Do you work with children and young people under 5 to the age of 18? Do you work with older adults or those with a disability or mental health problem? If you are providing services to children, young people or more vulnerable adults it’s good practice to have up-to-date policies and procedures that your group, staff and volunteers can follow. This helps to protect adults who could be at risk of harm, children and young people while they are accessing your services. To keep up to date, visit https://www.safershetland.com/ which is regularly updated with a range of information on child and adult protection procedures.

Shetland Women's Aid are hosting a seminar with Dr Marsha Scott, CEO of Scottish Women's Aid on 4 June 2019 in the Auditorium at Shetland Museum and Archives. the focus of the seminar is coercive control, the new Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 and how this will impact on local responses to Women, Children and Young People affected by domestic abuse.

On 1st April a new domestic abuse law came into force in Scotland. This law creates a new offence covering psychological harm, as well as physical harm.

Shetland Protection Committee is supporting the #Stop it Now Child Sexual Abuse Campaign today. Last year Police Scotland delivered a CSE Child Sexual Abuse Campaign, entitled #notmyfriend. The campaign was deemed a huge success with a sevenfold increase in the number of individuals being directed to the Stop It Now! website page. (607 sessions three months prior to campaign rising to 4385 sessions three months after campaign launch). Social media directed traffic also seen a staggering increase from 8 clicks within a three months period before the campaign, rising to 2946 in the three months period after the launch date. Following the campaign launch the stopitnow/Scotland URL generated 76.5 per cent of all social media traffic to the Stop It Now! website. Building on from this success, on Monday 18th March 2019, Police Scotland will launch a new Online Child Sexual Abuse campaign, focusing on “grooming”. The campaign will be entitled “#StopitNow” and will run for four weeks. Unlike previous campaigns, this campaign will solely target perpetrators of online child grooming.

Shetland’s Adult Protection Committee (APC) has this week presented its biennial report to NHS Shetland, outlining the work of the Committee to help keep adults at risk in Shetland safe. The report was presented to the NHS Shetland Clinical Care and Professional Governance Committee on 12th February, and follows the earlier submission of the biennial report and business plan to the Scottish Government on 31st October 2018

National Care Day is on February 15th this year the flag will be raised on townhall at 8am. The flag was designed with and celebrates Shetland’s care experienced children and young people. The raising of the flag on the Town Hall is to celebrate Care Day. Care Day is the world’s biggest celebration of children and young people with care experience. Care experience includes children and young people who are or were cared for by parents or other family members with the support of social workers; by foster carers; or children and young people from children’s homes and residential units.

For this year’s Safer Internet Day, the focus is on adults’ online behaviour, and how it can go on to affect the behaviour of children and young people. Shetland’s Mobile Phone and Internet Safety Committee (which works under the local Child Protection committee) runs events throughout the year, including internet safety sessions in schools delivered by Peer Educators; ‘Virtually Safe Virtually Sound’ youth conferences in Shetland’s Junior High Schools; parent involvement evenings; and Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) training.

Shetland Community Justice Partnership are giving third sector groups the opportunity to apply for grants of any amount between £500 and £5000 to fund projects aimed towards prevention of offending behaviour or improving outcomes for individuals with convictions or people affected by crime.

Will be at the Brae High School on Thursday 15 November 2018. Internet Safety Session for Parents of Brae Pupils to be held that evening from 6pm to 8pm.

With Anti-bullying Week 2018 running from 12-16th November, Shetland Islands Council is raising awareness of the national campaign #chooserespect, which aims to prevent bullying by promoting respect and inclusion across the community.

For more information on events happening follow the link:- http://www.shetland.gov.uk/environmentalhealth/bullyfreeshetland18.asp

Community Justice Scotland has launched its first national campaign aimed at changing perceptions of what justice should look like in 21st century Scotland. Second Chancers is centered around the voices of those whose lives have been touched by the justice system. Comprising of a series of short documentary films and a touring audio exhibition, the campaign tells authentic and raw stories of success and failure, change and transformation, obstacles and helping hands. It paints a warts-and-all picture of what works, what doesn’t and what we should be doing better.

Former national Commissioner for Children and Young People, Tam Baillie, has been appointed as the new independent convener for Shetland’s Adult and Child Protection Committees. This paid appointment to serve 24 days per year will see him lead the activities of the two local committees, to safeguard children and vulnerable adults in Shetland. Mr Baillie took up his post last month, following a national advertising campaign, and replaces Chief Inspector Lynsey Tulloch, as Chair of the Child Protection Committee, and Max Barnett as the Convener of the Adult Protection Committee.

Lerwick Police Station has joined the 'Keep Safe' initiative, which alongside a network of local businesses, creates safe places for vulnerable people in the community to seek assistance if required.

Police Scotland are appealing to knitters in Shetland to assist with a project to provide knitted teddies for young victims or witnesses of crime.

The Scottish Government have published an easy to read 4 page review setting out a summary of the evidence on the links between childhood adversity and criminality and victimisation in adulthood. It makes a strong case for preventing crime by targeting those most at risk of experiencing adverse childhoods, and supporting people in the Justice System whose lives have been affected by adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in order to reduce reoffending and prevent intergenerational crime.

Everyone in Shetland should keep their Eyes Open for children at risk during the school holidays. In the week that Shetland schools break for the end of term, Child Protection Committees across Scotland are encouraging the public across the whole country to be extra observant to help protect potentially vulnerable children when school’s out for summer. Child Protection Committees Scotland, a nation-wide grouping of child protection professionals, hopes their Eyes Open campaign will raise awareness that members of the public can play an important role to keep children safe from harm in the holidays. The group believes that everyone is responsible for child welfare in Scotland.

Help is at hand for anyone struggling with nuisance phone calls, or wanting to better protect themselves and others from the activities of scammers. Throughout next week, the Scambusters Shetland roadshow will be spending time with groups of staff, carers and relatives to help them as they support the most vulnerable – and they’ll also be out and about in Lerwick with information on how to protect yourself and those around you from scams. They’ll have advice packs with helpful ideas about dealing with all kinds of scams, including reducing unwanted phone calls and junk mail, and members of the team will be very happy to talk with people about any specific issues. The Scambusters Shetland roadshow makes visits to community groups, organisations and businesses across the whole of Shetland throughout the year. If you would like them to come to your area, just get in touch by phoning the Adult Protection team on 01595 744411.

Cyberbullying makes young people more than twice as likely to self harm or attempt suicide, a major new study has shown. The growth of social media has left many youngsters vulnerable to online bullying, which can include sending threatening, humiliating of intimidating messages or posting hurtful comments or images. Around one third of young people claim to have been victims, but the new research suggests it can have damaging and deadly consequences.