VIEWPOINT FEATURE | |
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Helping you, and vulnerable children too As organisations across the rail industry work to meet the obligations of the government’s Safeguarding on Rail Scheme, Emma Halewood UK Partnerships Manager for Railway Children explains the difference it can make to young people.
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ailway Children is an international charity that has changed the lives of more than 325,000 children over the last 25 years. The charity fights for children around the world that have no one else to protect and care for them. Children who are forced to survive on the streets and around the railways in India, Africa and here in the UK where they often find themselves in danger using public transport to run away from home. These children may be desperate to escape difficult homes – faced with poverty, neglect, violence and abuse – or being lured away by traffickers and those looking to groom or exploit them. Some are suffering through bullying, loneliness and poor mental health and even considering suicide as a way out of their problems. Transport hubs are a magnet to these young people – they offer a chance for escape and adventure, a place to hide or disappear into a crowd and a meeting point to access networks that can transport people, drugs or money across the country. They attract as many vulnerable people as they do those looking to abuse and exploit them and that’s why we make sure to reach them first. Wherever the charity finds these children, and whatever they are facing, they use the same approach to make sure they are safe from harm – always trying to reach them as soon as possible – before a predator does and before they are lost to a life of trauma and despair. Children like Lily, who was referred to us by British Transport Police as she kept running away from her care home and being found on the railway. The 14-year-old was in extreme danger travelling alone and had been exploited in the past – but still
kept trying to get back to the place she had been moved away from for her own safety. Our team worked with Lily to help her understand the risks she was exposed to and now she is safe and settled and hasn’t run away since. Without Railway Children having trained stakeholders and officers at the station, Lily may well have not been spotted and her future could have been a very different one.
The more people who can identify and respond to a child that needs help, then the more young people we can protect together. Making sure our public transport system is a safe place for all those who use or work within it is everyone’s responsibility, and in recognising this the government has introduced the Safeguarding on Rail Scheme (SRS) to enforce that obligation. The SRS is an opportunity for
We can’t do this alone – and that’s where you come in We work with partners and stakeholders across the rail network in the UK to train them so they can be our eyes and ears, joining us in looking out for those at risk.
organisations operating on the UK rail network to demonstrate how they are working with partners to play a proactive role in safeguarding vulnerable people on the network. The objectives within it align perfectly with Railway Children’s strategic Rail Professional
