Dear Friends and colleagues involved in Safeguarding Young People,

FAO: All persons working with Young People

In April this year, the Chief Executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre Jim Gamble, met with representatives of Facebook to raise concerns about the safety of many of their young users and to highlight the lack of reports to UK police from the Facebook environment.

This position was supported by senior colleagues across UK policing, many of whom put their name to a letter from ACPO calling on Facebook to place the ‘ClickCEOP’ button on the profile page of all its users. This step would undoubtedly make Facebook a safer environment by enabling children to access help and advice about online safety and to make a report directly to CEOP if necessary.

The Charity Commission has been made aware of a scam involving people being telephoned by individuals claiming to represent the Charity Commission. In the phone calls these individuals claim to be from the "debt collection department" of the Commission and they demand payments for various services and advertisements. 

Some of the bogus calls have demanded payments of thousands of pounds for various services and advertisements. The Commission has been contacted by a number of people who have received calls of this nature and has already reported this matter to the police.

Below you will find an update on the recent key Safeguarding developments in Scouting. We hope you find this useful.

Updated Child Protection Policy

The January 2010 edition of Policy, Organisation and Rules (POR) includes a number of changes to the Child Protection Policy in areas such as the use of alcohol on Scouting activities and the creation of the Safeguarding Awareness Coordinator role.

New Yellow Card – fourth edition

An updated version of the Yellow Card is now available, which incorporates 'neglect’ into our policy statement.

A copy of the updated version of the Yellow Card will be enclosed with the August/September issue of Scouting magazine, along with an article highlighting the change.

THE World Scout Jamboree is a large two-week long international camp, held once every four years in a different host country every time. The 21st World Scout Jamboree was held in 2007 in Hylands Park, Chelmsford, here in the UK.

The event, for 30,000 participants from across the world aged between 14 and 18 years, is run by adult volunteers who make up the International Service Team (IST).