Charities sign letter calling on schools, government and police to take urgent action to review child safeguarding policies following Child Q abuse

Seventeen charities who support and work with children and young people have published an open letter in the Guardian expressing ‘horror at the abuse Child Q faced’ and urging schools, government and police leaders to ‘tackle the systemic racism that continues to affect children at every level of our society’.

The letter was composed by education charity Teach First, alongside NSPCC and Just For Kids Law– the organisation currently supporting Child Q – with a number of renowned children’s charities also adding their support, including UK Youth, Barnardo’s and Save the Children.

The charities have urged the Department for Education to ensure ‘all safeguarding training that teachers undertake must include a specific element on racial bias’, as well as calling on the Home Office and police leaders to ‘take action and review statutory guidance and training around searches to ensure that the safeguarding needs of children are paramount’.

The letter also argues that children and young people’s voices must be ‘at the heart of relevant decision making’ to guarantee that ‘never again…a child be forced to suffer in this way’.

The letter can also be read in full, along with all 17 signatories, on the Guardian website here.

We wish to express our horror at the abuse Child Q faced at the hands of the adults who should have been keeping her safe in school. That she wasn’t is a damning failure of our society.

But this isn’t about one child in one school in one area of the country; there is an urgent need to tackle the systemic racism that continues to affect children at every level of our institutions and society. Never again should a child be forced to suffer in this way.

Schools must be places where all children are protected. Safeguarding training and relevant guidance for all teachers needs to be reviewed and strengthened, in line with the reviewers’ recommendations.

We also believe that all safeguarding training that teachers undertake must include a specific element on racial bias, so teachers are more alert to the traumatic and lifelong negative impact that racism has on children. We urge the Department for Education to act quickly.

The Home Office and police leaders also need to take action and review statutory guidance and training around searches to ensure that the safeguarding needs of children are paramount in every situation.

Importantly, all bodies should ensure they consult properly with children and young people as they seek to implement these changes – to ensure youth voices are at the heart of relevant decision-making.

And we all, as a society, must work together to tackle and challenge systemic racism which allows the horrific treatment of young people like Child Q to take place. We, collectively, promise to do everything we can as charities that support children to put anti-racism at the heart of everything we do. The safety and wellbeing of millions of our children depends on it.

Russell Hobby CEO, Teach First
Louisa McGeehan CEO, Just for Kids Law
Peter Wanless CEO, NSPCC
Gwen Hines CEO, Save the Children
Ndidi Okezie CEO, UK Youth
Louise King Director, Children’s Rights Alliance for England
Nick Jones Managing director of fundraising, communications and policy, Action for Children
Lynn Perry CEO, Barnardo’s
Mark Russell CEO, The Children’s Society
Anna Feuchtwang CEO, National Children’s Bureau
Jo Hobbs CEO, British Youth Council
Ruth Marvel CEO, The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award
Leigh Middleton CEO, National Youth Agency
Kathryn Morley CEO, OnSide
Tessy Ojo CEO, The Diana Award
Alison Peacock CEO, Chartered College of Teaching
Kathy Evans CEO, Children England