Children cannot feel safe if they do not feel they belong

A child cannot truly feel safe in a school or community if they do not feel that they belong.

As we celebrate 20 years of Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC), we are reflecting on what it means for children and young people to feel Safe. Being safe is about more than protection from harm, it is also about feeling valued, included, respected and able to be yourself. In this guest blog, Kerry Lowe, Chief Executive of Safe, Strong and Free, explores the important connection between safety and belonging, and how inclusive relationships, representation and environments can help children feel safe enough to speak up and seek support when they need it.

A child cannot truly feel safe in a school or community if they do not feel that they belong. Safety is not only about protecting children from harm. It is also about whether they feel valued, represented, respected and able to be themselves. Children notice who is visible in their school, whose cultures and experiences are reflected in what they learn, whose voices are heard and how adults respond when someone is excluded or treated unfairly. These everyday experiences shape belonging.

At Safe Strong and Free, this understanding sits at the heart of our approach to prevention. It also led to the development of Stronger Together, our tackling bullying, racism and discrimination programme for schools and communities, which aims to embed inclusion in everyday practice rather than treating it as a one-off activity. For children and young people, racism and prejudice are not simply equality issues. They can affect confidence, relationships, participation, wellbeing and a child’s sense of safety and belonging. Our toolkit recognises that these experiences can shape how children see themselves and their place within their school or community.

Representation matters within this. Children should be able to see different cultures, identities and experiences reflected positively throughout school life: in the curriculum, displays, activities, conversations and the wider school community. Inclusion should not mean asking children to leave parts of themselves at the school gate in order to fit in. But representation alone is not enough. Children also need to experience adults challenging bullying, racism and discrimination consistently. They need opportunities to have a meaningful voice in the culture of their school, and relationships with adults who listen, respect and believe them. That matters for safeguarding.

Feeling safe enough to tell does not begin at the point of disclosure.

It is built long before then: when a teacher notices a child becoming withdrawn; when a racist comment is challenged rather than dismissed as a joke; when a young person sees their identity represented positively; when pupils are involved in decisions that affect them; and when asking for help results in someone taking action. Our Stronger Together approach places strong, trusting relationships between adults and pupils at its centre because children are more likely to speak up and seek help when they feel listened to, respected and included. This connects directly to how we think about Safe within the GIRFEC Framework and the SHANARRI Wellbeing Indicators. A school may have robust safeguarding procedures, but policies alone cannot create a sense of safety. Culture does. So perhaps the question for all of us working with children and young people is not simply:

Do children know who they can tell?

It is: Have we created an environment in which every child feels they belong – and feels safe enough to tell?

That requires us to look beyond individual incidents and consider the whole environment around a child: relationships, representation, curriculum, language, participation and how we respond when harm occurs.

Prevention starts long before a disclosure. It starts by creating places where every child can see that they matter, know that they belong and trust that they will be heard.

For more information on the Stronger Together Toolkit, please get in touch by emailing info@safestrongandfree.org.uk

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