CCPAS - Press Release

CCPAS Press Release

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1 October 2007

CCPAS LAUNCHES NEXT IN SUCCESSFUL SERIES OF HELP BOOKLETS:

HELP ….I WANT TO WORK SAFELY WITH YOUNG PEOPLE AND CHILDREN

The Churches' Child Protection Advisory Service (CCPAS) today announces the launch of an important addition to their very popular series of Help booklets. Entitled Help…I Want to Work Safely with Young People and Children, the publication is the 12^th in a series that offers guidance on what can be difficult child protection issues and situations, such as when a known sex offender joins a church.

Aimed primarily at prospective youth or children's workers, the new Help…leaflet identifies a number of potentially difficult situations and provides practical answers which are both totally professional and which demand the use of basic common sense, with the emphasis always placed on the safety and security of the children and young people concerned.

The questions covered include:

· How many workers should take a child to the toilet?

· When can I hug a child?

· Is it OK to have only one worker supervising children's activities?

· How do we best supervise children at night on camping holidays?

The concluding part of the leaflet is ‘Ten Top Tips'. These include stressing the importance of the child protection policy and following its guidelines, the need to attend workers' meetings, having the courage to ‘whistle blow' if bad practices are taking place and the use of the log book.

David Pearson, Executive Director of CCPAS, commented: “The majority of churches have now woken up to the importance of child protection, but sometimes some of the practical outworkings of protection policies seem to defy simple common sense and tests of reasonableness. This important new Help… guide will assist youth and children's workers to act both professionally and sensibly in all their dealings with the young people in their charge and it is, we believe, another step along the road of making our children as safe as it is possible to be in church situations."

Media Enquiries: Iain Taylor

Taylor Communications

01732 461060 or 07979 914217

taylor.comm@tiscali.co.uk

NOTES TO EDITORS:

CCPAS is an independent Christian charity providing professional child protection advice and support across church denominations and organisations throughout the UK.

CCPAS was established in 1977. It assists churches, organisations, social services and other child care agencies as well as individual children and families by:

helping churches and other organisations adopt safe practice in order to protect children from abuse – and youth workers from the possibility of false allegations
advising on individual cases, giving ongoing help to leaders and others.
training across the UK and providing “in-house” training and other resources
acting as external consultants to denominational/organisational child protection advisors
counselling individual adults or children about past or present abuse.