Safeguarding Duty Desk Opens to Receive Concerns About Children

The Children and Families Department of the Velocity Interoperability Network today opened its safeguarding duty desk. From this date, any person who is worried about the safety or welfare of a child in the Network may raise a concern with the Department by writing to contact@children.gov.vin. Concerns may be raised by parents and carers, by relatives and neighbours, by staff of member organisations and by children themselves.

Every concern received is acknowledged within one working day and assessed against the response standards published on the Safeguarding page of this site. Concerns judged to indicate immediate danger are acted upon within four hours and do not wait for the acknowledgement. Where a child is in immediate danger the emergency point at the relevant site should be contacted first, and the Department informed afterwards.

A person raising a concern is not required to be certain that a child has been harmed, and is not asked to investigate before writing. The Department holds the safeguarding record for every child in the Network and is able to see what is already known. During the transition period from 10 August to 5 September 2026, 218 concerns were recorded under the interim arrangements of member organisations and transferred to the Department; 47 of these were referred to another body of the Network for action.

The Department has also written to every member organisation setting out the safeguarding duties that fall on employers, and the training it will provide to designated officers from October 2026. Details will be published in the Newsroom.