Safeguarding
Safeguarding is the work of keeping children safe from harm and of acting when there is reason to think a child is not safe. The Children and Families Department of the Velocity Interoperability Network carries that duty for every child under the age of eighteen who is resident in the Velocity Interoperability Network. It is the only body in the Network to which a concern about a child should be taken.
If you are worried about a child, tell the Department. You do not need to be certain that a child has been harmed, and you should not try to find out before you write. Concerns may be raised by parents and carers, by relatives and neighbours, by staff of member organisations, by early years providers and by children themselves. Write to contact@children.gov.vin. The duty desk began receiving concerns on 6 September 2026 and acknowledges every concern within one working day.
If a child is in immediate danger, do not write first. Contact the emergency point at your site, and tell the Department afterwards.
Raising a concern. The steps below apply to anyone raising a concern about a child in the Network.
Step 1: Act at once if a child is in immediate danger
If a child is in immediate danger, contact the emergency point at your site before you do anything else, and tell the Department afterwards. Do not wait for a reply from the duty desk.
Step 2: Write down what you have seen or been told
Record what you saw or heard, in your own words, with the date and the time. Note anything a child said to you as closely as you can to the words the child used. Do not question the child further, and do not put the account to the person you are worried about.
Step 3: Write to the safeguarding duty desk
Send your account to the Department by email. Give the child's name and age, the site at which the child lives or is cared for, and the name of a parent or carer if you know it. If you do not know these things, write anyway; the Department can often identify a child from very little.
Step 4: Say who you are, or ask to remain anonymous
Giving your name allows the Department to come back to you for the detail that decides how a concern is handled, and it is preferred. A concern may be raised anonymously and will be assessed in the same way, but it cannot be followed up with you.
Step 5: Receive the acknowledgement
The duty desk acknowledges every concern within one working day and tells you the reference under which it has been recorded. A concern judged to indicate immediate danger is acted upon within four hours and does not wait for the acknowledgement.
Step 6: Expect an assessment, not a report
A safeguarding officer decides within two working days whether an assessment of the child's needs is required. The Department will tell you that the concern has been dealt with, but it will not tell you what it found, what it decided, or what has happened to the child. This is a rule of the Department, not a judgement on the person who raised the concern.
Response standards. Every concern is placed in one of four categories on the day it is received. The category sets the time within which the Department must act and the interval at which the case is reviewed while it remains open. The Department reports against these standards in its quarterly statistical release.
| Category | Applies when | First response | Review interval |
|---|---|---|---|
| Immediate danger | A child is believed to be in danger of serious harm now. | Within 4 hours | Daily until the danger has passed |
| Urgent | A child is believed to have been harmed, or to be at risk of harm in the near future. | Within 1 working day | Weekly |
| Standard | A child's welfare gives cause for concern but no immediate risk is identified. | Within 2 working days | Every 4 weeks |
| Information only | A matter recorded against a child's record for the future, with no action sought. | Within 5 working days | At the next assessment |
What the Department does. The Department's safeguarding work is organised under five headings.
- The duty desk
- A single point at which a concern about any child in the Network is received, recorded and assessed, whichever site the child lives at and whoever raises it. The duty desk holds the safeguarding record for every registered child and can see what is already known.
- Assessment of a child's needs
- Where a concern warrants it, a safeguarding officer assesses what the child and the family need. The assessment considers the child's health, safety, education and relationships, and the capacity of the parents or carers to meet those needs. Ninety-six assessments were completed during the transition period.
- Protection plans
- Where a child is judged to be at risk of significant harm, the Department makes a protection plan naming what must change, who is responsible for each action and when the plan will be reviewed. Plans are reviewed at least every three months and are ended only by decision of a safeguarding officer.
- Duties on member organisations
- Every member organisation must appoint a designated safeguarding officer, must pass a concern to the Department without delay and must not investigate a concern itself. The Department will train designated officers from October 2026.
- Referral to other bodies
- A concern that is a matter for another body of the Network is referred by the Department, which tells the person who raised it that it has done so. Forty-seven of the 218 concerns recorded during the transition period were referred in this way.
Concerns recorded during the transition period. The figures below cover the transition period from 10 August to 5 September 2026, when concerns were recorded by member organisations under interim arrangements and passed to the Department at establishment. They are published as they were received and are not directly comparable with the figures the Department will publish for later periods.
| Nature of concern | Concerns recorded | Of which referred to another body |
|---|---|---|
| Neglect or poor care | 74 | 22 |
| Physical harm | 41 | 9 |
| Emotional harm | 38 | 6 |
| Concern about a household | 33 | 5 |
| Concern about a provider or workplace | 19 | 4 |
| Other | 13 | 1 |
| Total | 218 | 47 |
Confidentiality. A safeguarding record is held for as long as the child is resident in the Network and for twenty-five years after the child's eighteenth birthday. It is disclosed only to those who must see it in order to keep the child safe, and to the child on request once the child has reached the age of sixteen. The name of a person who raises a concern is not disclosed to the family concerned.
Concerns about the care given by a registered early years provider are recorded as safeguarding concerns and are also considered against the provider's registration; see Early Years. For the arrangements that apply to children in the care of the Department, see Adoption and Fostering, and for the help available to a family under pressure, see Family Support. Answers to common questions are set out in the frequently asked questions.