The child-friendly version is not a decoration for donors. It is the only part of your safeguarding policy the children it protects will ever meet. One page, written so that a child in your youngest programme group can read it or have it read to them.
The template
[Organisation name] promised me:
- Adults here follow rules. They may not hurt me, shame me, touch me in ways that feel wrong, or ask me to keep secrets.
- I can say no to anything that feels wrong — even to an adult — and I will not be punished for it.
- If something happens, I can tell [name] or [name], or any adult wearing the Safe Adult badge.
- When I tell, I will be listened to and believed. It will never be my fault.
- I can also call 116 — free, from any phone, day or night.
This promise was checked on [date].
The rules of writing it
- Promises, not prohibitions. "I will be believed" lands differently than "allegations will be processed."
- First person. The child is the subject of the sentence, not the object of the procedure.
- Names and faces. A child cannot report to a "designated safeguarding focal point." They can tell Auntie Grace in the green office.
- Short enough to read aloud in two minutes. If it doesn't fit, you're including things that belong in the adult version.
- Test it with children. Read it to your youngest group and ask them to tell it back. What they can't repeat, rewrite. This step is not optional — it's the difference between a child-friendly version and a shorter adult one.
What not to do
Don't illustrate it with photographs of your own beneficiaries. Don't laminate it once and consider the job done — it goes up in every room children use, and it's re-read aloud at the start of every term. And don't publish it before your reporting routes actually work; a promise that fails its first test is worse than none.