this risk, and to ensure that the protection of children is an integral part of our mission. It’s only through this, that we can achieve our goal of delivering safe, quality, inclusive education to communities. 

As part of this commitment, we have recently received our Level 1 accreditation from Keeping Children Safe (KCS).  We know that actions speak louder than words, and this accreditation shows everything that we do to keep children safe in every community we work in. 

Keeping Children Safe is an independent non-governmental organisation who set out internationally recognised safeguarding standards. Their standards are recognised by the UK government (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office), the European Commission, the US government (USAID) and the United Nations. 

The International Safeguarding Standards are based on the following set of guiding principles, which United World Schools supports:

  • All children have equal rights to protection from harm
  • Everyone has a responsibility to support the protection of children
  • Organisations have a duty of care to the children with whom they work, are in contact with, or who are affected by their activities and operations
  • If organisations work with partners they have a responsibility to help them to meet minimum requirements on child protection
  • All actions on child safeguarding are taken in the best interests of the child, which are paramount

Our accreditation from KCS means that we have a robust, effective child safeguarding framework in place across United World Schools. 

Over the course of June 2021, we will be sharing more information about our child protection policies and practices, and sharing the experiences of our teachers and students across the communities we support.

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